เปรียบเทียบวิธี

	การสำรวจเชิงสัมพันธ์	การวิจัยเชิงเปรียบเทียบสาเหตุ
สาขาวิชา	การออกแบบการวิจัย	การออกแบบการวิจัย
ตระกูล	Process / pipeline	Process / pipeline
ปีกำเนิด	Mid-20th century onward (systematised ~1960s–1990s)	1964
ผู้ริเริ่ม	Established in educational and social science research methodology; systematised by Fraenkel & Wallen and others	Fred N. Kerlinger
ประเภท	Quantitative non-experimental survey design	Non-experimental quantitative research design
แหล่งต้นตำรับ	Fraenkel, J. R., Wallen, N. E., & Hyun, H. H. (2009). How to Design and Evaluate Research in Education (8th ed.). McGraw-Hill. ISBN: 978-0073525748	Kerlinger, F. N. (1964). Foundations of Behavioral Research. Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
ชื่อเรียกอื่น	correlational survey, associational survey, relationship survey design, relational descriptive survey	ex post facto research, causal-comparative design, retrospective causal study, CCR
ที่เกี่ยวข้อง	4	3
สรุป	Relational survey research is a quantitative, non-experimental design that gathers structured self-report data from a sample and examines the statistical associations among two or more variables. Unlike purely descriptive surveys, which only characterise distributions, relational surveys ask whether and how strongly variables co-vary — providing evidence of relationships without manipulating conditions or establishing causation.	Causal-comparative research is a non-experimental quantitative design in which the researcher compares two or more groups that already differ on an independent variable — one that was not manipulated — to investigate possible causes or consequences of that difference. Because group membership is pre-existing rather than randomly assigned, the design can suggest causal relationships but cannot establish them with the certainty of a true experiment. It is widely used in education, psychology, and social sciences when experimental manipulation is impractical or unethical.