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PSY3007F Quantitative Research Methods
- Look to the end page for examples of questions likely to be in the test/exam
Terre Blanche et al., Ch. 3
Research Design
- strategic framework (research design) > a plan that guides research activity to ensure that sound research
conclusions are reached
- In developing a research design, researcher must make decisions along following dimensions
o Purpose of research
o Theoretical paradigm informing research
o Context or situation in which research is carried out
o Research techniques employed to collect and analyse data
- Process of reflection guided by two principles of decision making > design validity and design coherence
Principles of research design
- Design validity
o Validity threats extraneous factors which could influence the outcome of the study and confound
interpretation of the results
o With positivism, complexity in design was attributed to the experimenters ‘lack of complete control’
o Design decisions made by identifying and eliminating plausible rival hypotheses (possible alternative
interpretations of the research findings)
Plausible rival hypotheses are eliminated when unexplained variables that influence the
findings are either controlled to remove their presence or measured to determine their
influence
- Design coherence
o Design coherence is achieved when the decisions on purpose, paradigm, context, and techniques fit
together with an internal logic
o Achieve design coherence by ensuring that research purposes and techniques are arranged logically so
as to fit within the research framework provided by a particular paradigm
Making design decisions
Paradigms
- Paradigms systems of interrelated ontological, epistemological, and methodological assumptions
o Specify the nature of reality that can be known
- Act as perspectives that provide a rationale for the research and commit the researcher to particular methods
of data collection, observation, and interpretation
- Paradigms are based on untestable assumptions, and non can be incontrovertibly right
o researchers must recognise that their findings and conclusions are embedded in paradigms
Purpose
- must answer questions of
o who or what do you want to draw conclusions about?
o What type of conclusions do you want to draw about your object of analysis?
Objects of study
- Units of analysis > focus of investigation
, o Individuals, groups, organisations, social artifacts
o Logical errors arise when object of investigation doesn’t correspond with conclusions of research
Ecological fallacy drawing conclusions about a unit of analysis different from the unit studied
- Variables > features of objects that we observe or measure in research
o Variable a concept that can take on two or more values
o Independent variable variable that the experimenter manipulates to determine its effect on the
dependent variable
o Properties of objects > can be conditions (objective descriptions of individuals), orientations
(perspectives) and actions (bheaviours)
o Time > introducing time factor will improve quality of research
o Groups > comparative studies
o Situations > observations of units of analysis in different situations
Type of study
- Exploratory, descriptive and explanatory research
o Distinction focuses on goals of research
o Exploratory research used to make preliminary investigations into relatively unknown areas of
research
open, flexible, inductive approach to research
o descriptive studies aim to describe phenomena accurately
through narrative type description, classification, measuring relationships
o explanatory studies aim to provide causal explanations of phenomena
- Applied and basic research
o Distinction refers to uses to which research will be put
o Basic research findings used to advance fundamental knowledge of the world
o Applied research findings have immediate practical application
Aims to contribute to practical issues of problem solving, decision making, policy analysis and
community development
- Quantitative and qualitative research
o Base conclusions on different kinds of information and employ different techniques of data analysis
o Quantitative > collect data in the form of numbers and use statistical types of data analysis
o Qualitative > collect data in the form of written or spoken language, or in the form of observations
recorded in language, and analyse the data by identifying and categorising themes
Naturalistic, holistic, inductive
Techniques
- Research design should provide explicit plan for action, providing detailed and extensive information about
sampling, data collection, and analysis
- Sampling the selection of research participants from an entire population, involving decisions about which
people, settings, events, behaviours or social processes to observe
o representativeness > random samples
o size of samples > ensure large enough for generalisability
o types of sampling > convenience sampling, random sampling, purposive sampling
- Data collection Strategies of observation must be described that fit in with research paradigm and research
purpose
o Positivist > values objective, usually quantitative measures
o Interpretive/constructivist > qualitative methods (observation and interviewing) favoured that allow
for rich and detailed observations of a few cases
- Analysis
o Quantitative techniques > employ variety of statistical analyses to make sense of data
o Qualitative techniques > begin by identifying themes in the data and relationships between these
themes
Situations
- Experimental research > control and manipulate context of research to eliminate extraneous variables
- Social nature of interaction can influence research with human subjects
o Experimenter effect researcher can give subtle clues about how subjects are expected to response
o Demand characteristics certain features of research setting can impact findings
- Questions to ask
o Does research question require experimental control and manipulation to identify causal factors?
o What impacts could the researcher and setting have on the results?
