TYPES OF RESEARCH

1.Descriptive Research – to portray accurately the characteristics of particular individual, situation or a group.

·        it includes surveys and fact-finding enquiries of different kind.

·        major purpose – description of the state of affairs as it exists at present.

·        sometimes also called “ex post facto research”

·        main characteristics – the researcher has no control over the variables, only what is happening or what has happened can be reported.

·        the researcher attempts to discover causes even when they cannot control the variables.

·        methods used – survey methods of all kinds (including comparative and correlational methods).

2. Analytical Research – the researcher uses facts or information already available and analyse these to make a critical evaluation of the material.

3. Exploratory or Formulative Research – the research objective is to gain familiarity with a phenomenon or to achieve new insights into it.

4. Diagnostic Research – the objective is to determine the frequency with which something occurs or with which it is associated with something else.

5. Hypothesis-Testing Research – to objective is to test a hypothesis of a causal relationship between variables.

6. Applied Research – it aims at finding a solution for an immediate problem facing a society or an industrial/business organisation

examples – research to identify social, economic or political trends that may affect a particular institution,

marketing research,

evaluation research.

7. Fundamental Research – it is mainly concerned with generalizations and with the formulation of a theory.

examples – research concerning some natural phenomenon or relating to pure mathematics.

8. Quantitative Research – it is based on the quantitative measurements of some characteristics (it is applicable to phenomena that can be expressed in terms of quantities).

9. Qualitative research- it is concerned with qualitative phenomenon i.e., phenomena relating to or involving quality or kind (it is especially important in the behavioral sciences where the aim is to discover the underlying motives of human behavior)

10. Conceptual research- is related to some abstract idea or ideas or theory. It is generally used by philosophers and thinkers to develop new concepts or to reinterpret existing ones.

11. Empirical research- it 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.