Explanatory Research
Explanatory research is a non-experimental quantitative research design that goes beyond describing a phenomenon to identifying why it occurs — examining the relationships or mechanisms that account for observed patterns. Rooted in positivist social science methodology, it uses theory-driven hypotheses and statistical analysis to test whether specific variables explain variation in an outcome, without necessarily manipulating those variables.
Source record
Citations copied verbatim from the method’s source record. No claim-level verification is inferred from them.
- Kerlinger, F. N. (1986). Foundations of Behavioral Research (3rd ed.). Holt, Rinehart and Winston. · ISBN 978-0030417559
- Babbie, E. (2010). The Practice of Social Research (12th ed.). Wadsworth/Cengage Learning. · ISBN 978-0495598428
Curated claims
Claims persisted in the evidence ledger, each with its own assessment.
This view does not invent a claim assessment when the ledger has none.
Related methods
Generated from the method graph and shown as machine-suggested relations — no evidence claim is inferred.