Types of descriptive research methods
What is Descriptive Research - voxco
When you are a store manager in a convenience store and you have to make report, any finding such as which product is selling most, what time of the day you have the most crowd, or which product customers are demanding most, all these observations and reporting is descriptive research.
It is often the first step of any research since the data you gather sets the stage for the research question. It is used to determine the problem that you want to explore before you have fully realized the problem. The information helps you identify the problem.
In this blog, we have discussed the characteristics, types, pros & cons, and three ways to conduct this research type to help you in your next market research.
What is descriptive research?
Descriptive research refers to the methods that describe the characteristics of the variables under study. This methodology focuses on answering questions relating to the “what” than the “why” of the research subject. The primary focus of this research is to simply describe the nature of the demographics understudy instead of focusing on the “why”.
It is called an observational research method as none of the variables in the study are influenced during the process of the research.
For example, let’s assume that a UK-based brand is trying to establish itself in New York and wants to understand the demographics of the buyers who generally purchase from brands similar to it.
In descriptive research, the information gathered from the survey will be focused on the
demographics of the population only. It will uncover details on the buying patterns of different age cohorts in New York. It will not study why such patterns exist, because the brand is trying to establish itself in New York.
All that they want to understand is the buying behavior of the population, and not why such associations exist. It is a part of quantitative market research or social research study which involves conducting survey research using quantitative variables on a market research tool or social research tool.
What are the characteristics of descriptive research?
Among the many, the following are the main characteristics of this research type:
- Quantitative research
- Nature of variables
- Cross-sectional studies
- Directs future research
Let’s discuss these four characteristics in detail.
1. Quantitative research:
It is quantitative in nature as it attempts to collect information and statistically analyze it. This research type is a powerful research tool that permits a researcher to collect data and describe the demographics of the same with the help of statistical analysis. Thus, it is a quantitative research method.
2. Nature of variables:
The variables included in this research are uncontrolled. They are not manipulated in any way. Descriptive research mostly uses observational methods and thus the researcher cannot control the nature and the behavior of the variables under study.
3. Cross-sectional studies:
In this research type, different sections of the same group are studied. For instance, in order to study the fashion preferences of New York, the researcher can study Gen Z as well as Millennials from the same population in New York.
4. Directs future research:
Since this research points out the patterns between variables and describes them, researchers can further study the data collected here. It guides researchers to further find out why such patterns have been found and the association between them. Hence, it gives researchers a direction toward insightful market research.
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What are the methods of conducting descriptive research?
Primarily, there are three descriptive research methods:
- Observation,
- Survey, &
- Case Study
We have explained how you can conduct this research type in three different ways.
Each of these methods helps gather descriptive data and sets the scene for thorough research.
1. Observational method
All research has some component of observation, this observation can be quantitative or qualitative. A quantitative observation includes objectively collecting data that is primarily in numerical form.
The data collected should be related to or understood in terms of quantity.
Quantitative observations are analyzed with the help of statistical survey data analysis.
Examples of quantitative observations include observation of any variable related to a numerical value such as age, shape, weight, height, scale, etc.
For example, a researcher can understand the satisfaction of a customer with their recent purchases by asking them to rate their satisfaction on a Likert scale ranging from 1 (very unsatisfied) to 7 (very satisfied).
Qualitative observations monitor the characteristics of a phenomenon and do not involve numerical measurements.
Using this type of descriptive research, you can observe respondents in a naturalistic environment from a distance. Since the respondents are in a natural environment, the observed characteristics are enriching and offer more insights.
For instance, you can monitor and note down the observations of customers in a supermarket by observing their selection and purchasing patterns. This offers a detailed cognizance of the customer.
In any kind of research, you should ensure high survey response rates for improved quality of insights.
2. Survey method
The survey method includes recording the answers of respondents through surveys or questionnaires. Surveys can include polls as well. They are the most common tool for collecting market research data.
Surveys are generally used to collect feedback from the respondents. It should have a survey that taps into both open-ended and closed-ended questions.
