10/30/2021

RESEARCH
METHODS
Rajeswari Aiyer

Session 2 - Take home activity

Think about the following two cases and consider whether the underpinning paradigm for
their research is positivist or interpretivist. Give reasons for your position.

Janet has the following research question:

What reasons do early childhood practitioners give for choosing their profession? She wants to gain
a detailed understanding of this issue from a range of practitioners currently working in the field.

Safiya is also interested in practitioners’ choice of profession. Her question is:

Does social class and gender impact on the likelihood of choosing early childhood as a
profession? She wants to look at young people making career and further training choices at their
end of their secondary school education. She wants to examine the destinations of thousands of
young people with a focus on the variables of social class and gender to see if there is a
relationship between class, gender and career choice.

1
 10/30/2021

Session 3 – Answer Key

1. Rewriting ambiguous items, using items of appropriate difficulty, and clarifying instructions will increase
reliability. Making a test longer by including additional items drawn from the same universe increases reliability,
as does testing on a more heterogeneous group.

2. A mathematics test that covered only computation would have little validity in a class that stressed concepts
and reasoning. If content and emphasis of a different class match the content and emphasis of the test, the test
will have high validity in that class.

3. There was criterion contamination. Letting the teachers see the results of the original measurement of need for
achievement contaminated their ratings of the children on need for achievement.

4. c
5. c
6. a
7. Anonymity ensures that an individual’s name is not associated with the data obtained in a study; confidentiality
refers to the practice of keeping information obtained from an individual private.
8. d

Session 4 Outline
• Approaches to research
◦ Quantitative
◦ Qualitative
◦ Mixed Methods

2
 10/30/2021

Purpose of research
◦ Exploratory: Researchers conduct exploratory studies to explore a group of questions. The
answers and analytics may not offer a conclusion to the perceived problem. It is undertaken
to handle new problem areas that haven’t been explored before. This exploratory process
lays the foundation for more conclusive data collection and analysis.
◦ Descriptive: It focuses on expanding knowledge on current issues through a process of data
collection. Descriptive research describe the behavior of a sample population. Only one
variable is required to conduct the study. The three primary purposes of descriptive studies
are describing, explaining, and validating the findings. For example, a study conducted to
know if top-level management leaders in the 21st century possess the moral right to receive
a considerable sum of money from the company profit.
◦ Explanatory: Causal or explanatory research is conducted to understand the impact of
specific changes in existing standard procedures. Running experiments is the most popular
form. For example, a study that is conducted to understand the effect of rebranding on
customer loyalty.

Exploratory Descriptive Explanatory

Research Research Research

Approach used Unstructured Structured Highly structured

Conducted through Asking questions Asking questions By using hypotheses.

Early stages of Later stages of Later stages of

Time
decision making decision making decision making

3
 10/30/2021

What is quantitative research?

◦ Quantitative research is defined as a systematic investigation of phenomena by gathering
quantifiable data and performing statistical, mathematical, or computational techniques.
Quantitative research collects information from existing and potential sources using
sampling methods and sending out online surveys, online polls, questionnaires, etc.,
◦ In this research method, researchers and statisticians deploy mathematical frameworks and
theories that pertain to the quantity under question.
◦ Quantitative research templates are objective, elaborate, and many times, even
investigational. The results achieved from this research method are logical, statistical, and
unbiased.
◦ Data collection happened using a structured method and conducted on larger samples
that represent the entire population.
◦ There are two methods to conduct quantitative research. They are:
◦ Primary quantitative research methods
◦ Secondary quantitative research method

Primary quantitative research methods

A. Techniques and Types of Studies
There are multiple types of primary quantitative research. They can be distinguished into
the four following distinctive methods, which are:

1.Survey Research:

Survey Research is the most fundamental tool for all quantitative outcome research
methodologies and studies. Surveys used to ask questions to a sample of respondents,
using various types such as online polls, online surveys, paper questionnaires, web-
intercept surveys, etc.

4
 10/30/2021

Cross-sectional surveys: Cross-sectional surveys are observational surveys conducted in

situations where the researcher intends to collect data from a sample of the target
population at a given point in time.
Cross-sectional surveys are popular with retail, SMEs, healthcare industries. Information is
garnered without modifying any parameters in the variable ecosystem.

The only disadvantage of cross-sectional surveys is that the cause-effect relationship of

variables cannot be established as it usually evaluates variables at a particular time and not
across a continuous time frame.

Longitudinal surveys: Longitudinal surveys are conducted across various time durations to
observe a change in respondent behavior and thought-processes. This time can be days,
months, years, or even decades. For instance, a researcher planning to analyze the change
in buying habits of teenagers over 5 years will conduct longitudinal surveys.

