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Chapter 13 Research Design - Coggle Diagram
Chapter 13 Research Design
Factors affecting research design selection
Research objective
Adopt research design that is suitable for the research objective and also provides best solution to the problem along with the valuable result.
Nature of research questions
E.g., a survey can be conducted for asking respondents descriptive or interconnected questions while a case study or a field survey can be used to identify the firm's decision-making process.
Theoretical beliefs of the researcher
Different researchers will have different views on what research type to use. E.g., positivists are more likely to choose something that will yield quantitative results such as a closed survey. Interpretivists will choose methods that produce qualitative data, such as interviews or observations.
Researcher's skills & preferences
Some might find interviewing easy, while others might be good at handling a lot of statistics gained from questionnaires or sometimes a sociologist might simply find it easy to fit into a group to observe them whilst others would not.
Time & budget limits
Not limited: experimental/ descriptive/ longitudinal research design
Limited: exploratory/ cross-sectional research design
Research problem
E.g., select experimental research design to find out cause and-effect relationship of the research problem. Similarly, if the research problem includes in-depth study, then adopt experimental research design method.
Strength of cross-sectional research design
Can determine the patterns of relationship between variables (direct & indirect)
Inexpensive & easy to conduct
Useful for establishing preliminary evidence in planning a future advanced study
The data can be used for various types of research
Used to prove and/or disprove assumptions
Strength of longitudinal research design
Can study the cause-and-effect relationship between variables
Highly flexible
Offers unique and authentic data
Allow for a more in-depth understanding of behavior
Effective in doing research on developmental trends
Effective in determining variable patterns over time
Experimental research design
Measurement
: a second variable (dependent variable) is measured for a group of participants to obtain a set of scores in each treatment condition.
Comparison
: The scores gained between two or more conditions need to be compared. If differences between treatment conditions are consistent, it shows that the manipulation has caused changes in the scores.
Manipulation
: The researcher manipulates one variable (independent variable) to establish a set of two or more treatment conditions
Control
: Control all other variables (e.g., irrelevant variables) to ensure that they do not affect the relationship between two variables that are examined.
Non-experimental research design
No manipulation variables because the study is carried out in natural setting, and phenomena are observed as they occur so that the issue of control does not arise.
Can be used and carried out when variables cannot or should not be manipulated.
Represent a wide range of research design, commonly used in the social sciences.
Can be divided into number of categories:
Case studies & Survey.