The biggest advantage of the survey method is that it can be conducted online or offline.
One of the reasons why the survey method is the go-to option for descriptive research is that it entails the collection of large amounts of data in a limited span of time.
3. Case study method
The in-depth study of an individual or a group is known as a case study. Case studies usually lead to the development of a hypothesis to further explore a phenomenon. Case studies are limited in their scope, in that they don’t allow the researcher to make cause-effect conclusions or accurate predictions.
This is because these associations could reflect the bias on the researchers’ part instead of a naturally occurring phenomenon. Another reason why case studies are limited in scope is that they could just be reflecting an atypical respondent in the survey.
An atypical respondent refers to someone who is different from the average consumer, and if researchers make judgments about the entire target population based on this consumer, it can affect the external validity of the study.
[Related read: Descriptive vs experimental research]
What are the types of descriptive research?
There are seven types of descriptive research based on when you conduct them and what type of data research you conduct. We have explained these seven types in brief with examples to help you better understand them.
1. Cross-sectional:
A descriptive method of studying a particular section of people at a given point in time.
Example: Tracking the use of social media by Gen Z in the Netherlands.
2. Longitudinal:
This type of descriptive study is conducted for an extended period on a group of people.
Example: Monitoring changes in the volume of cyber-bullying among Millenials from 2022 to 2024.
3. Normative:
In this descriptive method, we compare the result of a study with an existing norm.
Example: Comparing legal verdicts in similar types of cases.
4. Relational/Correlational:
We investigate the type of relationships (correlation) between two variables in this type of descriptive research.
Example: Investigating the relationship between video games and mental health.
5. Comparative:
A descriptive study that compares two or more people, groups, or conditions based on a specific aspect.
Example: Comparing the salary of two employees in similar job roles from two companies.
6. Classification:
This type of research arranges collected data into classes based on specific criteria to analyze them.
Example: Classification of customers based on their buying behavior.
7. Archival:
A descriptive study where you search for past records and extract information.
Example: Tracking company’s sales data over the decade.
We have been discussing the descriptive method with examples. So now let’s see how you can use this research type in a real-world application.
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Examples of Descriptive Research Under Market Research
This research type helps you gather the necessary information you need to understand the problem.
It sets the scene to conduct further research. But how can you use this in the real world?
We have explained its real-world application in three scenarios to help you determine where and where you want to use this research type.
1. Sales Studies
You can use this research type to analyze the potential of the market; what is currently trending in the market, and which products have a chance of performing well in terms of sales. You can also study what circumstances influence the market shares, and when are they likely to increase or decrease.
This research type can help you gather the demographics of the people purchasing products; what are their age group, gender, and socioeconomic background of the consumers.
2. Consumer Perception and Behavior Studies
You can use this research method to analyze what consumers think about the brand, their perceptions about the products being sold by a particular brand, and the uses of other competitive products.
Using descriptive research you can also analyze what advertising strategies have worked to increase the positive perceptions of the brand. You can assess consumers’ consumption behavior and how it is influenced by product pricing.
3. Market Characteristics Studies
Another way in which you can use this research method is by analyzing the distribution of the products in the market. You can gather contextual data on questions such as “which countries have more sales”, “which countries have fewer products but the product is sold out quickly” , etc.
You can also analyze the brand management of competitors; what strategy is working for them and what is not.
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What are the applications of descriptive research?
This research method is used for a variety of reasons. Even after outlining survey goals, and survey designs as well as collecting information through surveys, there is no way of knowing whether or not the research you are conducting will meet the predictions that you have made.
Here are some popular ways in which organizations use this research type:
1. Defining the characteristics of respondents
Since most descriptive research methods use close-ended questions for the collection of data, it helps in drawing objective conclusions about the respondents.
It helps in deriving patterns, traits, and behaviors of respondents. It also aims to understand the attitudes and opinions that respondents hold about certain phenomena.
For instance, researchers can understand how many hours young adults spend on the internet, their opinions about social media platforms, and how important they consider these platforms to be. All of this information will help the company to make informed decisions regarding its products and brands.