Longitudinal surveys are extensively used in the field of medicine and applied to observe a
change in the market trend, analyze customer satisfaction, or gain feedback on
products/services.

2.Correlational research:

A comparison between two entities is invariable. Correlation research is conducted

to establish a relationship between two closely-knit entities and how one impacts the
other and what are the changes that are eventually observed.

This research method is carried out to give value to naturally occurring relationships,
and a minimum of two different groups are required to conduct this quantitative
research method successfully. Without assuming various aspects, a relationship
between two groups or entities must be established.

Example of Correlational Research Questions:

• The relationship between stress and depression.

• The equation between fame and money.
• The relation between activities in a third-grade class and its students.

5
 10/30/2021

3.Causal-comparative research:

This research method mainly depends on the factor of comparison. Also called quasi-
experimental research, this quantitative research method is used by researchers to
conclude the cause-effect equation between two or more variables, where one
variable is dependent on the other independent variable.

The independent variable is established but not manipulated, and its impact on the
dependent variable is observed. These variables or groups must be formed as they exist
in the natural set up.

As the dependent and independent variables will always exist in a group, it is advised
that the conclusions are carefully established by keeping all the factors in mind.

Example of Causal-Comparative Research Questions:

• The impact of drugs on a teenager.

• The effect of good education on a freshman.
• The effect of substantial food provision in the villages of Africa.

Independent vs dependent
Variables are given a special name that only applies to experimental
investigations. One is called the dependent variable and the other the
independent variable.

The independent variable is the variable the experimenter manipulates or

changes, and is assumed to have a direct effect on the dependent variable. For
example, allocating participants to either drug or placebo conditions
(independent variable) in order to measure any changes in the intensity of their
anxiety (dependent variable).

The dependent variable is the variable being tested and measured in an

experiment, and is 'dependent' on the independent variable. An example of a
dependent variable is depression symptoms, which depends on the
independent variable (type of therapy).

6
 10/30/2021

4.Experimental research:

Also known as true experimentation, this research method is reliant on a

theory. Experimental research, as the name suggests, is usually based on one or more
theories. This theory has not been proven in the past and is merely a supposition.

In experimental research, an analysis is done around proving or disproving the

statement. This research method is used in natural sciences. Traditional research
methods are more effective than modern techniques.

There can be multiple theories in experimental research. A theory is a statement that

can be verified or refuted.

This type of quantitative research method is mainly used in natural or social sciences as
there are various statements which need to be proved right or wrong.

•Systematic teaching schedules help children who find it hard to cope up with the
course.
•It is a boon to have responsible nursing staff for ailing parents.

Where to place the theory?

7
 10/30/2021

Secondary quantitative research methods

Secondary quantitative research or desk research is a research
method that involves using already existing data or secondary data.
Existing data is summarized and collated to increase the overall
effectiveness of research.

Secondary quantitative research helps to validate the data that is

collected from primary quantitative research as well as aid in
strengthening or proving or disproving previously collected data.

1.Data available on the internet: Information about most research topics is available online,
and this aids in boosting the validity of primary quantitative data as well as proving the
relevance of previously collected data.

2.Government and non-government sources: This data is highly reliable and in-depth and
hence, can be used to increase the validity of quantitative research design.

3.Public libraries: Public libraries have copies of important research that were conducted
earlier. They are a storehouse of valuable information and documents from which information
can be extracted.

4.Educational institutions: Educational institutions conduct in-depth research on multiple

topics, and hence, the reports that they publish are an important source of validation in
quantitative research.

5.Commercial information sources: Local newspapers, journals, magazines, radio, and TV

stations are a great source to obtain data for secondary quantitative research. These
commercial information sources have in-depth, first-hand information on economic
developments, political agenda, market research, demographic segmentation, and similar
subjects.

8
 10/30/2021

Qualitative research
The term qualitative research is used as an umbrella term to refer to several
research strategies. Five common types of qualitative research are grounded
theory, ethnographic, narrative research, case studies, and phenomenology.

◦ “Qualitative researchers seek to make sense of personal stories and the ways in
which they intersect” (Glesne & Peshkin, 1992). As one qualitative researcher
noted, “I knew that I was not at home in the world of numbers long before I
realized that I was at home in the world of words.”

◦ The data collected in qualitative research has been termed “soft”, “that is, rich in
description of people, places, and conversations, and not easily handled by
statistical procedures.” Researchers do not approach their research with specific
questions to answer or hypotheses to test. They are concerned with understanding
behavior from the subject’s own frame of reference.

Qualitative researcher believe that “multiple ways of interpreting experiences are

available to each of us through interacting with others, and that it is the meaning of our
experiences that constitutes reality. Reality, consequently, is ‘socially constructed'”
(Bogdan & Biklen, 1992).

