Research Methods: Types, Scientific Approach, and Experimentation
Research Methods: An Overview
You could say that the research aims to discover something, investigate, and respond systematically to the many questions that human beings do.
Types of Research
Three types of research are:
- Historical: Description of what it was.
- Descriptive: Interpretation of what it is.
- Experimental: Description of what will be.
Historical research is applicable to any discipline. Its primary goal is a “search critique of reality and truth” supported by past events.
Descriptive research includes the description, registration, analysis, and interpretation of current nature, composition, or processes of phenomena. The focus is on key findings about a person, group, or thing driving or operating at present.
Its main objective is to interpret reality in fact.
Experimental research involves the researcher manipulating an unproven experimental variable under controlled conditions. Its objective is to describe how and why a phenomenon occurs or may occur.
The Scientific Method
The aim of all science is to offer explanations for observed phenomena and to establish general principles for predicting the relationships between these and other phenomena. These explanations and generalizations are achieved by a type of organized common sense called the scientific method. One of the basic tenets of the scientific method is to refuse authority, so do not accept any law or theory simply because someone claims it. The scientist is skeptical. The essence of the scientific method consists of asking questions and seeking answers, which must be testable.
The scientific or experimental method is a way to gather information and test ideas. It’s how a scientist tries to find answers to questions about nature. Although the procedure can vary, the scientific method consists of the following general steps: making observations, formulating hypotheses, testing hypotheses, and reaching conclusions. The scientific method is what distinguishes science from other fields of study. The steps to the scientific method are:
Scientific Observation
Scientific observation is the base of the scientific method. The ultimate source of all scientific discoveries is careful observation and precise experiments, as free as possible of variants, with appropriate controls, and as quantitatively as possible. The observations of a scientist must be accurate. Any ideas and opinions involving the emotions or opinions of the researcher are flawed because they are partial or biased. Besides being accurate, the observations should also consist of a written record, film, tape, or otherwise. This record of observations is the experiment data. The observations and experiments can be analyzed as well, so it can be placed in a certain order observed phenomena. Then, the parts are synthesized to explore their interrelationships.
Formulation of Hypotheses
Based on the observations, the scientist develops a generalization or hypothesis. An observation, or series of them, very often leads a scientist to ask one or more questions. If the scientist does not find the answer to the question in writing or scientific documents, they must make very careful observations about the phenomenon being studied. After formulating the question, the scientist formulates a hypothesis. A hypothesis is a possible answer to a question about nature, based on observations, readings, and scientific knowledge. The predictions from the hypothesis may well be tested by other experiments. The next step in the scientific method is to test the hypothesis.
Experimentation
When the scientist begins an investigation, they have the advantage of developing a working hypothesis to guide the planning of their experiments. If there is disagreement, observations may mean that the hypothesis is false or the observation is wrong. Ideally, each new observation would be in complete agreement or disagreement with the hypothesis, but it is often difficult to conduct an experiment to give a categorical yes or no. Scientific proof of a hypothesis is called experimentation. A scientist must design an experiment to test the hypothesis. Generally, an experiment involves two groups of observation. One is called the control group and the other the experimental group. The experimental group differs from the control group by only one factor or condition. This condition or factor is known as the variable factor. While performing the experiment, the entries for both groups must be registered. These entries are the data that the experiment has. To ensure a reliable sample experiment, the group selected to do the experiment must be representative so that enough information is obtained. Once the data is registered, it must be organized and analyzed. Constantly improve and complicate the scenario.
The famous English chemist Joseph Priestley noted that in the fermentation tanks there were heavy beer bubbles. Many people had already noticed this phenomenon but did not ask why! He, however, used this information to consider: What is air? To try to answer this question, he took a bell jar filled with air and placed a lively mouse in it. Soon, the little creature died. He repeated the experience under the hood by placing a lighted candle. Soon after, the candle went out. Priestley then made the assumption that the air contains a vital element and that the breathing of animals was similar to combustion. Then he put a little green plant with a lighted candle under the hood. Soon, the candle went out, but the plant did not lose its freshness. Some days later, he put the candle back under the hood where the plant remained: the candle went on longer than the old times and then went out. This enabled him to make certain assumptions: 1) the plant can continue to live in an environment viable for sailing, 2) the plant is capable of renewing the portion of “vital” air consumed by the candle. Further experiments showed that, in essence, the air is formed in a fifth of its volume by “vital air” (now called oxygen) and four-fifths of “non-vital air” (now known as nitrogen). We should re-examine the process followed by Priestley to perform his experiments. First, he carefully observed phenomena related to air, then made assumptions, and finally, performed experiments to verify these hypotheses. This method, called the experimental method, was proposed by Galileo in the seventeenth century and is based on the following phases: 1) proposing a very specific problem, drawn from careful observation of phenomena related to the problem, 2) formulation of hypotheses able to explain, and 3) proposing and conducting an experiment to verify these hypotheses.
Inductive Method
Everything and its changes, all the facts and consequences, anything that affects our senses are phenomena. Observe an object released: it falls, i.e., moves to the lowest possible position. The fact will take place at home, in the street, at sea, in the mountains, night and day, and it has never been seen otherwise. These facts become information kept in memory. Our reason was short, generalized with a proposition: all the bodies “free” fall, which gives us a vague proposition, as it would be necessary to clarify how and why bodies fall, and how many meters per second.