Types Of Research And Variables

Continuous or Quantitative Variables 1. Interval - scale Variables: 2. Continuous Ordinal Variables 3. Ratio - scale Variables

Qualitative or Discrete Variables 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Nominal variables Ordinal variables Dummy variables from quantitative variables Preference variables Multiple response variables

Multiple Response Variables Multiple response variables are those, which can assume more than one value. A typical example is a survey questionnaire about the use of computers in research. The respondents were asked to indicate the purpose(s) for which they use computers in their research work. The respondents could score more than one category. Qualitative research - Qualitative research allows you to explore perceptions, attitudes and motivations and to understand how they are formed. It provides depth of information which can be used in its own right or to determine what attributes will subsequently be measured in quantitative studies. Verbatim quotes are used in reports to illustrate points and this brings the subject to life for the reader. However, it relies heavily on the skills of the moderator, is inevitably subjective and samples are small. Techniques include group discussions/workshop sessions, paired interviews, individual in-depth interviews and mystery shopping (where the researcher plays the role of a potential student, etc in order to replicate the overall experience). Quantitative research - Quantitative research is descriptive and provides hard data on the numbers of people exhibiting certain behaviours, attitudes, etc. It provides information in breadth and allows you to sample large numbers of the population It is, however, structured and does not yield the reasons behind behaviour or why people hold certain attitudes. Techniques commonly used in HE/FE include postal surveys (particularly appropriate in the case of student populations where name and address information is available), telephone surveys (appropriate for surveys of employers), on-line or web-based surveys (very cost-effective for reaching audiences where e-mail penetration is high, such as students and university/college staff) and mystery shopping (in this case to test quantifiable aspects of the service). Applied research is research undertaken to solve practical problems rather than to acquire knowledge for knowledge sake. Basic research is experimental and theoretical work undertaken to acquire new knowledge without looking for long-term benefits other than the advancement of knowledge.

Casual Research explores the effect of one thing on another and more specifically, the effect of one variable on another. The research is used to measure what impact a specific change will have on existing norms and allows market researchers to predict hypothetical scenarios upon which a company can base its business plan. For example, if a clothing company currently sells blue denim jeans, casual research can measure the impact of the company changing the product design to the colour white. Following the research, company bosses will be able to decide whether changing the colour of the jeans to white would be profitable. To summarise, casual research is a way of seeing how actions now will affect a business in the future. Exploratory research is a type of research conducted because a problem has not been clearly defined. Descriptive Research is the most commonly used and the basic reason for carrying out descriptive research is to identify the cause of something that is happening/ concern with current status of phenomena. For instance, this research could be used in order to find out what age group is buying a particular brand of cola, whether a company’s market share differs between geographical regions or to discover how many competitors a company has in their marketplace.