How do I choose a research methodology?As you’ve probably picked up by now, your research aims and objectives have a major influence on the research methodology. So, the starting point for developing your research methodology is to take a step back and look at the big picture of your research, before you make methodology decisions. The first question you need to ask yourself is whether your research is exploratory or confirmatory in nature.
If your research aims and objectives are primarily exploratory in nature, your research will likely be qualitative and therefore you might consider qualitative data collection methods (e.g. interviews) and analysis methods (e.g. qualitative content analysis).
Conversely, if your research aims and objective are looking to measure or test something (i.e. they’re confirmatory), then your research will quite likely be quantitative in nature, and you might consider quantitative data collection methods (e.g. surveys) and analyses (e.g. statistical analysis).
Designing your research and working out your methodology is a large topic, which we’ll cover in other posts. For now, however, the key takeaway is that you should always start with your research aims and objectives. Every methodology decision will flow from that.
Source:
https://gradcoach.com/what-is-research-methodology/
