Methods used in research methodology

Questions further sibility in the research ision of the g the ping your academic style of way you approach your question will have a profound effect upon the way you construct your dissertation, so this section discusses the types of research you might undertake for your dissertation. The use of literature and case studies is considered and the merits of primary research are debated and advice is given on the use of existing research data. You may not be fond of statistics, but the potential relevance of a quantitative approach should be considered and similarly, the idea of qualitative analysis and conducting your own research may yield valuable data. Approach' means something more than the type of data you use – it refers to your overall orientation to research and the type of claims you will make for your study. Qualitative data is particularly useful when you wish to find out why people engage in such about the research methods modules you have taken so far. There is plenty of scope to use the approaches and methods that you are most comfortable with. You need to justify your approach and methods and to cite appropriate literature to help you do if i want to find out about social trends, or the measurable effects of particular policies? Skills and abilities with methods of data collection (if needed) and topic or issue you are interested you frame your research i combine qualitative and quantitative methods? You will analyse each type of data and describe this, and then write a discussion that shows how each piece of analysis contributes to the overall picture of what is going supervisor or research methods tutor may be able to give you detailed examples of these or other ways to combine my dissertation be entirely literature-based? This is likely to be the methodology of theoretical analysis: selection and discussion of theoretical material and descriptive material, in context, and detailed comparison of theories in terms of their applicability. Remember that theoretical studies, like data-based studies, need to have their research design spelled out from the even if your dissertation is more empirically focused, it could still be entirely literature-based. You might, for example, explore empirical debates in your chosen field across different countries or time is case study research? A major challenge in case study dissertations is connecting your own primary research or re-analysis with the broader theoretical themes and empirical concerns of the existing 's an empirical study?

Procedure in research methodology

These questions demand primary or secondary analysis of study 9 think hard before you decide to undertake empirical research: a student's is secondary analysis? It allows the researcher to explore areas of interest without having to go through the process of collecting data themselves in the field. The problem with using fieldwork methods in an undergraduate dissertation, however, is that they are costly in terms of time (which is relatively scarce in your final year! You may choose, therefore, to undertake secondary research, analysing existing do i find existing research data? Here you would not be collecting your own data but instead would be analysing existing ad case study 6 media you are interested, for example, in doing historical research, you may need to visit archives. Government reports and autobiographies may also be used as documents include official statistics, datasets (statistical data), and banks of interview transcripts which are all freely available to the academic community. Research methods tutors on your course will be able to advise on the availability and accessibility of such data are some advantages of doing secondary analysis, particularly if you are doing a quantitative study. Smaller, more targeted datasets may also be ary analysis has disadvantages also: the data were collected for a purpose different from have to find out something about that purpose, as well as the methods of collection, in order to justify your use of a secondary ting you own data - primary tative data may also result from non-participant observations or other measurements (e. Your research methods tutor can give you further information on these types of data, but here are some common quantitative data collection methods and their definitions:Self-completion questionnaires. Prior to the observation, an observation schedule will be produced which details what exactly the researcher should look for and how those observations should be you are conducting a qualitative analysis you are likely to wish to use at least some original material. Below are some data collection methods that you might want to use for your dissertation:A way of asking questions which allows the interviewee to have more control of the interview. The researcher will observe behaviour, listen to conversations, and ask some time looking at general books about research - they will give you an overview of the data collection methods available and help you to make the best choice for your project. Bryman (2004) would be a useful starting any piece of research you conduct, be it empirically based (quantitative or qualitative) or library based, its methods must be justified.

