DESCRIPTIVE RESEARCH

Descrriptive Research: Defenition and Purpose

1. Descripive research, or survey research, determines and describes the way things are. It
involves collecting data to test hypotheses or to answer questions about people’s
opinions and some topics or issues.
2. A high percentage of all research studies are descriptive in nature. Surveys are used in
many fields, including education, political science, sociology, and economics.

The Descriptive Research Process

3. Descriptive research is not simple as it appears.

Classifying Descriptive Research

4. Descriptive studies are commonly classified according to how data are collected, through
self-report or observation. The most often used type of self-report research, survey
research uses questionnaires or interviews to collect data.
5. Surveys can be categorized as cross-sectional or longitudinal. Cross-sectional studies
collect data at one point in time, whereas longitudinal studies collect data at more than
one time in order to measure growth or change.

Conducting Self-Report Research

6. Self-report research requires the collection of standardized, quatifiable information from
all members of a population or sample.
7. A questionnaire is written collection of self-report questions to be answered by a selected
group of research participants. An interview is an oral, in-person question-and-answer
session between a researcher and an indivudual respondent.

Conducting a Questionnaire Study

8. In comparison to an interview, a questionnaire is much more efficient in that it requires
less time, is less expensive, and permits collection of data from a much larger sample.
9. Questionnaires may be administered to respondents by mail, telephone, or in person.
Mailing questionnaires kis usually the most efficient.

Stating the problem

10. The problem under investigation, and the topic of the questionnaire must be of sufficient
significance to motivate subjects to respond.
11. The problem must be defined in terms of specific objectives or subtopics concerning the
kind of information needed; questions must be formulated and every item on the
questionnaire should directly relate to them.

Selecting participants
12. Participants should be selected using an appropriate sampling technique (or entire
population may be used), and identified participants must be persons who have the
desired information and are willing to give it.

Constructing the Questionnaire

13. As a general guideline, the questionnaire should be attractive, brief, and easy to respond
to. No item should be included that does not directly relate to the objectives of the study.
14. Structured, or closed-ended, items should be used if at all possible. A structured items
provides a list of alternative responses from which the respondent selects. In addition to
 facilitating responses, structured items also facilitate data analysis; scoring is very
objective and efficient.
15. Common structured items used in questionnaires are scaled items (Likert and semantic
differential), ranked items, and checklist.
16. In an unstructured item format, respondents have complete freedom of responses;
questions are asked but respondents must construct their own answers. Unstructured
items permit greater depth of response that may permit insight into the reasons for
responses, but they often are difficult to analyze and interpret.
17. Often it is useful to obtain demografic information about the participants (e.g., gender,
occupation, year teaching) to make comparisons of the respondents in different
subgroup.
18. The number one rule in item construction is that each question should focus on a single
concept and be worded as clearly as possible. Any term or concept that might mean
different things to different people should be defined.
19. Avoid leading questions, questions that assume a fact not necessarily in evidence, and
questions that do not indicate a point of reference.

Analyzing Result
20. The simplest way to present the results is to indicate the percentage of respondents who
selected each alternative for each item. However, analyzing summed item clusters –
groups of items focused on the same issue – is more meaningful and reliable.
21. Relationship between variables can be investigated by comparing the summed cluster
scores of different subgroups (e.g., male – female).