2. What is a research design?
• A research design is an action plan
• It covers everything you are going to do to solve your research
problem
• conceptualise an operational plan to undertake the various procedures
and tasks required to complete your study;
• ensure that these procedures are adequate to obtain valid, objective
and accurate answers to the research questions.
3. • Who will constitute the study population?
• How will the study population be identified?
• Will a sample or the whole population be selected?
• If a sample is selected, how will it be contacted?
• How will consent be sought?
• What method of data collection will be used and why?
• In the case of a questionnaire, where will the responses be returned?
• How should respondents contact you if they have queries?
• In the case of interviews, where will they be conducted? How will ethical issues be
taken care of?
4. The theory of causality and the research
design
• The independent variable is
a “fact” – it doesn’t change
if anything else changes, it
only brings changes
• A dependent variable is
affected by various other
things
• Extraneous variables
cannot be eliminated or
fully investigated in THIS
study but can be controlled
Look at this theoretical
framework
6. • Changes in the dependent variable, because of the respondent’s state
of mood or ambiguity in the research instrument, are called random
variables or chance variables. The error thus introduced is called the
chance or random error
• For example, if a participant just randomly tick boxes in a questionnaire
because they’re bored
7. Which part is important? According to your logic, how can the
other parts be controlled or reduced
8. 1. Equalizing extra variables
• Randomise: If the groups are comparable by randomization the extent that
extra variables will affect them will be the same
• Matching: Making both groups have the same extra variables
9. 2. Eliminate extra variables
• Build it into the design – assign an extra variable from the
extraneous variables to also be investigated – also called a 2-by-2
design
• Eliminate it – same concept as “matching”. Just pick the groups with
the same extraneous variable, in that sense, that variable is no
longer important
10. Group exercise: think of an example for each of the
method for eliminating extraneous variable above
12. • Quantitative study designs are specific, well structured, have been
tested for their validity and reliability, and can be explicitly defined
and recognised. Study designs in qualitative research either do not
have these attributes or have them to a lesser degree. They are less
specific and precise, and do not have the same structural depth.
13. • The main focus in qualitative research is to understand, explain,
explore, discover and clarify situations, feelings, perceptions,
attitudes, values, beliefs and experiences of a group of people
• Deductive logic, flexible, emergent, accounts for NEW elements
14. • In quantitative research, the measurement and classification
requirements of the information that is gathered demand that study
designs are more structured, rigid, fixed and predetermined in
their use to ensure accuracy in measurement and classification.
15. Power-gap/formality
• Quali: low, can sometimes be more intimate and “unrecognizable”
from research
• Quanti: high, very clear and distinct relationship
16. Concordance
• Qualitative: requires concordance – in other words, the meaning can be
negotiated between the researcher and the respondent
• “Am I right in assuming that when you said “SUS” you didn’t misspell the word
“SOS” and mean that it’s “SUS” “
• Quantitative: no concordance – cold hard numbers
17. Replicability
• Quantitative research enough detail about a study design is
provided for it to be replicated for verification and reassurance
• Qualitative – not so much
• Because of flexibility and lack of control it is more difficult to check
researcher bias in qualitative studies
18. • Study designs in qualitative research are more appropriate for exploring the
variation and diversity in any aspect of social life, whereas in quantitative
research they are more suited to finding out the extent of this variation and
diversity.
• Not contradictory but work together like a 1-2 punch
• Quali to find out the problems, quanti to see how far it goes
• Interview: “I believe the greatest problem is poverty”
• Questionnaire: “How poor are you”
19. Study designs in quantitative research
• Some of the commonly used designs in quantitative studies can be classified by
examining them from three different perspectives:
• 1. the number of contacts with the study population;
• 2. the reference period of the study;
• 3. the nature of the investigation
20. • Cross-sectional studies, also known
as one-shot or status studies, are the
most commonly used design in the
social sciences. This design is best
suited to studies aimed at finding
out the prevalence of a
phenomenon, situation, problem,
attitude or issue, by taking a cross-
section of the population.
• Cheap to undertake and easy to
analyse. Cannot measure change.
