Research Motivation – Motivational factors for opting research

In this article, let us understand the research motivation or what are the key motivational factors for students who opt for research.

Research Motivation Reasons

The research motivation may be either due to one or more of the following reasons:

  1. The desire to get a research degree along with its significance.
  2. The desire to face challenges in solving the unsolved problems. For example, concern over practical problem initiates research.
  3. The desire to get the intellectual joy of doing some creative work.
  4. The desire to be finding solutions which service to society.
  5. The aspiration to get respectability.

However, this is not an exhaustive list of research motivation factors for people to undertake research studies.

Many more factors such as government directives, employment conditions, curiosity about new things, social thinking and awakening may as well motivate people to perform research operations.

Objectives of Research

The purpose of the research is to know the answers to questions through the application of scientific procedures.

The main aim is to find out the truth or to know the answer which has not be known yet.

Every research study has its own purpose, and research objectives can be classified into following broad groupings.

  1. To get familiar with a phenomenon or to achieve new insights into it (study with this object is termed as exploratory or formulative.
  2. To put accurately the characteristics of a particular individual, situation or a group (study with this object is known as descriptive research study).
  3. To determine the occurrence of which something happens or association with something else (study with this object is known as diagnostic research study).
  4. To test a hypothesis of a causal relationship between variables (the study is known as hypothesis-testing research studies).

Significance of Research

In the context of Hudson Maxim. Progress is possible with increased amounts of research.

Research instructs scientific and inductive thinking, and it promotes the development of logical habits of thinking and organization.

The increasingly sophisticated nature of business and government has focused their attention on the use of research in solving operational problems.

Nowadays, our economic system highly relies on the research to formulate the government policies.

For example, the budget of any country requires the analysis of people’s needs with expected expenditure required to meet those needs. In such conditions, research is heavily required to equate the cost of probable revenues to cover the cost of meeting people’s needs.

Research Process – Importance of knowing the process

Research methodology gives a student the necessary training in gathering material and arranging that information.

It also helps a student for participation in the field work whenever required.

It also trains in techniques for the collection of data which is appropriate to particular problems,

The research process also helps in the course of using statistics, questionnaires, controlled experimentation, recording evidence, sorting it out and interpreting it.

Importance of knowing the research methodology or how research is carried stems from the following considerations:

  1. The knowledge of methodology provides proper training especially to the new research worker and enables him to do better research.
  2. The methodology also helps the researcher to develop disciplined thinking or to observe the field objectively.
  3. Knowledge of how to do research will instruct the ability to estimate and use research results with reasonable confidence.
  4. Research methodology knowledge enables the consumers of research results to evaluate them and make rational decisions.

Research Methodology Introduction – Characteristics of Research

Research methodology can be defined as a scientific and systematic search for pertinent information or facts on the specific topic.

In fact, it is an art of scientific information. Research in common parlance refers to a search for knowledge.

You can undertake research within most professions, more than a set of skills, it is a way of thinking, examining more critically the various aspects of your professional work.

When you say you are undertaking a research study to find answers to a question, you are implying that the process is being undertaken within a framework of a set of philosophies, uses procedures, methods, and techniques.

The word research is composed of two syllables, re and search.

Re is a prefix meaning again, a new & over again. Search is a verb, which means examine closely and carefully.

Together they describe a careful, systematic study and investigation in some field of knowledge undertaken to establish facts and principles.

It is an academic activity which can be also used in technical sense. The meaning of research is, “a careful investigation or inquiry specially through search for new facts in any branch of knowledge”.

Definitions of Research

  1. According to Redman and Mory – A systematized effort to gain new knowledge.
  2. According to Clifford Woody – Research compromises defining and redefining problems, formulating a hypothesis or suggested solutions, collecting and evaluating data, making deductions and reaching conclusions.
  3. According to D.Slesinger – The manipulation of things, concepts or symbols for the purpose of generalizing to extend, correct or verify knowledge aids in construction of theory or in the practice of an art.

We can say that research is used to collect information & data for the purpose of making business decisions.

The research methodology may include publication research, interviews, surveys & other research techniques & could include both present & historical information.

In short, research refers to the systematic method of describing the problem clearly and precisely, formulating a hypothesis, collecting data and analyzing it and then reach a certain conclusion of a problem.

Characteristics of Research

Research is a process of collecting, analyzing and interpreting information to answers. But to complete the process it must have certain characteristics, which are as follows:

Controlled

It means exploring casualty in the relation of two factors. In simpler words, it can be stated that one must set his study in such a way that minimizes the other factors affecting the relationship.

Rigorous

You must be careful in ensuring the procedures used to find the answers to the questions are relevant, justified & appropriate. The degree of rigor varies between physical and social science.

Systematic

The procedure adopted to take an investigation should follow a certain logical sequence. Some procedure must follow others.

Valid & verifiable

Whatever you conclude on the basis of your findings is correct and can be verified by you and others.

Empirical

Any conclusion drawn should be based on the data gathered from information based on life experiences or observations.

Critical

The process of investigation must be foolproof and free from drawbacks. The process adopted and the procedures used must be able to withstand critical scrutiny.

For a process to be called research, it is imperative that it has the above characteristics.

It is a structured inquiry that utilizes acceptable scientific methodology to solve problems and create new knowledge that is generally applicable.

Scientific methods consist of systematic observation, classification, and interpretation of data.