Types of Research

Research Methodology - Prof. Eman Siam 1

 Introduction Types of research Research Type of Research
77thth week
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(1 & 2) and Steps (3) Approaches (4) (5 & 6)

Research topic / Research

Research Proposal Literature review
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12 week
week exam
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exam Research
(10) (9) Ethics (8)
introduction (11)

Research Research
Presentation Skills
problem/question conclusion and Final
Final Exam
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/objective (13) abstract (14)

Writing
Writing –– Methodology
Methodology –– Researcher
Researcher -- Exams
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 Research Design
•  Research design "provides the glue” that holds the research project together.
It is the "backbone" of the research protocol.

• A design is used to structure the research, to show how all of the major parts
of the research project work together to try to address the central research
questions.“

• The research design is like a recipe. Just as a recipe provides a list of

ingredients and the instructions for preparing a dish, the research design
provides the components and the plan for successfully carrying out the study.

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Research Methodology - Prof. Eman Siam 4
 Types of Research
• Basic research (fundamental or pure)
‫ اي شي تقوم بجلب المعلومات يسمى‬Basic ‫ واي شي تطبق عليه المعلومة يسمى‬applied
• Is driven by a scientist curiosity or interest in a scientific question.
• The main motivation is to expand man’s knowledge, not to create or invent
something.
• Investigation and analysis focused on a better or fuller understanding of a
subject, phenomenon, or a basic law of nature .
• There is no obvious commercial value to the discovery of basic research.

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 Types of Research
• Basic research is explanatory, universal and analytical in nature.
• For example, basic science aims to answers questions such as:
• How did the universe begin?
• What are protons, electrons composed of?
• How does the human memory work?
• A research to discover the components of the human DNA. 
• An investigation into the symptoms of Coronavirus.
• An investigation into the causative factors of malaria.

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 Types of Research
• Applied research refers to scientific study and that seeks to solve practical
problems.
• It is used to find solution to everyday problems, cure illness, and develop
innovating technologies, rather than just to gain knowledge.
• For example, it may investigate ways to:
• Improve agricultural crop production.
• Treat or cure a specific disease.
• Improve the energy efficiency of transportation.

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 Uses of applied and basic researches

Applied research is useful for finding practical solutions to defined

problems.
while basic research is useful for gathering novel information about a
concept, phenomenon or field of study. 

• In other words, basic research is theory-oriented, applied research is

practical-oriented. 

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 Types of Research
• The type of research may vary on the basis of the level at which
research is carried out and its purpose.

• One can choose basic research over applied research when the
purpose is to add certain scientific knowledge.

• When it is important to identify a proper solution to the problem

under study , applied research is preferable.

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 How To Choose A Research Method
• First we look at an overall flowchart or schematic of the entire research
design and analysis process.

• Next, we spend some time focusing on research questions or problem.

• This we call the "heart & soul" of the whole process (It Starts with a
Question).

• We further focus in some important components of these research.

Namely, variables and hypotheses .

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Types of research

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Correlation study

Correlational Study
Positive
Correlation
Negative
Correlation

No Correlation

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 Correlation study
• A correlation is simply defined as a relationship between two variables.
• ‫مرتبطة مع بعض بس ال تاثر على بعضيها‬
• The whole purpose of using correlations in research is to figure out which variables are
connected.

• This simple definition is the basis of several statistical tests that result in a correlation
coefficient, defined as a numerical representation of the strength and direction of a relationship.

• Correlation research is looking for variables that seem to interact with each other, so that when
you can see one changing, you have an idea of how the other will change.

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 Correlation study
• For example, to test the hypothesis "Listening to music lowers blood pressures levels”

• There are 2 ways of conducting research

• Experimental (By group samples) .

making one group listen to music and then compare their blood pressures levels before
and after listening to the music.
• Survey. By asking people
• How they feel? How often they listen ?and then compare between them according to
their feelings and the period of listening.

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Correlation does not indicate causation

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Difference between correlation and experimental Research

• Correlational research is the observation of two variables to see if there is a

relation between them, being positive or negative.

•  Experimental research is the observation between an introduced variable the

independent variable--under controlled environments and its resulting factor the
dependent variable.

