People’s lifestyle has changed almost totally over the years. Long time ago, people manually washed soiled clothes and bathed in rivers, and twigs were used to produce fire for cooking food and for other purposes. Today, people are seldom found in rivers washing clothes, bathing, and doing other things that they used to do. Machines have also been produced to do human tasks almost instantly. There are machines that wash and dry clothes, cook and heat food, boil and cool water, and preserve and store perishable products at an instant with less human intervention. These advancements in technology and improvements in our way of living are brought about by research. Research also seeks to understand people in various groups, including indigenous ones, to bring forth the ideas of inclusivity and the ‘no one left behind’ principle in the course of human advancement.
What is research?
The word research was coined from two words: the prefix re, which means “again; and the word search, meaning “to look for something:’ In other words, research suggests an action that denotes “to look for something again.” What is to look for in the research process? Researchers may want to look or search for new ideas, improve certain processes, create something useful out of something old, explain a series of observations, or look at something in a different perspective using a new investigative lens. Similarly, research is defined as a systematic and organized process of collecting, organizing, analyzing, and interpreting data to find answers to people’s queries.
In summary, research is an organized method of finding novel or relatively new ideas from the existing body of knowledge with the help of useful tools for the purpose of improving the quality of life. By using these ideas resulting from research, most of the society’s major problems are resolved, needs are satisfied, and demands are met. These new ideas also paved the ways in creating innovative technologies for a more comfortable and convenient life.
Aims of Research
Aside from its goal to improve the quality of life, research has the following aims: Verification of Existing Knowledge…
Functions of Research
Research can be classified into different types according to function—exploration, description, and explanation…
Characteristics of Research
Just like any other discipline, research has its own characteristics. These characteristics distinguish research from other scholarly undertakings…
Types of Research and their Distinctions
Basic versus Applied Research. Generally, research is classified into two types—basic or pure research and applied research…
The Research Process
How is research conducted? Since research is viewed as a systematic and scientific investigation,” it also follows the steps similar…
Characteristics of a Successful Researcher
To attain a successful investigation, the researcher must possess the following characteristics:..
What are the examples of research in different areas of interest?
There is research in almost every area of discipline. The table below lists some possible research studies in different disciplines.
| Areas of Discipline | Qualitative | Quantitative |
|---|---|---|
| Medicine | Dengue prevention practices of different places in the Philippines. | Studies to develop vaccine for HIV. |
| Arts | Stories behind the different artworks and different painters. | Search for a good paint substance and painting material. |
| Sports | Common characteristics of children into and not into sports. | Development of a lightweight material to be used as volleyball. |
| Music or Psychology | Characterization of different behaviors of children listening to a particular research genre. | Effects of types of music on the behavior of children. |
| History | Apolinario Mabini: the sublime paralytic | Statistical profile of a population for the past 20 years |
| Business | Behavioral traits of product patrons in the last 10 years. | Relationship between expenditures in advertisements and sales. |
| Agriculture | Health benefits of organically grown vegetables to elderly. | Effects of organic fertilizers in vegetable production and sales. |
- Research is an organized method of finding novel or relatively new ideas from the existing body of knowledge with the help of useful tools for the purpose of improving the quality of life.
- The aims of research include: verification of existing knowledge, acquisition of new knowledge, application of new knowledge, and advancement of the researcher’s expertise.
- The functions of research include exploration, description, and explanation.
- Research is realistic, logical, cyclical, analytical, objective, critical, and replicable.
- Basic or pure research aims to come up with new knowledge and contribute to the existing body of knowledge while applied research aims to find applications or usefulness of the existing knowledge.
- Qualitative research deals primarily with observable characteristics of the subjects while quantitative research focuses on the interpretation based on statistical outcomes.
- The research process is similar to the steps in the scientific method. It starts with identifying the research problem, followed by formulating hypotheses and designing the study, collecting of and organizing data, analyzing data and testing hypotheses, interpreting data, and reporting results.
- A successful researcher is curious, efficient, logical, effective, active, practical, inventive, honest, and cost-effective.
