Research Methods:
The Essential Knowledge Base
Inhoudsopgave
Chapter 1 page 4 – 29.................................................................................................................................... 3
1.1 The Research Enterprise.................................................................................................................................3
1.2 Conceptualizing research...............................................................................................................................4
1.3 Language of research.....................................................................................................................................4
1.4 Structure of research......................................................................................................................................6
1.5 Validity of research.........................................................................................................................................7
Chapter 3 page 56 - 74................................................................................................................................... 8
Qualitative traditions...........................................................................................................................................9
Qualitative methods.............................................................................................................................................9
Unobtrusive methods in quality research..........................................................................................................10
Qualitative data (in relation to quantitative data)............................................................................................11
Assessing qualitative research...........................................................................................................................11
Other..................................................................................................................................................................12
Chapter 4 page 80 - 104................................................................................................................................ 12
Terminology.......................................................................................................................................................12
External validity..................................................................................................................................................13
Sampling methods: nonprobability and probability sampling...........................................................................14
Nonprobability sampling...............................................................................................................................14
Probability sampling......................................................................................................................................15
Chapter 5 Page 112-118 & 121-140............................................................................................................... 17
Levels of measurement......................................................................................................................................17
Quality of measurement....................................................................................................................................17
Reliability (consistency of measurement).....................................................................................................17
Types of reliability..........................................................................................................................................18
Validity...............................................................................................................................................................20
Construct validity...............................................................................................................................................20
Threats to construct validity..............................................................................................................................21
Social threats to construct validity.....................................................................................................................22
Combining reliability and validity.......................................................................................................................23
, Scales and scaling...............................................................................................................................................23
Tests...................................................................................................................................................................25
Chapter 7 page 172 – 200............................................................................................................................. 25
Questionnaires...................................................................................................................................................25
Interviews...........................................................................................................................................................26
Selecting the survey method..............................................................................................................................26
Populaton issues...........................................................................................................................................26
Sampling issues..............................................................................................................................................27
Queston issues..............................................................................................................................................27
Content issues................................................................................................................................................27
Bias issues......................................................................................................................................................27
Administratie issues.....................................................................................................................................28
Survey design......................................................................................................................................................28
Question content................................................................................................................................................28
Response format................................................................................................................................................28
Structured response formats.........................................................................................................................28
Unstructured response formats....................................................................................................................29
Queston wording..........................................................................................................................................29
Interviews...........................................................................................................................................................29
Role of the interiiewer:.................................................................................................................................29
Train the interiiewers:..................................................................................................................................29
Chapter 12 Page 306 - 312............................................................................................................................ 34
Inferential statistics............................................................................................................................................34
The GLM.............................................................................................................................................................35
The two-iariable linear model.......................................................................................................................35
General in the General Linear Model............................................................................................................36
Dummy iariable.............................................................................................................................................36
Article ‘Onc the oncterpretatrnc rf goioncg onc doictatrr gaSes J. Liost (2007).........................................................39
Article Venckatesh – Gancgleader frr a day..................................................................................................... 42
Truast ancd breaich rf the psyichrlrgoical icrnctraict (Rrboncsrnc, 1996)..................................................................43
2
,Chapter 1 page 4 – 29
1.1 The Research Enterprise
Research is based on three pillars:
- Systematc iniestgaton
- Empirical endeaior
o Systematcally obseriing and yielding data that helps with decision making
- Public efort
“Research is a type of systematic investigation that is empirical in nature and is designed to
contribute to public knowledge”
Research contributes to a broader efortt called research enterprise. This is the macro-leiel
efort to accumulate knowledge across multple empirical systematc public research
projects. We accumulate knowledge with the idea that it may contribute someday to
something we can uset but that is not the goal (Post-It note example)
Trancslatrncal researichn
Systematc efort to moie research from inital discoiery to practce and ultmately to
impacts on our liies
- Research-practce contnuum: process of moiing from inital research idea or
discoiery to practcet and the potental for the idea to infuence our liies or world
- Basic research: research designed to generate discoieries and to understand how
these discoieries work
- Applied research: research where discoieries are tested under increasingly
controlled conditons in real-world contexts
- Implementaton and disseminaton research: (ater testng) how well a discoiery can
be distributed in a broad range of contexts that extend beyond the original controlled
studies
- Impact research: research that assess the broader efects of a discoiery on society
- Policy research: when discoieries lead to the iniestgaton of new policies
Diferent discoieries take diferent pathways through this contnuum. Some take longer than
others and sometmes insights from practtoners and policy makers can inform basic and
applied researchers to improie their ability to transform their discoieries to beter
antcipate the real-world contexts and the other way around.
Researich synctheses
Oier the years the research literature has become ioluminous and is oten iery technicalt
making it a barrier for practtoners that reduces the rate of adopton of new discoieries. The
research enterprise has eiolied a system for synthesizing the large number of research
studies in diferent topical areas:
- Research synthesis: systematc study of multple prior projects that address the same
research queston or topic and summarize the results. There are two types:
o Meta-analysis: using statstcal methods to combine the results of similar
studies quanttatiely in order to allow general conclusions to be made
o Systematc reiiew: research synthesis approach that focuses on a specifc
queston or issue. It may or may not include meta-analysis.
* a meta-analysis is always a quanttatie synthesist a systematc reiiew may be a
judgmental expert-driien synthesist a meta-analysis or both
3
, - Guidelines: specifc set of research-based recommendatons for practce (including
eiidence of how strong the eiidence for each recommendaton is).
Eiodencice based praictice (EBP)
EBP is a moiement designed to encourage practtoners to employ practces that are based
on research eiidence as refected in research syntheses or practce guidelines
1.2 Conceptualizing research
Research projects mostly arise from problems in the feld. In some casest this is all driien by
the researcher him/herselft or through RFPs. A request for proposal describes some problem
an agency would like to researchers to address.
The frst step in a research project is the literature reiiew. This is a systematc compilaton
and writen summary of all the literature published in scientfc journals that is related to the
research topic of interest. For this literature reiiew it’s important to not only focus on
literature that is exactly the samet but on the literature that is related to the research topic.
When focusing on literaturet focus on those that haie a peer reiiew system (peer reiiew is
when the author submits his artcles to a journal editor who conducts reiiewers).
There are always feasibility issues when it comes to researcht simply because you don’t haie
unlimited resources and unbridled control oier circumstancest so as a researcher you’re
always trying to look for the best trade-ofs. There are four things to take into consideratons
when determining the project feasibility:
- How long will the research take to accomplish?
- Are there any ethic constraints?
- What cooperaton (resources) do you need?
- What costs are iniolied
1.3 Language of research
Research is:
- Theoretcal; meaning that much of it is concerned with deielopingt exploring and/or
testng
- Empirical; meaning that is based on obseriatons and measurements or reality
- Probabilistc; meaning that we accept that research can neier be 100% accurate and
it is therefore based on probabilites
- Causal (cause- efect or causal relatonship): one thing driies the other thing
Koncd rf stuadoes
- Descriptie studies
o Primarily designed to document what’s going on or what exists
o Example: describing what percentage of the populaton would iote for
democratc or republican in the next electons
- Relatonal studies
o Look at relatonships between two multple (2 or more) iariables
o Example: opinion poll looking at the relatonship between gender and iotng
preference
- Causal studies
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