Docsity
Log inSign up
Docsity
Prepare for your exams
Prepare for your exams

Study with the several resources on Docsity

Earn points to download
Earn points to download

Earn points by helping other students or get them with a premium plan

Guidelines and tips
Guidelines and tips
Sell on Docsity
Sell on Docsity
Log inSign up

Prepare for your exams

Study with the several resources on Docsity

Find documents

Prepare for your exams with the study notes shared by other students like you on Docsity

Search Store documents

The best documents sold by students who completed their studies

Search through all study resources
Docsity AINEW

Summarize your documents, ask them questions, convert them into quizzes and concept maps

Explore questions

Clear up your doubts by reading the answers to questions asked by your fellow students

Earn points to download

Earn points by helping other students or get them with a premium plan

Share documents
download point icon20 Points

For each uploaded document

Answer questions
download point icon5 Points

For each given answer (max 1 per day)

All the ways to get free points
Get points immediately

Choose a premium plan with all the points you need

Study Opportunities

Choose your next study program

Get in touch with the best universities in the world. Search through thousands of universities and official partners

Community

Ask the community

Ask the community for help and clear up your study doubts

University Rankings

Discover the best universities in your country according to Docsity users

Free resources

Our save-the-student-ebooks!

Download our free guides on studying techniques, anxiety management strategies, and thesis advice from Docsity tutors

From our blog

Exams and Study
Go to the blog

Understanding Applied Research: Definition, Types, and Examples, Study notes of English Language

University of Puget Sound (UPS)English Language

An insight into the concept of applied research, its definition, types, objectives, and examples. Applied research is an investigation of a phenomenon with the aim of discovering new facts, interpreting them, and applying the conclusions to practical purposes. various types of applied research, including descriptive, correlational, and explanatory research, and provides examples of applied research in different fields.

Typology: Study notes

2021/2022

Uploaded on 09/27/2022

tarley
tarley 🇺🇸

4.5

(58)

251 documents

1 / 10

Toggle sidebar

This page cannot be seen from the preview

Don't miss anything!

bg1
12/12/2018
1
Applied research
Eng. Elliot Mumba
Dean-Research and Graduate studies
LIUTEBM University
What is research ?
•Webster’s Third International Dictionary of the English Language
defines research as “studious inquiry or examination, especially
critical and exhaustive investigation or experimentation, having for its
aim the discovery of new facts, and their correct interpretation, the
revision of accepted conclusions, theories, or laws in the light of
newly discovered facts, or practical applications of new or revised
conclusions, theories, or laws.”
What is research?
• Ranganathan (2015)describes research to represent a critical and
exhaustive investigation to discover new facts, to interpret them in the
light of known ideas, theories and laws, to revive the current laws and
theories in the light of the newly discovered facts to apply the
conclusion to practical purpose (ANUPAMA SAINI, 2017)
The substance of all these samples of definitions of research can be
broadly summed up.
What is research ?
To restate, the substantive phrases that stand out in all these definitions of
research aret hat researchis an activity as characterized below:
• An intellectual activity of a high order;
• An investigation of a phenomenon, event or activity;
• Aims to discover data and facts and their interpretations;
• To arrive at conclusions to formulate new theories and laws or revise the
already establishedt heoriesand laws;
• Tocommun icatethe results for peer review; and
• To be accepted or rejected before adding this new knowledge to the
already existing generalpool of k nowledge
(ANUPAMASAINI, 2 017)
pf3
pf4
pf5
pf8
pf9
pfa

Partial preview of the text

Download Understanding Applied Research: Definition, Types, and Examples and more Study notes English Language in PDF only on Docsity!

Applied research

Eng. Elliot Mumba Dean-Research and Graduate studies LIUTEBM University

What is research?

  • Webster’s Third International Dictionary of the English Language defines research as “studious inquiry or examination, especially critical and exhaustive investigation or experimentation, having for its aim the discovery of new facts, and their correct interpretation, the revision of accepted conclusions, theories, or laws in the light of newly discovered facts, or practical applications of new or revised conclusions, theories, or laws.”

What is research?

  • Ranganathan (2015)describes research to represent a critical and exhaustive investigation to discover new facts, to interpret them in the light of known ideas, theories and laws, to revive the current laws and theories in the light of the newly discovered facts to apply the conclusion to practical purpose (ANUPAMA SAINI, 2017) The substance of all these samples of definitions of research can be broadly summed up.

What is research?

