Descriptive designs are used to explore relationships between variables. A descriptive study may be used to develop theory, identify problems with current practice, justify current practice, make judgments or analyze the results of a pilot study to examine whether a main study is practical (i.e. whether evidence exists to justify spending time, money, and other resources for further investigation). There is no manipulation of variables and no attempt to establish causality.
Descriptive studies typically involve the use ex post facto designs. Ex post facto means after the fact and refers to real-life studies that employ some of the same statistical tools used in experimental and qusi-experimental studies. It is certainly true that ex-post facto studies, or ones employing real life variables, are considered correlational. Correlative studies refer to quantitative studies that examine relationships as pairs of variables to observe how they vary with respect to each other.
Descriptive designs are performed by each StatsBusters member firm in the United States and United Kingdom. For more information on these designs, contact a StatsBusters consultant today.
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