Evaluation of the research methods Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Evaluation of the research methods - Essay Example Quantitative and qualitative research methods investigate and explore different claims to knowledge and both methods are designed to address a specific type of research question. While the quantitative method provides an objective measure of reality, the qualitative method allows the researcher to explore and better understand the complexity of a phenomenon (Prado, 2003). The researchers choose the most appropriate research methods that fit their research purposes. The following report will evaluate the research methodologies and analyze how academic journals have used the following methods to find answers to the phenomenon (Ibrahim et al., 2010). The researcher first needs to decide which philosophical view to undertake, which will then help to provide the knowledge of the best methodological paradigm (Saunders et al., 2012) (Appendix 1). For example, positivism researchers believe in a pattern of cause-and-effect that can be used as a basis for predicting and controlling natural phenomenon (Creswell, 2012). The following philosophical view complements the deductive approach because it is highly concerned with testing the hypothesis (Baines et al., 2011). Moreover, choosing chosen concepts from the â€Å"research onion† can help to guide the researcher in choosing the pre-planned descriptive research design and the information obtained can be statistically inferred on a population. Therefore, the most comfortable research methodology to apply would be the quantitative technique (Crouch & Housden, 2012). Because quantitative techniques can obtain statistical information from the respondents that can be quantified into frequencies and percentages that positivistic researchers aim to obtain (Baines et al., 2011). The quantitative approach is known to apply the â€Å"etic† point of view that refers to a distant, analytical