Research Approaches and Methodologies in Social Science

This report explores different research approaches and methodologies in social science, including deductive, inductive, and abductive approaches, as well as qualitative and quantitative research methods.

Social Science
Research

Contents
INTRODUCTION.....................................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY.............................................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION..........................................................................................................................................4
REFERENCES..........................................................................................................................................5

INTRODUCTION
Research methodology is a path through which a researcher can conduct their research in
more effective manner (Mackey and Gass, 2015). It also can be defined as an activity that
involves finding out data as well as information in more systematic way. In this, researcher has
an option to choose appropriate method as per the requirement of their research and its findings.
This report is going to determine different research approaches and methodologies as well as its
uses for different purpose. Furthermore, this going to include strength and weaknesses of
research methodologies that has been used.
MAIN BODY
Types of research approaches and methods can be classified into several categories
according to its nature as well as purpose of the study. There are several researches approaches
and methodologies are describing below as -
Research approaches:
 Deductive research approach: This approach is based on hypothesis of existing theory
in order to designing a new research strategy to examine the effectiveness of this
hypothesis. Main purpose of choosing this research approach is to develop a reasoning
depends on facts and evidences. Deductive reasoning always assists to provide solid and
repeatable conclusion. Most of the researcher prefer deductive approach for their research
in order to generate appropriate evidences from the reliable sources.
 Inductive research approach: This approach is based on generation of new theory
emerging from data and information which are collected from existing sources.
Reasoning of inductive research approach is based on different patterns (Kumar, 2019).
This makes general as well as most probable conclusions about the evidences that has
been observed.
 Abductive research approach: This approach is similar to inductive and deductive
approach of research in a way that it is applied to make construct theories as well as
logical inferences. This research process basically starts with puzzles or surprising facts
in order to devoted its explanation appropriately.

Research methodology:
 Qualitative research: This method emphasizes on objective measurements and is a set of
numeric analysis of data that is collected through polls, questionnaires, surveys by the
manipulation of existing statistical methods and computational techniques (Bresler and
Stake, 2017). It always focuses on numerical data as it always deals in numbers, logical
variable in order to determine the arithmetical accuracy. Major strength of this methods is
that it provides more detailed information to explain complex issues. On the other hand,
weakness of this method is that it is usually time consuming.
 Quantitative research: It consist of non-numeric data that involve the scientific method
of observation that occurs through case study, personal experience, artifacts, historical
and so on. This includes research concepts and various methods to understand the in
depth behavior of human through various case studies that are provided. This method
includes literature reviews, interview with experts, computer simulation and so on that
help in conducting day to day operations of a business. Data from tis research is relatively
easy to analyze which is the major strength of this method. On the other side, it is
difficult to understand the phenomenon of this method that create a major disadvantage
for this method.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it has been summarized that research methodology provide a clear
path to researcher to gather data and information in an effective manner. For this, thy always
choose most appropriate method that assist in providing information based on their requirement
and need.

REFERENCES
Books & Journals
Mackey, A. and Gass, S.M., 2015. Second language research: Methodology and design.
Routledge.
Kumar, R., 2019. Research methodology: A step-by-step guide for beginners. Sage Publications
Limited.
Bresler, L. and Stake, R.E., 2017. Qualitative research methodology in music education. In
Critical Essays in Music Education (pp. 113-128). Routledge.