เปรียบเทียบวิธี

	การสำรวจเชิงสัมพันธ์	การวิจัยเชิงพรรณนา
สาขาวิชา	การออกแบบการวิจัย	การออกแบบการวิจัย
ตระกูล	Process / pipeline	Process / pipeline
ปีกำเนิด	Mid-20th century onward (systematised ~1960s–1990s)	Late 19th century; formalized in social/behavioral sciences ~1960s–1980s
ผู้ริเริ่ม	Established in educational and social science research methodology; systematised by Fraenkel & Wallen and others	Francis Galton, Karl Pearson (early empirical tradition); formalized in social science by Fred 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	Creswell, J. W. (2014). Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches (4th ed.). Sage. ISBN: 978-1452226101
ชื่อเรียกอื่น	correlational survey, associational survey, relationship survey design, relational descriptive survey	descriptive study, descriptive survey design, observational descriptive research, non-experimental descriptive research
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.	Descriptive research is a non-experimental quantitative design that systematically documents the characteristics, frequencies, or distributions of variables in a defined population at a given point in time. It answers 'what is' questions — who, what, when, where, and how much — without manipulating variables or drawing causal conclusions. It is one of the most widely used research designs across the social, behavioral, health, and education sciences.