RESEARCH

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LESSON 1
Research: A Way of Thinking
• Research Defined

- “recherche” the act of searching closely

- process of gathering data to prove a
claim, test existing hypotheses, and find
answers and solutions on pressing
problems at hand.
- -it generates knowledge that aims to
describe, explain, and predict events.
Research is a way of thinking: examining
critically the various aspects of your day-to-
day professional work; understanding and
formulating guiding principles that govern a
particular procedure; and developing and
testing theories that contribute to the
advancement of your practice and
profession. It is a habit of questioning what
you do, and a systematic examination of
clinical observations to explain and find
answers for what you perceive, with a view
to instituting appropriate changes for a
more effective professional service.
TYPES OF RESEARCH
 Types of Research

APPLICATION OBJECTIVES ENQUIRY MODE

DESCRIPTIVE EXPLORATORY QUANTITIVE

PURE RESEARCH
RESEARCH RESEARCH RESEARCH

APPLIED CORRELATIONAL EXPLANATORY QUALITATIVE

RESEARCH RESEARCH RESEARCH RESEARCH

Figure 1.2 Types of Research

Types of research can be looked at from
three different perspectives (figures 1.2)

1. Applications of the findings of the

research study;

2. Objectives of the study;

3. Mode of enquiry used in conducting the

study.
TYPES OF RESEARCH
Application Perspective
According to Bailey (1978): research can be classified in two
broad categories: pure research and applied research

Pure research involves developing and testing hypotheses that

are intellectually challenging to the researcher but may or may
not have practical application at the present time or in the
future. Thus such work often involves the testing of hypotheses
containing very abstract and specialized concepts.

Pure research is also concerned with the development,

examination, verification, and refinement of research methods,
procedures, techniques, and tools that form the body of
research methodology. Examples of pure research include
developing sampling technique that can be applied to a
particular situation; developing a methodology to assess the
validity of a procedure; developing an instrument, say, to
measure the stress level in people; and finding the best way of
measuring people’s attitudes
Applied research refers to scientific study and
research that seeks to solve practical problems.
This type of research plays an important role in
solving everyday problems that often have an
impact on life, work, health, and over-all well
being. Applied research is used to find solutions to
everyday problems, cure illness, and develop
innovative technologies.

There are many different types of psychologists

who perform applied research. Psychologists
working in human factors or
industrial/organizational fields, for example, often
do this type of research.
Research is one of the ways to find answers to
your questions. When you say that you are
undertaking a research study to find out
answers to a question, you are implying that
the process being applied:

1. Is being undertaken within a framework of a

set of philosophies;
2. Uses procedures, methods, and techniques
that have been tested for their validity and
reliability;
3. Is designed to be unbiased and objective.
“Unbiased and objective” mean that you have
taken each step in an unbiased manner and
drawn conclusion to the best of your ability and
without introducing your own vested interest.
Bias and subjectivity. Subjectivity is an integral
part of your way of thinking that is “conditioned”
by your educational background, discipline,
philosophy, experience, and skills. For example,
a psychologist may look at a piece of
information differently from the way in which an
anthropologist or a historian looks at it. Bias, on
the other hand is a deliberate attempt to either
conceal or highlight something.
Examples:
• Investigating which treatment approach is
the most effective for reducing anxiety
• Researching which strategies work best to
motivate workers
• Studying different keyboard designs to
determine which is the most efficient and
ergonomic.
• Analyzing what type of prompts will inspire
people to volunteer their time to charities.
• Investigating if background music in a work
environment can contribute to greater
productivity.
TYPES OF RESEARCH
Objective Perspective
A research endeavor can be classified as descriptive, correlational,
explanatory, or exploratory.

 Descriptive research attempts to describe systematically a

situation, problem, phenomena, service or programme, or
provides information about, say, the living conditions of a
community, or describes attitudes towards an issue. For example, it
may attempt to describe the types of service provided by an
organization, the administrative structure of an organisation, the
living conditions of Aboriginal people in the outback, the needs of
the community, what it means to go through a divorce, how a
child feels living in a house with domestic violence, or the attitudes
of employees towards management.

 Correlational study is to discover or establish the existence of a

relationship/association/interdependence between two or more
aspects of a situation. For example, what is the impact of an
advertising campaign on the sale of a product? What is the
relationship between stressful living and the incidence of heart
attack? What is the relationship between fertility and mortality?
 Explanatory research attempts to clarify why
and how there is a relationship between the
aspects of a situation or phenomenon. It
attempts to explain, for example, why stressful
living results in heart attacks; why a decline in
mortality is followed by a fertility decline; or
how the home environment affects the
children’s level of academic achievement.

 Exploratory research is undertaken with the

objective either to explore an area where little
is known or to investigate the possibilities of
undertaking a particular research study.
TYPES OF RESEARCH
Mode of Enquiry Perspective
The third perspective in our typology of
research concerns the process you adopt to
find answers to you research questions.
Broadly, there are two approaches to
enquiry:

The structured approach;