You need to show in the final dissertation how you have given consideration to different methods, and why you have chosen and eliminated t voice: findings from our our study, supervisors saw part of their role as someone who draws out students’ reasons for choosing a particular research approach. Reasons for data collection is literature based as my research question involved sensitive subjects which would have been unsuitable for primary data collection. Will involve primary data, secondary data, quantitative and qualitative research methods, lit reviews, theory and policy studies and an exploration of alternatives. Research must be conducted in a sensible and ethical manner; data must be analysed and presented in a rational manner. It is important that students do not expose themselves or others to dangers or risks when conducting research. Students need the approval of their dissertation supervisor before embarking on any type of fieldwork (see the section on research ethics for more information). Often people link deductive research with quantitative experiments or surveys, and inductive research with qualitative interviews or ethnographic work. These links are not hard and fast – for instance, experimental research, designed to test a particular theory through developing a hypothesis and creating an experimental design, may use quantitative or qualitative data or a combination. If your research starts with a theory and is driven by hypotheses that you are testing (e. At the start of your research you need to set down clearly:Your research focus and research you propose to examine the topic:Methods of data s of data types and sources of information you you will access these sources of information (be they people, existing datasets, biographical accounts, media articles or websites, official records). Proposed outcome of this research (in your case, a dissertation) and the form it will take. Time-frame for all and your supervisor will discuss your design and decide whether the research is 'do-able'. An empirical study could involve close analysis of statistics or some form of qualitative research.

However, a theoretical study brings its own challenges, and you may be called upon to compare theories in terms of their you have decided upon your approach, you can write out a research design, i. How you are going to approach the look a little at the research methods that you have studied. Apart from matching your research to your general sense of objective/subjective reality, it is important to ensure that you match your methodology to the problem you are kind of data do you need to answer your question/test your hypothesis? The ability to manage your time will be directly related to your ability to control the boundaries of the study – especially if it is closely linked to your that you have got so far, try to write up your research proposal as far as you can. You will find it helpful to plot your research questions on the chart on the next page and ensure that your plans for collecting data really answer the question as well as avoiding ethical this stage you must be really ruthless with yourself. A survey which includes interviews or a case study that looks at a situation from numerous factors may limit the scope of your research? London, fying a research topic:A template for structured observation:A site devoted to survey design:A chapter on structured interviewing:A chapter on qualitative interviewing:An introduction to ethnographic research:Materials for focus group interviews:1. This resource has been developed in partnership by the higher education academy and sheffield hallam sity of southern zing your social sciences research zing your social sciences research paper: 6. The purpose of this guide is to provide advice on how to develop and organize a research paper in the social of research flaws to ndent and dependent ry of research terms. Choosing a research ing a topic ning a topic ing the timeliness of a topic idea. An oral g with g someone else's to manage group of structured group project survival g a book le book review ing collected g a field informed g a policy g a research methods section describes actions to be taken to investigate a research problem and the rationale for the application of specific procedures or techniques used to identify, select, process, and analyze information applied to understanding the problem, thereby, allowing the reader to critically evaluate a study’s overall validity and reliability. The methodology section of a research paper answers two main questions: how was the data collected or generated? Respiratory care 49 (october 2004): ance of a good methodology must explain how you obtained and analyzed your results for the following reasons:Readers need to know how the data was obtained because the method you chose affects the findings and, by extension, how you interpreted ology is crucial for any branch of scholarship because an unreliable method produces unreliable results and, as a consequence, undermines the value of your interpretations of the most cases, there are a variety of different methods you can choose to investigate a research problem.

The methodology section of your paper should clearly articulate the reasons why you chose a particular procedure or reader wants to know that the data was collected or generated in a way that is consistent with accepted practice in the field of study. For example, you need to ensure that you have a large enough sample size to be able to generalize and make recommendations based upon the methodology should discuss the problems that were anticipated and the steps you took to prevent them from occurring. For any problems that do arise, you must describe the ways in which they were minimized or why these problems do not impact in any meaningful way your interpretation of the the social and behavioral sciences, it is important to always provide sufficient information to allow other researchers to adopt or replicate your methodology. Groups of research are two main groups of research methods in the social sciences:The empirical-analytical group approaches the study of social sciences in a similar manner that researchers study the natural sciences. This type of research focuses on objective knowledge, research questions that can be answered yes or no, and operational definitions of variables to be measured. This approach is focused on interpretative group of methods is focused on understanding phenomenon in a comprehensive, holistic way. Interpretive methods focus on analytically disclosing the meaning-making practices of human subjects [the why, how, or by what means people do what they do], while showing how those practices arrange so that it can be used to generate observable outcomes. However, the interpretative group requires careful examination of variables because it focuses more on subjective introduction to your methodology section should begin by restating the research problem and underlying assumptions underpinning your study. This is followed by situating the methods you will use to gather, analyze, and process information within the overall “tradition” of your field of study and within the particular research design you have chosen to study the problem. Your review of the literature demonstrates that it is not commonly used], provide a justification for how your choice of methods specifically addresses the research problem in ways that have not been utilized in prior remainder of your methodology section should describe the following:Decisions made in selecting the data you have analyzed or, in the case of qualitative research, the subjects and research setting you have examined,Tools and methods used to identify and collect information, and how you identified relevant variables,The ways in which you processed the data and the procedures you used to analyze that data, specific research tools or strategies that you utilized to study the underlying hypothesis and research addition, an effectively written methodology section should:Introduce the overall methodological approach for investigating your research problem. Are you going to take a special approach, such as action research, or a more neutral stance? One of the most common deficiencies found in research papers is that the proposed methodology is not suitable to achieving the stated objective of your be the specific methods of data collection you are going to use, such as, surveys, interviews, questionnaires, observation, archival research. Also be sure to explain how older data is still relevant to investigating the current research n how you intend to analyze your results.

