Mode of Inquiry based Types of Research

Mode of inquiry concerns the process one adopts to find answers to his questions. Broadly, there are two approaches to enquiry.

• The structured approach
• The unstructured approach

Structured approach:

• In the structured approach everything that forms the research process – objectives of a research, design for conducting it in a good way, sample for help, and the questions that you may plan to ask of respondents that is predetermined.
• On the other hand approach that is unstructured allows flexibility in all three aspects of the process.
• Hence, the approach that is structured is more appropriate to determine the extent of a particular problem, an out-of-control issue or a deep phenomenon.
• To find out answers to particular questions like how many people have a particular problem, one needs to have a structured approach to enquiry.

Unstructured approach:

• The unstructured approach is predominantly used to explore its nature, in other words, it defines the diversity in a phenomenon, issue, problem or attitude towards an issue.
• For example, if one wants to research the different perspectives of an issue, the problems experienced by the people living in a community or the different views people hold towards an unsolved issue, then these should be better explored using unstructured enquiries.
• an unstructured enquiry must be undertaken to ascertain the diversity in a phenomenon which can then be quantified through the structured enquiry.

Importance:

• Both approaches have their own importance in research at their places, as both have their positive points and negative points.
• Therefore, one should not lock himself only into a structured or unstructured approach.
• Moreover, a structured approach to inquiry is usually classified as quantitative research and unstructured as qualitative research.
• The choice between qualitative and quantitative approaches depends upon:
  • Aims of one’s enquiry that include exploration, confirmation or quantification
  • Use of the findings that involve policy formulation or process understanding

Strengths of Quantitative research:

• It can be extended to the general population. You can easily apply your results to that you have carried out on a group of people to the general population.
• Studies can be easily replicated because anyone can run your data and will find the same correlation.
• Datasets are universal and if run anywhere around the world will give the same results.

When to use Quantitative Research:

• It is used when you have to test hypotheses and theories.
• When you want to compare groups you will use quantitative research.
• Prevalence-related study uses quantitative research.

When to use Qualitative Research:

• When you want to know about the why of your question.
• It is used when you want to find out new problem statements and questions out of your existing research.
• To increase your knowledge about some social issues.

Conclusion:

Not every research is purely quantitative or qualitative. They are often mixed types of research. Good research depends upon your problem statement and the type of data you need for your questions. After that, you apply these modes of research and you will get the best of your data and your research will peak.