METHODS OF RESEARCH

Chapter I.
Introduction
A. Definition of Research
Research in simplified terms means searching for the facts searching for the replies to the
various queries and also for the solutions to the various problems. Research is an inquiry or an
investigation with a specific purpose to fulfill, it helps in clearing the various doubtful concepts
and tries to solve or explain the various unexplained procedures or phenomenon.

According to the encyclopedia of social science, research can be explained as the manipulation
of generalizing to extend, connect or verify knowledge.

Research is finding out what you don't know. No one knows everything, but everybody knows
something. However, to complicate matters, often what you know, or think you know, is
incorrect.

B. Purposes of Research

There are two basic purposes for research: to learn something, or to gather evidence. What
you've learned is the source of the background information you use to communicate with others.
In any conversation you talk about the things you know, the things you've learned. If you know
nothing about the subject under discussion, you can neither contribute nor understand it.
Research promotes understanding of matters that most people are either not familiar with or
dont fully comprehend. When reading a study, one seeks the knowledge that allows us to learn
something new about the topic were interested in. Some studies are conducted purely for the
purpose of gaining knowledge, but others aim to apply it in the real world.
Three Purposes of Research

Explorationmay just point the way (not generalizable)

Descriptionwhat, where, when, how

Explanation--why

C. Characteristics of research
1. Research is based on the scientific method.
2. Helps in answering various pertinent questions.
3. It is an organized, planned and patient investigation or a critical enquiry.
4. It has logical roots, helping to establish facts or principles.

Reliability. Reliability is a subjective term which can not be measured precisely but today there
are instruments which can estimate the reliability of any research. Reliability is the repeatability
of any research, research instrument, tool or procedure.

Validity is the strength with which we can call a research conclusions, assumptions or
propositions true or false. Validity determines the applicability of research . Validity of the
research instrument can be defined as the suitability of the research instrument to the research
problem or how accurately the instrument measures the problem.
Accuracy is also the degree to which each research process, instrument and tool is related to
each other. Accuracy also measures whether research tools have been selected in best possible
manner and research procedures suits the research problem or not.

Credibility comes with the use of best source of information and best procedures in research. If
you are using second-hand information in your research due to any reason your research might
complete in less time but its credibility will be at stake because secondary data has been
manipulated by human beings and is therefore not very valid to use in research.

Generalizability is the extent to which a research findings can be applied to larger population.
When a researcher conducts a study he/she chooses a target population and from this population
he takes a small sample to conduct the research. This sample is representative of the whole
population so the findings should also be. If research findings can be applied to any sample from
the population, the results of the research are said to be generalizable.

Empirical nature of research means that the research has been conducted following rigorous
scientific methods and procedures. Each step in the research has been tested for accuracy and is
based on real life experiences.

Systematic approach is the only approach for research. No research can be conducted
haphazardly. Each step must follow other.

Controlled-in real life experience there are many factors that effect an outcome. A single event
is often result of several factors. When similar event is tested in research, due to the broader
nature of factors that effect that event, some factors are taken as controlled factors while others
are tested for possible effect.

D. Difference between Research and Problem Solving

In Problem Solving, you have all the information needed and figure something about
your information.

In Research, you will gather data that people already gathered or somebody knows
about that topic.

E. Kinds and Classification of Research

According to Purpose:
a. Predictive or Prognostic it has the purpose to determine the future operation of the
variables under investigation with the aim of controlling or redirecting such for the better.
b. Directive it determines what should be done based on the findings.
c. Illuminative it is concerned with the interaction of the components of the variable
being investigated.
According to goal
a. Basic or Pure it is done for the development of theories and principles. It is
conducted for intellectual pleasure of learning.
b. Applied the application of pure research. This is testing the efficiency of theories
and principles.
According to the levels of investigation
a. Exploratory the researcher studies the variables pertinent to a specific situation.
b. Descriptive the researcher studies the relationships of the variables.
c. Experimental the researcher studies the effects of the variables on each other.
According to the type of Analysis
a. Analytic Approach the researcher attempts to identify and isolate the components of
the research situation.
 b. Holistic Approach this begins with the total situation, focusing attention on the
system first and on its internal relationships
According to scope
This involves the application of the steps of the scientific method in the classroom
problems. This type of research is done on a very limited scope to solve a particular
problem which is not so big.
According to choice of answers to problems
a. Evaluation research All possible courses of action are specified and identified and
the researcher.
b. Developmental research the focus is on finding or developing a more suitable
instrument or process than has been available
According to statistical content
a. Quantitative or Statistical Research is one in which inferential statistics are
utilized to determine the results of the study.
b. Non-quantitative Research this is research in which the use of the quantity or
statistics is practically not utilize.
According to time element
a. Historical research describes what was.
b. Descriptive research describes what is.
c. Experimental research describes what will be.

