The field of social research consists of three methods: causal, descriptive and relational. The purpose of causal research is to define characteristics of cause and effect between variables. Descriptive research aims to illustrate already existing phenomena. Relational methods are used when the researcher intends to discover correlations between one or more variables. All three methods require a
. sound theory that can be developed into a working hypothesis, around which experimentation is designed. While an in-depth discussion of experimental design is beyond the scope of this article, all scientific research and experimentation seeks to collect data of two types: quantitative or qualitative. For more information on experimental design, see http://www.socialresearchmethods.net/kb/destypes.php.While qualitative data has its purposes, because it is based on descriptors and categories, qualitative data is considered somewhat subjective. In scientific experiments, researchers prefer to measure variables on pre-defined scales that yield quantitative, or numerical, data. The defining characteristics of quantitative data include its ability to be identified or measured and compared with other quantitative data.Such comparisons performed with quantitative data are called statistical analysis. Prior to performing statistical analysis, data must be examined and any unreliable results discarded. The remaining data should then be organized and prepared for descriptive and inferential statistical analysis.Descriptive analysis is the process of presenting the collected data. Charts, graphs and other diagrams can be used in this step to simply show what information the experiment yielded. Performing descriptive analysis of quantitative data is the basis for the next step, inferential analysis.Using inferential analysis, the researcher can show whether a tested hypothesis yielded statistically significant results, from which judgments or inferences may be drawn. Any judgments drawn from inferential analysis are generalized; that is, using specific data, researchers attempt to reach more general conclusions about cause and effect or related variables. From there, they are able to suggest further research possibilities.More reference links: http://www.socialresearchmethods.net/kb/datatype.php http://onlinestatbook.com/index.html
