Unit 1: Basics of Research

Research is the systematic, controlled and critical investigation of a problem in order to discover, interpret or revise facts, theories or applications. The word derives from the Middle French recerche ("to go about seeking"), and the modern academic sense treats it as a repeatable process rather than casual enquiry. Everything in this unit depends on the idea that research is purposive (aimed at a stated question) and rigorous (bound by method).

Defining properties this unit relies on:

• Systematic: proceeds through defined steps — problem, hypothesis, data, analysis, conclusion — not by hunch.
• Empirical or logical basis: claims are anchored in observed evidence or in valid reasoning, not opinion.
• Controlled: confounding factors are held constant or accounted for, especially in experiments.
• Replicable: methods are documented so another investigator can repeat the study and check results.
• Objective and unbiased: conclusions follow the data; the researcher's preference is set aside.
• Cyclical: findings raise new questions, feeding the next investigation.

II. Meaning of Research

What the term denotes and how the activity is organised.

A. Definition

Research is a structured search for knowledge that moves from a question to a defensible answer.

• Standard sense: "a systematic investigation to establish facts and reach new conclusions." The two operative words are systematic (ordered method) and new (adds to what is known).
• Redman and Mory sense: research as a "systematized effort to gain new knowledge" — stresses effort applied through a system.
• Distinction from information-gathering: looking up a known fact in a reference book is not research; research addresses a question whose answer is not yet established.

B. Characteristics of research

The traits that mark an activity as genuine research rather than routine enquiry.

• Originates in a question or problem: e.g. "does fertiliser X raise wheat yield?" — a gap that existing knowledge cannot close.
• Requires a plan: design specifies sample, variables and instruments before data is collected.
• Deals with the central problem through sub-problems: a broad question is broken into manageable, researchable parts.
• Guided by a hypothesis: a tentative, testable statement (e.g. "X increases yield by ≥10%") that the study confirms or rejects.
• Accepts critical assumptions: stated conditions taken as true, whose failure would undermine the findings.
• Records and reports data: measurement is documented in defined units so results can be verified.

C. Research as a process

Research is a sequence of dependent stages, each feeding the next.

1. Identify and define the problem
2. Review of related literature
3. Formulate the hypothesis
4. Design the study (sample, method, tools)
5. Collect data
6. Analyse and interpret data
7. Draw conclusions / report findings

• Iteration: a weak result at stage 6 often sends the researcher back to stage 3 to refine the hypothesis.
• Literature review (step 2): locates the study within existing work and prevents duplication.

III. Objectives of Research

The specific purposes any single study is designed to achieve.

A. General aim

The overarching objective of all research is to discover answers to questions through the application of scientific procedures — to find hidden truth that has not yet been established.

B. Categories of research objectives

Individual studies fall into one or more of four purpose-classes.

• To gain familiarity / achieve new insights (exploratory): studies of a little-understood phenomenon, e.g. a first survey of how remote-working affects team output.
• To portray accurately the characteristics of a group or situation (descriptive): e.g. recording the age, income and literacy profile of a village. The aim is an accurate picture, not causes.
• To determine the frequency with which something occurs or its association with something else (diagnostic): e.g. how often malnutrition co-occurs with low family income.
• To test a hypothesis of a causal relationship (hypothesis-testing): e.g. testing whether a new teaching method causes higher scores, using a controlled comparison.

C. Supporting objectives

Broader ends that research collectively serves.

• Explanation: answering why a phenomenon behaves as it does.
• Prediction: forecasting outcomes from established relationships.
• Control: manipulating variables to produce a desired result, common in applied and experimental work.

IV. Motivations in Research

The internal and external factors that drive a person to undertake research.

A. Framing

Motivation determines both whether research is begun and how persistently it is pursued; motives are usually mixed rather than single.

B. Intrinsic motivations

Drivers internal to the researcher.

• Desire to get a research degree: pursuit of an M.Phil., Ph.D. or similar qualification along with its benefits.
• Desire to face a challenge / solve unsolved problems: the intellectual satisfaction of cracking a difficult question.
• Desire to get intellectual joy of doing creative work: the pleasure of original discovery for its own sake.
• Desire to be of service to society: research aimed at solving practical human problems (health, poverty, agriculture).
• Curiosity and directives of thought: the pull to understand a phenomenon that puzzles the researcher.

C. Extrinsic motivations

Drivers external to the researcher.

• Desire to get respectability / recognition: the prestige and social standing that authorship and discovery confer.
• Government directives, employment conditions: research required by an institution, funding body or job role.
• Financial incentives: grants, fellowships and career advancement tied to output.
• Social thinking and awakening: pressure to address issues society has flagged as urgent.

V. Types of Research

The principal classifications by which studies are grouped, cutting the same field along different axes.

A. Descriptive vs. Analytical

Distinguished by whether the study only reports or also examines relationships.

1. Descriptive: describes the state of affairs as it exists; the researcher has no control over the variables and only reports what is happening. Includes surveys and fact-finding enquiries (e.g. census of household incomes).
2. Analytical: uses facts or information already available and analyses them to make a critical evaluation (e.g. testing whether income differences explain differences in savings).

B. Applied vs. Fundamental

Distinguished by the immediacy of the practical use.

1. Applied (action) research: aims at finding a solution for an immediate problem facing a society or an organisation, e.g. marketing research to fix falling sales.
2. Fundamental (basic / pure) research: concerned mainly with generalisations and formulation of a theory, e.g. research on pure mathematics or on natural laws with no immediate application.

C. Quantitative vs. Qualitative

Distinguished by whether the phenomenon is measured or interpreted.

1. Quantitative: based on measurement of quantity or amount, expressed in numbers (e.g. average marks = 62.4). Suited to phenomena that can be counted.
2. Qualitative: concerned with qualitative phenomena — motives, attitudes, opinions — e.g. why consumers prefer a brand, explored through interviews rather than counts.

D. Conceptual vs. Empirical

Distinguished by the source of evidence.

1. Conceptual: related to abstract ideas or theory; used by philosophers and thinkers to develop new concepts or reinterpret existing ones.
2. Empirical: relies on experience or observation alone, often without regard for system or theory; data-based, verifiable by observation or experiment. Also called experimental research, and treated as the most powerful support for a hypothesis.

E. Other types of research

Further classifications overlapping the above.

• One-time vs. longitudinal: research confined to a single time-period versus research carried on across several periods.
• Field-setting vs. laboratory vs. simulation: grouped by the environment in which it is conducted.
• Clinical / diagnostic: uses case-study methods and deep, small-sample probing to trace causes.
• Exploratory vs. formalized: exploratory develops hypotheses; formalized tests them with defined structure.
• Historical: uses sources like documents and remains to study past events and apply them to the present and future.
• Conclusion-oriented vs. decision-oriented: the researcher is free to pick and reshape the problem in the former, whereas the latter is done for a decision-maker who fixes the need.

F. Significance of classifying research

Knowing the type guides every downstream choice.

• Method selection: a quantitative descriptive study calls for a structured survey; a qualitative one calls for open interviews.
• Tool and analysis fit: numeric data invites statistical tests; conceptual work invites logical argument.
• Clarity of purpose: naming a study "applied and empirical" tells the reader both its aim (solve a problem) and its evidence base (observation).