Introduction to research methods

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Introduction to research methods

• 10/26/2004
• Xiangming Mu

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How to do research?

• Identify a topic
• Literature review
• Using key words to gather related literature
• Identify useful literature
• Design a literature map
• Identify limitations, problems, and interesting
  ideas
• Refer to related theories
• Propose research statement and hypotheses
• Propose research methods and conduct studies
• Analyze data and provide discussion/results

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Research Variables

• What is a variable
• Various definitions
• Characteristic or attribute of an individual or
  an organization that can be measured or observed
  and that varies among the people or organization
  being studied (Creswell,2002)
• Different types of variables
• Independent variables
• Dependent variables
• Intervening variables
• Control variables
• Confounding variables

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Variables

• Independent variables
• Are variables that (probably) cause, influence,
  or affect outcomes
• Also called treatment, manipulated, antecedent,
  or predictor variables
• Dependent variables
• Are variables that depend on the independent
  variables
• They are the outcomes or results of influence of
  the independent variables
• Also called criterion, outcome, and effect
  variables
• Intervening or mediating variables
• stand between the independent and dependent
  variables
• Mediate the effects of independent variable on
  the dependent variable

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Variables (cont)

• Control variables
• are a special type of independent variable
• Are measured in a study
• Potentially influence the dependent variable
• Usually use statistical procedures to control for
  these variables (i.e., ANOVA)
• Confounding or spurious variables
• Are not actually measured or observed in a study
• Their influences usually can not be directly
  detected in a study

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Research Methods

• Quantitative Methods
• Survey and experiment
• Qualitative Methods
• Mixed Methods

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Quantitative Methods Survey

• Survey
• A survey design provides a quantitative or
  numeric description of trends, attitudes, or
  opinions of a population by studying a sample of
  that population
• The researcher generalizes or makes claims about
  the population
• Conventional (face-to-face, mail, etc.) or
  web-based
• Types of survey
• Self-administered questionnaires
• Interviews
• Structured record reviews to collect financial,
  medical or school information
• Structured observations

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Quantitative Methods Survey (cont)

• Survey instrument
• Validity whether one can draw meaningful and
  useful inferences from scores on the instruments.
  
• Reliability whether the results reported from
  measures remain consistency.

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Quantitative Methods Experiment

• The basic intent of an experiment is to test the
  impact of a treatment (or an intervention) on an
  outcome, controlling for all other factors that
  might influence that outcome
• As one form of control, researchers randomly
  assign individuals to groups
• Usually one group receives a treatment and the
  other group does not, the experimenter can
  isolate whether it is the treatment and not the
  characteristics of individuals in a groups that
  influence the outcome
• May also need to identify a sample and generalize
  to a population

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Experiment Design

• Between-subject design compare outcomes from two
  or more groups
• Factorial design using two or more treatment
  variables to examine the independent and
  simultaneous effects of these treatment variables
  on an outcome--- also includes the combination
  effect of multiple variables
• Within-group design
• Study of the behavior of a single individual over
  time under treatment or without-treatment
  conditions

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Statistical Analysis

• Report the descriptive statistics
• Means, standard deviations, and rangs
• Report the inferential statistical tests
• t test
• Analysis of Variance (ANOVA)

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Qualitative Methods

• Takes place in the nature setting
• Uses multiple methods that are interactive and
  humanistic
• Is emergent rather than tightly prefigured
• Is fundamentally interpretive
• View social phenomena holistically
• Uses complex reasoning that is multifaceted,
  iterative, and simultaneous

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Data collection types

• Observations
• Interviews
• Documents
• Audiovisual materials

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Observation

• Definition
• The researcher takes field notes on the behavior
  and activities of individuals at the research
  site.
• Researcher role
• Complete participant
• Has a firsthand experience
• may be seen as intrusive
• Complete observer
• Useful in exploring topics that may be
  uncomfortable for participants to discuss
• private information may be observed that the
  researcher cannot report

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Interviews

• Definition
• The researcher conducts interviews with
  participants
• Types
• Face-to-face
• Telephone
• Focus group
• Structure
• Unstructured and open-ended questions
• Structured and well designed questions (more
  control)

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Documents

• Types
• public documents
• i.e., newspapers, official reports
• Private documents
• i.e., personal diaries, letters, e-mail

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Audio and Visual materials

• Data
• Data from photographs, art objects, videotapes,
  or any forms of sound
• Features
• Maybe difficulty to interpret
• May directly share the reality