21. Before and after
• Also known by the use of
their 2 most prominent
tools: pre-test post-test (2
points of contact)
• Emphasizes change AS A
RESULT of INTERVENTION
• Powerful, but comes with
large disadvantages
22. Longitudinal
• Follows the participants for a period
of time
• Continuously measure changes and
the pattern of change
• Can become predictable
23. • Retrospective study design
• Retrospective studies investigate a phenomenon, situation, problem or issue that has
happened in the past. They are usually conducted either on the basis of the data
available for that period or on the basis of respondents’ recall of the situation
• Prospective study
• Prospective studies refer to the likely prevalence of a phenomenon, situation,
problem, attitude or outcome in the future. Experiments are usually classified as
prospective studies as the researcher must wait for an intervention to register its
effect on the study population
24. • Retrospective–prospective studies focus on past trends in a phenomenon
and study it into the future. Part of the data is collected retrospectively
from the existing records before the intervention is introduced and then
the study population is followed to ascertain the impact of the
intervention
• We found that past pandemics mostly spread by transmission of diseased
animal carriers
• Using prediction model to do the same for the simulation of a future
pandemic
25. Use your knowledge of English vocabulary to explain why cause
to effect is experimental and effect to cause is non experimental
26. • A semi experimental study or quasi-experimental study has the
properties of both experimental and non experimental studies; part
of the study may be non-experimental and the other part
experimental.
27. • An experimental study can be carried out in either a ‘controlled’ or a
‘natural’ environment
• The controlled environment is an environment in which the factors
can be identified and controlled – the space in the room, the
arrangement of the seats, the temperature of the air, whether or not
passerbys can observe etc
• The natural environment is just that
28. • In a random design, the study population, the experimental
treatments or both are not predetermined but randomly assigned
29. • After-only
• In an after-only design the researcher knows that a population is being, or has been,
exposed to an intervention and wishes to study its impact on the population.
• Before-and-after experimental design
• The before-and-after design overcomes the problem of retrospectively constructing
the ‘before’ observation by establishing it before the intervention is introduced to the
study population
• Control group design – the poster child of experimental design
• In a study utilising the control group design the researcher selects two population
groups instead of one: a control group and an experimental group. These groups
are expected to be comparable as far as possible in every respect except for the
intervention (that is assumed to be the cause responsible for bringing about the
change).
30. • Double-control design
• Double-control studies, you have two control groups instead of one.
Used in high-stake situations to replace the control design like in
drug trials where 2 groups are given placebos instead of 1
• Comparative design
• 1 control, as many experimental groups as necessary based on the
interventions. Guga steak
31. • Matched control experimental design
• Participants are carefully screened and put into the groups. Matched groups
are most commonly used in the testing of new drugs
• ‘Placebo’ design
32. Qualitative designs
• Case study
• A case could be an individual, a group, a community, an instance, an
episode, an event, a subgroup of a population, a town or a city.
• The case study conducts a thorough, holistic and in-depth exploration of
the aspect(s) that you want to find out about
• Very useful design when exploring an area where little is known or where
you want to have a holistic understanding of the situation, phenomenon,
episode, site, group or community.
33. • Oral history
• Not a history of one’s orals
• A history recounted by one individual
• Oral history is a process of obtaining, recording, presenting and
interpreting historical or current information, based upon personal
experiences and opinions of some members of a study group or unit.
• Not reliable and subject to bias or bad technique
34. • Focus groups/group interviews – another poster child of qualitative
design
• Focus groups are a form of strategy in qualitative research in which attitudes,
opinions or perceptions towards an issue, product, service or programme are
explored through a free and open discussion between members of a group
and the researcher.
• Very popular
• Compared with other designs this is less expensive and needs far less time to
complete. The information generated can be detailed and rich and can be
used to explore a vast variety of issues.
• Can become biased based on who is in the group
35. • Participant observation
• Participant observation is
another strategy for gathering
information about a social
interaction or a phenomenon in
qualitative studies.
• Take part in the activity with the
participants -> Take notes ->
Analyze
• Can become biased
37. • An action research occurs because
there’s a problem that the researcher
wants to solve on a smaller scale that
leads to a single ACTION
• Most action research is concerned with
improving the quality of service. It is
carried out to identify areas of concern,
develop and test alternatives, and
experiment with new approaches.
• “Using Yoga to improve the spinal
flexibility of students studying Research
Methodology”
38. • Participatory and collaborative research enquiry
• You can undertake a quantitative or qualitative study in these enquiries
but the main emphasis is on people’s engagement, collaboration and
participation in the research process. In a way these designs are based
on the community development model where engagement of a
community by way of consultation and participation in planning and
execution of research tasks is imperative.
39. • RESEARCH METHODS
• APPROACH: QUANTI/QUALI OR MIXED
• METHODS: ORAL HISTORY/OBSERVATION/EXPERIMENTAL
• INSTRUMENT: [YOU ARE HERE] ????
![• RESEARCH METHODS
• APPROACH: QUANTI/QUALI OR MIXED
• METHODS: ORAL HISTORY/OBSERVATION/EXPERIMENTAL
• INSTRUMENT: [YOU ARE HERE] ????](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/research-design-250519110919-1a3246db/85/Research-design-USSH-Introduction-to-Research-39-320.jpg)