Descriptive research

Is research used to “describe” a situation, subject, behavior, or phenomenon. It is used to answer

questions of who, what, when, where, and how associated with a particular research question or
problem. Descriptive studies are often described as studies that are concerned with finding out
“what is”. It attempts to gather quantifiable information that can be used to statistically analyze a
target audience or a particular subject. Description research is used to observe and describe a
research subject or problem without influencing or manipulating the variables in any way. These
studies are really correlational or observational, and not truly experimental. Descriptive research
does not attempt to answer “why” and is not used to discover inferences, make predictions or
establish causal relationships. Descriptive research is used extensively in social science,
psychology and educational research. In some types of descriptive research, the researcher does
not interact with the subjects. In other types, the researcher does interact with the subjects and
collects information directly from them. Some descriptive studies may be cross-sectional,
whereby the researcher has a one-time interaction with the test subjects. Other studies may be
longitudinal, where the same test subjects are followed over time. The data collected from
descriptive research may be quantitative, qualitative or both.

Ex Post Facto Research

Ex post facto study or after-the-fact research is a category of research design in which the
investigation starts after the fact has occurred without interference from the researcher. The
majority of social research, in contexts in which it is not possible or acceptable to manipulate the
characteristics of human participants, is based on ex post facto research designs. It is also often
applied as a substitute for true experimental research to test hypotheses about cause-and-effect
relationships or in situations in which it is not practical or ethically acceptable to apply the full
protocol of a true experimental design. Despite studying facts that have already occurred, ex post
facto research shares with experimental research design some of its basic logic of inquiry. Ex
post facto study or after-the-fact research is a category of research design in which the
investigation starts after the fact has occurred without interference from the researcher. The
majority of social research, in contexts in which it is not possible or acceptable to manipulate the
characteristics of human participants, is based on ex post facto research designs. It is also often
applied as a substitute for true experimental research to test hypotheses about cause-and-effect
relationships or in situations in which it is not practical or ethically acceptable to apply the full
protocol of a true experimental design. Despite studying facts that have already occurred, ex post
facto research shares with experimental research design some of its basic logic of inquiry. Ex
post facto study or after-the-fact research is a category of research design in which the
investigation starts after the fact has occurred without interference from the researcher.
Correlational research

a type of non-experimental research in which the researcher measures two variables and assesses
the statistical relationship between them with little or no effort to control extraneous variables.
There are essentially two reasons that researchers interested in statistical relationships between
variables would choose to conduct a correlational study rather than an experiment. The first is
that they do not believe that the statistical relationship is a causal one. The other reason that
researchers would choose to use a correlational study rather than an experiment is that the
statistical relationship of interest is thought to be causal, but the researcher cannot manipulate the
independent variable because it is impossible, impractical, or unethical. A common
misconception among beginning researchers is that correlational research must involve two
quantitative variables, such as scores on two extraversion tests or the number of hassles and
number of symptoms people have experienced.

Experimental Research

Experiments are conducted to be able to predict phenomenon. Typically, an experiment is

constructed to be able to explain some kind of causation. Experimental research is important to
society, it helps us to improve our everyday lives. There are various aspects to remember when
constructing an experiment. Planning ahead ensures that the experiment is carried out properly
and that the results reflect the real world, in the best possible way. An experiment is typically
carried out by manipulating a variable, called the independent variable, affecting the
experimental group. The effect that the researcher is interested in, the dependent variables, is
measured.

Phenomenology

Phenomenology is the study of structures of consciousness as experienced from the first-person

point of view. The central structure of an experience is its intentionality, its being directed
toward something, as it is an experience of or about some object. An experience is directed
toward an object by virtue of its content or meaning (which represents the object) together with
appropriate enabling conditions. Phenomenology as a discipline is distinct from but related to
other key disciplines in philosophy, such as ontology, epistemology, logic, and ethics.

Case study

Basically, a case study is an in depth study of a particular situation rather than a sweeping
statistical survey. It is a method used to narrow down a very broad field of research into one
easily researchable topic. Whilst it will not answer a question completely, it will give some
indications and allow further elaboration and hypothesis creation on a subject. The case study
research design is also useful for testing whether scientific theories and models actually work in
the real world. You may come out with a great computer model for describing how the
ecosystem of a rock pool works but it is only by trying it out on a real life pool that you can see
if it is a realistic simulation. For psychologists, anthropologists and social scientists they have
been regarded as a valid method of research for many years. Scientists are sometimes guilty of
becoming bogged down in the general picture and it is sometimes important to understand
specific cases and ensure a more holistic approach to research.

Ethnography

Ethnography is a qualitative research method that comes from the discipline of anthropology but
is applicable to other disciplines. Ethnography is the in-depth study of a culture or a facet of a
culture. Because of this, ethnographic research often looks very different compared with other
research designs. There are a couple of aspects of ethnography that differentiate it from research
approaches like phenomenology and case studies. The first is that ethnography takes long periods
of time. Traditionally, ethnographers spent a minimum of one year living amongst members of
the culture they are studying. This extended period of data collection allowed local people a
chance to know and get used to the ethnographer, and this also allowed the ethnographer to build
rapport with local people. Today, ethnographers still spend as much time as possible collecting
data, though not necessarily an entire year or more like in the past. A second difference is that
ethnography relies on participant observation as its key data collection method. This is when the
ethnographer becomes completely immersed in another culture and way of life. An ethnographer
not only observes the phenomenon under study, but also becomes a participant in daily life. The
goal is to understand a practice or set of practices within a culture; that is, why a practice might
make sense in the context of the day-to-day life of a group. For example, an ethnographer
studying the religious practices of a culture would not only attend religious services but also
participate in them, because this would allow them to truly understand these practices from an
insider’s point of view. Finally, a third difference is that this extended period of participant
observation in the field (the time spent living in another culture) is often used in conjunction with
other data collection methods, like interviews, focus groups, or surveys.