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information useful in decision making. It was made to assess the
effectiveness of social or economic programmes implemented
(e.g. poverty alleviation programme) or for assessing the impact
of developmental projects (e.g. Railway development project) on
◆ Assessment of the development of the project area.
effectiveness f. Action research
Scenario: Development of an information source for patients
and the public about general practice services.

A form of applied research is called action research. The
difference between applied research and action research is that
the former may be taken by a researcher to find results for a
problem being faced by a third party. However, action research
has a condition attached that the researcher is also the practitioner.
Hence action research is being undertaken by a researcher to
improve upon his own practices. It is a concurrent evaluation
study of an action programme launched for solving problems/for
◆ Action programme improving an existing situation.
1.1.2.2 Types of Research on the Basis of Method

Types of research on the basis of method refer to the specific
approaches or methodologies used to collect and analyse data in a
research study.

a. Experimental research
◆ Action programme Scenario: If a cake shop wants to see if adding more flour
changes the overall response, it will experiment with different
amounts of flour and observe how customers react.
Motivation, productivity, development, and operational
efficiency are all phenomena that are influenced by various
variables. It may become necessary to evaluate the impact of
a single variable or a set of variables on a phenomenon. This
requirement has given rise to experimental research. Experimental
research is designed to assess the effects of particular variables
on a phenomenon by keeping the other variables constant or
controlled. The experiment is the basic tool of the physical
sciences for tracing cause and effect relationships and for verifying
inferences. Its application in social science is still in its infancy.
◆ Causal relationship Experimental research involves systematically manipulating one
or more variables in order to observe and analyse the effects and
relationships between those variables under controlled conditions.
This approach is used to establish cause-and-effect relationships
and draw conclusions about how changes in one variable lead to
changes in another.
b. Analytical research

Scenario: Explaining why and how U.S. trade balance moves in

6 SGOU - SLM -MCom Research Methodology