Match the type of social research to the corresponding description:

Question

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Exploratory research

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Descriptive research

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Explanatory research

A.
A research project that carefully observes and describes social or psychological situations, human behaviour, feelings, thoughts or relationships by asking the questions, “What?, Where?, When?”. Observations are based on the scientific method, and are required to be replicable and precise.

B.
Research that is undertaken when there is lots of knowledge available on a certain topic, and the researcher is thus able to search for reasons and causes of an occurrence of behaviour by asking “Why?” or “How?” questions in order to arrive at explanations of observed phenomena, problems, or behaviours.

C.
A research project aimed at scoping out the magnitude or extent of a particular phenomenon, problem, or behaviour on a topic on which relatively little is known, with the view to generating some initial ideas and to test the feasibility of undertaking a more extensive study regarding that phenomenon.

Answer 1

Here’s the match of the type of social research to the corresponding description:

• Exploratory research: C. A research project aimed at scoping out the magnitude or extent of a particular phenomenon, problem, or behaviour on a topic on which relatively little is known, with the view to generating some initial ideas and to test the feasibility of undertaking a more extensive study regarding that phenomenon.

• Descriptive research: A. A research project that carefully observes and describes social or psychological situations, human behaviour, feelings, thoughts or relationships by asking the questions, “What?, Where?, When?”. Observations are based on the scientific method, and are required to be replicable and precise.

• Explanatory research: B. Research that is undertaken when there is lots of knowledge available on a certain topic, and the researcher is thus able to search for reasons and causes of an occurrence of behaviour by asking “Why?” or “How?” questions in order to arrive at explanations of observed phenomena, problems, or behaviours.