Very often in the social sciences, research problems and the methods for investigating them require more explanation/rationale than widely accepted rules governing the natural and physical sciences. If other data sources exist, explain why the data you chose is most appropriate to addressing the research be potential limitations. If your methodology may lead to problems you can anticipate, state this openly and show why pursuing this methodology outweighs the risk of these problems cropping :  once you have written all of the elements of the methods section, subsequent revisions should focus on how to present those elements as clearly and as logically as possibly. The description of how you prepared to study the research problem, how you gathered the data, and the protocol for analyzing the data should be organized chronologically. For clarity, when a large amount of detail must be presented, information should be presented in sub-sections according to r note: if you are conducting a qualitative analysis of a research problem, the methodology section generally requires a more elaborate description of the methods used as well as an explanation of the processes applied to gathering and analyzing of data than is generally required for studies using quantitative methods. You should make the assumption that readers possess a basic understanding of how to investigate the research problem on their own and, therefore, you do not have to go into great detail about specific methodological procedures. It demonstrates to the reader that you can provide a cogent rationale for the decisions you made to minimize the impact of any problems that as the literature review section of your paper provides an overview of sources you have examined while researching a particular topic, the methodology section should cite any sources that informed your choice and application of a particular method [i. The choice of a survey should include any citations to the works you used to help construct the survey]. Description of a research study's method should not be confused with a description of the sources of information. The description of the project's methodology complements a list of sources in that it sets forth the organization and interpretation of information emanating from those o, l. Institute of public and international affairs, university of utah; writing the experimental report: methods, results, and discussion. T avoid using a quantitative approach to analyzing your research problem just because you fear the idea of applying statistical designs and tests. A qualitative approach, such as conducting interviews or content analysis of archival texts, can yield exciting new insights about a research problem, but it should not be undertaken simply because you have a disdain for running a simple regression.