The unstructured approach.
In the structured approach, everything that
forms the research process – objectives, design,
sample, and the questions that you plan to ask
on respondents – is predetermined. The
structured approach is more appropriate to
determine the extent of a problem, issue, or
phenomenon. On the other hand, the
unstructured approach allows flexibility in all
these aspects of the process. The unstructured
approach is predominantly used to explore its
nature, in other words, variation/diversity per se
in a phenomenon, issue, problem or attitude
towards an issue.
The structured approach to enquiry
is usually classified as quantitative
research and unstructured as
qualitative research.
Quantitative research is a structured way of
collecting and analyzing data obtained from
different sources. It is a second approach to
enquiry in the social sciences that is rooted in
rationalism, follows a structured, rigid,
predetermined methodology, believes in
having narrow focus, emphasizes greater
sample size, aims to quantify the variation of
phenomenon, and tries to make
generalizations to the total population.
Qualitative research is based upon the
philosophy of empiricism, follows an
unstructured, flexible and open
approach to enquiry, aims to describe
than measure, believes in in-depth
understanding and small samples, and
explores perceptions and feelings than
facts and figures.
THE RESEARCH PROCESS
Characteristics and requirements
Research is a process for collecting,
analyzing, and interpreting information
to answer questions. The process must
have certain characteristics:
controlled, rigorous, systematic, valid
and verifiable, empirical and critical.
CONTROLLED – it implies that, in
exploring causality in relation to two
variables, you set up your study in a
way that minimizes the effects of
other factors affecting the
relationship.
• RIGOROUS – you must be scrupulous that the procedures
followed to find answers to questions are relevant, appropriate,
and justified. Again, the degree of rigor varies markedly
between the physical and the social sciences and within the
social sciences.
• SYSTEMATIC – this implies that the procedures adopted to
undertake an investigation follow a certain logical sequence.
The different steps cannot be taken in a haphazard way. Some
procedures must follow others.
• VALID and VERIFIABLE – this concept implies that whatever you
conclude on the basis of your findings is correct and can be
verified by you and others.
• EMPIRICAL – this means that any conclusions drawn are based
upon hard evidence gathered from information collected from
real-life experiences or observations.
• CRITICAL – critical scrutiny of the procedures used and methods
employed is critical to a research inquiry. The process adopted
and the procedures used must be able to withstand critical
scrutiny.
Examples:
• Investigating which treatment approach is
the most effective for reducing anxiety
• Researching which strategies work best to
motivate workers
• Studying different keyboard designs to
determine which is the most efficient and
ergonomic.
• Analyzing what type of prompts will inspire
people to volunteer their time to charities.
• Investigating if background music in a work
environment can contribute to greater
productivity.
GOALS OF RESEARCH
Description. This refer to the way in which the phenomena
being studied is defined, classified, and categorized. The
goal of describing is to provide essential information.

Prediction. It entails stating the possible consequences of

present events based on existing knowledge of
something else. The purpose of prediction is to control
one’s action and behavior through careful planning
derived from a given set of information.

Understanding/Explanation. This is the process of analyzing

information to find out the causes behind phenomena. To
understand and explain data, a relationship between
events must already be established; one should cause the
effect to the other; and other explanations of causality
between them must be ruled out.
Importance of research:

1. Knowledge is established.

2. Perceptions are corrected.

3. Phenomena are validated.

4. Present solutions are tested for effectivity.

5. Problems are solved.

QUANTITATIVE
RESEARCH
According to Aliaga and Gunderson (2000),
quantitative research is “explaining phenomena
by collecting numerical data that are analyzed
using mathematically based methods
(particularly statistics).” This type of research
utilizes numbers and statistical analysis. It is ideal in
studying phenomenon which must contend with
the problems of measurement.
Quantitative research is the traditional, positivist
scientific method which refers to a general set of
orderly, disciplined procedures to acquire
information. It utilizes deductive reasoning to
generate predictions that are tested in the real
world. It is systematic since the researcher
progresses logically through series of steps and
according to a pre-specified plan of action.
CHARACTERISTICS OF QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH
1. It is reliable.
2. It uses statistics to generalize a finding.
3. It reduces and restructures a complex
problem to a limited number of variables.
4. It looks at the connections between
variables and establishes cause and effect
relationships in highly controlled
circumstances.
5. It tests theories and hypotheses.
6. It assumes that the sample is representative
of the population.
7. The subjectivity of its methodology is a
secondary concern.
8. It deals with the details of the subject.
 ADVANTAGES OF QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH
1. It allows the researcher to measure and analyze
the data to arrive at an objective answer to the
problem posed or stated.
2. The result is reliable since the study uses a big
sample of the population.
3. Standards are usually used in choosing the
instruments, in sampling procedures, and in
choosing the most appropriate statistical
treatment, thus, making the research replicable.
4. Personal biases can be avoided since personal
interaction is not part of the research process.
5. Processes involved are simplified since the steps in
doing quantitative research are made easy and
systematic.
6. Results can be reduced through statistical
treatments and interpreted in a few statements.
 DISADVANTAGES OF QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH
1. The context of the study or the experiment is ignored in
such a way that it does not consider the natural setting
where the study is conducted.
2. Having a large study sample requires researchers to
spend more resources.
3. Results are limited since they are usually based on the
analysis of numbers and are not obtained from detailed
narratives.
4. It provides less elaborate on accounts of human
perceptions.
5. In experimental research, the level of control might not
be normally placed in the real world because it is usually
done in a laboratory.
6. Preset or fixed alternative answers may not necessarily
reflect the true answers of the participants
7. Findings can be influenced by the researcher’s
perspective since most of the time, the participants are
unknown to him/her.
 IMPORTANCE OF QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH
1. In education, it can be used in measuring the
level of performance of students and teachers,
and in assessing the effectiveness of the
methods and the different programs
conducted.
2. In business, it can improve the overall
marketing strategy, and help the company
make informed decisions on how to be best
move forward with a particular product or
services.
3. In science and technology, it can lead to a
more responsible and accountable operation
of the different components of technology.
THANK YOU!
End of Chapter 1