Kinds of Research

Research can be defined to be search for knowledge or any systematic investigation to establish facts. The primary purpose for applied research (as opposed to basic research) is discovering, interpreting, and the development of methods and systems for the advancement of human knowledge on a wide variety of scientific matters of our world and the universe. Research can use the scientific method, but need not do so.

KINDS OF RESEARCH:

Research can be studied or conduct under two divisions

According to the methods

 According to the purpose

These both could be further sub divided in numerous ways but the following eight pairs of classification schemes are particularly important:-

Quantitative or Qualitative Research.

Interpretive Functional Research

Experimental or Naturalistic Research.

Laboratory or Field Research

Participant or Non Participant Research

Overt or Unobtrusive Research       

Cross-Sectional or Longitudinal Research

Basic or Applied Research

When fashioning a comprehensive research plan, the researcher should put together a "package" design combining in a consistent way the characteristics of one of he two alternatives posed by each of these contrasting approaches.

QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH

Quantitative research, involving the counting and measuring of communication events, is often equated with scientific empiricism. The approach yields a body of numerical data, which the researchers analyze statistically. Any of the materials including measurement techniques, sampling methods, and statistical tests are geared toward quantitative research. Importantly, quantitative analysis may be conducted in naturalistic or laboratory research settings and may be plied to vast array of communication phenomena including mass media, organizational communication, & interpersonal interaction. The approach is distinguished, only by its use of numerical data as a means of understanding the nature of human communication. Quantitative research is concerned with how often a variable is present and generally uses numbers to communicate this amount. In quantitative research, reality is objective; which exist apart from researchers and can be seen by all. It believes all human beings are basically similar and looks for general categories to summarize their behavior or feelings.

QUALITATIVE RESEARCH

Although statistical analysis is prominent in communication research, much contemporary inquiry is qualitative. Often equated with humanistic studies, qualitative research rejects numerical measures in favor f narrative data, meaning that qualitative data" appear in words rather than in numbers. Examples of qualitative data may include transcripts of naturalistic conversation, communication documents such as public speeches and media artifacts like printed editorials and videotapes of television of programs. Qualitative analysis involves the critical analysis and synthesis of narrative information to derive verbal rather than statistical conclusions about the contents and functions of human talk.

Chadwick, Bahr, &Albrecht, (1984) defined it as “Qualitative research refers to several methods of data collection which include focus groups, field observations, in-depth interviews, and case studies. Although there are substantial differences among these techniques, all involve what some writers refer to as 'getting close to the data”

INTERPRETIVE RESEARCH

Interpretive research focuses, “On the study of meanings that is, the way individuals make sense of their word through their communicative behavior." Studies of people’s ordinary conversation, including the       meanings and actions of associated with talk, or the interpretive. Likewise, content analysis of public speeches, television programs, and motion pictures explore the meaning of these communication artifacts.

FUNCTIONAL RESEARCH

Functional research often treats people meanings as baseline data for inferring conclusions about related communication behaviors and effects. Methodologies that assess that behavior and attitudinal effects of various communication forms, including media programs and public discourse, are functional. Unlike interpretive studies, which treat meanings as the end product of research, functional designs typically regards meaning as the starting point of drawing conclusions about the antecedents and consequences of human communication.

EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH

Experimental research involves a pre structuring or manipulation of the research environment and the observation of people’s reaction to such manipulations. For example, researcher in the effects of lead ship style on small group communication might bring several randomly selected groups, assign an identical problem-solving task to each group and then " plant" a democratic is leader in half of the groups and an autocrat Interpretive the other half. Afterward t the researcher would analyze the groups' responses to the different leadership style. Experimental research usually is functional; it is often quantitative and exemplifies traditional scientific research.

Process:

Following eight steps are necessary in conducting an experimental research:-

a)                    Select the setting

b)                   Select the experimental design

c)                    Operationalize the Variables

d)                   Decide how to manipulate the independent variable

e)                    Select and assign subjects to experimental conditions

f)                     Conduct a pilot study

g)                    Administer the experiment

h)                   Analyze and interpret the result

NATURALISTIC RESEARCH

Naturalistic research involves observing and recording ongoing communication behaviors during the course “Normal Life Activity" without experimentally manipulating the observational environment. For instance, a researcher interested in family communication might visit several families Interpretive their homes and observe the conversational episode that unfold during a typical day. Alternately, a small group researcher concerned with leadership styles might observe the communicative effects of naturally occurring autocratic and democratic leadership in intact or preexisting business, social, or therapeutic groups. Naturalistic research is often interpretive rather than functional. It may take either a qw1'ntitative or a qualitative approach to data analysis. Many naturalistic research designs are hybrid methodologies, nicely blending scientific and humanistic traditions interpretive communication research.

LABORATORY RESEARCH

Laboratory research is characterized by the respective setting in which observations take place. In Laboratory research, the researchers bring communicators into a controlled environment to observe their verbal d non verbal behaviors. Although much laboratory research is experimental, it need not be. A researcher interested in peoples' initial interactions might simply o serve the unstructured communicative exchanges of pairs of strangers brought into the laboratory whether experimental or naturalistic, all laboratory research takes place in an artificial setting that is not a part of communicators' normal environment.

