DESCRIPTIVE RESEARCH

Descriptive Research is designed to study what is. It is the research design that is
appropriate for studies which aim to find out what prevail in the present: conditions or
relationships, held opinions and beliefs, processes and effects, and developing trends.

In other words, descriptive research may be defined as a purposive process of

gathering, analyzing, classifying, and tabulating data about prevailing conditions,
practices, beliefs, processes, trends, and cause-effect relationships and then making
adequate and accurate interpretation about such data with or without the aid of statistical
methods.

Characteristics of Descriptive Research

1. Descriptive research ascertains prevailing conditions of facts in a group or case

under study.
2. It gives either a qualitative or quantitative, or both, description of the general
characteristics of the group or case under study.
3. What caused the prevailing conditions is not emphasized.
4. Study of conditions at different periods of time may be made and the change or
progress that took place between the periods may be noted or evaluated for any
value it gives.
5. Comparisons of the characteristics of two groups or cases may be made to
determine their similarities and differences.
6. The variables or conditions studied in descriptive research are not usually
controlled.
7. Descriptive studies, except in case studies, are generally cross-sectional, that is, it
studies the different sections belonging to the same group.
8. Studies on prevailing conditions may or can be repeated for purposes of
verification and comparison.

Types of Descriptive Research

1. Survey 5. Feasibility Studies 9. Relational studies

2. Case study 6. Development Studies 10. Ex-post facto studies

3. Content Analysis 7. Evaluation Studies 11. Replication and

4. Trend Studies 8. Ethnographic Studies Secondary Analysis

CASE STUDY

Case study involves a comprehensive and extensive examination of a particular

individual, group or situation over a period of time. It is also a comprehensive study of a
social unit – be a person, a social institution, a group, or community.

The case study is the appropriate design to use when the aim of the study is to
have a deeper, more thorough and more comprehensive understanding of an individual or
group such as the family, class, organization or community. It is useful when the
investigator wishes to know detail in the process which explains the characteristics and
behavior of a person, group or institution under investigation.

In using the case study as an approach or method or a research project, the

researcher has to discover and identify all important variables that have contributed to the
development of the case into what it is at the time of study.

In doing the case study, the investigator may use a variety of methods to obtain
the data he needs. These methods include observation by the researcher or his informants
of physical characteristics, social qualities or behavior, interviews of the subject or
subjects, relative, friends, teachers and others; use of questionnaires, opinionnaires,
psychological test and inventories; and analyzes of recorded data from newspapers,
school, courts, clinic, government agencies and other sources.

Types of Case Studies (Stake)

1. Intrinsic Case Study – the researcher is primarily interested in understanding a
specific individual or situation. He or she describes, in detail, the particulars of the
case in order to shed some light on what is going on. Intrinsic case studies are
often used in exploratory research when researchers seek to learn about some
little-known phenomenon by studying it in depth.

2. Instrumental Case Study. A researcher is interested in understanding something

more than just a particular case; the researcher is interested in studying the
particular case only as a means to some longer goal.

3. Ethnographic and Historical Research.

Ethnographic research – is the collection of data on many variables over an
extended period of time in a naturalistic setting, usually using observation and
interviews.
Historical research – is the systematic collection and objective evaluation of data
related to past occurrences to examine causes, effects, or trends of those event that
may help explain present events and anticipate future events.

Characteristics of a Satisfactory Case Study

1. Continuity
2. Completeness of data
3. Validity of data
4. Confidential recording
5. Scientific synthesis

CONTENT ANALYSIS

Content analysis is a technique that enables researchers to study human behavior

in an indirect way, through an analysis of their communications.

By using this technique, a researcher can study (indirectly) anything from trends
in child-rearing practices (by comparing them over time or by comparing differences in
such practices among various groups of people), to types of heroes people prefer, to the
extent of violence on television.

Categorization in Content Analysis

All procedures that are called content analysis have certain characteristics in
common. These procedure also vary in some respects, depending on the purpose of the
analysis and the type of communication being analyzed.

All must at some point convert descriptive information into categories. There are
two ways that this might be done:
1. The researcher determines the categories before any analysis begins. These
categories are based on previous knowledge, theory, and/or experience.
2. The researcher becomes very familiar with the descriptive information collected
and allows the categories to emerge as the analysis continues.

