Back to: Paper 2 Unit 6: Research in Education (शिक्षा में अनुसंधान)
Lesson 2.3
Descriptive Research (वर्णनात्मक अनुसंधान)
- After exploration the next step is descriptive research, defined as attempts to explore and explain while providing additional information about a topic.
- This is where research is trying to describe what is happening in more detail, filling in the missing parts and expanding our understanding.
- This is also where as much information is collected as possible instead of making guesses or elaborate models to predict the future – the ‘what‘ and ‘how’ rather than the ‘why.’
- It defines the research aspects.
- Descriptive research in contrast with exploratory research defines questions, people surveyed and the method of analysis prior to beginning of data collection.
- Such preparation allows researcher the opportunity to make any
required changes before the process of data collection has begun.
Definitions of Descriptive Research
When a particular phenomenon is under study, the research is needed to describe it, to clarify and explain its inner relationships and properties (Huczynski and Buchana, 1991).
The descriptive research will portray an accurate profile of people, events or situations (Robson, 1993).
Descriptive research should be thought of as a mean to an end rather than an end, itself (Yin, 1994).
Characteristics of Descriptive Research
- It considered conclusive in nature, due to its quantitative nature.
- It is pre planned and structured in design.
- Focus is on better defining a opinion, attitude or behavior held by a group of people on a given subject.
- This research will not give unique insight on the issues like exploratory research would, But provide statistically conclusive and inferred data.
- This allows researcher to measure the significance of your results on the overall population, as well as track the changes of your respondents’ opinion, attitudes and behaviors over time.
- Information collected through descriptive research can be
statistically inferred on a population.
Methodology used for Explanatory Research
- Observational Method
- Case Study Method
- Survey Method
Advantages of Descriptive Research
- Data collection methods used like observational method, case study method and survey method provides a lot of information.
- This can be used for future research or even developing hypothesis of your research object.
- In this collected data is both qualitative and quantitative, it gives a holistic understanding of a research topic.
- it is easy to make decisions on the basis of the statistical analysis of that data.
- It allows for the research to be conducted in the natural environment of the respondent and this ensures that high-quality and honest data is collected.
Disadvantages of Descriptive Research
- Respondents aren’t always truthful if questions are too personal or they feel that they are being “watched”. This may negate the validity of the data.
- If the research observer has a potential bias towards the research topic or some respondents in the research, the observations then maybe considered as invalid or untrue. (Halo effect + & Horn effect – )
- Sample isn’t representative–Due to the randomness of the sample.
- No scope to learn cause: Since descriptive research only focuses on the “what” of an objective or phenomenon, it does not delve into the “why” and that is a limitation in learning specific causes.