A research design
A research design is considered as a guide or framework for analysis, implementation, and planning of research or a study. It is the guide used in answering the hypothesis or the research question. Obtaining information in social science relevant to the research problem calls for the specification of the type of evidence required in the testing of a theory, in program evaluation or in accurate description and assessment of a finding in relation with a phenomenon that is observable. The main types of research designs are the qualitative, correlational and experimental which vary with the type of research question or hypotheses.
Qualitative research
Qualitative research is exploratory research primarily used to gain comprehension of motivations, opinions and underlying reasons. Qualitative research offers perceptions on the topic of research hence aiding in the development of hypothesis and ideas for research. A qualitative research design is more applicable and significant when working with a complex subject. It helps in the revealing o simple linear relations between patterns within phenomena, qualitative techniques that yield more insightful and richer data and the discrete variables. The research design is more applicable when the researcher is faced with a small research budget and with restricted sample size. For instance, with the availability of only three people in a town who qualify to be used as the subjects for research, doing comprehensive interviews is more worth than other means of quantitative research. With qualitative research, useful data is always generated during the research within the same time frame allocated for the research.
Experimental research design
Experimental research design n the other hand is the attempt of a researcher to establish control over factors that may affect the findings of an experiment in predicting or determining the possible outcomes. It can also be said to be a procedural blueprint that enables a researcher to test and establish his hypothesis through arrival at a valid conclusion between the dependent and independent variables’ relationship and is the conceptual framework within which a researcher conducts an experiment. It mainly involves the identification of the problem, deducing and formulating the consequences of a hypothesis of the research and the construction of the experimental design that is a representation of all the elements relations and the conditions of the consequences. They are useful in the assessment of the causal impact of the manipulations of the experimentation on dependent variables hence allowing for arrival at conclusions concerning the causal relationships between variables. However, it is experimentally impossible to manipulate many significant variables and may turn to be time consuming and expensive.
Correlational research design
The correlational research design is a non-experimental research design where two variables are measured by the researcher to assess the statistical relationship between the two with no effort or little for the controlling of the extraneous variable. Two primary reasons why that would make a researcher interested in statistical relationship between variables opt for correlation study other than experimental study include the existence of doubt that the statistical relationship under investigation is a casual relationship, for instance, in the evaluation of a extraversion test using a bigger sample population against a test that had been validated. The second reason that would make a researcher choose on this research design is the when the statistical relationship of interest is thought to be causal, but the independent variables cannot be manipulated by the researcher because of being unethical, impractical or impossible. Correlation research design allows for testing of an expected relationship among or between variables and in the establishment of predictions it can however not be used in drawing the inferences about casual relations among or between variables.
