Types of Research Questions
- Variables
o Dependent
o Independent
o Intervening
§ Education à job à income
- Descriptive research
o Five questions
§ Time frame
§ Geographical location
§ Broad description / comparing & specifying patterns for subgroups
§ Aspect of topic
§ How abstract is our interest
o Explanation: searching for causes or consequences
§ Why à what caused increased divorce rate?
§ Consequences
§ Literature search
§ Explanation – exploring a simple idea
· Has x led to increased divorce rate
§ Explanation – exploring more complex ideas
· Why should religious decline lead to divorce?
§ Specify links
Using Internet to Review Existing Information and Research
Scope of the Research
- Particular but exhaustive / general but partial
- Idiographic à case study
- Nomothetic à survey
- Units of analysis
Research Design
- Frame of reference
- Descriptive research
o Context – is 9% inflation high or low?
o Compare
§ Other groups
§ Over time
- Explanatory research
o Causal processes
o Structure of the data
o Central point of good research design is that it provides a context in which relatively unambiguous statements can be drawn.
o Classic experimental design
§ Experimental group / control group
§ Random assignment
o Panel design
§ Looks at same group of subjects over period of time
o Quasi panel design
§ Similar to panel design
§ Except different groups studied at two points in time
o Retrospective panel design
§ Obtain information at one point in time
§ Ask about two / more time points
o Retrospective experimental design
§
No comments:
Post a Comment