Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
In a descriptive study, the first step is to
specify the objective with sufficient clarity. The
objective of a study must be based on its useful-
ness along with its background information.
Once the objectives are fixed, the collection of
information comes into play. The quality of data
in sufficient amount is a need of any good
research program. Data collection should be
safeguarded against bias and reliability. What-
ever method of data collection is selected,
questions must be well examined, they must be
unambiguous, and there should not be any influ-
ence on the part of the enumerator on the
responses. It is better to use pretested data col-
lection instruments. The sampling design to be
followed must be an appropriate one; it must take
care of the nature of populations from which the
samples are to be drawn. If the samples are not
drawn properly, the findings are bound to be
affected and, subsequently, the generalization of
the results suffers. Data collected from the
samples must pass through the following criteria:
completeness, comprehensibility, consistency,
and reliability. Only the scrutinized data are
required to be put under processing and analysis.
The processing and tabulation of information
give a firsthand idea about the nature of the
information generated. A host of statistical tools
are available for analyzing the data. Definitely,
all of them may not be suitable in all kinds of
research. Appropriate statistical tools, befitting
the objective of the research program and the
data collected for the purpose, must be used.
Coding of data, if required, must be done care-
fully to avoid any error and without compromis-
ing the reliability factor.
Research is the process of finding new things,
which remained hidden otherwise. In the stage of
research design, people come to know about the
new findings from a particular research program.
The art and skill of interpreting results is crucial
in any research program. How elaborative, elu-
cidative, comprehensive, and understandable a
report is depends on the expertise and effective-
ness of a researcher. This is the most vital part of
any research program, and it clearly indicates
how the objectives of a program have been ful-
filled or, otherwise, how it is going to improve
upon the quality of life of the people, how it is
effective to policy makers or decision makers,
etc. Thus, the important task of interpretation
of the results is to communicate the findings to
the society so that the fruit of research changes
the lifestyles of human beings.
4.2.3 Research Design for
Hypothesis-Testing Research
A hypothesis-testing type of research is generally
concerned with studies where a researcher
wants to verify the hypothesis with respect to
one or more objectives of the study. There is
an argument whether the diagnostic type of
research will be considered under this type of
research design or the descriptive research design
discussed in the previous section. In diagnostic
type of research, there is a scope for testing the
hypothesis, diagnosing the causal relationship
among the parameters/variables in a research
design. As such, we shall include a diagnostic
type of research design under the broad category
of research design for hypothesis testing. Thus,
hypothesis-testing type of design can broadly be
categorized under:
1. Research design for diagnostic studies
2. Research design for experimental studies
4.2.3.1 Research Design for Diagnostic
Studies
Hypothesis refers to assertion about the popula-
tion parameters. One or many hypotheses relat-
ing to the concerned population are tested in this
type of research design. In the diagnostic type of
research design, generally the observations are
recorded from the existing population; an associ-
ation between the variables and the related
hypotheses is tested. A diagnostic type of study
deals with problems as well as solutions. The
main objective is to diagnose the problem accu-
rately to work out for some solutions and, in the
process, to find out the relationship among the
variables associated. The success of a diagnostic
study depends on (a) how the questions or
questionnaires are framed and defined for the
purpose, (b) how the concept used for the study
