Arn Justin Gonzaga BSIT 3A IT Research
1.) What is descriptive research? This research is the most commonly used and the basic reason for carrying out descriptive research is to identify the cause of something that is happening. For instance, this research could be used in order to find out what age group is buying a particular brand of cola, whether a company’s market share differs between geographical regions or to discover how many competitors a company has in their marketplace. However, if the research is to return useful results, whoever is conducting the research must comply with strict research requirements in order to obtain the most accurate figures/results possible.
2.) What are the advantages and disadvantages of descriptive research?
Advantages:
Greater confidentiality possible because of personal contact
Flexibility to give follow-up questions
Opportunity to clarify questions
Can judge adequacy (honesty?) of replies
Higher return rate
Disadvantages/Challenges:
Fewer subjects can be sampled
More expensive because of travel or phone
Need to be able to take notes quickly or get permission to tape
Need to be able to listen to one reply and be ready to follow-up immediately with the next question
Requires skilled interviewer
3.) What are the types of descriptive research? (explain briefly)
- Cross-Sectional: taken at one time–a snapshot of the participants
- Longitudinal: sample followed over time to see how they change
- Trend: annual selection of new people within a certain group
- Cohort: Different participants each year, but from the same initial group
- Panel: Same people each year, from within the same initial group
- Follow-up: The panel group studied some time later