- Survey Method
- Observation Method
- Case Method
- Experimental Method
- Historical Method
- Comparative Method
1. Survey Method
The dictionary meaning of ‘Survey’ is to oversee, to look over, to study, to
systematically investigate. Survey research is used to study large and small
populations (or universes). It is a fact finding survey. Mostly empirical problems
are investigated by this approach. It is a critical inspection to gather information,
often a study of an area with respect to a certain condition or its prevalence.
For example: a marketing survey, a household survey, All India Rural Credit
Survey.
Survey is a very popular branch of social science research. Survey research
has developed as a separate research activity alongwith the development and
improvement of sampling procedures. Sample surveys are very popular now a
days. As a matter of fact sample survey has become synonymous with survey.
For example, see the following definitions:
Survey research can be defined as “Specification of procedures for
gathering information about a large number of people by collecting
information from a few of them”. (Black and Champion).
Survey research is “Studying samples chosen from populations to
discover the relative incidence, distribution, and inter relations of
sociological and psychological variables”. (Fred N. Kerlinger)
Features of Survey method
The important features of survey method are as follows:
- It is a field study, as it is always conducted in a natural setting.
- It solicits responses directly from the respondents or people known to have knowledge about the problem under study.
- Generally, it gathers information from a large population.
- A survey covers a definite geographical area eg. A village / city or a district.
- It has a time frame.
- It can be an extensive survey involving a wider sample or it can be an intensive study covering few samples but is an in-depth and detailed study.
- Survey research is best adapted for obtaining personal, socio-economic facts, beliefs, attitudes, opinions.
2. Observation Method
Observation means seeing or viewing. It is not a casual but systematic viewing.
Observation may therefore be defined as “a systematic viewing of a specific
phenomenon in its proper setting for the purpose of gathering information for
the specific study”.
Observation is a method of scientific enquiry. We observe a person or an event
or a situation or an incident. The body of knowledge of various sciences such
as biology, physiology, astronomy, sociology, psychology, anthropology etc., has
been built upon centuries of systematic observation.
Observation is also useful in social and business sciences for gathering
information and conceptualizing the same. For example, What is the life style of
tribals? How are the marketing activities taking place in Regulated markets?
How will the investment activities be done in Stock Exchange Markets? How
are proceedings taking place in the Indian Parliament or Assemblies? How is a
corporate office maintained in a public sector or a private sector undertaking?
What is the behaviour of political leaders? Traffic jams in Delhi during peak
hours?
Observation as a method of data collection has some features:
- It is not only seeing & viewing but also hearing and perceiving as well.
- It is both a physical and a mental activity. The observing eye catches many things which are sighted, but attention is also focused on data that are relevant to the problem under study.
- It captures the natural social context in which the person’s behaviour occurs.
- Observation is selective: The investigator does not observe every thing but selects the range of things to be observed depending upon the nature, scope and objectives of the study.
- Observation is not casual but with a purpose. It is made for the purpose of noting things relevant to the study.
- The investigator first of all observes the phenomenon and then gathers and accumulates data.
Observation may be classified in different ways. According to the setting it can
be (a) observation in a natural setting, eg. Observing the live telecast of
parliament proceedings or watching from the visitors gallery, Electioneering in
India through election meetings or (b) observation in an artificially stimulated
setting, eg. business games, Tread Mill Test. According to the mode of
observation it may be classified as (a) direct or personal observation, and (b)
indirect or mechanical observation. In case of direct observation, the investigator
personally observes the event when it takes place, where as in case of indirect
observation it is done through mechanical devices such as audio recordings,
audio visual aids, still photography, picturization etc. According to the
participating role of the observer, it can be classified as (a) participant
observation and (b) non-participant observation. In case of participant
observation, the investigator takes part in the activity, i.e. he acts both as an
observer as well as a participant. For example, studying the customs and life
style of tribals by living / staying with them. In case of non-participant
observation, the investigator observes from outside, merely as an on looker.
Observation method is suitable for a variety of research purposes such as a
study of human behaviours, behaviour of social groups, life styles, customs and
traditions, inter personal relations, group dynamics, crowd behaviour, leadership
and management styles, dressing habits of different social groups in different
seasons, behaviour of living creatures like birds, animals, lay out of a
departmental stores, a factory or a residential locality, or conduct of an event
like a meeting or a conference or Afro- Asian Games.
3. Case Method
Case method of study is borrowed from Medical Science. Just like a patient,
the case is intensively studied so as to diagnose and then prescribe a remedy.
A firm, or a unit is to be studied intensively with a view to finding out
problems, differences, specialties so as to suggest remedial measures. It is an
in-depth/intensive study of a unit or problem under study. It is a comprehensive
study of a firm or an industry, or a social group, or an episode, or an incident,
or a process, or a programme, or an institution or any other social unit.
According to P.V. Young “a comprehensive study of a social unit, be that unit a
person, a group, a social institution, a district, or a community, is called a Case
Study”.
