Descriptive research UGC NET Paper 1

Descriptive research UGC NET Paper 1

Descriptive research

✰ The term ‘Descriptive’ is self-explanatory and the research that describes a situation, an event and an institution is descriptive research.

✰ The major purpose of descriptive research is description of the state of affairs as it exists at present.

✰ This research clarifies ‘what is it’ and ‘what was it’.

✰ Descriptive research is a quantitative research method.

✰ In simple words, descriptive research is all about describing the phenomenon, observing and drawing conclusions from it.

✰ The main characteristic of this method is that the researcher has no control over the variables; he can only report what has happened or what is happening.

✰ Descriptive research includes surveys and fact-finding enquiries of different kinds.

Three main purpose of descriptive studies:

1. Describing
2. Explaining
3. Validating research findings
Three main purpose of descriptive studies:

Example :
“School principal may be interested to know about the result of his own school in comparison to other schools in the district.”

Steps of Descriptive research

Descriptive research can be of two types:

The types of descriptive research is completely depending upon the number of times the data is collected.

1. Cross-sectional study:

✰ Data are collected from multiple samples of the same population simultaneously.

✰ Used to study or observe the phenomenon to gather data from multiple groups at the same time.

✰ Researcher do not manipulate the study environment.

2. Longitudinal study:

✰ Any social or development research involving collection of data from same sample across time.

✰ Data are gathered at two or more different points in time.

✰ Longitudinal study projects can extend over year or even decades.

✰ Take more time, effort and cost more than cross sectional studies.

✰ A “cohort study” is a particular form of longitudinal study that samples a cohort (a group of people who share a defining characteristic, typically those who experienced a common event in a selected period, such as birth or graduation), performing a cross-section at intervals through time.

✰ It is used in the fields of medicine, pharmacy, nursing, psychology and social science.

Cross sectional Study VS Longitudinal Study

Cross sectional Study	Longitudinal Study
Multiple sample	Same sample
Collect data at a time	Collect data at a different time
Snapshot of a given situation	Long-term analysis of given situation
It takes less time than Longitudinal study	It takes more time than Cross sectional study
Participants are needed only once for the study purpose	Participants are engaged throughout study
Information about what is happening at a present	Information about what is happening in a certain period of time
Cannot establish cause and effect relationship	Can justify cause and effect relationship