TYPES OF

RESEARCH
What is Research:
Definition
•Research is defined as a careful
consideration of study regarding a
particular concern or a problem using
scientific methods.
•According to the American sociologist
Earl Robert Babbie, “Research is a
systematic inquiry to describe, explain,
predict and control the observed
phenomenon.
•Research involves inductive and deductive
methods.”
•Inductive research methods are used to
analyze the observed phenomenon
whereas, deductive methods are used to
verify the observed phenomenon.
• Inductive approaches are associated with
qualitative research and deductive
methods are more commonly associated
with quantitative research.
‘Research Methodology
• ‘Research Methodology’ is a compound of two words,
research and methodology, indicating the mode of doing
research. ‘Research’ is of French origin (from Recerche) and
means a “careful search or investigation, systematic
investigation towards increasing the sum of knowledge”.
HISTORICAL RESEARCH.
• ‘History is digging into past in order to re-enact past history’.
Historical research is gaining round rapidly among the
historians, scholars and archaeologists.
• They are devoting their time and energy to enrich our
knowledge about the past history with the help of their
researches.
• As history is both a science and an art, the method to be used
in writing history would be different from those of all other
disciplines.
• As complete objectivity is impossible to achieve, the aim
should be to reconstruct the past as nearly as it really
happened.
What is Research
• Every thing written by a historian or a scholar does not fall in
the category of research.
• Research may be defined as an activity which aims at bringing
to light something new. It adds to the existing knowledge
through a systematic study or investigation of a particular
subject.
• A prominent scholar B. Sheikh Ali has written, “Research is the
activity undertaken to bring out something new, to extend the
horizon of knowledge and to contribute some original idea. It
is an attempt to make a diligent and systematic inquiry or
investigation into a subject, in order to discover facts or revise
the known facts or put the facts into theories”.
• Historical research can constitute either all or any of the three
important activities given below:

