Research Methods I - Lecture 1 - Research, what is it (good for)?

Research Methods 1
Research, what is it (good for)? – Lecture 1

Welcome

• Who am I?
• What do I do (and how can you help)?
• What is this course about?
– Research Methods 1, 2, and Project
– Course structure

Jeroen.Moes@MaastrichtUniversity.nl

2

The Research Methods Semester
Semester 1 & 2
Period 1 & 4

Research
Methods II

(SKI1004)

Many ways of
doing research

Period 3 & 6

Research
Methods I

What is (good)
research?

Period 2 & 5

(SKI1005)

Doing Your
Research
Project
(PRO1011)
(Currently incorrectly titled
‘Research Proposal Writing’ in the
Course Catalog)

The research process
Analyzing data

Asking the right questions


Writing a research
proposal
Presenting results

3

Practical Issues

• RTFM
• House rules
• Assessment
• Literature
– Getting the book
– Using assigned literature

• Shaping this course

4

Topics for today

• What is research methods?
• Research methods vocabulary &
different approaches
• The place of theory in research
• The role of literature in research (if we
still have time for that)


5

What are methods? Or, let’s take it one step back first:

WHAT IS RESEARCH?


6

Why Research Methods?

No really, why?


7

What is research?

• To create new knowledge
• Finding answers to questions (or problems)
– Posing the right questions to begin with.
– Answering those questions systematically.


8

What is research not (necessarily)?

• Complex, difficult, hard to do.
• Statistics, or generally done with a
computer.
• Boring (no really!)


9

What are Methods?

• The systematic process by which we
conduct research.
• Rooted in certain assumptions on
‘reality’ and ‘knowledge’ (which we’ll discuss
next week).

• Methodology vs. ‘techniques’

(sometimes

called ‘methods’)


10

Basic Process of doing Research

Define topic

Formulate
question

Decide on
approach


Gather
information
(data)

Analyze

Present

11

Purpose of Research


12

A bit of vocabulary that we can use, and the major

APPROACHES TO
RESEARCH

13

Three Components of a Research
Approach


14

Three Approaches to Research
Qualitative research:
– Focuses on individual meanings.
– Tends to use open ended questions.
– Collects data in participant’s setting.
– Moves from particulars to general themes (inductive; we’ll get to that).
– Written report tends to be flexible in structure.
Quantitative research:
– Tests the relationships among measurable things (variables; we’ll get to
that as well).
– Tends to use closed ended questions.
– Produces numerical data.
– Uses statistical analysis of data generated.
– Tests theories deductively, final report is structured.
Mixed methods research:
– Collects and integrates both quantitative and qualitative data.
– May provide a more comprehensive analysis of a given research
problem.

15

Criteria for Selecting a Research
Approach
Quantitative approach is best when:
– Testing causal relationships (factor/s that influence a particular
outcome).
– Evaluating the usefulness or successes of an intervention.
– Establishing which factors best predict an outcome.
– Testing theories or explanations.

Qualitative approach is best when:
– The Researcher is uncertain about which are the most important
variables to be examined.
– If the topic is new, sample population is unexplored by the topic
or the dominant explanations may not apply to a given sample
population.
– If we want to understand hard to quantify concepts better
(‘meanings’, ‘identities’, etc.).

16

Criteria for Selecting a Research
Approach (continued)
Mixed Methods approach is best when:
– Neither quantitative nor qualitative approaches will adequately
examine the variables being researched.
– The Researcher wants to capitalize on the strengths of both
qualitative and quantitative approaches.

• Personal
Experiences
–
–
–
–
–

Training
Preferences
Time
Resources
Experiences


• Audience
–
–
–
–

Advisors
Journal editors
Graduate committees
Colleagues in the field

17

Confirmatory vs. Exploratory

• Confirmatory: is it true what we
believe based on the existing theory
and literature?
• Exploratory: what is going on here,
and how can we explain it?