A well designed quantitative research study can often be accomplished in very clear and direct ways, whereas, a similar study of a qualitative nature usually requires considerable time to analyze large volumes of data and a tremendous burden to create new paths for analysis where previously no path associated with your research problem had locate data and statistics, go g the relationship between theories and can be multiple meaning associated with the term "theories" and the term "methods" in social sciences research. A helpful way to delineate between them is to understand "theories" as representing different ways of characterizing the social world when you research it and "methods" as representing different ways of generating and analyzing data about that social world. Framed in this way, all empirical social sciences research involves theories and methods, whether they are stated explicitly or not. However, while theories and methods are often related, it is important that, as a researcher, you deliberately separate them in order to avoid your theories playing a disproportionate role in shaping what outcomes your chosen methods pectively engage in an ongoing dialectic between the application of theories and methods to help enable you to use the outcomes from your methods to interrogate and develop new theories, or ways of framing conceptually the research problem. Descriptions of methods usually include defining them and stating why you have chosen specific techniques to investigate a research problem, followed by an outline of the procedures you used to systematically select, gather, and process the data [remember to always save the interpretation of data for the discussion section of your paper]. This discussion includes describing the theoretical concepts that inform the choice of methods to be applied, placing the choice of methods within the more general nature of academic work, and reviewing its relevance to examining the research problem. The discussion also includes a thorough review of the literature about methods other scholars have used to study the topic. University of southern paperwrite to conduct ments with ent research to choose the most appropriate design? Research shuttleworth 398k this page on your website:How to choose the most appropriate design? The correct type from the different research methods can be a little daunting, at first. There are so many factors to take into account and article is a part of the guide:Select from one of the other courses available:Experimental ty and ical tion and psychology e projects for ophy of sance & tics beginners tical bution in er 18 more articles on this 't miss these related articles:4defining a research problem. 2 errors in research question, ethics, budget and time are all major considerations in any is before looking at the statistics required, and studying the preferred methods for the individual scientific experimental design must make compromises and generalizations, so the researcher must try to minimize these, whilst remaining ‘pure’ sciences, such as chemistry or astrophysics, experiments are quite easy to define and will, usually, be strictly biology, psychology and social sciences, there can be a huge variety of methods to choose from, and a researcher will have to justify their choice. Whilst slightly arbitrary, the best way to look at the various methods is in terms of ‘strength’.

Research first method is the straightforward experiment, involving the standard practice of manipulating quantitative, independent variables to generate statistically analyzable lly, the system of scientific measurements is interval or ratio based. When we talk about ‘scientific research methods’, this is what most people immediately think of, because it passes all of the definitions of ‘true science’. The researcher is accepting or refuting the null results generated are analyzable and are used to test hypotheses, with statistics giving a clear and unambiguous research method is one of the most difficult, requiring rigorous design and a great deal of expense, especially for larger experiments. The other problem, where real life organisms are used, is that taking something out of its natural environment can seriously affect its is often argued that, in some fields of research, experimental research is ‘too’ accurate. It is also the biggest drain on time and resources, and is often impossible to perform for some fields, because of ethical tuskegee syphilis study was a prime example of experimental research that was fixated on results, and failed to take into account moral other fields of study, which do not always have the luxury of definable and quantifiable variables - you need to use different research methods. These should attempt to fit all of the definitions of repeatability or falsifiability, although this is not always n based research n based research methods generally involve designing an experiment and collecting quantitative data. For this type of research, the measurements are usually arbitrary, following the ordinal or interval onnaires are an effective way of quantifying data from a sample group, and testing emotions or preferences. These figures are arbitrary, but at least give a directional method of measuring fying behavior is another way of performing this research, with researchers often applying a ‘numerical scale’ to the type, or intensity, of behavior. The bandura bobo doll experiment and the asch experiment were examples of opinion based definition, this experiment method must be used where emotions or behaviors are measured, as there is no other way of defining the not as robust as experimental research, the methods can be replicated and the results ational research ational research is a group of different research methods where researchers try to observe a phenomenon without interfering too ational research methods, such as the case study, are probably the furthest removed from the established scientific method. This type is looked down upon, by many scientists, as ‘quasi-experimental’ research, although this is usually an unfair criticism. Observational research tends to use nominal or ordinal scales of ational research often has no clearly defined research problem, and questions may arise during the course of the study. Is heavily used in social sciences, behavioral studies and anthropology, as a way of studying a group without affecting their behavior. Whilst the experiment cannot be replicated or falsified, it still offers unique insights, and will advance human studies are often used as a pre-cursor to more rigorous methods, and avoid the problem of the experiment environment affecting the behavior of an organism.

