Unit 3 - RESEARCH DESIGN

DEFINITION
The research design is the plan, structure, and strategy of investigations of answering the research question is the overall plan or blue-print the
researchers select to carry out their study.
PURPOSES
 To help in the solution of research question.
 To maintain control.
 To provide answers to research questions.
 To control variance.
ELEMENTS
A good research design includes several elements:
1. Description of subjects
2. Observation of variables
3. Measures of time
4. Selection of setting
5. Role of the investigator

CHARACTERISTICS
The criteria of internal and external validity represent one frame of reference for evaluating the quality of research design.
1. Appropriateness for research questions: the research design should be appropriate for the questions being asked.
2. Lack of bias: a second characteristics of good research design is that it result in data that are not biased.
3. Precision: the term precision as use in the present context refers to the appropriateness of the statistical procedure used to analyses data.
4. It is a plan that specifies the sources and types of information relevant to the research problem.
5. It is a strategy specifying which approach will be used for gathering and analyzing the data.
6. It also includes the time and cost budgets.
7. Clear statement of the research problem.
8. Procedure and techniques to be used for gathering information.
9. The population to be studied.
CLASSIFICATION
RESEARCH DESIGN

QUALITATIVE QUANTITATIVE
RESEARCH DESIGN RESEARCH DESIGN
- Phenomological
- Ethnography
- Historical research
- Grounded theory
- Case study

EXPERIMENTAL NON-EXPERIMENTAL
RESEARCH DESIGN RESEARCH DESIGN

True experimental Survey

Quasi experimental Co relational
Pre experimental Comparative
Methodological

QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
DEFINITION
A research method in which the investigator seeks to identify the qualitative (nonnumeric) aspects of the phenomenon under study from the
participant’s view point in order to interpret the meaning of the totality of the phenomenon.
METHODS OF QUALITATIVE RESEARCH DESIGN
 1. Phenomological 4. Grounded theory
2. Ethnography 5. Case study
3. Historical research
1. PHENOMOLOGICAL
Phenomological studies examine human experience through the description that are provided by the people involved.
These experiences are called “lived experiences.”
Goal: to describe the meaning that experiences hold for each subject.
This type of research includes the qualities of human such as,
- Individualism - Uniqueness
- Self-determination - Open system
- Wholeness
Phenomology is a philosophy as well as a research approach.
In phenomological research, subjects are asked to describe their experiences as they perceive them. In order to understand the lived experience from the
advantage point of the subject, the researcher must first identify what she or he expects to discover and then deliberately put aside this idea. This process is
called “bracketing” only when the researcher puts aside her or his ideas about the phenomena, will it be possible to see the experience from the eyes of the
person who has lived experience.
Data collection:
Phenomological research is usually based on written and/or oral data gathere from a very small number of stude participants, often through the use of
audiotapes and videotapes.
In depth interview, observation, written description of specific experience in diaries or journals.
Techniques if data analysis:
- Through reading and sensitive presence with the entire transpiration of the participants descriptions.
- Identification of shifts in particular thoughts resulting in division of the transaction into thought segments.
- Specification of the significant phrases in each thought segment, using the words of the participants.
- Distillation of each significant phrases to express the central meaning of the segment in the words of research.
- Preliminary synthesis of central meanings of all thoughts for each participant with a focus on the essence of the phenomenon being studied.
- Final synthesis of the essence that have surfaced in all participants descriptions, resulting in an exhaustive description of the lived experience.
2. ETHNOGRAPHY
Ethnography studies involve the collection and analysis of data about cultural groups.
Ethnography is described as “encountering alien world make sense from the point of view of another world.
Ethnography means “learning from people”.
 Ethnography can be defined as, “the systematic process of observing, detailing, describing, documenting and analyzing the life ways or particular patterns
of a culture in order to grasp the life ways or patterns of the people in their familiar environment”.
In ethnographic research, the researcher frequently lives with the people and becomes a part of their culture.
The researcher explores with the people, researcher explores with the people, their symbols, rituals and customs.
Ethnographers interview people who are most knowledgeable about the culture. These people are sometimes called “key informants”.
Data collection:
- Participant observation - Demography
- Interviews - Life histories
- Genealogy
• The researcher brackets or makes explicit, her or his own personal biases and beliefs, set them aside and then tries to understand the daily lives of
individuals as they live them.
• Data collection and data analysis is occurring simultaneously. As understanding of the data occur, new questions emerge. The end purpose of ethnography
is the development of cultural theories.
• Ethnography has been the principle method used by anthropologists to study people all over the world. Ethnographers study how people live and how
they communicate with each other.
3. HISTORICAL RESEARCH
Historical research is the systematic collection and critical evaluation of data gathering to past occurances. General historical research is undertaken in order
to test hypotheses or to answer questions concerning cause, effects or trends relating to past events that may shed light on present behaviours or practices.
The steps involved in performing historical research actually are,
- A problem data is defined.
- Hypothesis or specific questions are developed.
- Data collected according to a systematic frame work
- Data are analysed
- The findings are interpreted
The difference between historical research and other research are events, situations or statements made in the past. The historical research is inherently non
experimental. The researcher can neither manipulate nor control the variables, nor is there any possibility of random assignments. Historical research is
also constrained by the lack of opportunity for replication.
Data collection:
Data for historical research are usually in the form of written records of the past
- Periodicals - Books
- Diaries - Letters
 - Newspapers minutes of meetings - Reports
- Legal documents
Non-written records
- Records - Films
- Tapes - Drawings
- Photographs
Historical material generally classified as either primarily or secondary sources
Primary sources:
- Original documents - Relics or artifacts
Secondary sources:
- Textbooks - Encyclopedias or other reference books
Evaluation of historical data:
Historical evidence usually is subjected to two types of evaluation.
i) External criticism ii) Internal criticism
• External criticism is concerned basically with the authenticity and genuineness of data. Validity of document is established by external criticism.
• Internal criticism of historical data refers to the evaluation of the worth evidence. Reliability of document is established by internal criticism.
Data analysis:
After evaluating the authenticity and accuracy of data, the researcher must begin to pull the materials together, to analyse them, and to test the research
hypothesis.
Data that have passed thee tests of internal and external criticism are not uniformly useful, the relative value of the various sources must be weighed. The
final steps is a considerable amount of decision making.
4. GROUNDED THEORY
Grounded theory studies are those studies in which data are collected and analysed and then a theory is developed that is “grounded” in the data.
The grounded theory method uses both an inductive and deductive approach to theory development. Constructs and concepts are grounded in the data and
hypothesis are tested as they arise from the research.
Data collection:
- Participant observation
- Interviews and data are recorded through hand written notes and the tape recordings.
Data collection and data analysis occur simultaneously.
A process called constant comparison used in which data are constantly compared to that data are already been gathered, pertinent concepts are identified
and assigned codes.
 5. CASE STUDIES
Case studies are in depth examinations of people or groups of people. A case study could also examine an institution, such as hospices care for the dying.
A case study may be considered as a quantitative and qualitative research study” depending on the researchers’ theoretical or philosophical orientation, the
selection of design features and the purpose of the study”.
Data collection:
- Questionnaires - Interviews
- Observations or written accounts by the subjects.
Content analysis:
It is used in evaluating the data from case studies, the researcher researches for patterns and thems.
Case studies are time consuming and may be quite costly.

QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH
DEFINITION
A research method in which the study variables are preselected and defined by the investigator and the data are collected and quantified, then
statistically analysed, often with a view to establishing cause- and- effect relationships among the variables
A. EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH DESIGN
An experimental is a scientific investigation in which observations are made and data are collected according to a set of well defined criteria.
Characteristics:
i. Manipulate: The experimental does something to at least some of the subject in study.
ii. Control: The experimenter introduces one or more controls over the experimental situation, including the use of a control or comparison group.
iii. Randomization:
The experimenter assigns subjects to a control or experimental group as a random basis.

Types of experimental studies:

Experimental studies further divide as,

EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH
DESIGN
 QUASI
TRUE PRE
EXPERIMENTAL
EXPERIMENTAL EXPERIMENTAL

(1) TRUE EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH DESIGN

The true experimental design are those in which the researcher has a great deal of control over the research situation only with the use of true
experimental design can causually be interfeared with any degree of confidence with these types of design.
Types of true experimental research design:
There are mainly three true experimental research design:
a. Pre test-post test control group
b. Post test only control group
c. Solomon four group
Symbolic presentation:
R – random assignments of subjects to group
O – observation or measurement of dependent variable
X - experiment treatment or intervention
a. Pretest-posttest control group design: It is the most frequently used experimental design.
In this design,
• The subjects are randomly assigned to groups.
• The pretest is given to both groups.
• The experimental groups receives the experimental treatment and the comparision group receives the routine treatment or no treatment.
• Post test is given to both groups.
RO1 X O2 (experimental group)
RO1 O2 (control group)
b. Post test only control group design: Subjects are randomly assigned to groups. The experimental groups receives the experimental treatment
and control group receive treatment or no treatment. Post test is given to both groups.
R X O1 ( experimental group)
R O1 (control group)
c. Solomon four group design: Subjects are randomly assignmed to one of the four groups. Two of the groups, one experimental group one and
comparison group are pretested. Two of the groups, one experimental group and experimental group two, receives the experimental treatment,
 whereas two of the groups, comparasion group one and comparison group two, receive the routine treatment or no treatment. A post test is given to
all four groups.
RO1 X O2 (experimental group one)
R O1 O2 (control group one)
R X O1 (experimental group two)
R O1 (control group two)

