What is Research?

Simply put, research is the process of discovering new knowledge. This knowledge can be either the
development of new concepts or the advancement of existing knowledge and theories, leading to a new
understanding that was not previously known.

While research can be carried out by anyone and in any field, most research is usually done to broaden
knowledge in the physical, biological, and social worlds. This can range from learning why certain materials
behave the way they do, to asking why certain people are more resilient than others when faced with the
same challenges.

The use of ‘systematic investigation’ in the formal definition represents how research is normally conducted
– a hypothesis is formed, appropriate research methods are designed, data is collected and analyzed, and
research results are summarized into one or more ‘research conclusions. These research conclusions are
then shared with the rest of the scientific community to add to the existing knowledge and serve as evidence
to form additional questions that can be investigated. It is this cyclical process that enables scientific
research to make continuous progress over the years; the true purpose of research.

Types of research:
1. Basic Research
2. Applied Research
Basic research: Research designed to advance fundamental knowledge about how the world works and
build/test theoretical explanations by focusing on the “why” question. The scientific community is its
primary audience.

Also called academic research or pure research, basic research advances fundamental knowledge about the
social world. It is the source of most new scientific ideas and ways to think about social events. The
scientific community is its primary audience. Researchers use basic research to support or refute theories
about how the social world operates and changes, what makes things happen, and why social relations or
events are a certain way.

Applied research is designed to focus on providing practical solutions to a specific problem. It is a form
of investigation that entails solution-oriented inquiries into a phenomenon, a field of study, or a research
subject generally employing empirical methodologies.

In many cases, applied research is a follow-up research design for basic research because it further
investigates the outcomes of pure or basic research in order to validate these findings and apply them to
create innovative solutions to specific problems.

Examples in Psychology

Applied research is extremely useful in industrial psychology to create solutions for problems related to workplace
behavior, organizational policies, and employee recruitment processes. Basic research in psychology is used to gain
insights into different psychological conditions in order to understand these behaviors better.
Examples of basic research in psychology include:

1. How do panic attacks happen?

2. What are the symptoms of anxiety disorders?

Examples of applied research in psychology include:

1. What are the treatment options for anxiety disorders?

2. What are the ways to improve employees’ productivity in the workplace?

Types of research based on uses:

1. Evaluation research
2. Action research
3. Social impact assessment

Evaluation research:
Applied research in which one tries to determine how well a program or policy is working or reaching its
goals and objectives.
Evaluation research measures how effective a specific program or strategy is. It is typically used to measure
whether the program or strategy is worth the effort, time, money, and resources spent.

Depending on the objectives of the evaluation research, the study may target employees, stakeholders,
customers, board members, donors, etc. The feedback is gathered and used to validate whether the program
or strategy should continue or be changed in any way to better meet its goals

Action research:
Action research can be defined as “an approach in which the action researcher and a client collaborate in
the diagnosis of the problem and in the development of a solution based on the diagnosis”. In other words,
one of the main characteristic traits of action research relates to collaboration between the researcher and
members of the organization in order to solve organizational problems. Action research tries to equalize the
power relations between research participants and researchers. We avoid having control, status, and
authority over the people we study.

Action research is applied research in which the primary goal is to facilitate social change or bring about
a value-oriented political-social goal.

Participatory action research is action research in which the research participants actively help design
and conduct the research study. It emphasizes democratizing knowledge-creation and engaging in collective
action, and it assumes that political knowledge emerges from participating in research.

Social impact assessment:

(SIA) is a process for the identification, analysis, assessment, management, and monitoring of the potential
social impacts of a project, both positive and negative. The social impacts of a project are the direct and
indirect impacts that affect people and their communities during all stages of the project lifecycle.

Types of research based on purpose:

 1. Explore
2. Descriptive
3. Explain
Exploration
Exploratory research is the process of investigating a problem that has not been studied or thoroughly
investigated in the past.
We use exploratory research when the subject is very new, we know little or nothing about it, and no one
has yet explored it. Our goal with it is to formulate more precise questions that we can address in future
research. As the first stage of inquiry, we want to know enough after the exploratory study so we can design
and execute a second, more systematic, and extensive study. Exploratory research rarely yields definitive
answers. It addresses the “what” question: What is this social activity really about? It is difficult to conduct
because it has few guidelines, everything is potentially important, steps are not well defined, and the
direction of inquiry changes frequently.

Descriptive
We may have a well-developed idea about a social phenomenon and want to describe it. Descriptive
research presents a picture of the specific details of a situation, social setting, or relationship. Much of the
social research found in scholarly journals or used for making policy decisions is descriptive.
A descriptive research study starts with a well-defined issue or question and tries to describe it accurately.

The study’s outcome is a detailed picture of the issue or answer to the research question. For example, the
focused issue might be the relationship between parents who are heavy alcohol drinkers and child abuse.
Results could show that 25 percent of heavy-drinking parents had physically or sexually abused their
children compared to 5 percent of parents who never drink or drink very little.

A descriptive study presents a picture of types of people or of social activities and focuses on “how” and
“who” questions (How often does it happen? Who is involved?). Exploring new issues is less of a concern
than describing how things are.

Explanation
When encountering an issue that is known and with a description of it, we might wonder why things are the
way they are. Addressing the “why” is the study that looks for causes and reasons. For example, a
descriptive study would document the number of heavy-drinking parents who abuse their children whereas
an explanatory study would be interested in learning why these parents abuse their children. We focus on
exactly what is it about heavy drinking that contributes to child abuse.

Md. Nayamat Ullah

Session: 2018/19