F. SOME HINDRANCES TO SCIENTIFIC INQUIRY

1. Tradition. This is accepting superstitions are true and part of our daily lives. Even it is not
true, we are always apply this in our lives without applying a scientific investigation.

2. Authority. This is accepting anything without a question, the opinion which the person has a
big name to the authority w/o using any scientific investigation if it's true.

3. Inaccurate Observation. This is describing wrongly what is observed. For example, four
people are outside the hotel, wearing short skirts and pants. Some people will say they have no
manners. The fact is that they are attending a party.

4. Overgeneralization. This is establishing a pattern out of a few instances.

5. Selective Observation. This is persisting to believe an observed pattern from

overgeneralization and ignoring others.

6. Made-up Information. This is making up information to explain away confusion.

7. Illogical Reasoning. This is attributing something to another w/o any logical basis.

8. Ego involvement in understanding. This is giving an explanation when one finds himself an
unfavorable situation.

9. Mystification. This is attributing to supernatural power, the phenomena that cannot be

understood. This is accepting that there are things that are beyond our intelligence, like spirits,
ghosts, or something that people think that are out of this world.

10. To err is human. This is an attitude that admits the fallibility of man. When he made a
mistake, he will not study why he had committed this, and how he will correct it and make some
effort to avoid this mistake again.
 11. Dogmatism. This is an addition. This is an unwritten policy of certain institutions and
governments prohibiting the study of topics that are believed to run counter to the established
laws.

G. The Scientific Method of research

The scientific method has four steps:

1. Observation and description of a phenomenon or group of phenomena.

2. Formulation of an hypothesis to explain the phenomena. In physics, the hypothesis often takes
the form of a causal mechanism or a mathematical relation.
3. Use of the hypothesis to predict the existence of other phenomena, or to predict quantitatively
the results of new observations.
4. Performance of experimental tests of the predictions by several independent experimenters
and properly performed experiments.

If the experiments bear out the hypothesis it may come to be regarded as a theory or law of
nature (more on the concepts of hypothesis, model, theory and law below). If the experiments do
not bear out the hypothesis, it must be rejected or modified. What is key in the description of the
scientific method just given is the predictive power (the ability to get more out of the theory than
you put in; see Barrow, 1991) of the hypothesis or theory, as tested by experiment. It is often said
in science that theories can never be proved, only disproved. There is always the possibility that
a new observation or a new experiment will conflict with a long-standing theory.

Principles of the Scientific Method

Definition is also open to a serious objection. It presents science as static, whereas it is intensely
dynamic. The most important attribute of science is not knowledge, but its capacity for
acquisition of knowledge. Knowledge which science contains is limited, frequently fragmentary
and inaccurate, always liable to revision. The capacity of science to acquire knowledge is
infinite.
A very different conception of science is presented by J. G. Crowther's definition. According to
this, Science is a system of behavior by which man acquires mastery of his environment". This
definition does emphasize the dynamic aspect of science. But it is open to objection that it is at
once far too wide and far too narrow. It is wide enough to include the behavior of peasants
beating out a forest fire within the realms of scientific activity, which is certainly not Mr.
Crowther's intention, and it is narrow enough to relegate the theoretical work of Democritus and
the experimental work on electrostatics of Gilbert and of Dufay to a level below the performance
of a competent designer- draughtsman.
Thus it may be seen that an adequate definition of science is not only necessary, but also difficult
to frame. A perfect definition of science is, indeed, an impossibility, since an understanding of
the nature of science, like science itself, changing with the passage of time, can only gradually
approach to truth.
An adequate definition of science must be wide enough to include all its aspects and, at the same
time, rigid enough to exclude all that is non-scientific in reasoning, knowledge, experience and
action. It must, while excluding activities which (like the culinary art) are merely a haphazard
accumulation of empirical knowledge and practices, include not only all the pure but also all the
applied branches of science. As Joseph Needham says, there is no sharp distinction between
"pure" and "applied" science "There is really only science with long term promise of application
and science with short term promise of application. True knowledge emerges from both kinds of
science." An adequate definition of science, while excluding all practices of essentially magical
nature, must include all genuine science even in its very early stages, however elementary and
naive. It must include a yardstick by which the magnitude of scientific achievement can be
measured irrespective of the stage of development of the particular branch.

