Research Methods

Question: Explain Research Methods. Answer: I am a research scholar pursuing a Ph.D degree. I feel that my course of study while pursuing the Ph.D degree would help me approach a research problem in an efficient manner. Firstly, my Ph.D degree course helps me to choose a suitable topic for doing the research. Sometimes people get confused to select the right research topic of their choice. My degree course provides different strategies for selecting a suitable and exciting topic for the research. There is no fixed algorithm or formula for selecting an appropriate research topic. The selection of the research topic depends on the persons imagination and skills. The skills and imaginations of Paul Samuelson have made him a prominent name as a scientist in the field of Economics (Bryman Bell, 2015). My Ph.D degree course generates excitement in my mind to conduct the research. The degree course gives me a proper idea of framing the research questions in an appropriate manner. My course of learning gives me the idea about the components of a good research paper. My degree course guides me to approach the research questions in the right way. Hence, I can get a clear idea about the way of answering the research questions. My degree course helps me to highlight the significance of the research topic. In my PH.D degree course I have learnt how to challenge or develop the literature on the research topic that I can find in different sources. The above discussion gives us a clear idea about how the Ph.D degree course can help people approach the research problem with deft hands (Collis Hussey, 2013). I firmly believe that the Ph.D degree course that I am pursuing would influence my decisions about the research design and approach. By undertaking the Ph.D degree course, I have a clear idea about the way I would approach my research. I would frame the design of my research in the most appropriate manner. My research design would include the following steps: Selecting the research topic: First, I would select a suitable topic of my study. The topic would be something associated with the society or environment or business. Literature review: Secondly, I would review the literature available on the topic from different sources. The literature review provides a clear idea of the research topic. Data collection and analysis: The next step in my research would be to collect relevant data on the topic. The data may be qualitative or quantitative in nature depending on the chosen topic of the research. Then I would analyse the data that I have collected. I may perform qualitative or quantitative analysis of the data. Reporting and conclusion: Finally, I would present the findings of my research in a proper manner (Denscombe, 2014). My Ph.D degree course guides me through all these steps of framing the design of the research. My course of study helps in building up of a frame of mind that can think critically. My degree course also allows me to analyse the situation with critical thinking approach. The Ph.D course would help me decide in each and every step of the research process. The research works of famous scientist Ken Arrow shows how he invented and discovered new branches of Economics (Fink, 2013). I believe that my Ph.D degree would influence my research methodology and design in a positive way. While taking the course, the first thing that I realised is that the Ph.D degree course is not the continuation of the undergraduate degree course. In the undergraduate degree course, a student has to complete a set of assignments that his professor allots to him. In the Ph.D degree course, the scholar has to develop original and significant research paper. The research work of the Ph.D scholar would reflect the area of the expertise of the researcher. The Ph.D degree course helps me develop a deep and broad base of knowledge that would help me conduct the research process (Gray, 2013). In the Ph.D degree program, no one will judge me on the basis of my grades. In the Ph.D programme, my innovative and creative mind would help me sail through the research process. The Ph.D program is designed to help the students produce unique research papers that would reflect their innovative and analytical skills. Hence, the research degree course would help me in completing every step of the research process. The Ph.D degree would help me in selecting a suitable research topic and frame the most appropriate research questions. The course structure would help me develop an inquisitive mind. This would help me to go through the various literatures available on my topic. I would be able to successfully extract the desired information from those literatures by creating a review on them. Finally, the Ph.D degree would help me analyse the data in a critical way. My course also teaches me to report the findings of my research in a presentable manner. The works of the famous scientist A lain Aspect in the Quantum theory reflects his innovative and inquisitive mind (Heppner, et al., 2015). The final aspect that I want to discuss here is that the Ph.D program would make me a better mixed researcher. Mixed researcher is a person who can handle both qualitative and quantitative analysis of data efficiently. My Ph.D course would help me perform statistical analysis of the quantitative data. My course requires me to acquire proper knowledge of the statistical software like R, SPSS, STATA to analyse the data (Gray, 2013). My course gives a proper understanding and knowledge of the subject. I can handle the quantitative data in a more precise and accurate manner. My degree course requires me to interview many subjects to extract data from them. My course gives me confidence to interview the people with the help of questionnaire. My Ph.D degree course also makes me efficient in adopting different qualitative analysis techniques of data analysis. The course gives me a proper understanding of the different scaling structures on which the qualitative data needs to be analysed. There are other psychological tests that would help to understand the psychology of the respondents. My Ph.D degree would give me a clear idea of all these aspects. Hence, after finishing the course for getting the Ph.D degree, I would consider myself to be an efficient researcher who can handle both qualitative and quantitative analysis of data. Allen Bard is a famous scientist who has contributed in the field of Electrochemistry (Collis Hussey, 2013). His works inspires me to become a mixed researcher in my field of study. References: Bryman, A., Bell, E. (2015).Business research methods. Oxford University Press, USA. Collis, J., Hussey, R. (2013).Business research: A practical guide for undergraduate and postgraduate students. Palgrave macmillan. Denscombe, M. (2014).The good research guide: for small-scale social research projects. McGraw-Hill Education (UK). Fink, A. (2013).Conducting Research Literature Reviews: From the Internet to Paper: From the Internet to Paper. Sage Publications. Gray, D. E. (2013).Doing research in the real world. Sage. Heppner, P., Wampold, B., Owen, J., Thompson, M., Wang, K. (2015).Research design in counseling. Cengage Learning.