methods in the empirical study

When the objective of the study belongs to empiria, the tangible world of people, objects and events, the study is called "empirical" as a contrast to formal sciences like mathematics and logic, which have no association to empiria.

conventional dichotomy qualitative and quantitative approaches are two cultures of research

in the study of activities qualitative and quantitative allow mixing several modes of presentation in the research

the methods in the empirical study of human activities and artefacts on the basis of the expected results from the study:

Descriptive : aims primarily at gathering knowledge (i.e. descriptions and explanations) about the object of study but does not wish to modify the object. The target is to find out how things are, or how they have been.

Normative : tries to define how things should be, includes specifying or planning improvements to the object of study but it does not include carrying out the plans in practice.
sometimes called "applied research"

Development : aim at improving the object of study beside carrying out the practical operations, the project includes their planning and the research that is needed to give a basis for the plans.

determining the extent of the study,
how much material has to be collected,
the selection of analysis method.

Intensive study : searches facts which concern specific models If the study is normative, the target will be to remove a specific practical problem or to improve the same object or other similar objects. Because of the restricted number of objects studied thoroughly in their own environment with all their relevant properties and relationships, thus achieving a deep understanding of their position and meaning in the social and cultural context.

Extensive study : seeks knowledge which is common to all or most of the objects in the class "nomothetic", knowledge for improving the entire class of objects. The number of objects in the study will usually be great, and it will be necessary to restrict the amount of information .

Extensive study which concerns the entire class of cases: Describing or explaining invariances, "laws", common to all the cases in the class.

The four above mentioned approaches select one of them as a starting point when planning your own project as a logical chain of operations which starts from the available inputs of theory and data and finally produces the desired descriptive or normative output.