Types Of Research Methods

What are the different types of research methods? Research is defined as a systematic study of a certain something in order to find the answers to them. Researching leads to being able to establish facts as well as to create and support conclusions. In school, we are often required to do research to help us understand the different things that are taught. This being said, many types of research methods have been introduced to us, which we can use depending on the need of the study we are conducting.

There are two main types of research methods. The first of these would be the qualitative research method. Simply put, this type of research method entails describing as things are. You will need to describe the things you find in your research. There are quite a lot of things that you can do in order to support it such as interviews, gathering observations of different people regarding a certain topic, and document reviews as well.

The second of the two main types of research methods is quantitative. As the name implies, this type of research method implies measuring things and numerical descriptions. From the root word quantity, this type of research methods entails getting data that are measurable such as statistics, percentages, graphs, and the like.

From these two main types of research methods there are more research methods that can be derived. First would be the correlational/regression analyses. This is a type of quantitative research method wherein two or more variables are being compared. The main goal of this research method is to determine the strength of their relationship. If you want to be sure that the research method is correlational, look for keywords such as “more or less”, “related to”, “associated with”, and the like.

Quasi-experimental research method is one of the derivative types of research methods that entail comparing a group of data to another. It is more like a combination of the two main types of research methods as the goal is to be able to get results that are both meaningful and statistically substantial to the study you are conducting.

The third method you can derive from these two types of research methods is experimental. This is basically using random assignment to experiment with the different data that you need to collect. For instance, you can use the experimental method to get certain situation outcomes when you implement a procedure that you are researching. If you are unsure how to tell when a research method is experimental, you can look for the keywords “causes”, or “effects to”, or “leads to”.

You see, researching is a very important part of any study. Whether you are looking to implement a new software program to your office or maybe you are trying to see the feasibility of a certain business procedure, you will need to conduct a research that will effectively give you the accurate data that you will need to support your conclusions. This is why it is important that you know the many different types of research methods as they will give you a pretty good idea of which ones to use at a certain scenario.