RESEARCH STUDIES

Phenomenological Research

Phenomenology is an approach to qualitative research that

a lived experience within a particular group. The fundament
arrive at a description of the nature of the particular phenom
Typically, interviews are conducted with a group of individua
knowledge of an event, situation or experience. The intervie
broad questions (Moustakas, 1994): What have you experie
phenomenon? What contexts or situation have typically influ
phenomenon (Creswell, 2013)? Other forms of data such as
art may also be used. The data is then read and reread and
themes that are then grouped to form clusters of meaning (
process the researcher may construct the universal meaning
experience and arrive at a more profound understanding of

Case Study vs Field Study

Case study is a qualitative research method

where a or multiple cases with specific
context are investigated. Case study foucses
on studying organizations, events and
activities with its specific context, aiming to
link theory to practice. In this way, it provides
practical evidence to test, support or refute
existing theory, as well as to develop a new
theory. Therefore, case study is particularly
useful in answering "how" and "why'
questions, as well as identifying problems and
best practices in the particular context. Schon
(1983, p.50) argues that case study is vauable
to the "entire process of reflection-in-action,
which is central to the 'art' by whcih
practitioners sometimes deal well with
situations of uncertainty, instability,
uniqueness and value conflict".

Case study may take researchers either a

short or long time to complete, depending on
the research question. Data collection for
conducting a case study may be in the form of
interviews, archival documents and
experiments.

Field research is about studying phenomena

in their nature setting (Atkinson and Shaffir,
1998). Researchers who advocate field
research contend that natural behaviour can
not be captured from the outside. Field
research is particularly useful when
researchers want to study the natural habit of
their target observations, standing from the
point of view of those who are observed.

In order to collect data in field research,

researchers have to pick up a particular site
and stay in that site for a long period. Further,
researhcers have to get used to the "local
cultural" of the research site and get
recognized by "local people" in the research
site. Shaffir and Stebbins (1991) describes
field research as a continuous process
including getting in, learning the reopes,
maintaining relatinoships, and leaving.

Nevertheless, whenever doing case study or

field research, it is always important to pick up
case(s) or research site that a) is helpful in
answering research problems/questions and
b) is closely related to the theoretical
framework in the research paper.

Grounded theory (GT) is a research method

concerned with the generation of theory,1

which is ‘groundedʼ in data that has been

systematically collected and analysed.2 It is

used to uncover such things as social

relationships and behaviours of groups,

known as social processes.3 It was developed

in California, USA by Glaser and Strauss

during their study—‘Awareness of Dyingʼ.1 It is

a general methodology for developing theory

that is grounded in data which is

systematically gathered and analysed.

Social processes are discovered in the data.

What is Experimental Research? Experimental
research is a study that strictly adheres to a
scientific research design. It includes a
hypothesis, a variable that can be manipulated
by the researcher, and variables that can be
measured, calculated and compared. Most
importantly, experimental research is
completed in a controlled environment. The
researcher collects data and results will either
support or reject the hypothesis. This method
of research is referred to a hypothesis testing
or a deductive research method (Babbie 4).
What is the Purpose of Experimental
Research? Experimental research seeks to
determine a relationship between two (2)
variables—the dependent variable and the
independent variable. After completing an
experimental research study, a correlation
between a specific aspect of an entity and the
variable being studied is either supported or
rejected.

What is Exploratory Research? Exploratory

research is a study that seeks to answer a
question or address a phenomenon. The
nature of the entity being studied does not
allow a variable to be manipulated by the
researcher, it cannot be completed in a
controlled environment, or most likely, the
researcher canʼt determine all the influences
on the entity, therefore a more exploratory
look at the topic is more beneficial. This type
of research seeks to identify general
principles to explain data and observations,
and is also known as the inductive method
(Babbie 4).
What is the Purpose of Exploratory Research?
The purpose of exploratory research is to
investigate a specific phenomenon.
Exploratory research seeks to learn as much
as possible between two variables— the
dependent variable and the independent
variable. The exact nature of the dependent
variable may not be known or understood
before the experiment begins, and therefore,
is observed and recorded more holistically.
After completely an exploratory research
study, a description of the relationship
between the two variables is explained. It is
likely that from an exploratory study, an
experimental study could be done, because
the relationship between the variables has
been established.

Cohort studies
Cohort studies are usually but not exclusively
prospective, the opposite is true for case-
control studies. The following notes relate
cohort to case-control studies

Prospective
A prospective study watches for outcomes,
such as the development of a disease, during
the study period and relates this to other
factors such as suspected risk or protection
factor(s). The study usually involves taking a
cohort of subjects and watching them over a
long period. The outcome of interest should
be common; otherwise, the number of
outcomes observed will be too small to be
statistically meaningful (indistinguishable from
those that may have arisen by chance). All
efforts should be made to avoid sources of
bias such as the loss of individuals to follow
up during the study. Prospective studies
usually have fewer potential sources of bias
and confounding than retrospective studies.

Retrospective
A retrospective study looks backwards and
examines exposures to suspected risk or
protection factors in relation to an outcome
that is established at the start of the study.
Many valuable case-control studies, such as
Lane and Claypon's 1926 investigation of risk
factors for breast cancer, were retrospective
investigations. Most sources of error due to
confounding and bias are more common in
retrospective studies than in prospective

studies. For this reason, retrospective

investigations are often criticised. If the
outcome of interest is uncommon, however,
the size of prospective investigation required
to estimate relative risk is often too large to be
feasible. In retrospective studies the odds
ratio provides an estimate of relative risk. You
should take special care to avoid sources of
bias and confounding in retrospective studies.
Longitudinal studies differ from one-off, or
cross-sectional, studies. The main difference
is that cross-sectional studies interview a
fresh sample of people each time they are
carried out, whereas longitudinal studies
follow the same sample of people over time.

Some cross-sectional studies take place

regularly, each time including a large number
of repeat questions. For example, the British
Social Attitudes Survey is a repeat cross-
sectional study that has been carried out
nearly every year since 1983. It provides
excellent data about how Britainʼs attitudes
and values have changed (or not changed)
over time.

Repeating the same questions in each round

allows researchers to look at how society as a
whole has changed over time. But because
the questions are asked of a new sampleevery
time, these studies can only reveal change at
an aggregate level – they can shed little light
on who has changed, or how or why.

Sometimes data from longitudinal studies is

analysed cross-sectionally. This means that
the researcher is just focusing on the
information collected at one round of the
study, and not linking that information to data
from earlier or later rounds.