2. Analyzing trends in data
With the help of statistical analysis that is provided by this research method, you can understand the trends in data over time.
For instance, consider an apparel company that drops a new line of clothing, they may research how Gen Z and Millennials are reacting to the new launch.
If they find out that the new range of clothes has worked effectively for one group (Gen Z) but not for the other, the company may stop producing clothes for the other group.
To analyze trends in real-time, you should set up live dashboards that capture the information efficiently.
Voxco’s Visual Analytics Dashboards provide insights that aid decision-making
3. Comparing different groups
Something closely knit to the previous point is also comparing different groups of customers based on their demographics. With descriptive research, you can study how different groups of people respond to specific services offered by a company.
For instance, what is the influence of income, age, gender, income, etc. influence the spending behaviors of consumers?
This kind of research method helps companies to understand what they should do to increase their brand appeal in different groups of the population.
4. Validating existing patterns of respondents
Since it is non-invasive and makes use of quantitative data (mostly), you can make observations about why the current patterns of purchasing exist in customers.
You can also use the findings to be the basis of a more in-depth study in the future.
5. Conducting research at different times
Descriptive research can be conducted at different periods of time in order to see whether the patterns are similar or dissimilar at different points in time. You can also replicate the studies to verify the findings of the original study in order to draw accurate conclusions.
6. Finding correlations among variables
This method is also used to draw correlations between variables and the degree of association between the variables.
For instance, if the focus is on the age of men and their expenditure.
There is a possibility of finding a negative correlation between the two variables, indicating that as the age of men increases, the less they spend on sports products.
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Descriptive research Examples
A descriptive method of research aims to gather answers for how what, when, and where.
Let’s use some examples to understand how a descriptive method of research is used.
# Example 1
Before investing in housing at any location, you would want to conduct your own research to understand
- How is the market changing?
- When or at what time of year is it changing?
- Where would you make more profit?
This type of research is an example of a descriptive study.
# Example 2
A company studies the behavior of its customers to identify its target market before it launches a new product. This is another example of how brand’s use descriptive research.
The company may conduct this research by observing the customer’s reaction and behavior toward a competitor’s product.
Or, they can also conduct surveys to ask customer opinions on the new product by the company before its launch.
# Example 3
A restaurant planning to open a branch in a new locality will research to understand the behavior of the people living there.
They will survey the people to know about their choice is flavor, taste, foods, drinks, and more.
Now that we have seen how you can use this research method for your research purpose, let’s also learn about the advantages and disadvantages of the research.
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What Are the Advantages of Descriptive Research?
It is the preliminary research method. Most researchers use this method to discover the problem they should prioritize. Let’s see some of the reasons why you should be conducting this research before diving into the experiments.
1. Primary data collection
In this research, the data is collected through primary data collection methods such as case studies, observational methods, and surveys. This kind of data collection provides us with rich information and can be used for future research as well. It can also be used for developing hypotheses or your research objective.
2.
Multiple data collectionDescriptive research can also be conducted by collecting qualitative or quantitative data. Hence, it is more varied, flexible, and diverse and it also tends to be thorough and elaborate.
[Related read: Data Collection: All you need to know!]
3. Observational behavior
The observational method of this research, allows researchers to observe the respondent’s behavior in natural settings. This also ensures that the data collected is high in quality and honest.
4. Cost-effective
It is cost-effective and the data collection of this research can be done quickly.
Wondering what will be the cost of conducting survey research using Voxco?
What Are the Disadvantages of Descriptive Research?
Descriptive research also has some disadvantages. Let’s learn about these cons so you can wisely decide when you should use this research in order to keep the disadvantages to a minimum.
1. Misleading information
Respondents can give misleading or incorrect responses if they feel that the questions are assessing intimate matters.
Respondents can also be affected by the presence of the observer and may engage in pretending. This is known as the observer effect.
2. Biases in studies
The researchers’ own opinions of biases may affect the results of the study. This is known as the experimenter effect.