Case Study is one of the popular research methods. A case study aims at
studying every thing about something rather than something about everything. It
examines complex factors involved in a given situation so as to identify causal
factors operating in it. The case study describes a case in terms of its
peculiarities, typical or extreme features. It also helps to secure a fund of
information about the unit under study. It is a most valuable method of study
for diagnostic therapeutic purposes.
4. Experimental Method
Experimentation is the basic tool of the physical sciences like Physics,
Chemistry for establishing cause and effect relationship and for verifying
inferences. However, it is now also used in social sciences like Psychology, Sociology. Experimentation is a research process used to observe cause and
effect relationship under controlled conditions. In other words it aims at studying
the effect of an independent variable on a dependent variable, by keeping the
other interdependent variables constant through some type of control. In
experimentation, the researcher can manipulate the independent variables and
measure its effect on the dependent variable. The main features of the
experimental method are :
- Isolation of factors or controlled observation.
- Replication of the experiment i.e. it can be repeated under similar conditions.
- Quantitative measurement of results.
- Determination of cause and effect relationship more precisely.
- a) The natural or uncontrolled experiment as in case of astronomy made up mostly of observations.
- b) The field experiment, the best suited one for social sciences. “A field experiment is a research study in a realistic situation in which one or more independent variables are manipulated by the experimenter under as carefully controlled conditions as the situation will permit”. ( Fred N. Kerlinger)
- c) The laboratory experiment is the exclusive domain of the physical scientist.
The contrast between the field experiment and laboratory experiment is not
sharp, the difference is a matter of degree. The laboratory experiment has a
maximum of control, where as the field experiment must operate with less
control.
5. Historical Method
When research is conducted on the basis of historical data, the researcher is
said to have followed the historical approach. To some extent, all research is
historical in nature, because to a very large extent research depends on the
observations / data recorded in the past. Problems that are based on historical
records, relics, documents, or chronological data can conveniently be
investigated by following this method. Historical research depends on past
observations or data and hence is non-repetitive, therefore it is only a post facto
analysis. However, historians, philosophers, social psychiatrists, literary men, as
well as social scientists use the historical approach.
Historical research is the critical investigation of events, developments,
experiences of the past, the careful weighing of evidence of the validity of the
sources of information of the past, and the interpretation of the weighed
evidence. The historical method, also called historiography, differs from other
methods in its rather elusive subject matter i.e. the past.
In historical research primary and also secondary sources of data can be used.
A primary source is the original repository of a historical datum, like an
original record kept of an important occasion, an eye witness description of an
event, the inscriptions on copper plates or stones, the monuments and relics,
photographs, minutes of organization meetings, documents. A secondary
source is an account or record of a historical event or circumstance, one or
more steps removed from an original repository. Instead of the minutes of the
meeting of an organization, for example, if one uses a newspaper account of
the meeting, it is a secondary source.
The aim of historical research is to draw explanations and generalizations from
the past trends in order to understand the present and to anticipate the future.
It enables us to grasp our relationship with the past and to plan more
intelligently for the future.
For historical data only authentic sources should be depended upon and their
authenticity should be tested by checking and cross checking the data from as
many sources as possible. Many a times it is of considerable interest to use
Time Series Data for assessing the progress or for evaluating the impact of
policies and initiatives. This can be meaningfully done with the help of historical
data.
6. Comparative Method
The comparative method is also frequently called the evolutionary or Genetic
Method. The term comparative method has come about in this way: Some
sciences have long been known as “Comparative Sciences” - such as
comparative philology, comparative anatomy, comparative physiology,
comparative psychology, comparative religion etc. Now the method of these
sciences came to be described as the “Comparative Method”, an abridged
expression for “the method of the comparative sciences”. When the method of
most comparative sciences came to be directed more and more to the
determination of evolutionary sequences, it came to be described as the
“Evolutionary Method”.
The origin and the development of human beings, their customs, their
institutions, their innovations and the stages of their evolution have to be traced
and established. The scientific method by which such developments are traced
is known as the Genetic method and also as the Evolutionary method. The
science which appears to have been the first to employ the Evolutionary
method is comparative philology. It is employed to “compare” the different
languages in existence, to trace the history of their evolution in the light of such
similarities and differences as the comparisons disclosed. Darwin’s famous work
“Origin of Species” is the classic application of the Evolutionary method in
comparative anatomy.
The whole theory of biological evolution rests on applications of evolutionary
method. This method can be applied not only to plants, to animals, to social
customs and social institutions, to the human mind (comparative psychology), to
human ideas and ideals, but also to the evolution of geological strata, to the
differentiation of the chemical elements and to the history of the solar system.
The term comparative method as a method of research is used here in its
restricted meaning as synonymous with Evolutionary method. To say that the
comparative method is a ‘method of comparison’ is not convincing, for
comparison is not a specific method, but some thing which enters as a factor
Research and Data
Collection
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into every scientific method. Classification requires careful comparison and
every other method of science depends upon a precise comparison of
phenomena and the circumstances of their occurrence. All methods are,
therefore, “comparative” in a wider sense.