,L1 Ethics
History of the formalisation of ethics
- The Tuskegee syphilis study
o Men who could have been treated were not (even after a viable treatment became available)
- The Belmont Report: Ethical Principles and Guidelines for the Protection of Human Subjects of Research (1979)
Three fundamental principles
- Beneficence maximizes benefits and minimize risks
o Beneficence example: stress experiments where you put your hand in ice water – it is stressful but not
too harmful, and the benefits of learning about stress outweigh the potential harm.
o Another way of minimizing risks to participants is to keep data confidential (and anonymous where
possible)
o Generally, if there is scientific merit > getting answers provides sufficient benefit
o Doing bad research is unethical > even if no one will actually be harmed (waste of time and resources)
- Autonomy people are treated as capable of making decisions about whether or not to participate in research
o Difficulty > people in comas, children, and others who may not be able to consent
o Deception > must make sure there is no harm to participants and that they are debriefed after
participation
o Part of informed consent is knowing what your options are
- Justice fairness
o Fairness = who is included in the study? Why/why not? Who bears risk in the research, and who reaps
reward from the research?
The ‘IRB’ and ethics code
- Institutional Review Board
- The American Psychological Association Ethics Code (see www.apa.org/ethics)
- The Helsinki Declaration of the World Medical Association
Informed consent
- Knowledge understanding the nature of the experiment, the alternatives available, and the potential risks and
benefits
- Volition participants must provide their consent free from constraint or duress, and may revoke their consent at
any time
o do not give incentives that end up being coercive
e.g. large amounts of money to a sample in a low SES community
o avoid such incentives > take away the volition of participants (hardly anyone would say no to
participating)
- Competence the individual’s ability to make a well-reasoned decision and to give consent meaningfully
Consent forms
- Overview
- Description of procedures
o Often deception involved, often not told what the researcher is expecting to happen
- Risks and inconveniences
- Benefits
- Costs and economic considerations
, - Confidentiality
- Alternative treatments
- Voluntary participation
- Questions and further information
- Signature lines
Other ethical issues in research
- Fraud
o Do not make up data
- Allocation of credit
o Do not plagiarize
o Funding has to be clear
o First author > mainly their research, bulk of work
- Sharing of materials and data
o More common, materials and data are shared so people can run different analyses
o When reporting data, make sure it is
understandable
participants are kept anonymous
parts meant to be confidential are kept confidential
Chapter 4, Terre Blanche et al.
Ethical Issues in Social Science Research
- Research ethics should be a fundamental concern of all social science researchers in planning, designing,
implementing, and reporting research with human participants
o Fundamental obligation to treat research participants ethically and not as a simple means to
researchers’ ends
- Purpose of research ethics > protect the welfare of research participants
o Extends into scientific misconduct and plagiarism
- Ethical guidelines should not be followed without critical thinking > should aim to do sound moral-political
research, exposing bad practices and protecting and empowering participants as far as we can
History of ethics
- Many major ethical guidelines for researchers were developed because of specific abuses of research
participants
o Milgram’s obedience study, Zimbardo’s prison simulation study, ‘tearoom trade’ study, Tuskegee
syphilis study
- Research participants’ dignity and welfare should always transcend the interest of the research
- Ethical reviews have previously been based on biomedical research ethics, but must be specific to social
science research
o Focus more on voluntary informed participation and addressing threats to confidentiality
Philosophical principles guiding ethical research
- Autonomy and respect for the dignity of persons > voluntary informed consent by all research participants,
protection of confidentiality
- Nonmaleficence > no harm befalls participants as direct/indirect research consequence
- Beneficence > maximise benefit that research will afford participants
o Payment not considered a benefit, must be more direct (better access to health facilities, better skills,
better knowledge of topic)
- Justice > requires for people to receive what is due to them
o Fair selection of participants, those who stand to benefit from research should bear the burdens
Elements of ethical research
- Collaborative partnership > research driven by expressed community need and should involve community in
planning focus/purpose of research, participating, and sharing benefits of research
o Should be sensitive to values, cultural traditions, and practices of community
- Social value > research should address questions of value to society or particular communities in society
- Scientific validity > poor research design is unethical because it can lead to invalid results and an unnecessary
waste of resources and participants time
