Docsity
Docsity

Prepare for your exams
Prepare for your exams

Study with the several resources on Docsity


Earn points to download
Earn points to download

Earn points by helping other students or get them with a premium plan


Guidelines and tips
Guidelines and tips

Types of Research: A Comprehensive Overview, Slides of Research Methods in Psychology

types of research, different terms, Research in India

Typology: Slides

2022/2023

Uploaded on 10/15/2023

pooja-bharadwaj
pooja-bharadwaj 🇮🇳

2 documents

1 / 22

Toggle sidebar

This page cannot be seen from the preview

Don't miss anything!

bg1
MEANING OF
RESEARCH
- Refers to a search for knowledge.
- “a careful investigation or inquiry specially through search for
new facts in any branch of knowledge”
- According to Clifford Woody research comprises defining and
redefining problems, formulating hypothesis or suggested
solutions; collecting, organising and evaluating data; making
deductions and reaching conclusions; and at last carefully testing
the conclusions to determine whether they fit the formulating
hypothesis.
pf3
pf4
pf5
pf8
pf9
pfa
pfd
pfe
pff
pf12
pf13
pf14
pf15
pf16

Partial preview of the text

Download Types of Research: A Comprehensive Overview and more Slides Research Methods in Psychology in PDF only on Docsity!

MEANING OF

RESEARCH

  • Refers to a search for knowledge.
  • “a careful investigation or inquiry specially through search for

new facts in any branch of knowledge”

  • According to Clifford Woody research comprises defining and

redefining problems, formulating hypothesis or suggested

solutions; collecting, organising and evaluating data; making

deductions and reaching conclusions; and at last carefully testing

the conclusions to determine whether they fit the formulating

hypothesis.

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)

TYPES OF RESEARCH

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. Eg. 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 generalisations about human behaviour, are also examples of fundamental research. Research to identify social, economic or political trends that may affect a particular institution 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

TYPES OF RESEARCH

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

TYPES OF RESEARCH

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. Form the point of view of time, we can think of research either as one-time research ( confined to a single time-period) or longitudinal research ( carried on over several time- periods). Research can be field-setting research or laboratory research or simulation research , depending upon the environment in which it is to be carried out. Research can as well be understood as clinical or diagnostic research. Such research follow case-study methods or indepth 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.

TYPES OF RESEARCH

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. 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. 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. 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

Research Approaches

Qualitative approach to research is concerned with subjective assessment of attitudes, opinions and behaviour. Research in such a situation is a function of researcher’s insights and impressions. Such an approach to research generates results either in non-quantitative form or in the form which are not subjected to rigorous quantitative analysis. Generally, the techniques of focus group interviews, projective techniques and depth interviews are used. All these are explained at length in chapters that follow.

Research as Scientific Method The two terms, research and scientific method , are closely related. Research, as we have already stated, can be termed as “an inquiry into the nature of, the reasons for, and the consequences of any particular set of circumstances, whether these circumstances are experimentally controlled or recorded just as they occur. Further, research implies the researcher is interested in more than particular results; he is interested in the repeatability of the results and in their extension to more complicated and general situations.” On the other hand, the philosophy common to all research methods and techniques, although they may vary considerably from one science to another, is usually given the name of scientific method. In this context, Karl Pearson writes, “The scientific method is one and same in the branches (of science) and that method is the method of all logically trained minds … the unity of all sciences consists alone in its methods, not its material; the man who classifies facts of any kind whatever, who sees their mutual relation and describes their sequences, is applying the Scientific Method and is a man of science.” Scientific method is the pursuit of truth as determined by logical considerations. The ideal of science is to achieve a systematic interrelation of facts. Scientific method attempts to achieve “this ideal by experimentation, observation, logical arguments from accepted postulates and a combination of these three in varying proportions.” In scientific method, logic aids in formulating propositions explicitly and accurately so that their possible alternatives become clear. Further, logic develops the consequences of such alternatives, and when these are compared with observable phenomena, it becomes possible for the researcher or the scientist to state which alternative is most in harmony with the observed facts. All this is done through experimentation and survey investigations which constitute the integral parts of scientific method.