3. Representative issue
There is also the problem of representativeness, a case study or the data of a small sample does not adequately represent the whole population.
4. Limited scope
Descriptive research has limited scope, wherein it only analyzes the “what” of research, it does not evaluate the “why” or “how” questions of research.
Wrapping up;
So that sums up our descriptive research guide. It is a wide concept that demands a conceptual framework for descriptive design, and a thorough understanding of descriptive survey design.
Naturally, it becomes essential that you adopt a tool that facilitates all of the above and provides ample room for insightful research.
The 3 Descriptive Research Methods of Psychology
Descriptive research methods are used to define the who, what, and where of human behavior and other psychological phenomena.
Psychologists and researchers use a myriad of tools when studying human and animal behavior.
Descriptive research methods in psychology are designed to scientifically describe or explain what happens to whom and where, as opposed to how or why it happens.
This type of research is often conducted in a natural setting and may be the precursor to other types of scientific research that delves deeper into a phenomenon. The goal, according to a 2016 paper, is finding the “ultimate truth.”
There are three main methods used in descriptive research, each with their own strengths and weaknesses.
Descriptive research methods are scientific tools used by researchers and psychologists for gathering information and describing the specifics of behaviors, patterns, and other phenomena.
These methods focus on the who, what, and where, versus the why or how.
In psychology, descriptive research is used often to define certain behaviors or traits that are observed. Because descriptive research is typically concerned with the “raw truth,” it is often conducted as naturally as possible without introducing any manipulation or variables.
Descriptive research may be an initial step before the other two types of psychological research are conducted:
- Correlational research: examines two variables at once, and may be used to identify patterns of relationships
- Experimental research: determines cause and effect by exposing one group to a particular variable, while another is not exposed to the variable
Descriptive research does not typically rely on a hypothesis and may be more flexible than the other types of psychological research. This type of research can act as a springboard for further exploration by allowing scientists to gather information needed to form a hypothesis.
That hypothesis could then serve as the basis for a correlational study or a formal experiment.
There are three methods scientists use to obtain descriptive research:
- observation
- case studies
- surveys
Each method comes with strengths and weaknesses. Scientists may opt for one method over another depending on the type of information they need and from whom.
The observational method refers to scientists watching the behavior of animals or humans in a natural setting. Researchers may use the data to pinpoint trends or patterns that might warrant further exploration.
The goal of the observational method is to provide an unbiased “snapshot” of a particular population at a particular time, according to a 2020 research review rating the efficacy of different descriptive research methods.
However, this method must be conducted carefully to garner accurate results. If the subjects being observed are aware someone is watching them, they might become uncomfortable and change their behavior.
This is sometimes called “the Hawthorne effect.”
Yet, there are some ways a researcher may be able to mitigate the Hawthorne effect, such as trying to blend in so well that the observers do not notice the researchers, or telling the participant they are observing something different from what they’re actually looking at.
Additionally, researchers may also transmit bias to those they observe, resulting in the participants adjusting their behavior to the bias.
For these reasons, the observational method may be more accurate for scientists studying animal behavior, rather than human.
Case studies typically focus on an individual or small group of people and can provide a wealth of information about something very specific in its natural setting.
The goal of this research method is to provide detailed information about a contained phenomenon in a natural environment. For example, a person or small group of people with a rare disease or trait might be observed by a researcher to produce data on that specific disease or trait.
This precision can pose benefits and risks to case studies.
Participants may be less likely to drop out or refuse to follow up with researchers in this type of research format, which can increase the accuracy of case study findings.
And despite the ability case studies have to collect a lot of information about something particular, scientists and researchers may still be unable to generalize their findings to the greater population. Thus, a case study may not be representative, which can make findings unreliable beyond the case study’s specific scope.
One challenge of the case study is that the definition of this descriptive research method can vary widely among scientists, across and even within disciplines. Yet, some scientists suggest that case studies can and should be used more broadly, as one 2020 paper argues.
When a broad sample size is needed to assess specific information, a researcher’s best tool may be a survey. The goal of a survey is to gain insight into a particular behavior among a large group of people.
