Which research methodology to choose for your research – PhD Thesis

A  research problem comes from a void in the literature, and conflict in research results in the Literature ; a need to lift up the voice of marginalized participants; and “real life” found in the workplace,the home,the community and so forth.

Certain types of social research problems call for specific approaches. For example,if the problem calls for 

(a)the identification of factors that influence the outcome,

(b) the utility of an intervention,or 

(c) understanding the best predictors of outcome,then a quantitative approach is best.

It is also the best approach to test a theory and plan.On the other hand ,if a concept or phenomenon needs to be discovered and understood because little research has been done on it ,then it merits a qualitative approach.

Qualitative research is especially useful when the researcher does not know the important variables to examine..This type of approach may be needed because the topic is new,the subject has never been address with a certain sample or group of people,and existing theories do not apply with a particular sample or group under study(Mors,1991).

A mixed methods design is useful when the quantitative and qualitative (and its data) can provide the best understanding .For Example , May want to both generalize the findings to a population as well as develop a detailed view of the meaning of an phenomenon or concept for individuals.Alternatively,researchers may first survey a large number of Individuals and then follow up with a few participants to obtain their specific view and their voices about the topic .In these situations ,collecting both closed ended quantitative data and open-ended qualitative data proves advantageous.

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