Data is usually collected through sustained contact with people in the settings where
they normally spend their time. Participant observations and in-depth interviewing are the
two most common ways to collect data. “The researcher enters the world of the people
he or she plans to study, gets to know, be known, and trusted by them, and
systematically keeps a detailed written record of what is heard and observed. This
material is supplemented by other data such as [artifacts], school memos and records,
newspaper articles, and photographs” (Bogdan & Biklen, 1992).

Rather than test theories, qualitative researchers often inductively analyze their data and
develop theories through a process that Strauss called ” developing grounded theory“.
They use purposive sampling to select the people they study. Subjects are selected
because of who they are and what they know, rather than by chance.

9
 10/30/2021

Some key terms:

Access to a group is often made possible by a gate keeper. The gate keeper is the
person who helps you gain access to the people you wish to study. In a school setting it
might be a principal.

Most qualitative studies involve at least one key informant. The key informant knows the
inside scoop and can point you to other people who have valuable information. The
“key informant” is not necessarily the same as the gate keeper. A custodian might be a
good key informant to understanding faculty interactions. The process of one subject
recommending that you talk with another subject is called “snowballing.”

Qualitative researchers use rich-thick description when they write their research reports.
Unlike quantitative research where the researcher wished to generalize his or her findings
beyond the sample from whom the data was drawn, qualitative researcher provide rich-
thick descriptions for their readers and let their readers determine if the situation
described in the qualitative study applies to the reader’s situation. Qualitative researchers
do not use the terms validity and reliability. Instead they are concerned about
the trustworthiness of their research.

Qualitative researchers often begin their interviews with grand

tour questions. Grand tour questions are open ended questions
that allow the interviewee to set the direction of the interview. The
interviewer then follows the leads that the interviewee provides.
The interviewer can always return to his or her preplanned
interview questions after the leads have been followed.

Qualitative researchers continue to collect data until they reach

a point of data saturation. Data saturation occurs when the
researcher is no longer hearing or seeing new information. Unlike
quantitative researchers who wait until the end of the study to
analyze their data, qualitative researcher analyze their data
throughout their study.

10
 10/30/2021

Mixed Methods Research

◦ Mixed methods refers to any research approach that utilizes both
qual and quan data in some form.

Temporal Order
Though all mixed-methods studies involve both qual and quan data, how and
when these data are collected and analyzed may differ across studies with
researchers either engaging in a parallel (+), linear (→), or iterative (→) process.

11
 10/30/2021

Emphasis

◦ Prioritizing qual (QUAL>quan), prioritizing quan (QUAN>qual), or treating the two

approaches with equal weight (QUAL=QUAN).
◦ For instance, in a study that measures student performance on a test after playing a
learning game, researchers might focus their inquiry on the effects of the game upon
measurable learning outcomes (QUAN) while also collecting a few responses from
students on what they liked about the game (qual).
◦ In contrast, another study might conduct in-depth interviews with students about their
experiences with educational games (QUAL) while also collecting and reporting on
survey results from all students in a school regarding time spent playing games (quan).
◦ In both of these cases, one methodology is prioritized as being central to the study
while another is utilized to contribute slightly to the results (e.g., as isolated comments
or contextual descriptive).

Temporal Emphasis
Order QUAN QUAL Equal

Parallel qual+QUAN QUAL+quan QUAL+QUAN

Embedded Embedded Triangulated

Quan-First QUAN→qual quan→QUAL QUAN→QUAL

Linear Explanatory (Uncommon) Multiphase

Qual-First qual→QUAN QUAL→quan QUAL→QUAN

Linear (Uncommon) Exploratory Multiphase

Triangulation?

12
 10/30/2021

Data collection methods

Qualitative Research Methods Quantitative Research Methods
◦ Case Studies: Researchers conduct in-depth ◦ Questionnaires and Surveys: Participants
investigations into an individual, group, receive a list of questions, either closed-
event, or community, typically gathering ended or multiple choice, which are
data through observation and interviews. directed around a particular topic.
◦ Experiments: Researchers control and test
◦ Focus Groups: A moderator (or researcher) variables to demonstrate cause-and-effect
guides conversation around a specific topic relationships.
among a group of participants.
◦ Observations: Researchers look at
◦ Ethnography: Researchers interact with and quantifiable patterns and behavior.
observe a specific societal or ethnic group
◦ Structured Interviews: Using a
in their real-life environment.
predetermined structure, researchers ask
◦ Interviews: Researchers ask participants participants a fixed set of questions to
questions to learn about their perspectives acquire numerical data.
on a particular subject.

Take home activity

1. What are the differences between quantitative and qualitative methods?

Tabulate the information in a comprehensive manner.

◦ Research Paradigms
◦ Research design
◦ Data collection
◦ Data analysis
◦ Research Report

2. Write notes on the different types of variables.

13