research and its methods

**سناء احمد** · 05-01-2011, 07:34 PM

Research methods in psychology can be placed into two basic categories: quantitative or qualitative.
Qualitative Research
Qualitative research gathers information that is not in numerical form. For example, diary accounts, open-ended questionnaires, unstructured interviews and unstructured observations. Qualitative data is typically descriptive data and as such is harder to analyse than quantitative data.
Qualitative research is useful for studies at the individual level, and to find out, in depth, the ways in which people think or feel (e.g. case studies).
Analysis of qualitative data is difficult and requires accurate description of participant responses, for example, sorting responses to open questions and interviews into broad themes. Quotations from diaries or interviews might be used to illustrate points of analysis. Expert knowledge of an area is necessary to try to interpret qualitative data and great care must be taken when doing so, for example, if looking for symptoms of mental illness.
An interest in qualitative data came about as the result of the dissatisfaction of some psychologists (e.g. Rogers) with the scientific study of psychologists such as the behaviourists (e.g. Skinner). Since psychologists study people, the traditional approach to science is not seen as an appropriate way of carrying out research, since it fails to capture the totality of human experience and the essence of what it is to be human. Exploring the experience of participants is known as a phenomenological approach (re: Humanism).

Quantitative Research
Quantitative research gathers data in numerical form which can be put into categories, or in rank order, or measured in units of measurement. This type of data can be used to construct graphs and tables of raw data.
Experiments typically yield quantitative data, as they are concerned with measuring things. However, other research methods, such as observations and questionnaire can produce both quantitative and qualitative information. For example, a rating scale or closed questions on a questionnaire would generate quantitative data as these produce either numerical data or data that can be put into categories (e.g. “yes”, “no” answers). Whereas open-ended questions would generate qualitative information as they are a descriptive response. A good example of a qualitative research method would be the case study.
Experimental methods limit the possible ways in which a research participant can react to and express appropriate social behaviour. Findings are therefore likely to be context-bound and simply a reflection of the assumptions which the researcher brings to the investigation.

Research
can be defined as the
Generally speaking, in second language research it is useful to distinguish between BASIC (or theoretical ), APPLIED, and PRACTICAL research.

BASIC RESEARCH is concerned with knowledge for the sake of theory. Its design is not controlled by the practical usefulness of the findings.
APPLIED RESEARCH is concerned with showing how the findings can be applied or summarized into some type of teaching methodology.

PRACTICAL RESEARCH goes one step further and applies the findings of research to a specific "practical" teaching situation.

A useful way to look at the relationships among these three research types is illustrated in the diagram below. Each of the three different types of research contributes to the other in helping revise and frame the research from each category.
Great Answer Report