Sajjad,

A little tricky to answer without a little more detail. For instance, in qualitative research, a popular 'generic' approach is qualitative 'descriptive exploratory' (free-form) research - so it is both. In quantitative research - descriptive - tends to lend itself to surveys etc - whereas exploratory is a term that is not often used. If you break the terms down - it could simply be down to different parts of the overall process i.e. the exploratory part is the study design (data collection & data analysis) - the description is the result of this process - or the findings/results.

Sajjad,

A little tricky to answer without a little more detail. For instance, in qualitative research, a popular 'generic' approach is qualitative 'descriptive exploratory' (free-form) research - so it is both. In quantitative research - descriptive - tends to lend itself to surveys etc - whereas exploratory is a term that is not often used. If you break the terms down - it could simply be down to different parts of the overall process i.e. the exploratory part is the study design (data collection & data analysis) - the description is the result of this process - or the findings/results.

Thanks for clearance but still confused please give some example in real phenomena..........i hope you will not mind it

Dear Sajjad:

Here is a graphic example of exploratory research and descriptive research in he Humanities: examining the contents of an archive is exploratory research. The examination was performed in accordance with a preconceived plan. Describing and defining specific finds from that archive is descriptive research. In 2011 I explored the composer Manuel de Falla´s archives of manuscripts and letters for data concerning his relationship to the poet Federico García Lorca. In 2013 I published descriptions and definitions of relevant manuscripts and letters (papers mentioning the poet) in the form of a book.

I think, the antonym of an exploratory research is a formal research. Descriptive research, as many understands it is a type of formal research. An exploratory research is a non-formal research. A formal research is the kind that we do that is expected to comply with certain forms, standards and peer-critiquing. Descriptive research is a quantitative one that is categorized with correlational and causal studies. An example of an exploratory research would be this. "I have a hunch that students who devote more time working with the computers fair better in exams than students who do not. Without any formal research proposal I proceeded to investigating if my hunch is correct...." Descriptive research would be a cross-sectional survey of the income of the students.

Eddie - the descriptive design is often aimed at survey-based research as you suggest - but it's wider than that. As I indicated earlier in this thread - qualitative research can also be descriptive (and it can also be exploratory) - and many quantitative studies (regardless of methodology) often describe the sample demographic in descriptive terms; I'm not sure that it is anything to do with 'formality'.

Qualitative research is often used in new situations or when the field's major concepts, hypotheses, issues, processes, stages and the like are unknown. As much as qualitative research is criticized for being subjective, all the types have formats that guide the research methodology without providing a restrictive framework. For example, I interviewed 111 patients who had once been unconscious and asked them what that experience was like. At the time we had limited knowledge of the type of experiences that could occur. It was a Phenomenological study.

In exploratory studies as method, there are limited or lacking rules for collecting data. In my experience being on a number of IRBs, they have difficulty getting approved for human subject research. There are enough approaches in all disciplines that allow for exploration of a phenomena without over restricting the emergence of content. What I have seen is the members of the IRB will offer a suggestion to the researcher who says he or she wants to do an exploratory study on how to use a method that allows the research question to be answer but has a defined process.

If I had gone to the IRB and said I want to find out what patients experience while unconscious without a method, I wouldn't be allowed to ask questions. The committee would request a methodology that's known and respected of someone who had been that sick. That also helps the researcher with data analysis.

My field is health care, this may be different in other disciplines.

Thank you Dean, I concur with Madelaine, she has expressed more in detail what I intended to say but was not able to and was able to use less-confusing terms than what I employed. Nonetheless, the essence of qualitative research, as I understand it, is in some ways what we are doing now, I guess- expressing our own perceptions, where there could be many, where rigidity will depend on consensus, when processed by Sajjad, subjective each one's opinion maybe, but none the less done interactively.

Very fruitful discussion indeed!

In the case of mixed method approach (both qualitative and quantitative method),  which method would be more appropriate to use? Descriptive or exploratory.  Moreover, if we use the term "exploratory phenomenological method", we would still mean to use the exploratory method or there is the difference?  Kindly facilitate on the subject.

Good question and informative answers thank you all

It is a good discussion on very important topic of social research which is related to methodological aspect of investigations

Thank you for this discussion! It was helpful to me

question to all, in the conducting of research, say to test the feasibility of a newly created survey, that is to understand its reliability and validity as compared to itself and other related survey, is this a matter of exploratory or descriptive research? The same question but differently, if I have a framework that is similar in its design to theoretical designs of various theories, and I want to determine the feasibility of "mapping" the other theories onto my theory, is that a matter of exploration and/or description? How then would I test the applicability of such mapping?