Research Fundamentals

Meaning of Research

• Research is a scientific and systematic search for pertinent information on a specific topic.
• It is an art of scientific investigation.
• The Advanced Learner's Dictionary of Current English defines research as "a careful investigation or inquiry specially through search for new facts in any branch of knowledge."

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 has not been discovered yet.
• Objectives of research can be categorized into:
  • Exploratory or formulative research: to gain familiarity with a phenomenon or to achieve new insights into it.
  • Descriptive research: to portray accurately the characteristics of a particular individual, situation, or group.
  • Diagnostic research: to determine the frequency with which something occurs or with which it is associated with something else.
  • Hypothesis-testing research: to test a hypothesis of a causal relationship between variables.

Motivation in Research

• Empirical research is characterized by the experimenter's control over the variables under study and deliberate manipulation of one of them to study its effects.
• Evidence gathered through experiments or empirical studies is considered to be the most powerful support possible for a given hypothesis.
• Motives for doing research may include:
  • Desire to get a research degree along with its consequential benefits.
  • Desire to face the challenge in solving unsolved problems.
  • Desire to get intellectual joy of doing some creative work.
  • Desire to be of service to society.
  • Desire to get respectability.

Types of Research

• Descriptive research: includes surveys and fact-finding enquiries, and its major purpose is to describe the state of affairs as it exists at present.
• Analytical research: includes studies that aim to explain the underlying causes of a phenomenon.
• Ex post facto research: a type of descriptive research that uses survey methods to measure items such as frequency of shopping, preferences of people, or similar data.
• Longitudinal research: research carried out over several time-periods.
• Field-setting research: research conducted in a natural environment.
• Laboratory research: research conducted in a controlled environment.
• Simulation research: research that uses artificial environments to test hypotheses.