方法对比

	描述性研究	调查研究
领域	研究设计	研究设计
方法族	Process / pipeline	Process / pipeline
起源年份	Late 19th century; formalized in social/behavioral sciences ~1960s–1980s	Late 19th century; methodologically systematised 1940s–1960s
提出者	Francis Galton, Karl Pearson (early empirical tradition); formalized in social science by Fred Kerlinger	Francis Galton, Charles Booth, and early social statisticians; systematised by Paul Lazarsfeld and colleagues at Columbia in the 1940s
类型	Non-experimental quantitative research design	Quantitative (and mixed) non-experimental design
开创性文献	Creswell, J. W. (2014). Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches (4th ed.). Sage. ISBN: 978-1452226101	Fowler, F. J. (2014). Survey Research Methods (5th ed.). Sage Publications. ISBN: 978-1452259000
别名	descriptive study, descriptive survey design, observational descriptive research, non-experimental descriptive research	survey methodology, questionnaire research, survey design, survey study
相关	3	4
摘要	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.	Survey research is a quantitative (and sometimes mixed-methods) design in which a researcher collects standardised self-report data from a sample drawn from a defined population, using a questionnaire or structured interview. It is the dominant non-experimental strategy for describing population characteristics, estimating prevalence, mapping attitude distributions, and testing bivariate or multivariate associations across social, behavioural, and health sciences.