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    Exploratory, Descriptive, Explanatory Research

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    Joris van Harmelen
    Exploratory research is useful when the problem is not clearly defined. It allows researchers to develop clearer concepts through exploration, which can save time and money by identifying problems that do not require further research. Qualitative methods like interviews and observation are most commonly used. Descriptive research has clearly defined questions about characteristics like who, what, when, where and how. It can establish correlations or associations between variables, typically using quantitative methods. Explanatory research aims to explain why correlations exist rather than just stating them, such as explaining why a TV program has higher viewership one day than others. It usually follows descriptive research and uses quantitative methods and hypotheses testing to prove or reject causation.

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    Exploratory, Descriptive, Explanatory Research

    Uploaded by

    Joris van Harmelen
    462 views1 page
    Exploratory research is useful when the problem is not clearly defined. It allows researchers to develop clearer concepts through exploration, which can save time and money by identifying problems that do not require further research. Qualitative methods like interviews and observation are most commonly used. Descriptive research has clearly defined questions about characteristics like who, what, when, where and how. It can establish correlations or associations between variables, typically using quantitative methods. Explanatory research aims to explain why correlations exist rather than just stating them, such as explaining why a TV program has higher viewership one day than others. It usually follows descriptive research and uses quantitative methods and hypotheses testing to prove or reject causation.

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    Exploratory, descriptive, explanatory research

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    Exploratory research is useful when the problem is not clearly defined. It allows researchers to develop clearer concepts through exploration, which can save time and money by identifying problems that do not require further research. Qualitative methods like interviews and observation are most commonly used. Descriptive research has clearly defined questions about characteristics like who, what, when, where and how. It can establish correlations or associations between variables, typically using quantitative methods. Explanatory research aims to explain why correlations exist rather than just stating them, such as explaining why a TV program has higher viewership one day than others. It usually follows descriptive research and uses quantitative methods and hypotheses testing to prove or reject causation.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    462 views1 page

    Exploratory, Descriptive, Explanatory Research

    Uploaded by

    Joris van Harmelen
    Exploratory research is useful when the problem is not clearly defined. It allows researchers to develop clearer concepts through exploration, which can save time and money by identifying problems that do not require further research. Qualitative methods like interviews and observation are most commonly used. Descriptive research has clearly defined questions about characteristics like who, what, when, where and how. It can establish correlations or associations between variables, typically using quantitative methods. Explanatory research aims to explain why correlations exist rather than just stating them, such as explaining why a TV program has higher viewership one day than others. It usually follows descriptive research and uses quantitative methods and hypotheses testing to prove or reject causation.

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    Exploratory research

    This type of research is particularly useful when a clear idea of the problem is not present. Through
    exploration, the researcher can develop concepts more clearly. In addition, exploration can also save
    time and money; after exploration, a problem can turn out to be of no more importance and there is
    no need for further research (descriptive or explanatory). Although both qualitative and quantitative
    methods can be applied within exploratory research, qualitative methods are most prevalent (i.e. in-
    depth interviewing, participatory observation, ...).

    Descriptive research
    This type of research usually has clearly stated questions and mainly describes certain characteristics
    of a population (think of who, what, when, where and how questions). Additionally, you may
    establish correlations between variables or discover associations among variables. Typically, this
    type of research is done using quantitative methods, although qualitative methods are an option
    too. Results could, for example, be a demographic report of the Netherlands or a media report
    showing the audience measurement for a particular TV programme.

    Explanatory/causal research
    This type of research deals with the “why” question; for example, why is a particular TV programme
    showing a higher audience number on Monday than any other day of the week? Usually,
    explanatory research follows after descriptive research, which shows certain correlations or
    associations exist. The goal of explanatory research is to explain why these correlations exist, rather
    than simply stating that they exist. Mainly quantitative methods are used in this research, but both
    are (again) possible. Finally, hypotheses are often constructed that are tested through statistical
    analyses to prove or reject causation.

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