Key Stages and Types of Research

What is Research?

Research is a complex process that involves describing, explaining, generalizing, and where possible, predicting. It starts when someone raises a problem and wants to find a solution or answer. It analyzes and identifies its elements, establishes relationships, and then explains them. If satisfactory, it attempts to apply the findings to other similar cases and may try to determine how these or similar phenomena will behave in the future.

Research in Social Sciences

In social sciences research, the problem is objectivity, since the person who investigates is the subject as well as the object being studied. Generalization and prediction (key steps in research) are not always applicable to social sciences.

Research Stages

1. Select the Theme

First, select the subject area, and then proceed to lower the level of generality to the lowest possible.

2. Pose the Problem

This means reducing it to its fundamental aspects and relationships in order to start intensive study, for example, wondering where and when it occurs raises the problem.

3. Define Objectives

Objectives can be External (when taking into account the utility or use that the conclusions reached will have) or Internal (when only taking into account the type of knowledge expected without worrying about its application). Internal objectives will always exist, but external ones are not always necessary.

4. Elaborate the Theoretical Framework

This is the part of the research that explicitly states four things: what is common in the field that fits the problem, what the problem is, what elements are involved, and what the possible response is.

5. Elaborate the Hypothesis

This is the answer scientists have in advance to face an investigation. It refers to elements of the problem and serves as a guide to structure the investigation.

6. Determine the Design

Determining the design is a set of successive and organized activities that are adapted to the particularities of each investigation. They aim to provide a model for testing that allows for the hypothesis (it is the counterpart of the theoretical framework).

7. Operationalization

Operationalization is the process of defining how you will measure your variables.

8. Data Collection

This stage involves gathering the necessary data according to the research design.

9. Data Processing

This stage involves organizing, cleaning, and preparing the collected data for analysis.

10. Report Elaboration

This is the final stage where the results are analyzed, interpreted, and presented in a report.

Types of Research

• Applied Research: When the researcher aims for an immediate use of the knowledge gained (external objectives).
• Pure Research: Research done without worrying about the potential use of the knowledge gained; it is done to solve the problem that guides the investigation.
• Exploratory Research: Performed when the subject being studied is new or has not been deeply investigated.
• Descriptive Research: Presents general characteristics of certain facts or phenomena.
• Explanatory Research: Determines the cause that produces an event; that is, it establishes causal relationships or explains why something happens.