Observational research methods are useful when ethics are a an ideal world, experimental research methods would be used for every type of research, fulfilling all of the requirements of falsifiability and r, ethics, time and budget are major factors, so any experimental design must make compromises. As long as a researcher recognizes and evaluates flaws in the design when choosing from different research methods, any of the scientific research methods are valid contributors to scientific knowledge.. Take it with you wherever you research council of ibe to our rss blakstad on are free to copy, share and adapt any text in the article, as long as you give appropriate credit and provide a link/reference to this ign upprivacy paperwrite to conduct ments with ent research to choose the most appropriate design? Research question, ethics, budget and time are all major considerations in any is before looking at the statistics required, and studying the preferred methods for the individual scientific experimental design must make compromises and generalizations, so the researcher must try to minimize these, whilst remaining ‘pure’ sciences, such as chemistry or astrophysics, experiments are quite easy to define and will, usually, be strictly biology, psychology and social sciences, there can be a huge variety of methods to choose from, and a researcher will have to justify their choice. Are free to copy, share and adapt any text in the article, as long as you give appropriate credit and provide a link/reference to this ive learning theory - using thinking to study research design - how to conduct a case ch designs - how to construct an experiment or ng a research problem - what exactly should you investigate? Take it with you wherever you research council of ibe to our rss blakstad on chacademicwrite paperfor kidsself-helpsitecodelogintop ign upprivacy ch methods/types of wikibooks, open books for an open to: navigation, search. Can be classified in many different ways on the basis of the methodology of research, the knowledge it creates, the user group, the research problem it investigates etc. This research is conducted largely for the enhancement of knowledge, and is research which does not have immediate commercial potential. According to travers, “basic research is designed to add to an organized body of scientific knowledge and does not necessarily produce results of immediate practical value. Example: a experimental research that may not be or will be helpful in the human progress. Research is designed to solve practical problems of the modern world, rather than to acquire knowledge for knowledge's sake. According to hunt, “applied research is an investigation for ways of using scientific knowledge to solve practical problems” for example:- improve agriculture crop production, treat or cure a specific disease, improve the energy efficiency of homes, offices, how can communication among workers in large companies be improved? Applied research can be further classified as problem oriented and problem solving m oriented research[edit].

Eg:- wto does problem oriented research for developing countries, in india agriculture and processed food export development authority (apeda) conduct regular research for the benefit of agri-industry. As the name indicates, problem identifying researches are undertaken to know the exact nature of problem that is required to be solved. Type of research is done by an individual company for the problem faced by it. For eg:- videocon international conducts research to study customer satisfaction level, it will be problem solving research. In short, the main aim of problem solving research is to discover some solution for some pressing practical tative research[edit]. Quantitative research aim to measure the quantity or amount and compares it with past records and tries to project for future period. In social sciences, “quantitative research refers to the systematic empirical investigation of quantitative properties and phenomena and their relationships”. The objective of quantitative research is to develop and employ mathematical models, theories or hypothesis pertaining to process of measurement is central to quantitative research because it provides fundamental connection between empirical observation and mathematical expression of quantitative relationships. Statistical methods are used extensively with in fields such as economics and ative research[edit]. Qualitative research is collecting, analyzing and interpreting data by observing what people do and say. Qualitative research is much more subjective and uses very different methods of collecting information,mainly individual, in-depth interviews and focus nature of this type of research is exploratory and open ended. Phenomenology:-a form of research in which the researcher attempts to understand how one or more individuals experience a phenomenon. Ethnography:- this type of research focuses on describing the culture of a group of people.

Eg:-the researcher might decide to go and live with the tribal in andaman island and study the culture and the educational . Case study:-is a form of qualitative research that is focused on providing a detailed account of one or more cases. Grounded theory:- it is an inductive type of research,based or grounded in the observations of data from which it was developed; it uses a variety of data sources, including quantitative data, review of records, interviews, observation and surveys. Historical research:-it allows one to discuss past and present events in the context of the present condition, and allows one to reflect and provide possible answers to current issues and problems. Eg:-the lending pattern of business in the 19th addition to the above, we also have the descriptive research. Fundamental research, of which this is based on establishing various the research is classified into:One time research or longitudinal -setting research or laboratory research or simulation al or diagnostic sion oriented 's main page: research uction to ch questions and les in l limit ement, reliability, ility and significance ing two levels of independent variables (iv): ing multiple levels of iv: n-subjects factorial design: 2-way ated-groups template is to be used on all pages of the book research ry: book:research logged indiscussion for this ip addresscontributionscreate accountlog pagehelpbrowsecookbookwikijuniorfeatured booksrecent changesdonationsrandom bookusing g roomcommunity portalbulletin boardhelp out!