Research as Scientific Method Thus, “the scientific method encourages a rigorous, impersonal mode of procedure dictated by the demands of logic and objective procedure.” Accordingly, scientific method implies an objective, logical and systematic method, i.e., a method free from personal bias or prejudice, a method to ascertain demonstrable qualities of a phenomenon capable of being verified, a method wherein the researcher is guided by the rules of logical reasoning, a method wherein the investigation proceeds in an orderly manner and a method that implies internal consistency.

Importance of Research in Psychology Research inculcates scientific and inductive thinking and it promotes the development of logical habits of thinking and organization.

  • (^) The first step in understanding anything is to give it a name. Description involves observing a behaviour and noting everything about it, as for example, what is happening, where it happens, to whom it happens, and under what circumstances it happens.
  • (^) Finding explanation for behaviour is a very important step in the process of forming theories of behaviour. A theory is a general explanation of a set of observations or facts. The goal of research provides the observations, and the goal of explanation helps to build the theory.
  • (^) Improving the quality of life - Psychological research are often conducted to solve various problems faced by the society at different levels such as individual, organisation, or community. Research help to solve problems in diverse settings, such as in a classroom in a school, or in an industry, or in a hospital, or even in a military establishment, demand professional help. Applications in the health sector are remarkable. Because of these efforts quality of life becomes a major concern for psychologists

Criteria of Good Research It is important is that they all meet on the common ground of scientific method employed by them. One expects scientific research to satisfy the following criteria:

  1. The purpose of the research should be clearly defined and common concepts be used.
  2. The research procedure used should be described in sufficient detail to permit another researcher to repeat the research for further advancement, keeping the continuity of what has already been attained.
  3. The procedural design of the research should be carefully planned to yield results that are as objective as possible.
  4. The researcher should report with complete frankness, flaws in procedural design and estimate their effects upon the findings.
  5. The analysis of data should be sufficiently adequate to reveal its significance and the methods of analysis used should be appropriate. The validity and reliability of the data should be checked carefully.

Criteria of Good Research

  1. Conclusions should be confined to those justified by the data of the research and limited to those for which the data provide an adequate basis.
  2. Greater confidence in research is warranted if the researcher is experienced, has a good reputation in research and is a person of integrity. The qualities of a good research as under:
  3. Good research is systematic: It means that research is structured with specified steps to be taken in a specified sequence in accordance with the well defined set of rules. Systematic characteristic of the research does not rule out creative thinking but it certainly does reject the use of guessing and intuition in arriving at conclusions.

Problems Encountered by Researchers in India

  1. The lack of a scientific training in the methodology of research is a great impediment for researchers in our country.
  • paucity of competent researchers.
  • take a leap in the dark without knowing research methods.
  • (^) research is not methodologically sound.
  • (^) Research to many researchers and even to their guides, is mostly a scissor and paste job without any insight shed on the collated materials. The consequence is obvious, viz., the research results, quite often, do not reflect the reality or realities. Thus, a systematic study of research methodology is an urgent necessity. Before undertaking research projects, researchers should be well equipped with all the methodological aspects. As such, efforts should be made to provide shortduration intensive courses for meeting this requirement.

Problems Encountered by Researchers in India

  1. There is insufficient interaction between the university research departments on one side and business establishments, government departments and research institutions on the other side. A great deal of primary data of non-confidential nature remain untouched/untreated by the researchers for want of proper contacts. Efforts should be made to develop satisfactory liaison among all concerned for better and realistic researches. There is need for developing some mechanisms of a university—industry interaction programme so that academics can get ideas from practitioners on what needs to be researched and practitioners can apply the research done by the academics