H. DESIGNING THE STUDY

Cross-sectional studies are simple in design and are aimed at finding out the prevalence of a
phenomenon, problem, attitude or issue by taking a snap-shot or cross-section of the population.
This obtains an overall picture as it stands at the time of the study. For example, a cross-
sectional design would be used to assess demographic characteristics or community attitudes.
These studies usually involve one contact with the study population and are relatively cheap to
undertake.
Pre-test/post-test studies measure the change in a situation, phenomenon, problem or attitude.
Such studies are often used to measure the efficacy of a program. These studies can be seen as a
variation of the cross-sectional design as they involve two sets of cross-sectional data collection
on the same population to determine if a change has occurred.

Retrospective studies investigate a phenomenon or issue that has occurred in the past. Such
studies most often involve secondary data collection, based upon data available from previous
studies or databases. For example, a retrospective study would be needed to examine the
relationship between levels of unemployment and street crime in NYC over the past 100 years.

Prospective studies seek to estimate the likelihood of an event or problem in the future. Thus,
these studies attempt to predict what the outcome of an event is to be. General science
experiments are often classified as prospective studies because the experimenter must wait until
the experiment runs its course in order to examine the effects. Randomized controlled trials are
always prospective studies and often involve following a cohort of individuals to determine the
relationship between various variables.

Longitudinal studies follow study subjects over a long period of time with repeated data
collection throughout. Some longitudinal studies last several months, while others can last
decades. Most are observational studies that seek to identify a correlation among various factors.
Thus, longitudinal studies do not manipulate variables and are not often able to detect causal
relationships.

Sample
Once the researcher has chosen a hypothesis to test in a study, the next step is to select a pool of
participants to be in that study. However, any research project must be able to extend the
implications of the findings beyond the participants who actually participated in the study. For
obvious reasons, it is nearly impossible for a researcher to study every person in the population
of interest. In the example that we have been using thus far, the population of interest is the
developing world." The researcher must therefore make a decision to limit the research to a
subset of that population, and this has important implications for the applicability of study
results. The researcher must put some careful forethought into exactly how and why a certain
group of individuals will be studied.

Sampling Methods
Probability Sampling refers to sampling when the chance of any given individual being
selected is known and these individuals are sampled independently of each other. This is also
known as random sampling. A researcher can simply use a random number generator to choose
participants (known as simple random sampling), or every nth individual (known as systematic
sampling) can be included. Researchers also may break their target population into strata, and
then apply these techniques within each strata to ensure that they are getting enough participants
from each strata to be able to draw conclusions. For example, if there are several ethnic
communities in one geographical area that a researcher wishes to study, that researcher might
aim to have 30 participants from each group, selected randomly from within the groups, in order
to have a good representation of all the relevant groups.

Non-Probability Sampling, or convenience sampling, refers to when researchers take whatever

individuals happen to be easiest to access as participants in a study. This is only done when the
processes the researchers are testing are assumed to be so basic and universal that they can be
generalized beyond such a narrow sample. For example, snowball sampling is an approach for
locating information-rich key informants. Using this approach, a few potential respondents are
contacted and asked whether they know of anybody with the characteristics that you are looking
for in your research. Snowball sampling is not a stand-alone tool; the tool is a way of selecting
participants and then using other tools, such as interviews or surveys.