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2.research design (distribution)
- 2. LEARNING OUTCOMES Purpose of research. Quantitative and qualitative research. Research design.
- 4. Types of research and explanations Idiographic Nomothetic
- 5. Inductive or deductive approach? Inductive Deductive
- 6. Macro versus micro theory Society All society institutions Social institution of education UJ This class Students
- 7. Quantitative research tends to be concerned with the following concerns. Measurement. Causality Generalisation Replication
- 8. Qualitative research tends to be concerned with the following. Seeing through the eyes of research participants. Description and an emphasis on context. Emphasis on process. Flexibility
- 9. How many people will take a free ice cream? What do people feel when given a free ice cream?
- 10. Quantitative Qualitative Numbers Words Point of view of the researcher Point of view of participants Researcher distant Researcher close Theory testing Theory emergent Static Process Structured Unstructured Generalisation Contextual understanding Hard, reliable data Rich, deep data Macro Micro Behaviour Meaning
- 12. What determines the research design and methodology? Problem statement Research question
- 13. Classification of research designs Empirical or non-empirical Primary or secondary data Data sources: qualitative, quantitative
- 14. ELEMENTS OF RESEARCH DESIGN Points of focus – characteristics and orientations. Time Feasibility
- 15. UNITS OF ANALYSIS Individuals Groups Organisations and institutions Cultural objects Social actionsInterventions
- 16. Questions to inform your research design What is the nature of your research question? Which methodologies and design can best answer it? Is your question an empirical or non-empirical question? What data sources are available to you?
- 17. QUESTIONS TO INFORM YOUR RESEARCH DESIGN Who or what is the focus of your study? What is the point of focus of your study? Over what time period will you consider your research question? Is your design feasible in terms of resources, time, access to data?
- 19. Quantitative and qualitative research questions Quantitative Research Questions Usually start with ‘ how,’ ‘what’ or ‘why’. Contain an independent and a dependent variable. Look at connections, relations or comparisons between variables. Qualitative Research Questions Usually start with ‘what’ or ‘how’. Identify the central phenomenon you plan to explore (tell in your question what you are going to describe, explore, generate, discover, understand). Avoid the use of quantitative words such as relate, influence, effect, cause.
- 20. 1) What is the relationship between socio-economic inequality and protest? 2) How does the media portray protesters? 3) What are the experiences of people growing up in single-parent households in rural areas? 4) How does household family impact the drop-out rate of university students? 5) What influences students to drop-out of university?
- 21. SUMMARY The purpose of research. The difference between qualitative and quantitative and when you might use them. Role of the research question in research design. Points to consider in the research design. Reliability and validity.
Editor's Notes
- Exploration – explore, provide insight - important when something is new, unknown, little previous research but might not give a comprehensive answer. Do exploratory when testing the feasibility of future research Description – what is the nature of a phenomenon, census or ethnographic research. Explanation – relations between variables, why did something happen
- Nomothetic and Idiographic Methods Nomotheic methods is one of the research method in which analysis is directed towards formulation of general principles. From sociological perspective, application of this method entails that individual events are studied not for their own sake but for their significance in so far as they contribute to the formulation of generalization. Sociology and physical sciences are regarded as nomothetic sciences because of their primary goal is to abstract generalization from specific event and individual facts. Idiographic method on the other hand is a technique of studying human behaviour by a thorough analysis of individual cases. Here emphasis is more on detailed description and in-dept study than on generalizations The case study method may be considered on idiographic method where emphasis is on the complete understanding of each individual case rather than upon deriving analytical generalization from characteristics of a large number of cases. History is regarded as an idiographic discipline because it is more concerned with study of particular event.
- Macro-level sociology looks at large-scale social processes, such as social stability and change. Micro-level sociology looks at small-scale interactions between individuals, such as conversation or group dynamics. Micro- and macro-level studies each have their own benefits and drawbacks. Macrosociology allows observation of large-scale patterns and trends, but runs the risk of seeing these trends as abstract entities that exist outside of the individuals who enact them on the ground. Microsociology allows for this on-the-ground analysis, but can fail to consider the larger forces that influence individual behavior. Source: Boundless. “Levels of Analysis: Micro and Macro.” Boundless Sociology Boundless, 26 May. 2016. Retrieved 30 Jan. 2017 from https://www.boundless.com/sociology/textbooks/boundless-sociology-textbook/sociology-1/the-sociological-approach-25/levels-of-analysis-micro-and-macro-161-2417/
- Measurement. How much? What proportion of a population? Causality Causality is relationship between two variables such that one, the independent variable, can be claimed to have caused the other, the dependent variable. Generalisation Can the findings be generalised to a whole population? Replication Can the study be repeated and find same or similar results? Or be repeated at different points in time to address changes through time?
- Explain dashed lines There are also connections other than those emphasized here, some of which I have indicated by dashed lines. For example, if a goal of your study is to empower participants to conduct their own research on issues that matter to them, this will shape the methods you use, and conversely the methods that are feasible in your study will constrain your goals. Similarly, the theories and intellectual traditions you are drawing on in your research will have implications for what validity threats you see as most important and vice versa. The upper triangle of this model should be a closely integrated unit. Your research questions should have a clear relationship to the goals of your study and should be informed by what is already known about the phenomena you are studying and the theoretical concepts and models that can be applied to these phenomena. In addition, the goals of your study should be informed by current theory and knowledge, while your decisions about what theory and knowledge are relevant depend on your goals and questions. Similarly, the bottom triangle of the model should also be closely integrated. The methods you use must enable you to answer your research questions, and also to deal with plausible validity threats to these answers. The questions, in turn, need to be framed so as to take the feasibility of the methods and the seriousness of particular validity threats into account, while the plausibility and relevance of particular validity threats, and the ways these can be dealt with, depend on the questions and methods chosen. The research questions are the heart, or hub, of the model; they connect all the other components of the design, and should inform, and be sensitive to, these components. There are many other factors b
- (avoid beginning qualitative questions with ‘why’ as this implies cause and effect). Question: What's an independent variable? Answer: An independent variable is exactly what it sounds like. It is a variable that stands alone and isn't changed by the other variables you are trying to measure. For example, someone's age might be an independent variable. Other factors (such as what they eat, how much they go to school, how much television they watch) aren't going to change a person's age. In fact, when you are looking for some kind of relationship between variables you are trying to see if the independent variable causes some kind of change in the other variables, or dependent variables. Question: What's a dependent variable? Answer: Just like an independent variable, a dependent variable is exactly what it sounds like. It is something that depends on other factors. For example, a test score could be a dependent variable because it could change depending on several factors such as how much you studied, how much sleep you got the night before you took the test, or even how hungry you were when you took it. Usually when you are looking for a relationship between two things you are trying to find out what makes the dependent variable change the way it does. Many people have trouble remembering which is the independent variable and which is the dependent variable. An easy way to remember is to insert the names of the two variables you are using in this sentence in they way that makes the most sense. Then you can figure out which is the independent variable and which is the dependent variable: (Independent variable) causes a change in (Dependent Variable) and it isn't possible that (Dependent Variable) could cause a change in (Independent Variable).