INTRODUCTION TO RESEARCH

 

Research is an academic activity and as such the term should be used in a technical sense.

According to Clifford Woody research comprises defining and redefining problems, formulating

hypothesis or suggested solutions; collecting, organising and evaluating data; making deductions and

reaching conclusions; and at last carefully testing the conclusions to determine whether they fit the

formulating hypothesis. D. Slesinger and M. Stephenson in the Encyclopaedia of Social Sciences

define research as “the manipulation of things, concepts or symbols for the purpose of generalising to

extend, correct or verify knowledge, whether that knowledge aids in construction of theory or in the

practice of an art.”3

 Research is, thus, an original contribution to the existing stock of knowledge

making for its advancement. It is the persuit of truth with the help of study, observation, comparison

and experiment. In short, the search for knowledge through objective and systematic method of

finding solution to a problem is research. The systematic approach concerning generalisation and the

formulation of a theory is also research. As such the term ‘research’ refers to the systematic method consisting of enunciating the problem, formulating a hypothesis, collecting the facts or data, analysing

the facts and reaching certain conclusions either in the form of solutions(s) towards the concerned

problem or in certain generalisations for some theoretical formulation.

OBJECTIVES OF RESEARCH

The purpose of research is to discover answers to questions through the application of scientific

procedures. The main aim of research is to find out the truth which is hidden and which has not been

discovered as yet. Though each research study has its own specific purpose, we may think of

research objectives as falling into a number of following broad groupings:

1. To gain familiarity with a phenomenon or to achieve new insights into it (studies with this

object in view are termed as exploratory or formulative research studies);

2. To portray accurately the characteristics of a particular individual, situation or a group

(studies with this object in view are known as descriptive research studies);

3. To determine the frequency with which something occurs or with which it is associated with something else (studies with this object in view are known as diagnostic research studies);

4. To test a hypothesis of a causal relationship between variables (such studies are known as hypothesis-testing research studies).