Research methods and

Presentation
ECEG-5001
 Course Outline
• Introduction
• Scientific methods
• Research process
• Research Design and Data collection
• Guide line for Research proposal & Final
paper write-up
• Oral Presentation skill
Why One Learn Research
Methods?
 Introduction-Definition
• Research in common parlance refers to a search for
knowledge.
• One can also define research as a scientific and
systematic search for pertinent information on a specific
topic.
– In fact, research is an art of scientific investigation.
• The Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English
lays down the meaning of research as “a careful
investigation or inquiry specially through search for new
facts in any branch of knowledge.
• Redman and Mory define research as a “systematized
effort to gain new knowledge.
 Cnd…

• Some people consider research as a movement, a

movement from the known to the unknown.
- It is actually a voyage of discovery. We all possess the
vital instinct of inquisitiveness for, when the unknown
confronts us, we wonder and our inquisitiveness makes
us probe and attain full and fuller understanding of the
unknown.
-This inquisitiveness is the mother of all knowledge and
the method, which man employs for obtaining the
knowledge of whatever the unknown, can be termed as
research.
 Cnd…
• According to Clifford Woody research
comprises
– defining and redefining problems,
– formulating hypothesis or suggested
solutions;
– collecting, organizing and evaluating data;
– making deductions and reaching conclusions;
and at last
– carefully testing the conclusions to determine
whether they fit the formulating hypothesis.
 Cnd…
• D. Slesinger and M. Stephenson in the Encyclopedia of
Social Sciences define research as
– “the manipulation of things, concepts or symbols for the purpose
of generalizing to extend, correct or verify knowledge, whether
that knowledge aids in construction of theory or in the practice of
an art.
– Research is, thus, an original contribution to the existing stock
of knowledge making for its advancement.
– It is the persuit of truth with the help of study, observation,
comparison and experiment.
– In short, the search for knowledge through objective and
systematic method of finding solution to a problem is research.
– The systematic approach concerning generalization and the
formulation of a theory is also research. As such the term
‘research’ refers to the systematic method
 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).
 MOTIVATION IN RESEARCH
• What makes people to undertake research? This is a
question of fundamental importance.
• The possible motives for doing research may be either one
or more of the following:
1. Desire to get a research degree along with its consequential
benefits;
2. Desire to face the challenge in solving the unsolved
problems, i.e., concern over practical problems initiates
research;
3. Desire to get intellectual joy of doing some creative work;
4. Desire to be of service to society;
5. Desire to get respectability.
However, this is not an exhaustive list of factors motivating
people to undertake research studies. Many more factors
such as directives of government, employment conditions,
curiosity about new things, desire to understand causal
relationships, social thinking and awakening, and the like
may as well motivate (or at times compel) people to perform
research operations.
 TYPES OF RESEARCH
• The basic types of research are as follows:
(i) 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 (for example,
frequency of shopping, preferences of people, or similar data).
- 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.
NB: Ex post facto studies also include attempts by researchers to
discover causes even when they cannot control the variables.
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.
 Cnd…
(ii) 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 generalisations 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.
 Cnd…
(iii) 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 behavior (i.e., why people think or do certain
things), we quite often talk of ‘Motivation Research’, an important
type of qualitative research.
 Cnd…
(iv) 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. On the other hand,
• 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, 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.
 Cnd…
(v) 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.
• From the point of view of time, we can think of research
either as one-time research or longitudinal 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.
 Cnd…
• 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.
 Cnd…
• 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 Methods versus
Methodology
• Research methods may be understood as all those methods/techniques
that are used for conduction of research.
• Research methods or techniques, thus, refer to the methods the
researchers use in performing research operations.
• A distinction is also made between research techniques and research
methods.
– Research techniques refer to the behavior and instruments we use in
performing research operations such as making observations,
recording data, techniques of processing data and the like.
– Research methods refer to the behavior and instruments used in
selecting and constructing research technique.
– one can say that methods are more general. It is the methods that
generate techniques. However, in practice, the two terms are taken as
interchangeable and when we talk of research methods we do, by
implication, include research techniques within their compass.
 Cnd…
• Research methodology is a way to systematically solve the research
problem. It may be understood as a science of studying how
research is done scientifically.
• In it we study the various steps that are generally adopted by a
researcher in studying his research problem along with the logic
behind them.
• It is necessary for the researcher to know not only the research
methods/techniques but also the methodology
• Researchers not only need to know how to develop certain indices
or tests, how to apply particular research techniques, but they also
need to know which of these methods or techniques, are relevant
and which are not, and what would they mean and indicate and
why.
• Researchers also need to understand the assumptions underlying
various techniques and they need to know the criteria by which they
can decide that certain techniques and procedures will be applicable
to certain problems and others will not.
 cnd…
• The scope of research methodology is wider than that of research
methods.
• Thus, when we talk of research methodology we not only talk of the
research methods but also consider the logic behind the methods
we use in the context of our research study and explain why we are
using a particular method or technique and why we are not using
others so that research results are capable of being evaluated either
by the researcher himself or by others.
– Why a research study has been undertaken,
– how the research problem has been defined,
– in what way and why the hypothesis has been formulated,
– what data have been collected and what particular method has
been adopted,
– why particular technique of analysing data has been used

• And a host of similar other questions are usually answered when we

talk of research methodology concerning a research problem or
study.