To restate, the substantive phrases that stand out in all these definitions of research are that research is an activity as characterized below:

  • An intellectual activity of a high order;
  • An investigation of a phenomenon, event or activity;
  • Aims to discover data and facts and their interpretations;
  • To arrive at conclusions to formulate new theories and laws or revise the already established theories and laws;
  • To communicate the results for peer review; and
  • To be accepted or rejected before adding this new knowledge to the already existing general pool of knowledge (ANUPAMA SAINI, 2017)

Typology of research

Types of research Application Pure research Applied research objectives Descriptive research Explanatory Correlational research explanatory Inquiry mode Quantitative research Qualitative research From a view point

  • Basic Research is also known as ‘fundamental’ or ‘pure’ research. Basic research studies phenomena to get a fuller understanding of it. This is essentially to obtain knowledge of a natural phenomenon whose applications may or may not have any bearing on any application in the immediate future or even after a long time. Hence, it is fundamental in nature.
  • Generally this type of research demands a very high order of intellectual calibre as well as intuition. Those who are involved in basic research devote their efforts to the formulation or reformulation of theories and may not be concerned at all with their practical application.
  • The knowledge obtained thus expands the theoretical base of a subject.
  • Generally, basic research is conducted by intellectuals at academic institutions who are specially commissioned for this purpose. E.g. research institute or univeristy
  • As Dr. George Smoot of LBNL says, "People cannot foresee the future well enough to predict what's going to develop from basic research. If we only did applied research, we would still be making better spears.“
  • My concern in here is the applied research

What is applied research?

  • Applied research on the other hand, is to acquire knowledge on the practical application of the theoretical base already built up which is expected to solve a critical problem. E.g causes of high illiteracy level in rural areas, political violence during general elections in Zambia, causes of high failure rates at secondary schools in rural Zambia specialized research laboratories or institutions or consultants.^ • Applied Research is usually conducted for industries or governments by universities or by Research and Development (R& D).^ • Applied Research is always for development purposes. It is generally referred to as rather than to acquire knowledge for knowledge's sake. One might say that the goal of the^ • Hence, applied research is designed to solve practical problems of the modern world, applied scientist is to improve the human condition. basic research and toward applied science. This trend, they feel, is necessitated by the^ • Some scientists feel that the time has come for a shift in emphasis away from purely problems resulting from global overpopulation, pollution, and the overuse of the earth's natural resource

objectives

  • If you examine an applied research from the perspective of its objectives, broadly a research endeavor can be classified as descriptive, correlational, explanatory or exploratory.
  • An systematically applied studya situation, classified outcomes, as descriptive problem, attempts phenomena, to describeservice, program, or providers of information about , say, the living conditions of a community in Lusaka or describes attitudes towards an issue.
  • For example, it may attempt to describe the types of service provided by an organization like ZESCO(Zambia Electricity supply Corporation), the administrative structure of LIUTEBM university, the living conditions of people in chawama compound in Lusaka, the needs of a community in matero compound, what it means to go through a divorce, how a child feels living in house with domestic violence, or the attitudes of employees towards management.

objectives

  • The main purpose of such studies is to describe what is prevalent with respect to the issue or problem under study
  • The main emphasis in a correlational applied research study is to discover or establish the existence of a relationship/association/interdependence between two or more aspects of a situation. E.g.
  • What is the impact of an advertising campaign on the sales of a product? What is the relationship between stressful living and incidence of heart attack? What is the between technology and unemployment? What is the effect of a health service relationship between fertility and mortality? What is the relationship on the control of a disease, or the home environment on educational achievement.
  • These applied studies examine whether there is a relationship between two or more aspects of a situation or phenomena and, therefore, are called correlational studies

objectives

  • Explanatory research attempts to clarify why and how there is a relationship between two aspects of a situation or phenomena. This type of research attempts to explain, for example, why stressful livings results in heart attacks, why decline in mortality is followed by fertility decline, or how the home environment affects children’s level of academic achievement.
  • Exploratory is when a study is undertaken with the objective either to explore an area where little is known or to investigate the possibilities of undertaking a particular research study. When a study is carried out to determine its feasibility it is called a feasibility study or pilot study.
  • It is usually carried out when a researcher wants to explore areas about which he/she has little knowledge or no knowledge.
  • (^) investigation.A small scale study is undertaken to decide if it is worth carrying out a detailed
  • (^) tools and proceduresExploratory studies are also conducted to develop, refine, and/or test measurement

Inquiry mode

  • The third perspective in the typology of research in applied studies concerns the process you adopt to find answers to your research questions. Broadly, there are two approaches:
  • The structured approach
  • The unstructured approach
  • The structured approach to inquiry is usually classified as quantitative research and unstructured as qualitative research.
  • In a structured approach everything that forms the research process-objectives, design, sample, and questions that you plan to ask of respondents-is predetermined.
  • The unstructured approach allows for flexibility in all these aspects of the research process and allows participants views to be taken into account.
  • The structured approach is more appropriate to determine the extent of a problem, issue, or phenomena, unstructured , to explore its nature.

