NTA (UGC) NET Notes: Research Methodology and Aptitude: Types of Reseach

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Types of Research-Definitions

  • Action research is a methodology that clubs action and research to evaluate particular questions, issues or phenomena through observation and reflection, and deliberate intervention to enhance practice.
  • Applied research is a research organise to solve practical problems rather than to attain knowledge merely for knowledge sake.
  • Basic research is experimental and theoretical work undertaken to attain new knowledge without looking for long-term benefits other than the advancement of knowledge.
  • Time is an crucial element of any research design. The most fundamental distinctions in research design nomenclature: Cross-sectional versus longitudinal studies. A cross-sectional study is one that takes place at a single point in time.In effect, we are taking a՚slice or cross-section of whatever it is we՚re observing or measuring. A longitudinal study is one that takes place over time, we have atleast two or more waves of measurement in a longitudinal design.
  • A variable is any entity that can take on different values. Anything that can vary can be considered a variable. For example, age can be considered a variable because age can take different values for different people or for the same person at different times. Similarly, country can be considered a variable because a person՚s country can be assigned a value.
  • There is a distinction between an independent and dependent variable.In fact the independent variable is what you manipulates-a treatment or program or cause. The dependent variable is what is affected by the independent variable-your effects or outcomes. For example, if you are studying the effects of a new educational program on student achievement, the program is the independent variable and your measures of achievement are the dependent ones.
  • A hypothesis or an assumption is a particular statement of prediction. It elaborates in concrete rather than theoretical terms what you expect will happen in your study. Not all studies have hypotheses. Sometimes a study is exploratory.
  • Qualitative research is research that is generally performed to get insights regarding attitudes, beliefs, motivations and behaviours of individuals to explore a social or human problem and consist methods such as focus groups, in-depth interviews, observation research and case studies.
  • Quantitative research is research concerned with the measurement of attitudes, behaviours and perceptions and consists interviewing methods such as telephone, intercept and door-to-door interviews as well as self-completion methods such as mail outs and online surveys.

Three basic types of questions that research projects:

  • Descriptive: When a study is organised for the first time to elaborate what is going on or what exists. Public opinion polls that seek only to elaborate the proportion of people who hold different opinions are primarily descriptive in nature. For example, if we want to know what percent of the population would vote for a BJP or Congress in the next election, we are just interested in elaborating something.
  • Relational: When a study is designed to look at the relationships between two or more variables. A public opinion poll that compares what proportion of males and females say they would vote for a BJP or Congress candidate in the next election is crucially studying the relationship between gender and voting preference.
  • Causal: When a study is organised to find out whether one or more variables e. g. a program or treatment variable causes or affects one or more outcome variables. If we did a public opinion poll to try to find out whether a recent political advertising campaign changed voter preferences, we would essentially be studying whether the campaign (cause) changed the proportion of voters who would vote BJP or Congress (effect) .

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