18

Research logics
• Deductive: work from the ‘top down’.
• Inductive: work from the ‘bottom up’.
• Nomothetic: aims to generalize, and come
up with ‘universal’ laws.
• Idiographic: aims to specify, and come up
with particularistic meanings and
descriptions.

19

Deductive Logic


20

Inductive Logic


21

Combining inductive and
deductive methods


22

Now that you get the basic idea, let’s talk about

SOME BASIC CONCEPTS


23

Variables
• A variable is a characteristic of an individual or
group that is measurable.
• Variables may have temporal order, or be
measurable or observable.
• Normally used within quantitative approaches.
• Not used very often in qualitative approaches
(though they can be).


24

Types of Variables
• Independent
– Variables that (probably) cause outcomes

• Dependent
– The outcomes that depend on the independent variables

• Intervening or mediating
– Variables that stand between the independent and dependent
variables

• Control
– Independent variables that are measured and statistically
"controlled"

• Confounding
– Variables that could also affect the dependent variables, but
cannot or will not be measured


25

Types of information in variables

• Data:
– Categorical
1. Nominal
2. Ordinal

– Quantifiable
3. Interval
4. Ratio


26

Population

• The whole (theoretical) group of
people, things, observations,
phenomena, etc. that we wish to make
statements about.


27

Sample

• A selection from the population that we
will study in our research.


28

Size of the sample

• N = Number of people, things,
observations, etc. in the sample.


29

Quality control: Validity
• Internal validity: Do we measure
what we intend to measure?
• External validity: Can we generalize
this to the population to which we
want to?


30

Quality of food


31

Quality control: Reliability

• Are the ways in which we are
measuring things consistent over time,
or between cases?


32

Defining and using

THEORY


33

The Nature of Theories
‘A set of interrelated constructs (concepts),
definitions, and propositions that present a
systematic view of phenomena by specifying
relations among variables, with the purpose of
explaining and predicting phenomena.’
(Kerlinger, 2000: 9)


34

The Use of Theory
• The literature determines what theories may
be used to examine the research questions
• Quantitative studies tend to test theories as
explanations
• Qualitative studies may generate the theory
• Mixed methods studies may have no theories
at all or a theoretical framework in which
both quantitative and qualitative data are
collected


35

Finding, reviewing, and using

LITERATURE


36

The Use of Literature
• Provide a summary of major studies on the
research problem.
• Demonstrate the writers knowledge of the
topic/problem/issue.
• Integrate what others have done and said about
the topic/problem/issue.
• May criticize previous scholarly works on the
topic/problem/issue.


37

Positioning the literature review


38

The Use of Literature in a Quantitative Study
In quantitative studies the literature is used
deductively as it provides a framework for the
research questions and hypothesis
– Provide direction to the research questions and
hypotheses
– Introduce a problem
– Introduce and describe the theory that will be used
– Examine the usefulness of the theory
– Compare results with existing literature or predictions


39

Using Literature in a Qualitative Study

1.

2.
3.


40

Selecting Literature Material
1. Broad syntheses (such as encyclopedias)
Especially if you are new to the topic

2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Journal articles
Academic books
Conference papers
Dissertations
Reports on the web


41

Style: Definition of Terms & Concepts
• Qualitative studies are inductive and
evolutionary in nature hence the definition of
terms may appear later in the written report,
perhaps in the data analysis.
• Quantitative studies are deductive with a fixed
set of objectives, hence all relevant terms are
comprehensively defined earlier in the study.
• In Mixed methods studies the definition of
relevant terms follows the use of (earlier or later
in the study) and emphasis placed on quantitative
and qualitative approaches.

42

What is bad research?
1. Research that is fraudulent.
2. Research that is in a technical sense correct, but
misleading.
3. Research that is sloppy or poorly written.
4. Research that is made in good faith, but in error.
5. Research that makes extremely small or
incremental arguments.
6. Research that has no real-world application.


43

Research Methods I - Lecture 1 - Research, what is it (good for)?

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