Characteristics of Action Research

  1. It is situational.
  2. It is a reflective inquiry.
    1. It is based on scientific approach.
  3. It is a scientific way of solving problems.
  4. It is a small scale intervention.
    1. It is a unified exercise to bridge the gap between theory and practice.
  5. Its emphasis is not on obtaining general scientific knowledge but on obtaining knowledge concerning a specific local problem

Examples of applied research

  • Improve agricultural crop production
  • Treat or cure a specific disease
  • Improve the energy efficiency of homes, offices, or modes of transportation
  • To diagnose the very low use of a certain collection in a library
  • To investigate the causes of poor solid waste management by Lusaka city council
  • Investigating which treatment approach is the most effective for reducing anxiety
  • Researching which strategies work best to motivate worker
  • Studying different keyboard design to determine which is the most efficient and ergonomist
  • Analyzing what types of prompts will inspire people to volunteer their time to charity
  • Investigating if background music in a work environment can contribute to greater productivity
  • As you may notice, all of these examples explore topics that will address a real-world issues. This immediate and practical application of the findings is what distinguished applied research from basic research, which instead focuses on theoretical concerns.
  • Basic research tends to focus more on "big picture" topics, such as increasing the scientific knowledge base around a particular topic. Applied research tends to drill down more toward solving specific problems that affect people in the here and now.

Potential Challenges in Applied Research

  • As with any other types of research, challenges can arise when conducting applied research in psychology and management. Some potential problems that researchers might face when performing this type of research include:
  • Ethical challenges. When conducting applied research in a naturalistic setting, researchers may come across concerns about privacy and informed consent. In some cases, such as in workplace studies conducted by industrial-organizational psychologists, participants may feel pressured or even coerced into participating as a condition of their employment. - Problems with validity. Since applied research often takes place in the field, it can be difficult to researchers to maintain complete control over all of the variables. Extraneous variables can also exert a subtle influence that the experimenters may not even consider or realize are having an effect on the results. In many cases, researchers are forced to strike a balance between a study's ecological validity (which is usually quite high in applied research) and the study's internal validity - Since applied research focuses on taking the results of scientific research and utilizing it directly in real world situations, those who work in this line of research tend to be more concerned with the external validity of their work.
  • External validity refers to the extent that scientific findings can be generalized to other populations. Researchers don't just want to know if the results of their experiments apply to the participants in their studies. They want these results to also apply to larger populations outside of the lab
  • "Because applied research investigates realistic problems, applied researchers are often concerned with the external validity of their studies. This means that they attempt to observe behaviors that can be applied to real-life situations," explains Dawn M. McBride in The Process of Research in Psychology. - "This is important because these researchers want to be able to apply their results to a problem that applies to individuals who are not participants in their study (as well as to those individuals who were observed in the study. External validity is also a consideration in basic research but in some cases can be less important that it is in applied research.“ - How Is Applied Research Used in the Real-World? - What are some examples of how applied research is used to solve real-world problems? - A hospital might conduct applied research on how to prepare patients for certain types of surgical procedures. - A business might hire an applied psychologist to assess how to design a workplace console to maximize efficiency and productivity while minimizing worker fatigue and error. - An organization might hire an applied researcher to determine how to select employees that are best suited for certain positions within the company.

Conclusion

  • Applied research is an important tool in the process of understanding the human mind and behavior.
  • Applied research aims at finding a solution for an immediate problem facing a society or an industrial/business organization.

Examples of types of research studies from

the view point of objectives

Examples Aim Main theme Type of applied research Socioeconomic characteristics of residents of a particular community Attitudes of students towards quality of teaching in a university Types of service provided by an agency Needs of a community Sales of a product Attitudes of nurses towards death and dying Attitudes of workers towards management Number of people living in the community Problems faced by new immigrants Extent of mobility among immigrants Consumers’ likes and dislikes with regard to a product Effects of living in a house with domestic violence Strategies put in place by a company to increase productivity of To describe what is prevent regarding:

  • a group of people
  • • a communitya phenomena
  • a situation
  • a program
  • an outcome To describe what is prevalent Descripti ve research Impact of a program Relationship between stressful living and incidence pf heart attacks Impact of technology on employment Impact of maternal and child health services on infant mortality Effectiveness of a marriage counselling service on extent of marital problems Impact of an advertising campaign on sales of a product Impact of incentives on productivity of workers Effectiveness of an immigration program in controlling infections disease To establish or explore:
  • a relationship
  • • an associationan interdependence To ascertain if there is a relationship Correlationa l research Why does stressful living results in heart attack? How does technology create unemployment/employment? How do maternal and child health services affect infant mortality? Why do some people have a positive attitude towards an issue while others do not? Why does a particular intervention work for some people and not for others? Why do some people use a product while others do not? Why do some people adopt a program while others do not? To explain: • Why a relationship , Association or interdepende nce exist
  • Why a particular event occurs To explain why the relationshi p is formed Explanatory research
  • The end!
  • Thank you