RESEARCH METHODOLOGY | PURPOSE | EXAMPLE |
Theoretical research | It is used when the researcher wants to just gather more information about a particular topic without considering its practical working | A social research was conducted to understand the economical mentality of the middle class citizens |
Applied research | It is used to address the STEM fields such as engineering, medicine, etc. which are more closely connected to human lives with their actual applications | A business can analyze the customers purchase strategies and plan the marketing accordingly |
Exploratory research | It is used as a preliminary study for the topics about which there is no deeper knowledge explored yet | A study conducted to understand the relation between millennials and social media usage |
Descriptive research | It just focuses on finding out the characteristics the phenomena shows rather than the factors that causes it | Investigating the standard of living in rural and urban areas |
Qualitative research | It is used collect, compare, analyse large descriptive data from the sample | Study conducted to understand the effects of exercise on health |
Quantitative research | It gathers the data through close-ended questions and analyzes data using statistics, mathematical and computerized tools. | Conducting a market research survey on the likes and dislikes of the customers regarding clothing |
Experimental research | It is used to measure the cause-effect relationship between two variables with random sampling | Experiment to test a new drug in the market on patients |
Non-experimental research | It is used as an observational study where participants have experimented in their environment | A study on the effects of a certain education program on a batch of students |
Quasi-experimental research | It is similar to experimental but the sampling is not random but studied | A study conducted to know the effects of eating more cheese have on bad breath |
Deductive research | It focuses on explaining the reality with the help of general laws referring to certain conclusions | Research conducted to prove that bad domestic treatment can cause anger issues in children |
Inductive research | It is also an observational study that focuses on achieving generalised results | A study is conducted to understand the symptoms of the new Covid variant |
Hypothetical-deductive investigation | It first formulated the hypothesis based on basic observation and then uses deductive investigation to conclude the study which will in return reject or accept the hypothesis | Research is conducted to test a hypothesis that diabetic patients have fewer wound healing capabilities |
Longitudinal study | It aims to track the changes in the subject over time | To study the health of a patient under treatment over several weeks |
Cross-sectional study | It focuses on observing events, individual or groups of subjects over time | To study the health of 10 patients under the same treatment over several weeks |
Primary research | Researchers gather data themselves that is specific to their study making the data more reliable since it is first-hand information. | A researcher deciding to study the Covid variant and its impact, which has very few cases in the country. |
Secondary research | Researchers use available material like research papers, interviews, documentaries as a source of data and information in their research | A researcher makes use of pre-existing research papers for his assignment experiment |
