General Steps in Research Design
This lecture focuses on the general steps involved in doing research.
These are the basic steps that need to be taken when doing research.
Throughout the course we will focus on these steps in detail, but it helps if you get the big picture before we look start focusing on some of the details.
So, what I want to cover is how you go about designing a Research Project.
How do you go about designing a Research Project?
Overall, it really boils down to two very simple things you need to do.
1. You have to come up with a question that needs to be answered.
2. You have to find a good way to answer that question.
I. Steps Involved In Research Design
A. Come up with a question that needs to be answered
1. Where do questions come from when doing research?
a. In some cases they come from theory.
b. Sometimes research questions simply come out of curiosity.
c. Sometimes research questions are driven by practical needs.
2. General Types of Questions that get asked?
a. Exploration (finding out what is going on)
Know very little about the topic, want to know more.
Starting from scratch. Trying to find out what is involved.
Good for satisfying curiosity.
b. Description
Provide a detailed information regarding specific questions about a topic.
Need specific detailed answer.
Examples:
How many DePaul students graduate in four years?
What are the qualities people look for in best friends?c. Explanation
Explain why things happen.
Example:
Why do fifty percent of all marriages end in divorce?
B. Determine what the Unit of Analysis is:
Now that you have a question. Need to think about what you are really studying.
Who or what are you really trying to learn about?
After you decide what questions are you asking, you need to decide, at an abstract level, who or what you are going to observe to answer you question.
You need to decide what it is you are going to observe (in an abstract sense - conceptual sense – not a practical sense).
You need to decide if you are studying:
individuals
groups
organizationsExample:
If research question is:
What type of people are most likely to succeed in advertising ?
(individuals) (you are observing and comparing individuals)
What size of advertising firms produce the most creative work?
(organizations) (you are observing and comparing companies)
Thinking about units of analysis is important, because you can only make claims about what you observe.
If you are not careful when thinking about your unit of analysis, you can fall into the problem of making an ecological fallacy -- that is, asking research questions at one level, but making observations at another level of analysis.
C. Select a Research Method:
Which research tool are you going to use to answer the question you’ve asked.
Different methods provide different types of knowledge.
Pick the method that produces knowledge that best answers your research question.
D. Operationalization
Decide how you are going to actually going to make your observations?
Not what you are going to observe, but how you are actually going to do it.
Now, you must come up with a concrete way of making observations.
Remember, units of analysis, involves deciding what are studying in an abstract sense, now it is time to figure out exactly how we are going to do it.
Example:
What type of people are most likely to succeed in advertising ?
I have to come up with a specific way of making observations about people and success.
E. Sampling and Populations?
Who exactly am I going to study.
Important issues, how you decide to pick things to observe determines what you can say.
F. Make your observations
Collecting your data.
G. Analyze observations
Perform analysis on the data you collected -- is related to the research method selected.
Different methods typically employ different types of data analysis.
H. Interpret Results.
What answers did you get.