Everything about conducting research
April 26, 2026 ยท View on GitHub
Jotting down my learnings on conducting research from a non-academic POV.
Approaches
- Positivism entails that the world is objective and there's a fundamental truth. Relies on deductive logic.
- Constructivism entails that the world is subjective and things can only be understood based on people's experiences. Relies on qualitative research methods.
Viewpoints
- Insider
- Outsider
Building a research question
Research Strategy
- Case Study
- Qualitative Interviews
- Quantitative Survey
- Action Oriented research
Types of Questions
| Question Type | Description |
|---|---|
| Existence | Does x exist? |
| Description and classification | To what extent does x exist? |
| Composition | What makes up x? |
| Descriptive-comparative | Is x different to y? |
| Relationship | Is there an association between x and y? |
| Causal | Does x lead to y? |
| Causal-comparative | Does x cause more change in y than z does? |
| Causal-comparative interaction | Does x cause change under certain conditions? |
Preliminary questions to ask while researching questions
A bunch of questions & queries to research across knowledge mediums to get a holistic understanding of your research topic.
- History of topic.
- Historical and contemporary problems associated.
- Actors and their motivations involved.
- Institutions that govern the knowledge and actors (and their high-level goals).
The Research Process
Preliminary Considerations
- Avoid logical fallacies.
- Avoid (or keep in check) cognitive biases.
Reflections
- Start building up love for your research topic, when you love something, you wanna know more about them. Only way to do this is to romaticise both the subject and object.
References
- Critically exploring psychology
- How to Start Researching as a Hobby
- Understanding different research perspectives