Descriptive Research with example || NET EXAM 2020

Descriptive Research

Also Known as Statistical research

Describe data and characteristics about the population or phenomenon

The Questions who, what, where, why, when and how.

The researcher cannot manipulate the variable under study.

Examples of Descriptive Research

Market researchers that want to observe habits of consumers.

A company that wants to evaluate the morale of its staff.

A school district that wants to understand if students will access online lessons rather than textbooks.

An organization to understand if its wellness programs increase the overall health of the employees

Advantages of Descriptive Research

1.Data collection:

Descriptive research can be conducted by using specific methods

like observational method, case study method and survey method.

This can be used for future research or even developing

hypothesis of your research object.

2. Natural environment: Descriptive research 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.

3. Quick to conduct and cheap: As the sample size is generally large in descriptive research, the data collection is quick to conduct and is cheap.

4. Forms basis for decision-making: As the data collected in descriptive research represents a larger population and is robust, it is easy to make decisions on the basis of the statistical analysis of that data.

5. Varied: Since the data collected is both qualitative and Quantitative , it gives a holistic understanding of a research topic.

Descriptive Research Methods

1. Observational Method

The observational method is the most effective method to conduct descriptive research and both quantitative observation and qualitative observation are used in this research method.

vQuantitative observation is the objective collection of data which is primarily focused on numbers and values.

vQualitative observation doesn’t involve measurements or numbers but instead just monitoring characteristics.

2. Case Study Method

Case studies involve in-depth research and study of individuals or groups. Case studies lead to a hypothesis and widen a further scope of studying a phenomenon. The other reason why case studies are not an accurate way of conducting descriptive research is because there could be an a typical respondent in the research and describing them leads to poor generalizations and move away from external validity.

3. Survey Research

In survey Research, respondents answer through surveys or questionnaires, or polls. They are a popular market research tool to collect feedback from respondents. In order for a survey to gather good quality data, it should have good survey questions, which should be a balanced mix of open-ended questions and close-ended questions.