Survey research involves participants responding to researchers’ questions through questionnaires, virtually or in person. Surveys can assess a broader variety of people in their sample than a case study, but cannot provide the same depth of information.
As a descriptive research method, surveys can have similar inaccuracies to observation. Participants may change their answers out of concern or fear for how they could be perceived.
Virtual versus in-person surveys
Online surveys may be more accurate because participants are not answering questions face-to-face with an interviewer. However, because no interviewer is present, answers cannot be discussed beyond what is provided.
Online surveys may also have lower response rates. In-person interviews might provide better response rates, but are often more expensive to produce. Phone interviews may be faster and cheaper, but are commonly less in-depth and risk participants dropping out.
Descriptive research methods can be crucial for psychological researchers to establish and describe the natural details of a particular phenomenon.
There are three major methods of descriptive research:
- observation
- case studies
- surveys
These research methods are not based on a hypothesis, but rather serve as a means for gathering data before diving deeper into other types of scientific research. Descriptive research is often the first step in forming a hypothesis or answering a question.
Each method of descriptive research has risks and benefits, including the possibility of bias, often as a result of participants adjusting their behavior as a consequence of being watched.
Without descriptive research, it may be virtually impossible to reach the stage of scientific experimentation where cause and effect are determined, or to prove correlation among a specific set of variables.
Descriptive research: identifying respondents and drawing conclusions
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What is descriptive research?
It is evidence based, not exploratory in nature.
This means that descriptive research collects quantifiable information that can be used to make statistical inferences about your target audience through data analysis. As a consequence, this type of research takes the form of closed questions, which limits its ability to discover unique results. However, when used correctly, it can help an organization better define and measure the significance of something for a group of respondents and the population it represents.
When it comes to online surveys, descriptive research is becoming the most commonly used form. Most often, organizations use it as a method to identify and measure the strength of the opinion, attitude or behavior of the target group in relation to a particular subject. But another common use of descriptive research is to study the demographics (age, income, marital status, gender, etc.) of a particular group. This information can then be explored as is, by examining trends over time, or for more sophisticated data analysis such as correlation, segmentation, benchmarking, and other statistical techniques.
How can descriptive research be used effectively?
The trick to doing any research is to get only valuable information. In the case of online surveys, the data collected should enable you to take action on a specific problem or opportunity your organization is facing. That's why it's important to set research goals before you start designing your survey. Research objectives define exactly what you want to discover in order to make informed decisions about the issues facing your organization. Let's say a website wants to collect visitor reviews. For this purpose, research can be divided based on different aspects of the site such as navigation, information quality, and aesthetics. With properly defined research objectives, you will be able to create a questionnaire whose results will give you a clear direction for action.
The next step to effective descriptive research is ensuring that your results are accurate. This stems from a restrictive bias in your survey design and research method.
In sample surveys, errors are unrecoverable. However, it is important to control the margin of error and confidence level by properly setting the sample size for the survey.
Do you need an audience for descriptive research? Find out how SurveyMonkey Audience can help you get the right contact base for your survey.
3 ways to do descriptive research for the benefit of your organization
The ways in which descriptive research can be used are virtually endless. We already know that setting research goals by the time we start designing a survey is critical, but how do we know that our research design can provide useful information? To understand where your research goals should lead, let's look at three of the most common uses for descriptive research these days:
1. Determining the characteristics of your respondents
All closed questions aim to better define some characteristic of your respondents. This could include insights into characteristics or behaviors, such as asking them to indicate their age group, or to indicate how many hours respondents spend online each week.
They can also be used to ask respondents about opinions or attitudes, such as how satisfied they are with products or how much they agree with some political platform.
In fact, all this information can be used to make better decisions. For example, if a store finds that the majority of its customers browse the web before visiting the store, it will be possible to understand where to direct their promotional efforts.