• 1. Collection of New data

• 2. Fresh interpretation of the data already known and
• 3. Subordination of the data to a principle
• OBJECTIVES OF RESEARCH
• The purpose of research is to discover answers to questions
through the application of scientific
• procedures. The main aim of research is to find out the truth
which is hidden and which has not been
• discovered as yet. Though each research study has its own
specific purpose, we may think of
• research objectives as falling into a number of following broad
groupings:
• 1. To gain familiarity with a phenomenon or to achieve new insights
into it (studies with this
• object in view are termed as exploratory or formulative research
studies);
• 2. To portray accurately the characteristics of a particular individual,
situation or a group
• (studies with this object in view are known as descriptive research
studies);
• 3. To determine the frequency with which something occurs or with
which it is associated
• with something else (studies with this object in view are known as
diagnostic research
• studies);
• 4. To test a hypothesis of a causal relationship between variables
(such studies are known as
• hypothesis-testing research studies).
•1.Descriptive vs. Analytical
•2.Applied vs. Fundamental
•3.Quantitative vs. Qualitative
•4.Conceptual vs. Empirical
•5.one-time research or longitudinal
research
•6.field-setting research or laboratory
research or simulation research
•7.clinical or diagnostic research
•8.exploratory
•9.Historical research
•10.conclusion-oriented and
decision-oriented.
•11.Decision-oriented research
1.Descriptive vs. Analytical
• Descriptive research includes surveys and fact-finding
enquiries of different kinds.
• The major purpose of descriptive research is description
of the state of affairs as it exists at present.
• In social science and business research we quite often
use the term Ex post facto research for descriptive
research studies.
• The main characteristic of this method is that the
researcher has no control over the variables; he can only
report what has happened or what is happening.
• Most ex post facto research projects are
used for descriptive studies in which the
researcher seeks to measure such items
as,
•for example, frequency of shopping,
preferences of people, or similar data.
•Ex post facto studies also include attempts
by researchers to discover causes even
when they cannot control the variables.
•The methods of research utilized in
descriptive research are survey methods of
all kinds, including comparative and
correlational methods.
•In analytical research, on the other hand,
the researcher has to use facts or
information already available, and analyze
these to make a critical evaluation of the
material.
2.Applied vs. Fundamental
•Research can either be applied (or action)
research or fundamental (to basic or pure)
research.
• Applied research aims at finding a solution
for an immediate problem facing a society
or an industrial/business organisation,
whereas fundamental research is mainly
concerned with generalisations and with
the formulation of a theory.
• “Gathering knowledge for knowledge’s sake is termed
‘pure’ or ‘basic’ research.”
• Research concerning some natural phenomenon or
relating to pure mathematics are examples of
fundamental research.
• Similarly, research studies, concerning human behaviour
carried on with a view to make generalisation’s about
human behaviour, are also examples of fundamental
research,
• but research aimed at certain conclusions (say, a
solution) facing a concrete social or business problem is
an example of applied research.
• Research to identify social, economic or political trends
that may affect a particular institution or the copy
research (research to find out whether certain
communications will be read and understood) or the
marketing research or evaluation research are examples
of applied research.
• Thus, the central aim of applied research is to discover a
solution for some pressing practical problem, whereas
basic research is directed towards finding information
that has a broad base of applications and thus, adds to
the already existing organized body of scientific
knowledge.
3.Quantitative vs. Qualitative
• Quantitative research is based on the measurement of
quantity or amount. It is applicable to phenomena that can be
expressed in terms of quantity.
• Qualitative research, on the other hand, is concerned with
qualitative phenomenon, i.e., phenomena relating to or
involving quality or kind.
• For instance, when we are interested in investigating the
reasons for human behaviour (i.e., why people think or do
certain things), we quite often talk of ‘Motivation Research’,
an important type of qualitative research.
• This type of research aims at discovering the underlying
motives and desires, using in depth interviews for the
purpose.
• Other techniques of such research are word association tests,
sentence completion tests, story completion tests and similar
other projective techniques.
• Attitude or opinion research i.e., research designed to find out
how people feel or what they think about a particular subject
or institution is also qualitative research.
• Qualitative research is specially important in the
behavioural sciences where the aim is to discover the
underlying motives of human behaviour.
• Through such research we can analyse the various
factors which motivate people to behave in a particular
manner or which make people like or dislike a particular
thing.
• To apply qualitative research in practice is relatively a
difficult job and therefore, while doing such research,
one should seek guidance from experimental
psychologists.
4.Conceptual vs. Empirical
• Conceptual research is that related to some abstract idea(s) or
theory. It is generally used by philosophers and thinkers to
develop new concepts or to reinterpret existing ones.
• Empirical research relies on experience or observation alone,
often without due regard for system and theory.
• It is data-based research, coming up with conclusions which
are capable of being verified by observation or experiment.
• We can also call it as experimental type of research. In such a
research it is necessary to get at facts firsthand, at their
source, and actively to go about doing certain things to
stimulate the production of desired information.
• In such a research, the researcher must first provide himself
with a working hypothesis or guess as to the probable results.
• He then works to get enough facts (data) to prove or disprove
his hypothesis.
• He then sets up experimental designs which he thinks will
manipulate the persons or the materials concerned so as to
bring forth the desired information.
• such research is thus characterised by the experimenter’s
control over the variables under study and his deliberate
manipulation of one of them to study its effects.
• Empirical research is appropriate when proof is sought that
certain variables affect other variables in some way.
• Evidence gathered through experiments or empirical studies is
today considered to be the most powerful support possible for
a given hypothesis.
Some Other Types of Research
• All other types of research are variations of one or more of the
above stated approaches, based on either the purpose of
research, or the time required to accomplish research, on the
environment in which research is done, or on the basis of
some other similar factor
5.one-time research or
longitudinal research
• . Form the point of view of time, we can think of research
either as one-time research or longitudinal research. In the
former case the research is confined to a single time-period,
whereas in the latter case the research is carried on over
several time-periods.
6.field-setting research or
laboratory research or simulation
research
• Research can be field-setting research or laboratory research
or simulation research, depending upon the environment in
which it is to be carried out.
7.clinical or diagnostic
research
• Research can as well be understood as clinical or diagnostic
research. Such research follow case-study methods or in depth
approaches to reach the basic causal relations. Such studies
usually go deep into the causes of things or events that
interest us, using very small samples and very deep probing
data gathering devices.
8.exploratory
• The research may be exploratory or it may be formalized. The
objective of exploratory research is the development of
hypotheses rather than their testing, whereas formalized
research studies are those with substantial structure and with
specific hypotheses to be tested.
9.Historical research
• Historical research is that which utilizes historical sources like
documents, remains, etc. to study events or ideas of the past,
including the philosophy of persons and groups at any remote
point of time.
10.conclusion-oriented and
decision-oriented.
• Research can also be classified as conclusion-oriented and
decision-oriented. While doing conclusion oriented research, a
researcher is free to pick up a problem, redesign the enquiry
as he proceeds and is prepared to conceptualize as he wishes.
11.Decision-oriented
research
• Decision-oriented research is always for the need of a decision
maker and the researcher in this case is not free to embark
upon research according to his own inclination. Operations
research is an example of decision oriented research since it is
a scientific method of providing executive departments with a
quantitative basis for decisions regarding operations under
their control.