Research design
Encyclopedia
Research designs are concerned with turning the research question
into a testing project. The best design depends on your research questions. Every design has its positive and negative sides. The research design has been considered as a "blueprint" for research, dealing with at least four problems: what questions to study, what
data are relevant, what data to collect, and how to analyze the results.
Research design can be divided into fixed and flexible research designs (Robson, 1993). Others have referred to this distinction with ‘quantitative research designs’ and ‘qualitative research designs’. However, fixed designs need not be quantitative, and flexible design need not be qualitative. In fixed designs the design of the study is fixed before the main stage of data collection takes place. Fixed designs are normally theory-driven; otherwise it’s impossible to know in advance which variables need to be controlled and measured. Often these variables are quantitative.
Flexible designs allow for more freedom during the data collection. One reason for using a flexible research design can be that the variable of interest is not quantitatively measurable, such as culture. In other cases, theory might not be available before one starts the research.
In an experimental design, the researcher actively tries to change the situation, circumstances or experience of participants (manipulation), which may lead to a change in behaviour of the participants of the study. The participants are (randomly) assigned to different conditions, and variables of interest are measured. The researcher tries to keep the other variables as similar as possible. Experiments are normally highly fixed before the data collection starts.
In a good research design, a few things are of great importance. First of all, it is necessary to think of a proper way to operationalise the variables that you want to measure. Do you want to measure your variable with a questionnaire? Do you measure it physically? Secondly, the statistical analysis has to be taken into account. What are your expectations? How do you want to analyse this? Thirdly, in a design you have to think of the practical limitations. Can you find enough participants for your study? Are the participants that you want to include in your study representative for the population?
The most important thing is that when you want to execute a good research, you think of all these questions beforehand (Adèr, Mellenbergh & Hand, 2008).
Read more about experiental research designs here Experiment
.
.]
and natural experiment
for more details.
.
Bell (1999) states “a case study approach is particularly appropriate for individual researchers because it gives an opportunity for one aspect of a problem to be studied in some depth within a limited time scale”.
.
Research question
A research question is the methodological point of departure of scholarly research in both the natural sciences and humanities. The research will answer any question posed...
into a testing project. The best design depends on your research questions. Every design has its positive and negative sides. The research design has been considered as a "blueprint" for research, dealing with at least four problems: what questions to study, what
data are relevant, what data to collect, and how to analyze the results.
Research design can be divided into fixed and flexible research designs (Robson, 1993). Others have referred to this distinction with ‘quantitative research designs’ and ‘qualitative research designs’. However, fixed designs need not be quantitative, and flexible design need not be qualitative. In fixed designs the design of the study is fixed before the main stage of data collection takes place. Fixed designs are normally theory-driven; otherwise it’s impossible to know in advance which variables need to be controlled and measured. Often these variables are quantitative.
Flexible designs allow for more freedom during the data collection. One reason for using a flexible research design can be that the variable of interest is not quantitatively measurable, such as culture. In other cases, theory might not be available before one starts the research.
Experimental design
- See also Design of experimentsDesign of experimentsIn general usage, design of experiments or experimental design is the design of any information-gathering exercises where variation is present, whether under the full control of the experimenter or not. However, in statistics, these terms are usually used for controlled experiments...
.
In an experimental design, the researcher actively tries to change the situation, circumstances or experience of participants (manipulation), which may lead to a change in behaviour of the participants of the study. The participants are (randomly) assigned to different conditions, and variables of interest are measured. The researcher tries to keep the other variables as similar as possible. Experiments are normally highly fixed before the data collection starts.
In a good research design, a few things are of great importance. First of all, it is necessary to think of a proper way to operationalise the variables that you want to measure. Do you want to measure your variable with a questionnaire? Do you measure it physically? Secondly, the statistical analysis has to be taken into account. What are your expectations? How do you want to analyse this? Thirdly, in a design you have to think of the practical limitations. Can you find enough participants for your study? Are the participants that you want to include in your study representative for the population?
The most important thing is that when you want to execute a good research, you think of all these questions beforehand (Adèr, Mellenbergh & Hand, 2008).
Read more about experiental research designs here Experiment
Experiment
An experiment is a methodical procedure carried out with the goal of verifying, falsifying, or establishing the validity of a hypothesis. Experiments vary greatly in their goal and scale, but always rely on repeatable procedure and logical analysis of the results...
.
Non-experimental research designs
Non-experimental research is almost the same as experimental research, the only difference is that non-experimental research does not involve a manipulation of the situation, circumstances or experience of the participants. Non-experimental research designs can be split up in three designs. First, relational designs, in which a range of variables is measured. These designs are also called correlational studies, since the correlation is most often used analysis. The second type is comparative designs. These designs compare two natural groups. The third type of non-experimental research is a longitudinal design. See Longitudinal studyLongitudinal study
A longitudinal study is a correlational research study that involves repeated observations of the same variables over long periods of time — often many decades. It is a type of observational study. Longitudinal studies are often used in psychology to study developmental trends across the...
.]
Quasi experiment
Quasi research designs are research design that follow the experimental procedure, but do not randomly assign people to (treatment and comparison) groups. See Quasi-experimentQuasi-experiment
A quasi-experiment is an empirical study used to estimate the causal impact of an intervention on its target population. Quasi-experimental research designs share many similarities with the traditional experimental design or randomized controlled trial, but they specifically lack the element of...
and natural experiment
Natural experiment
A natural experiment is an observational study in which the assignment of treatments to subjects has been haphazard: That is, the assignment of treatments has been made "by nature", but not by experimenters. Thus, a natural experiment is not a controlled experiment...
for more details.
Case study
In a case study, one single unit is extensively studied. that can be a case of a person, organization, group or situation. Famous case studies are for example the descriptions about the patients of Freud, who were thoroughly analysed and described. Read more on case studyCase study
A case study is an intensive analysis of an individual unit stressing developmental factors in relation to context. The case study is common in social sciences and life sciences. Case studies may be descriptive or explanatory. The latter type is used to explore causation in order to find...
.
Bell (1999) states “a case study approach is particularly appropriate for individual researchers because it gives an opportunity for one aspect of a problem to be studied in some depth within a limited time scale”.
Ethnographic study
This type of research is involved with a group, organization, culture, or community. Normally the researcher shares a lot of time with the group. Read more on EthnographyEthnography
Ethnography is a qualitative method aimed to learn and understand cultural phenomena which reflect the knowledge and system of meanings guiding the life of a cultural group...
.