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However, today Anthropology focuses on all kinds of human societies, using different
methods and techniques for their research without losing its integrative and holistic
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approachand field orientation. This is done in a systematic way by following scientific
methods.

Q2. Elucidate the different types of research design in anthropology.
Ans. There are various types of research design. Let us discuss some ofthem in the
following section.
Exploratory or Formulative Research Design: When research aims to gain
familiarity with a phenomenon or to acquire new insight into it in order to formulate a
more precise problem or to develop a hypothesis, exploratory studies (also known as
formulative research) come in handy.This research design studies basicallydeals with
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exploring new ideas and facts. It is the primary and first researchdone on that particular
problem. Exploratory research provides the first handornew knowledge or discovers
something new regarding the study or problem.
Descriptive Research Design: Descriptive research design a qualitativeresearch, in
this design, studies provide detail knowledge and descriptionabout a particular culture,
group, individual or situation. Descriptive researchdesign mainly probe into such areas
where there is research gap; thesestudies provide detail answers to the questions of who,
what, when, where,and howassociated with a particular research problem. Under this
design aresearcher should specify the objectives with sufficient precision to ensurethat
the data collected are relevant. Researchers can collect both primary andsecondary data
for descriptive study. Hypotheses are generally formulated onthe basis of existing
data.It includes ethnographic study, case study,observation and surveys. For example,
ethnographic study anthropologystudies detail about particular culture or group. The
discipline of sociology,political science and economics conduct survey research in large-
scalesocieties or populous nations.
Diagnostic Research Design: In the diagnostic research design, a researcher is
inclined towards evaluating the root cause of a specific topic. Elements that contribute
towards a troublesome situation are evaluated in this research design method.
There are three parts of diagnostic research design:
• Inception of the issue
• Diagnosis of the issue
• Solution for the issue
Experimental Research Design: Experimental research design is used to establish a
relationship between the cause and effect of a situation. It is a causal research design
where the effect caused by the independent variable on the dependent variable is
observed. For example, the effect of an independent variable such as price on a
dependent variable such as customer satisfaction or brand loyalty is monitored. It is a
highly practical research design method as it contributes towards solving a problem at
hand. The independent variables are manipulated to monitor the change it has on the

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