A researcher intends to explore the effect of possible factors for the…
2016
A researcher intends to explore the effect of possible factors for the organization of effective mid-day meal interventions. Which research method will be most appropriate for this study ?
Answer: D. Ex-post-facto method — ConceptChoosing a research method turns on two things: whether the investigator can manipulate the suspected causal factor, and in which direction the enquiry…
- A.
Historical method
- B.
Descriptive survey method
- C.
Experimental method
- D.
Ex-post-facto method
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: D
Concept
Choosing a research method turns on two things: whether the investigator can manipulate the suspected causal factor, and in which direction the enquiry travels. If the factor can be assigned to some units and withheld from others by the researcher, the study can move forward from a manipulated cause to an observed effect. If the factor is already fixed in the field and the outcome has already occurred, the only available direction is backward — from the effect that exists to the antecedent conditions that accompany it. A separate family of methods does not pursue causes at all: it either describes the present state of affairs or reconstructs events that are already closed.
Applying this to the study
The mid-day meal scheme is already running in schools. The possible factors whose effect is to be explored — kitchen infrastructure, trained cooks, community participation, supply chains, monitoring — are already present on the ground, and the researcher cannot randomly grant them to one school and withhold them from another. The outcome, how effective each intervention turned out to be, already exists as well. So the enquiry has to begin from schools whose interventions are already more effective or less effective and work backwards to the conditions that distinguish them. A design that starts from an effect that already exists and searches for its antecedents, manipulating nothing, is the ex-post-facto (causal-comparative) method.
Contrasting the other methods
Method | What it would demand in this study |
|---|---|
Experimental method | The investigator would have to assign the factors — for instance randomly giving some schools a trained cook and denying one to others — and hold everything else constant, which an already-running welfare programme does not allow. |
Descriptive survey method | The study would map how mid-day meals are organised at present and what stakeholders report, but it would stop at describing the current status rather than tracing the effect of the factors. |
Historical method | The study would work from documents, records and testimony to reconstruct an episode that is already closed, whereas the intervention here is an ongoing programme whose effectiveness is to be explained. |
Since the factors are already present and cannot be manipulated, and the enquiry must run from the existing effect back to its antecedents, the ex-post-facto method is the most appropriate design for this study.