Advantages:

I.          Evidence of Causality: First, experiments help establish cause and effect.

II.        Control: Researcher has control over environment variables and subjects.

III.       Cost: The cost of a lab research can be low when compared to other research methods.

IV.       Replication: The conditions of the study are typically clearly spelled out in the description      of research, which makes it easier for others to replicate.

Disadvantages:

I.          Artificiality: This technique is artificial nature of the experimental environment.

II.        Experimental bias: Laboratory research can have a problem with experimental bias.

FIELD RESEARCH

Field research takes place in the communicator’s natural environment. Much field research is naturalistic, involving observations of people's unstructured interactions; yet experimental research is frequently conducted in field setting as well.

 Westly (l989) pointed out:

"The laboratory experiment is carried ton the Experimenter's own turf, the subject come into the laboratory. In the field a experiment, the experimenter goes to the subject’s turf. In general, the physical the control available in the laboratory are greater than those found in the field. For that reason, .statistically controls are often substituted for physical control in the field”.

Advantages

I. External validity: Since stud conditions closely resembles natural settings, subjects usually         provide a truer picture of their normal behavior and are not influenced by the experimental         situations.

II. Non-reactivity: Some field studies have the advantage of being non-reactive i.e. subject's             unawareness of being measured or observed.

III.Inexpensive: Field experiments can be inexpensive. Most studies require no special       equipment of facilities. However, expenses increase rapidly with the size and scope of the        study.

Disadvantages

I.          Some research is impossible to conduct because of ethical considerations.

II.        On a more practical level, field experiments often encounter external hindrances that   cannot be anticipated.

III.       Researchers cannot control all the intervening variables in a field experiment.

PARTICIPANT RESEARCH

In conducting participant research, the investigator contributes actively to the communication process being observed. The communicator may or may not be aware that a "Participant observer" is actually a researcher studying their communicative behaviors.

Example:

Festinger and h' colleagues studied the behaviors of a small, non-traditional religious sect that believed, among other things, that the destructions of the world were imminent. The researchers posed as people as interested in this idea, became full-fledged group members, and as Festinger put it, " non -directive, sympathetic listeners, passive participant who were inquisitive and eager to learn whatever others might want to tell us."

NON-PARTICIPANT RESEARCH

A non-participant researcher is an outside spectator who does not enter into the target communicative interactions in any way-As in the case of participatory research, the observed communicators may or may not be aware that their behavior is the object of study although both forms are ed in laboratory and field setting as well as in experimental and naturalistic re arch, non-participant observation often takes place in the laboratory and involves experimental manipulations, where as participant observation is a fairly common data collection method in naturalistic field studies.

OVERT RESEARCH

Overt research may be defined as observation that affects in some manner the communication processes being studied. To observe communicative activities overtly, one must be physical present, in the observational environment; hence, the subjects are aware of the researchers presence.

UNOBTRUSIVE RESEARCH

Unobtrusive research is "any method, of data collection that directly removes the researcher from he set of interactions, events or behavior being investigated." Because the researcher is not physically present I the interaction environment, people are "not aware of being tested, and there is little danger that act of measurement will itself serve as a force of change in behavior or elicit role playing that confounds the data." Much mass communication research is unobtrusive; the researcher collects the data from the tapes of television and radio broadcasts and draws conclusions about their content and consequences. Other unobtrusive observational methods may include content analysis of printed communication documents such as public speeches, investigations of filmed nonverbal behavior, and discourse analysis of the transcripts of conversations.

CROSS-SECTIONAL RESEARCH

It examines communication events as a single point in time, focusing on present conditions and de-emphasizing past history and projected future conditions. Surveys of viewers' reactions to certain T.V. programmes or different news reporting formats are often cross sectional. Such studies may profile public opinion for example, and the time the research is conducted registering little about shut-fling viewpoints as a function of a passage of time. Similarly, much experimental research is cross sectional; gauging reactions to researcher s manipulations at a fixed point in time. Cross sectional research is analog of still photography providing snapshots of " ° here and now" but telling little about past or probable future.

LONGITUDINAL RESEARCH

It is called time series analysis, examine communication phenomena as they shift and change over time. Much naturalistic search is longitudinal, as when we study the natural progression of family communication process or investigate changes in communicative interactions between lovers. Like wise organizational research is longitudinal. Longitudinal research is of three types:-

I.          Trend studies

II.        Panel studies

III.       Cohort analysis

BASIC RESEARCH

It exemplifies by the experiment paradigm explores theoretical relationships with little regard for the practical implications of the research findings. Given this focus, basic scientific research is conducted in the laboratory where minimum attention is paid to generalizing results to real life settings. Like wise basic humanistic research may give short shrift to the practical import of analytical conclusions, it derives from the study of human discourse.

APPLIES RESEARCH

It is c concerned with the practical and theoretical sides of communicative life. It explores theoretical relationship of the purpose of understanding and solving problems related to everyday communicative actions and interactions. Survey research including political poles and analysis of people’s media preferences often has an applied orientation. Public speaking studies that generate prescriptive rules of effective speech may be applies as well. Because of its pragmatic posture, applies research is usually taken place in field settings.