2. Measuring Trends in Data
The statistical power of descriptive research makes it possible to measure trends over time. Consider a survey that asks customers to rate their satisfaction with a hotel on a scale from 0 to 10. The resulting value in itself is pretty random. What does an average score of 8.3 mean? However, if the hotel management makes some improvements to better meet the needs of its customers, it will be possible to conduct the same survey again later and see if the new average score has increased or decreased. This will effectively measure progress made in customer satisfaction over time and measure the impact of new initiatives and processes.
3. Comparison of groups and problems
Descriptive studies are also used to make comparisons between groups of respondents. For example, a shampoo company conducts a survey by asking the general public a few questions that find out attitudes towards products, advertising, and the company's image. In the same survey, different demographic questions can be asked, such as age, gender, income, and so on.
The company can then analyze the data to compare different groups of people and their attitudes. For example, it will be possible to statistically determine the difference in opinions for different sexes and age groups. Perhaps a statistically low opinion of the company's image among young adult males will be found. This may require the creation of a new line of products aimed at satisfying this group.
If your research goals fall into one of these three categories, you are on the right track. Now all you have to do is decide how the collected data will help your organization take action on a particular issue or opportunity.
Remember, conducting a successful survey is only half the battle. It is what you do with the information you collect that creates value for your research project!
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Descriptive research and characteristics / science | Thpanorama
descriptive research or descriptive research method is a procedure used in science to describe the characteristics of a phenomenon, subject or population under study. Unlike the analytical method, it does not describe why a phenomenon occurs, but simply observes what happens without looking for an explanation..
Along with comparative and experimental studies, this is one of the three research models used in the field of science. This type of research does not involve the use of hypotheses or predictions, but the search for characteristics of the phenomenon under study that are of interest to the researcher.
He also does not answer questions about why, how or when this phenomenon occurs. Instead, it is limited to answering the question "what is a phenomenon and what are its properties?".
index
- 1 When is it used??
- 2 Differences between the descriptive and analytical method
- 3 of the descriptive study
- 3.1 Observation method
- 3.2 Testament Studies
- 3.3 Polls
- 4 Characteristics
when is it used?
This research model is used when there is little information about the phenomenon. For this reason, descriptive research is usually a preliminary work for descriptive research, since knowledge of the properties of a given phenomenon allows one to explain other related issues..
This is a type of research that is used to examine phenomena or objects qualitatively before doing so quantitatively. The researchers who use it are usually sociologists, anthropologists, psychologists, educators, biologists.
.. Examples:
- A biologist who observes and describes the behavior of a pack of wolves.
- A psychologist who observes and describes the behavior of a group of people.
In general, this model is used to classify the population into so-called "descriptive categories". This type of research is usually done before any type of analytical research, as creating different categories helps scientists better understand the phenomenon they are supposed to be studying.
In general, the descriptive method was created in the framework of the so-called qualitative research. In this type of research, the most important thing is to deeply understand the population being studied, and not to discover various causal relationships (as opposed to what happens in quantitative research). such as a survey.
Differences between descriptive and analytical methods
The main difference between these two styles of research is that descriptive research only attempts to understand the phenomenon being studied, not trying to explain why it occurs.
On the contrary, analytical studies are aimed at understanding the variables that cause the phenomenon.
Research methods are completely different in descriptive and analytical research. Although there are several ways to conduct each of the two types of research, we can say that in analytical research, the researcher tries to somehow influence what he observes. On the contrary, in descriptive studies it is only limited.
Types of descriptive research
Essentially, we can find three ways of doing descriptive research:
- Observational method
- Case study
- types of interviews
Each of these ways of doing descriptive research is shown. For example, surveys are very useful to learn more about different human behavior, while observation is the preferred method to study different animal populations..
Next, we will talk in detail about each of the three methods.
Observational method
This type of descriptive research is also known as naturalistic observation.
It is mainly used to observe various events that occur naturally in the life of animals or people.
Naturalistic observation is widely used by biologists and ethologists who study animal behavior in order to understand different species. One of the most famous researchers specializing in this method is Dr. Jane Goodall.