Steps Involved in Content Analysis

1. Determine the objectives
2. Define terms
3. Specify the unit of analysis
4. Locate relevant data
5. Develop a rationale
6. Develop a sampling plan
 7. Formulate coding categories
8. Test validity and reliability of data
9. Data analysis

Advantages of Content Analysis

1. It is unobtrusive – A researcher can “observe” without being observed, since
contents being analyzed are not influenced by the researcher’s presence.
2. It is extremely useful as a means of analyzing interview and observational data.
3. The researcher can delve into records and documents to get some feel for the
social life of an earlier time.
4. Logistics are often relatively simple and economical
5. The data are readily available and almost always can be returned to if necessary or
desired.

Disadvantages of Content Analysis

1. It is limited to recorded information

2. Difficulty in establishing validity

QUALITATIVE RESEARCH

Qualitative research – a research in which the investigator attempts to study naturally

occurring phenomena in all their complexity.

General Characteristics of Qualitative Research

1. The natural setting is the direct source of data, and the researcher is the key instrument
in qualitative research.
2. Qualitative data are collected in the form of words or pictures rather than numbers.
3. Qualitative researchers are concerned with process as well as product.
4. Qualitative researchers tend to analyze their data inductively.
5. How people make sense out of their lives is a major concern to qualitative to
qualitative research.

Major Characteristics of Qualitative Research

1. Naturalistic inquiry. Studying real-world situations as they unfold naturally, non-
manipulative, unobtrusive, and non-controlling; openness to whatever emerges –
lack of predetermined constraints on outcomes.

2. Inductive analysis. Immersion in the details and specifics of the data to discover
important categories, dimensions and interrelationships; begin by exploring
genuinely open-questions rather than testing theoretically described (deductive)
hypotheses.

3. Holistic perspectives. The whole phenomenon under study is understood as a complex

system that is more than the sum of its parts, focus on complex interdependencies
not meaningfully reduced to a few discrete variables and linear, cause-effect
relationships.

4. Qualitative data. Detailed, thick description, inquiry in depth, direct quotations

capturing people’s personal perspectives and experiences.

5. Personal contact and insight. The researcher has direct contact with and gets close to
the people, situation, and phenomenon under study; researcher’s personal
experiences and insights are an important part of the inquiry and critical to
understanding the phenomenon.

6. Dynamic systems. Attention to process, assumes change is constant and ongoing

whether the focus is on an individual or an entire culture.
7. Unique case orientation. Assumes each case is special and unique, the first level of
inquiry to being true to, respecting, and capturing the details of the individual cases
being studied; cross-case analysis follows from and depends on the quality of
individual case studies.

8. Context sensitivity. Places findings in a social, historical, and temporal context,

dubious of the possibility or meaningfulness of generalizations across time and
space.

9. Empathic neutrality. Complete objectivity is impossible; pure subjectivity undermines

credibility; the researcher’s passion is understanding the world in all its
complexity – not proving something, not advocating, not advancing personal
agendas, but understanding; the researcher includes personal experiences and
emphatic insight as part of the relevant data, while taking a neutral non-judgmental
stance toward whatever content may emerge.

10. Design flexibility. Open to adapting inquiry as understanding deepens and/or

situations change; avoids getting locked into rigid designs that eliminate
responsiveness; pursues new paths of discovery as they emerge.

Steps in Qualitative Research

1. Identification of the phenomenon to be studied.
2. Identification of the participants in the study.
3. Generation of hypotheses
4. Data collection
5. Data analysis
6. Interpretation and conclusion

Approaches to Qualitative Research

1. Biography

A biographical study is the study of a single individual and his or her experiences
as told to the researcher or found in documents and archival material. An important
aspect of some biographical studies is that the subject recalls one or more special
events (an epiphany) in his or her life. The author of the biography describes, in
some detail, the setting or context within which the epiphany occurred. Lastly, the
author is actively present during the study and openly acknowledges that his or her
report is an interpretation of the subject’s experiences.

Forms of biographies
a. Biographies – life stories written by a person other than the one being studied.
b. Autobiographies – life stories written by persons about themselves
c. Life histories – a combination of biography and autobiography
d. Oral histories – in which the researcher gathers personal recollections, usually
from a variety of individuals.

2. Phenomenology
A phenomenological study investigates various reactions to, or perceptions of, a
particular phenomenon. Data are usually collected through in-depth interviewing.
The researchers then attempts to identify and describe aspects of each individual’s
perceptions and reactions to their experience in some detail.

3. Grounded Theory
In a grounded theory study, the researchers intend to generate a theory that is “
grounded in data systematically gathered and analyzed”. Grounded theories are not
generated before a study begins, but are formed inductively from the data that are
collected during the study itself.
4. Case Studies
The study of “cases” has been around for some time. Students in medicine, law,
business, and the social sciences often study cases as a part of their training. What
“case study” researchers have in common is that they call the object of their
research cases, and they focus their research on the study of such cases.