What Is Explanatory Research And Its Goals?

The goal of all explanatory research is to answer the question of why. Explanatory research attempts to go above and beyond what exploratory and descriptive research to identify the actual reasons a phenomenon occurs. An example of descriptive research would be a study that finds that Christian couples are twice as likely to divorce as Jewish couples. An explanatory researcher would then be interested in the reasons behind these facts.

There are many other goals of good scientific exploratory research. They include explaining things in detail and not just reporting. It should build and enrich the reasons behind a theory. If there are several explanations for a particular phenomenon, it should determine which one is the best answer. If a theory has already been developed, the focus will be on testing a theory's predictions or principles. If the results consistently agrees with the theory, it is valid. If experiments fail to produce the same results as the original theory, in all likelihood the theory is false and a return to the scientific method will need to be undertaken to find a better explanation as to the phenomenon.

Explanatory research also attempts to build and elaborate on theories and add to predictions and principles where possible. This is done by using the scientific method to test the evidence to extend an idea put forth or use it to reach into new areas and issues as well as new topics which science can address in an attempt to improve the quality of life for people.

Science today is a tool to advance technology and improve the quality of life for people all over the world. Explanatory research is one of the primary methods used in this effort and the scope of its use is expanding to fields other than science to achieve predictable results.

Explanatory Research

When we encounter an issue that is already known and have a description of it, we might begin to wonder why things are the way they are. The desire to know "why," to explain, is the purpose of explanatory research. It builds on exploratory and descriptive research and goes on to identify the reasons for something that occurs. Explanatory research looks for causes and reasons. For example, a descriptive research may discover that 10 percent of the parents abuse their children, whereas the explanatory researcher is more interested in learning why parents abuse their children.

Goals of Explanatory Research

1. Explain things not just reporting. Why? Elaborate and enrich a theory's explanation.

2. Determine which of several explanations is best.

3. Determine the accuracy of the theory; test a theory's predictions or principle.

4. Advance knowledge about underlying process.

5. Build and elaborate a theory; elaborate and enrich a theory's predictions or principle.

6. Extend a theory or principle to new areas, new issues, and new topics:

7. Provide evidence to support or refute an explanation or prediction.

8. Test a theory's predictions or principles.

Explanatory research can be defined as a method or style of research in which the principal objective is to know and understand the trait and mechanisms of the relationship and association between the independent and dependent variable.

The focal point in this type of research is to seek and provide an explanation between two or more phenomena. For example, little pay causes public to leave, or deprive and bad management causes people to leave. Explanatory research characteristically seeks to recognize and clarify a causal association which is substantively significant and meaningful. In this sort of study, people normally develop or build up hypotheses, which is to be tested an experienced in the light of the existing literature and after that observe whether the data they have composed and collected can either be called on to support or disprove those hypotheses. This sort of approach is more possible to utilize and employ quantitative methods, normally a survey, but one could also seek descriptive and explanatory type research by means of case studies and observational data. This type or research can have many goals; first is the development of a mental picture of the topic which is under observation. Second is to determine the research feasibility. Third is to refine the research ideas by formulating different questions. Fourth is that the initial ideas can be built up. In a nut shell there are so many advantages of explanatory research.

Basically, the explanatory research aims at answering the 'why' question.