Goodall has been observing the chimpanzee community in their natural habitat in Tanzania for over 50 years. His job was to integrate himself into the everyday life of the monkeys in such a way that he could observe phenomena hitherto unknown in his way of life.
Some of the discoveries of his research allowed the science of animal behavior to advance significantly. For example, this researcher found that chimpanzees are able to use tools that until recently were considered exclusively human abilities..
When it comes to working with people, the most relevant research is being done by developmental psychologists. These researchers observe children in their natural environment (for example, in a playroom with their parents present).
Thanks to the observations made by these psychologists, today we know much more about how the intellectual and emotional development of children takes place. It also allows us to more effectively intervene in issues that arise in adulthood..
One of the most important measures of an observational method is "intergovernmental reliability". In essence, this means that the results of an observational study must be reproduced by another scientist who is engaged in the observation of the same phenomena. Indirect observation occurs when a researcher studies a phenomenon from written or audiovisual recordings: documents, books, photographs, videos, etc.
This method has limitations as the records of the phenomenon may not be as abundant as the researcher would like. , which took place in the past and no longer exists in the present. In this sense, the researcher does not depend on secondary sources, but can himself observe the object of research.
Whenever possible, researchers prefer to use direct observation as they rely more on data from their own experience.
When using this type of instrument, care must be taken to ensure that the mere presence of an observer does not change the behavior of the phenomenon. If this happens, the data will not be valid.
Case study
This type of observational study is based on the study of an individual or a small group of them. In this case, we examine in detail the different experiences and behaviors of the subjects of the study..
Depending on the phenomenon you want to learn more about, case studies can be done with normal people or with people with a specific type of problem. These latter case studies tend to be more interesting as they allow us to better understand the differences between normal people and people with some type of disorder.
the person as a whole. This method was preferred by Sigmun Freud, one of the first and most famous psychologists in history.
Probably one of the most famous and most striking examples is that of Phineas Gage, a 19th century worker who had a work accident that caused severe brain damage.
His skull was completely cut through with a metal rod, resulting in very serious frontal wounds. The researchers described this as "their animal impulses were stronger than their rationality".
This case helped the neuroscientist discover the role of the frontal lobe in moderating instincts. Surveys are a series of standardized questions that are asked to a group of people: in person, by phone, in writing, or over the Internet. Thus, a certain number of participants are selected, which should be representative of the entire population relevant to the researcher..
For example, in the field of psychology, surveys help to better understand the prevalence of certain phenomena, such as mental disorders, homosexuality, or certain personality traits.
However, as with all types of research in which participants are aware of their role, surveys have a problem: you cannot guarantee that the answers are correct. Thus, the results obtained using this research method must be compared with other more reliable ones.
traits
- Information provided by a descriptive study must be true, accurate and systematic.
- Avoid drawing conclusions about this phenomenon. What matters are observable and verifiable characteristics.
- Descriptive work focuses on "what?" So what?". Other questions (how, when, and why) are of no interest to this type of research. The main questions of this type of research are: “what is a phenomenon?” And "what are its characteristics?".
- The research question must be original and creative. It does not make sense to conduct a descriptive study on a subject that has already been explored from every possible angle.
- Data collection methods used: observation, survey and case studies. Observations usually produce qualitative data, while surveys usually produce quantitative data.
- Descriptive study does not include variables. This means that it does not depend on factors or conditions that may change the results obtained.
.0003
- Since there are no variables, the researcher cannot control the phenomenon under study. Simply limited to collecting information provided by data collection tools.
- It is not enough to present the characteristics of the phenomenon that have been obtained by data collection methods. It is also necessary that they be organized and analyzed in the light of an appropriate theoretical framework that will serve as the basis for the research.
- In descriptive research, no comparison is made between the phenomenon being studied and other phenomena. This is the subject of a comparative study.
- You can establish relationships between received data in order to classify them into categories (so-called descriptive categories). However, these relationships cannot be cause and effect, as it would be impossible to obtain this type of information because there are no variables.
references
- Descriptive study. Retrieved September 21, 2017 from wikipedia.
