NONEXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH DESIGN

Nonexperimental research design is one of the broad categories of research designs, in

which the researcher observes the phenomena as they occur naturally, & no external
variables are introduced.
It is a research design in which variables are not deliberately manipulated, nor is the
setting controlled.
In nonexperimental research, researchers collect data without making changes or
introducing treatments.

DESCRIPTIVE RESEARCH DESIGN

The purpose of descriptive studies is to observe, describe, & document aspects of a

situation as it naturally occurs, & sometimes to serve as a starting point for hypothesis
generation or theory development.

Descriptive designs are used to observe, document, & describe a phenomenon

occurring in its natural setting without any manipulation or control.

The descriptive studies are designed to gain more information about characteristics
within a particular field in the real world.

Provides an impression of a situation as it occurs in natural settings.

Do not involve the manipulation of variables, & variables are studies as they exist in the
real world.

Descriptive designs are used to observe, document, & describe a phenomenon

occurring in its natural setting without any manipulation or control.

The descriptive studies are designed to gain more information about characteristics
within a particular field in the real world.

Provides an impression of a situation as it occurs in natural settings.

Descriptive studies do not involve the manipulation of variables, & variables are studies
as they exist in the real world.

Descriptive design may be used to develop theories, identify problems with current
practices, justify current practices, make judgments, or determine other practices in
similar situations.

In descriptive studies, bias is prevented through operational definitions of variables,

large sample size, random sampling techniques, valid & reliable research tools, & formal
data collection methods.
 Descriptive designs include identification of phenomenon of interest, identifying the
variables within the phenomenon, developing operational definitions of the variables,
& describing the variables.

TYPES OF DESCRIPTIVE RESEARCH

1. Survey

A research design used when the researcher intends to provide a quantitative or

numeric description of trends, attitudes or opinions of a population by studying a
sample of that population

2. Correlational

This is a nonexperimental design, where researcher examines the relationship between

two or more variables in a natural setting without manipulation or control.

In other words, it is a research design where researchers study the relationship of two
or more variables without any intervention.

For example, this design was used for A correlational study on the effect of smoking on
lung cancer among people in Mehsana.

3. Ex-Post Facto Research Design

Used to investigate causal relationships. They examine whether one or more pre-
existing conditions could possibly have caused subsequent differences between groups
of subjects
Ex: What is the effect of home schooling on the social skills of adolescents?

4. Comparative Design

Comparative design involves comparing & contrasting two or more samples of study
subjects on one or more variables, often at a single point of time.

This design is used to compare two distinct groups on the basis of selected attributed
such as knowledge level, perceptions, & attitudes; physical or psychological symptoms;
& so on.

For example, A comparative study on health problems among rural & urban older
people in district Mehsana, Gujarat.

5. Evaluative Research
 Seeks to assess or judge in some way providing information about something other
than might be gleaned in mere observation or investigation of relationships.

For example, where a test of children in school is used to assess the effectiveness of
teaching or the deployment of a curriculum.

6. Methodological

In this approach, the implementation of a variety of methodologies forms a critical part

of achieving the goal of developing a scale-matched approach, where data from
different disciplines can be integrated.

VARIABLES

Specifically refers to a characteristic, or attribute of an individual or an

organization that can be measured or observed and that varies among the people or
organization being studied.

THE NATURE OF VARIABLES AND DATA

4 TYPES OF VARIABLES
Nominal v

a Represent categories that cannot be ordered in any particular way.

A sub-type of nominal scale with only two categories is called DICHOTOMOUS

ORDINAL VARIABLES

Have values that lie along an evenly dispersed range of numbers.

They dont have a true zero. For example, there is no such thing as no temp..
Without a true zero, it is impossible to compute ratios

Ex.: Temp
Attitude scales
Calendar years

RATIO VARIABLES
Have values that lie along an evenly dispersed range of numbers when there is
absolute zero, as opposed to net worth, which can have a negative debt-to-income
ratio-level variable.

Have all of the characteristics of the nominal and interval scales.

Examples: weight
Height
Time
Distance
 KINDS OF VARIABLES
INDEPENDENT VARIABLES
Those that probably cause, influence or affect outcomes. They are invariably called
treatment, manipulated, antecedent or predictor variables.

DEPENDENT VARIABLES
Those that depend on the independent variables; They are the outcomes or results of
the influence of the independent variable.

INTERVENING OR MEDIATING VARIABLES

"Stand" "Between" The independent and dependent variables, and they show the
effects of the independent variable on the dependent variable.

CONTROL VARIABLES
Special types of independent variable that are measured in a study because they
potentially influence the dependent variable.

CONFOUNDING VARIABLES
Those that are not actually measured or observed in a study. They exist but their
influence cannot be directly detected in a study.