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 Correlational Study
1. Positive correlation:

• Positive correlation between two variables is when an increase in one variable leads to
an increase in the other and a decrease in one leads to a decrease in the other.

• For example, the amount of money that a person possesses might correlate positively
with the number of cars he owns.

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 Correlational Study
2. Negative correlation:

• Negative correlation is when an increase in one variable leads to a decrease in another

and vice versa.

• For example, the level of education might correlate negatively with crime.

• This means if by some way the education level is improved in a country, it can lead to
lower crime.

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 Correlational Study
3. No correlation:

• Two variables are uncorrelated when a change in one doesn't lead to a change in the
other and vice versa.

• For example, among millionaires, happiness is found to be uncorrelated to money. This

means an increase in money doesn't lead to happiness

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 Correlational Study
• A correlational research study uses what is called the “correlation coefficient” to measure
the strength of the relationship between the variables.
• It can range from 1.00 to -1.00. These figures create three potential definition outcomes for
the work being performed.
• A positive correlation shows that both variables increase or decrease simultaneously.
• A coefficient that approaches 1.00 indicates the strongest correlation for this result.
• A negative correlation indicates that when one variable increases, the other will decrease.
• When the coefficient approaches -1.00, then this is the expected result.
• If the coefficient is zero, then this result indicates that there is no correlation between the
two variable

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 Correlation study
• Advantages:
• Can collect much information from many subjects at one time.
• Can study a wide rang of variables and their interrelations.
• Study variables that are not easily produced in the laboratory.
• Disadvantages:
• Correlation does not indicate causation(cause and effect). which mean that just because
two things correlate does not necessarily mean that one causes the other.

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Descriptive Research

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 Descriptive Research

• Descriptive study defined as "Any study that is not truly experimental.

• In human research, a descriptive study can provide information about the naturally
occurring health status, behavior, attitudes or other characteristics of a particular
group.

• Descriptive studies are also conducted to demonstrate relationships between things

in the world around you.

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When to use a descriptive research design

• Descriptive research is an appropriate choice when the research aim is to identify

characteristics, frequencies, trends, correlations, and categories.

• It is useful when not much is known yet about the topic or problem.

• Before you can research why something happens, you need to understand how, when
and where it happens.

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 Descriptive Research
• Descriptive research cannot describe what caused a situation.

• Thus, descriptive research cannot be used as the basis of a causal relationship, where
one variable affects another.

• In other words, descriptive research can be said to have a low requirement for internal
validity.

• The description is used for frequencies ,averages and other statistical calculations.

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 Descriptive Research

• Descriptive research is used to describe characteristics of a population or phenomenon

being studied.
• It is also known as statistical research.
• It deals with everything that can be counted and studied, which has an impact of the lives
of the people it deals with.
• It does not answer questions about how/when/why the characteristics occurred.
• Rather it addresses the "what" question only.

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 Descriptive Research
•  For example:
The periodic table categorizes the elements.
Scientists use knowledge about the nature of electrons, protons and neutrons to devise
this categorical scheme.
We now take for granted the periodic table, yet it took descriptive research to devise it.
Descriptive research generally precedes explanatory research.
For example, over time the periodic table's description of the elements allowed scientists
to explain chemical reaction and make sound prediction when elements were combined.

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 Descriptive Research

• Another example:
• Finding the most frequent diseases that affects the children of a town .
The reader of the research will be able to knew what to do to prevent that disease.
this give a chance for more people to live a healthy life.

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 Descriptive Research

•  Descriptive research often has the aim of description and the researchers may follow-
up with examinations of why the observations exist and what the implications of the
findings are

• The most common descriptive research method is the survey.

• Descriptive research generates data, both qualitative and quantitative, that define

the state of nature at a point in time.

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 Descriptive Research

• The research design should be carefully developed to ensure that the results are 

valid and reliable.
• The useful methods to collect the data are:
• Survey which includes
questionnaires, personal interviews, phone surveys, and internet surveys.
• Observation
• Case study

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 Descriptive Research
• Advantages
• It is less expensive and time consuming than quantitative experiments.
• Collect a large amount of notes for detailed studying.
• Disadvantages
• Requires more skills.
• Does not identify cause behind a phenomenon.
• Results of this research can change over the period of time

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Experimental study

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 Experimental study
• Experimental research is the most familiar type of research design for
individuals in the physical sciences and a host of other fields.

