Descriptive Research Design: Definition, Methods and Examples

Descriptive Research Design: Definition, Methods, and Examples are various. Let’s start with definition. Here we will give you several ones to understand better:

1. it is used to describe systematically and accurately the facts and characteristics of a given population or area of interest;
2. to portray the characteristics of persons, situations, or groups and the frequency with which certain phenomenon occurs;
3. to discover associations or relationships between or among selected variables;
4. to answer questions based on the ongoing events of the present

Now we move to research questions; this is an important characteristic of research design and a topic which is needed to investigate. Usually, these questions begin with words “What is/are…” Look at the following examples to understand it better.

• What the most effective ways to become a good employee?
• What are the major problems of universities in Canada?
• What is the biggest amount of bonuses multimillionaire-companies can afford?
• What are the main characteristics of why the Mcdonalds is that much popular?
• What is the impact of fitness and sport on food industry nowadays?

What is Descriptive Research Design

What is Descriptive Research Design? It is the thing which is widely used in science and psychology, where they usually make overviews about their subject.

Now, let’s figure out what are steps by step to effective descriptive research

Step 1. First of all, you need to understand for yourself what, how and why you need to study. Pose yourself several questions to make it clear. For example: What is so important in your research? Who will need it? Why is this process happening? Don’t forget to state a clear aim, a practical reason for the importance of your study. If you will investigate type of a phenomenon or you will confirm someone’s thought and idea.

Step 2. Next, you need to choose the descriptive research design. Three main types among which you may choose are:

1. Simple descriptive design – it is called a simple one because its only aim is to gather information and facts together.
2. Comparative descriptive design – here everything is easy too. We compare two or more things to get a result.
3. Correlation descriptive design – here we determine the relationships between two or more things.

There are also other types of research designs, but these are the most popular in writing.

Well, how to use these types? You may use them one by one, together or to choose one appropriate. For example – you need to contrast two schools, one in a village another one in a city. First of all, here you will need to investigate and to gather information – that’s the first type: next you will need to contrast those two schools – this is the second method. So, you are free to choose which type is better for you and your research, just make sure you will open the topic.

Step 3. Next step is important too – don’t forget to choose a case study! It can help you a lot and no matter what type of descriptive research you will choose. While documenting exciting cases, you will enrich the text. Don’t forget that analysis of any case study should be based on opinion more than on statistics.

Step 4. It is the last step which includes a survey in design.

It should be concrete: not too long and not too short. Because the longer research is, the more questions you will get, and id it is too short, you will not open the topic.

The 3 Basic Types of Descriptive Research Methods

The 3 Basic Types of Descriptive Research Methods were mentioned before, and now we will open them widely. So, they are observational, case study and survey method.

1. Observational Method

With this type, we can observe both animal and human behavior.

That is why we can distinguish two main categories in this method – naturalistic and laboratory observation. The biggest merit of naturalistic observation is that this method allows seeing and describing objects in their natural place of living. This leads to increasing popularity of ecological studies, which is great because everything that can be seen in real life has crazy popularity.What about laboratory observation the result of them is usually more meaningful than in naturalistic observation. This type needs less time, and it is cheaper than naturalistic.

Nevertheless, both of them are important and needed in scientific knowledge.

2. Case Study Method

Case study research means that you will need to work in groups and to study very hard.

This method leads us to study rare phenomena or already testable hypothesis which all can lead to making accurate predictions.Also, this method has serious problems – expectancy effects and atypical individuals. Expectancy effects mean that a researcher can have his own beliefs and expectations that can influence the whole results. What else, it can lead to misrepresenting in participant’s descriptions. Also, if you choose atypical individuals, it can lead to strange or even poor results which will not make your research very productive.

3.Survey Method

This method includes answering questions through interviews or questionnaires. After participants of the survey answer them, you, as a researcher, have to describe all answers. Also, while you make questions make sure they are clear and understandable.So, finally, you know How to Write a Descriptive Research Design but also don’t forget that the main and whole idea of descriptive research methods is to DESCRIBE things or observations but not to make any summaries. And sadly, but in many studies, researchers forget this fundamental thing and start suggesting and demonstrating own thoughts without any scientific background. And seriously, nothing could be worse than this.

What are advantages and Disadvantages of Descriptive Research?

Let’s start with Advantages of Descriptive Research:

1. It is effective while analyzing non-quantified topics and issues.
2. It is a good chance to describe the phenomena in its natural environment without changing anything.
3. You spend much less time on consuming here than in any other quantitative experiments.

Now bad things or Disadvantages in Descriptive Research:

1. These studies cannot make statistics and verify them.
2. Most of the descriptive studies cannot be repeated, as they have observational nature.

Also, if you want you may visit our site to see more descriptive research examples.