research

Knowledge

2022

We explain what an investigation is, its methodology, elements and other characteristics. In addition, its classification according to different criteria.

Investigations may require experiments to test your hypotheses.

What is research?

Research is understood as a set of human activities aimed at obtaining new knowledge and knowledge, and / or its application to the resolution of problems concrete or existential questions.

That is to say, within this concept all of the methods that he human being he manages to expand in a systematic and verifiable way, the knowledge he possesses regarding the world and himself.

Research has had an important place among human interests since ancient times. It is a method to discover truths deep of universe and also to solve daily, concrete dilemmas, and make the life easier, longer and more dignified.

For this reason, research is present in absolutely all fields of human knowledge, scientific, humanistic or social-scientific. As a practice, it has been refined and formalized as the results obtained by itself have allowed the humanity rethink your role in the world.

Those who carry out research are usually called researchers, and they tend to have a privileged place in academies, professional practice, the technological world and in other fields in which knowledge is valued and actively pursued.

Research characteristics

Research can be very diverse and varied, but in general it is governed by the requirement of minimal rigor, systematicity and objectivity.

It requires the application of a method that is explainable, understandable and transferable, and that has the endorsement of specialized third parties. Otherwise, the results of the investigations may be questioned or put in doubt, since there are methods with greater validity than others in each area of ​​knowledge.

On the other hand, research is always voluntary and active. It implies an interrogative or reflective position regarding the world, oneself and our fellow men.

All research starts from a hypothesis or purpose and is traced objectives in the path. Applying a method, according to the knowledge previously obtained in the area, finally reaches some type of results and later, its analysis, some type of conclusions.

Types of research

A documentary investigation studies documents from the past.

The world of research is so vast that it can be classified in multiple ways, the following three being the most important:

  • According to the nature of its object of study. Can we talk about:
    • Basic, fundamental or pure research. He is interested in purely theoretical knowledge, without bothering to think about its practical or everyday applications. It is of a formal type and seeks knowledge for its own sake.
    • Applied research. On the contrary: it pursues abstract knowledge as a way to solve problems real, concrete and daily life of humanity, therefore having greater commitment with the reality immediate.
    • Clinical or medical research. It is the one that makes the Health of the human being its object of study and is committed to its preservation, restoration or at least with the understanding of its dynamics.
  • According to the nature of its variables. This is, depending on the type of procedures you use:
    • Experimental research. The one that tries to replicate in a controlled environment certain phenomena that happen in the nature, to be able to manipulate their variables and understand its inner workings.
    • Field research. Those in which the researcher enters the habitat of the problem it seeks to study, going even beyond applied research, since it carries out its methods directly in the place of interest, either to understand the problem or to find a solution.
    • Analytical research. It is a type of research that is based on the collation or the comparison between different variables, in order to establish laws, percentages or formal principles.
    • Documentary research. It is one that seeks knowledge in documents: books, magazines, articles, transcripts, files, etc. It is usually monographic, that is, it generates new documents from previous ones, thanks to which the written knowledge of humanity is expanded.
    • Descriptive or statistical research. It consists of the collection of information through polling instruments or surveys, in order to later process it and obtain data statistics that confirm trends, propensities or frequencies.
  • According to the level of measurement of the information. That is, depending on the type of questions asked:
    • Qualitative research. Its name comes from "quality", and it is the type of research that is interested in the meaning of things and in the interpretation that can be made of them, so that its variables rarely involve figures or statistical data, as much as arguments and reflections.
    • Quantitative investigation. Its name comes from "quantity", and on the contrary it deals with measurable or measurable issues, that is, expressible in mathematical terms, percentages or objectives, so it is usually interested in the magnitudes, objectively, without taking into account meanings, only relationships and proportions.

Importance of research

Research is a vital task for humanity, because on it lie the enormous possibilities of understanding the universe that are intrinsic to the human brain.

What today we consider as everyday and as basic knowledge, in another time were enormous unfathomable mysteries or mere fantasies. It was thanks to the gradual accumulation of knowledge resulting from generations of researchers that today we know what we know and who we are.

Research Methods

All research is based on a method, that is, on a series of procedures or a way of proceeding itself. Without a method, an investigation would be a messy set of activities of free interpretation and little rigor.

On the contrary, the presence of a verifiable method ensures that anyone can replicate the researcher's experiences and obtain the same or similar results.

For example, the scientific investigation is sustained in the call Scientific method, emerged during the advent of the modern era. Contemplate a series of Steps, principles and protocols to follow.

Thus, it guarantees that a experiment or an investigation presents the least possible amount of uncertainties, doubts and variables out of control, that is to say, that it is verifiable, trustworthy and verifiable, something that we demand of any scientific contribution today.

Research elements

All research is more or less composed of the following elements:

  • A hypothesis or ask.Which is the starting point of it: a doubt to be resolved or a question about the world, to which a hypothesis or proposal answers, which must be verified or discarded.
  • A method or methodology. In other words, an understandable, explainable, replicable and verifiable step-by-step procedure that serves to lead us to the truth. There are different methods for each type of investigation.
  • A sample or population. That is, a series of data, information, actors, subjects or whatever make up the set to be studied. In some cases they will be persons, in others animals, in others texts, etc.
  • A series of variables. That is, of unknown elements or whose value we ignore, and that we will have to find or clarify throughout the investigative work.
  • A risk. That is, a margin of error or possibility of failure, depending on the nature of the investigation.
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