(2) QUASI EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH DESIGN

It involves an intervention, quasi experimental design lacks randomization. The signature of quasi experimental design, then is an intervention
in the absence of randomization.
Types of quasi experimental research design:
There are mainly two types of quasi experimental research design.
a. Non-equivalent control group design
b. Time-series design
a. Non-equivalent control group design: The non-equivalent control group design is similar to the pretest post test control group design except that
there is no random assignment of subjects to the experimental and comparison group.
O1 X O2 (experimental group)
O1 O2 (comparison group)
b. Time series design: The researcher periodically observe or measure the subjects. The experimental treatment is administered between two of the
observations.
O1 O2 O 3 X O4 O5 O6
(3) PRE EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH DESIGN
Pre-experimental design is the name applied to experimental designs that are considered very week in which the researcher has little control over the
research.
Types of pre experimental research design:
There are mainly two types of pre experimental research design.
a. One shot case study b. One group pre test post test design
a. One shot case study: A single group is exposed to an experimental treatment and observed after the treatment. XO
b. One group pre test post test design: This design provides a comparison between a group of subjects before and after the experimental treatment.
O1 X O2
 B. NON EXPERIMENTAL OR OBSERVATIONAL RESEARCH

DEFINITION:-A design in which the researcher is a passive agent, who observes, measures, and describes a phenomenon as it occurs or exists.
CHARACTERISTICS OF NON-EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN
a. No manipulation.
b. No causality establishment.
c. A question or hypothesis is proposed.
d. A variable, two or more different level of complexity.
e. Gives an overall picture of a phenomenon rather than examining degree & type of this relation.
CONDITION IN WHICH IT CAN BE USED
a. Independent variable cannot be manipulated Ex. Age, blood type, gender, diagnosis
b. Ethically, manipulation is not possible: smoking status, death of a child
c. Constraints on manipulation-not practical to manipulate the independent variable
TYPES OF NON-EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH DESIGNS
1. Pure Descriptive
2. Correlational Descriptive
a. Retrospective b. Prospective
3. Others:
a. Surveys. c. Historical Research
b. Needs Assessment d. Case Studies
1. PURE DESCRIPTIVE DESIGN : Aims to obtain information about a current existing phenomenon of interest in terms of frequency of occurrence
rather than to describe a relationship between variables.
2. CORRELATIONAL DESCRIPTIVE RESEARCH DESIGN : Explores the interrelationship between variables of interest without any active
intervention or manipulation of the independent variable by the researcher.

Retrospective Prospective
Researcher starts with Researcher starts with a presumed cause
a presumed effect in the present and in the present and goes forward in time to link it
goes back in time to link it with a presumed with a presumed effect in the future.
cause in the past.

Research direction is backward, in Research direction is forward, in time.

time
 Easier ,data collected in a limited time by Difficult , data collection; takes time and
investigation of records or asking subjects about energy, needs larger sample.
some previous information, behavior, or
instances
3. OTHER NON-EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH DESIGNS:
A. Surveys : “Studies in which information is obtained from a population or sample of individuals by means of self-report
DATA COLLECTION METHODS FOR SURVEYS:
• Personal interviews.
• Telephone interviews.
• Questionnaires
ADVANTAGES OF SURVEYS
a. Applied to a population or a real big sample. Focus on a wide range of topics, i.e., too many variables.
b. Data collected by surveys can be used for many purposes.
c. In most cases, a lot of information is gathered with a relatively short period of time.
DISADVANTAGES OF SURVEYS
a. Collected data are relatively superficial.
b. No control over independent variables.
c. It reveals no causal relationships.
d. It needs a lot of time for analysis of data.
e. Sometimes needs a lot of time and energy.

B.HISTORICAL RESEARCH:
• Systematic collection and critical evaluation of data related to past occurrences.
• It answers questions or hypothesis regarding trends, causes, or effects related to past events that may shed light on present behaviors, practices or
phenomenon.
• Data for such researches are found in written materials whether books, periodicals, journals, reports, newspapers, letters, meetings minutes,
photos, films, tapes…etc..
C. CASE STUDIES:
• An in-depth investigation of an individual, family, group, or any small social unit.
• It investigates a current phenomenon within its real life context, especially when the boundaries between the phenomena and its context are not
clear.
• Case studies address multiple variables that are measured at several points in time. data collection methods
• following techniques used to collect data:
• Questionnaire.
 • Statistical records.
• Observation. devices.
• Physical measurement.
• Psychological measurement.
• Reporting.
• Rating
•Interview

D.CASE STUDIES
ADVANTAGES:
• Production of hypothesis to be tested in the future.
DISADVANTAGES:
• Results can never be generalized.
• Have no specific research design.