• This is mainly because experimental research is a classical scientific

experiment, similar to those performed in high school science classes.

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 Experimental study
• This is an experiment where the researcher manipulates one variable, and control the
rest of the variables.

• An experiment is a method of applying treatment to a group and recordering the effect.

• The subjects have been randomly assigned between the groups , and the researcher only
tests one effect at a time.

• A good group experiment will have two basic elements:

• A control and a treatment

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 Experimental study
•  If a sample of patients is randomly divided into three groups, with the first group
receiving a high dosage of the drug , the second group receiving a low dosage, and the
third group receives a placebo such as a sugar pill (control group), then the first two
groups are experimental groups and the third group is a control group.

• After administering the drug for a period of time, if the condition of the experimental
group subjects improved significantly more than the control group subjects, we can say
that the drug is effective.

• We can also compare the conditions of the high and low dosage experimental groups to
determine if the high dose is more effective than the low dose.

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Experimental study

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 Experimental study
An experimental design must deal with four issues:

1) The people who participate in the experiment.

2) The independent variable or variables, which are also called the
treatment variables. These are the variables the researchers controls
during the experiment.
3) The dependent variable, or the effect that the researchers measure.
4) The plan for controlling extraneous variables.

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 Experimental study

• Extraneous variables are all variables, which are not the independent variable,

but could affect the results of the experiment.
• The researcher wants to make sure that it is the manipulation of the
independent variable that has an effect on the dependent variable.
• Extraneous variables could include prior knowledge of statistics; you would have
to make sure that group A roughly matched group B with prior knowledge before
starting the study.
• Other extraneous variables could include amount of support in the home, socio-
economic income, or temperature of the testing room.

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 Experimental study
• Experimental controls ‫وقتو مكلف‬
• Are techniques that researchers utilize to minimize the effects of
extraneous factors and environmental variables.
• Also to strengthen the conclusion and results that changes in the
dependent variable according to the independent variable

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 Ex Post Facto Research
1)Ex post facto is a Latin phrase that essentially means "retroactive," or affecting something that's
already happened.

2)An ex post facto research design is a method in which groups with qualities that already exist are
compared on some dependent variable.

3)It involves no manipulation of independent variables.

4)Also known as "after the fact" research, an ex post facto design is considered semi-experimental
because the subjects are not randomly assigned.

5)Researcher cannot manipulate some variables and therefore selects participants that have certain
values for those variables by themselves (gender, weight ,illness ). 

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 Ex Post Facto Research

• For example, a researcher is interested in how weight influences (self-confidence levels)

in adults.

• The assignment of subjects to different groups is based on any variable is of interest to the researchers. 

• So the participants would be separated into differing groups (underweight, normal weight, overweight)
and their self confidence levels measured.

• This is an ex post facto design because a pre-existing characteristic (weight) was used to form the
groups.

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Historical Method Of Research

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 Historical Method Of Research
The historical method of research applies to all field of study because it
include:
‫ ياكل‬L‫وقت‬
• Origin, growth, theories, personalities, crisis, etc.

• Both qualitative and quantitative variables can be used in the collection of

historical information.

• Depends upon data observed by others rather than investigator.

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 Historical Method Of Research
• Historical methods of research are the process of systematically examining
Past events to draw conclusions and make predictions about the future.

• One of the goals of historical research is to communicating of past events.

• The steps of historical research are: formulate an idea , formulate a plan,

gather data and analyze the source of data.

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Historical Method Of Research
• Typically relies on available data which are in form of diaries, letters,
newspaper, reports and so on.
• It covers categories such as:
historical ,legal, documentary , bibliographical ,biographical
institutional ,industrial and organizational.

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Historical Method Of Research
• 1-first step : data collection
• 2-second step : criticism of the data
• 3-third step : presentation of the facts

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 Historical Method Of Research
• Strengths
• Provides a comprehensive picture of historical trends.
• Uses existing information.
• Provides evidence of on-going trends and problems
• Limitations
Time –consuming
Resources may be hard to locate and conflicting.
Information may be incomplete or inaccurate.
Data restricted to what already exist.

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