WELCOME

1. WELCOME HEIDI VAN DER WESTHUIZEN Cell: 082 824 2056 Email: meertjie@gmail.com

2. CHAPTER 5 RESEARCH DESIGN

3. Tutorials PLEASE: • Turn off your cell phone • Be on time for the class • Attend regularly • Come prepared

4. Dates of tutorials

5. The research process

6. Overview • Ch 1: Strategies of discovery • Ch 2: The role of theory in research • Ch 3: Scientific research • Ch 4: Ethics in research • Ch 5: Research design

7. The research process STAGE 1: DEFINING THE PROBLEM • Deciding on the research topic • Conducting a literature review • Specify a research question • Formulating a hypothesis • Operationalizing concepts

8. The research process STAGE 2: Obtaining the information • Ethics • Research design • Sampling • Data collection STAGE 3: Analysing and interpreting the information • Describing and interpreting quantitative data • Analyses and interpretation of qualitative data

9. The research process STAGE 4: Communicating the results • Report

10. Research design

11. Outcomes • Coherency of design • Internal and external validity • Factors that influence validity • Control, manipulation of treatments, and randomization • Levels of control • When to use qualitative approach • Flexibility in strategies of enquiry in qualitative research • Key issues when designing a qualitative research project

12. Research design as part of the research process • Decide how we are going to do the research • For this we need to decide on a research design • The type of research that would be suitable • The persons or situations where we are going to collect the data from • The type of data we need • How we are to collect and analyze the data

13. Research design as part of the research process • Experimental research – the steps are done in sequence • Qualitative – design are more open and flexible

14. Design coherence • The design cannot be a haphazard collection of contradictory elements – it must be coherent • Coherency means that the design shows a unity of thought or purpose • In a coherent design the data-collection techniques matches the data-analysis techniques

15. Internal validity in quantitative research • The extent to which the study confirms the existence of a cause-effect relationship • Alternative explanations for results are called plausible rival hypotheses - threaten internal validity • Variables that threaten the internal validity of the research results are ruled out at the design stage, by the researcher controlling the research conditions • Confounding variables, nuisance variables or extraneous variables – variables that confuse the interpretations

16. Threats to internal validity • History • Uncontrolled events that influence the outcome of research • An event unrelated to the study occurs during the study and influences the dependent variable • Ex during a study to evaluate people’s attitudes toward space travel, a space craft explodes on the launch pad, killing the astronauts

17. Threats to internal validity • Maturation • There can be physical or psychological changes in the subjects over time. • Ex. researcher does research on the styles of children’s play between grades 1 and 6. Play styles will be influenced by physical and emotional changes that occur as the children grow older

18. Threats to internal validity 3. Instrumentation • The instrument (questionnaire) used to measure the dependent variable my change during the study. The instrument may deteriorate, or improve over time • Ex if the springs of a scale weaken during a weight-loss experiment, this will influence the readings on the scale

19. Threats to internal validity 4. Selection • It can bias the study if there are important, unsuspected differences between the subjects in the two groups used for comparison. • Ex an experiment on physical aggression in which the one group unintentionally contains soccer and rugby players, whereas the other group is made up of musicians and painters

20. Threats to internal validity 5. Mortality • Some subjects do not continue throughout the study, but drop out before it is completed • The subjects who drop out may be different in a particular aspect from those who complete the study - this could influence the results • Ex research on a weight-loss programme

21. Threats to internal validity 6. Regression effect • A tendency of extreme scores to move closer to average upon retesting

22. Threats to internal validity 7. Testing effect • Subjects may become familiar with the testing procedure or be more aware of certain issues after the pretest. • If there is a pretest, it could influence the outcome • For ex if subjects can remember the questions from the pretest questionnaire

23. External validity • The extent to which results can be generalised to other populations or circumstances • Selection poses a threat to external validity • Subjects chosen for a study should be representative of a larger population. • Reactive effect or Hawthorne effect: subjects respond because they know they are being observed • Researcher expectancy - expectations cause a researcher to behave in a manner that makes the expected event more likely to occur.

24. Research designs involving quantitative data • True experimental design • Pre-experimental design • Quasi-experimental design • Nonexperimental research involving quantitative data

25. True experimental design • The aim of experimental research is to show a cause-effect relationship between variables • This can be done by manipulating the conditions that we believe to be responsible for the effect. • In an experiment the researcher creates a condition or changes an existing situation. • The effect of these changes on the subject’s responses helps the researcher to identify possible causes

26. True experimental design • This deliberate action on the part of the researcher is called the treatment • Treatments are any intervention that modifies or changes the situation, can include counselling, showing a video, using specific teaching strategies etc • Treatment condition refers to whether a particular group receives the treatment or not, and what kind or treatment it receives. • The researcher manipulates the treatment condition, that is, decides who receives which treatment

27. True experimental design • The values or categories of the independent variable determine the treatment conditions – the levels of the independent variable • Example: If the independent variable is ‘’amount of counselling” there can be two levels, receiving counselling and not receiving counselling • Therefore there are two treatment conditions • Experimental group – receives the counselling (treatment) • Control group – group that receives no counselling (treatment)

28. True experimental design • These groups are compared in terms of the outcome or response to the treatment • The outcome is the dependent variable and the comparison between groups enables the researcher to determine the impact of the treatment • Pretest – If the dependent variable is measured before the introduction of the treatment • Posttest – the measurement of the dependent variable after the treatment has been introduced

29. Example • P132 • Indep variable • Dependent variable • Treatment conditions

30. Random assignment to treatment conditions • In research a sample is drawn from the population. Subjects get randomly assigned to the treatment conditions or groups • Every subject has an equal chance of being assigned to any treatment condition or group • Use systematic techniques such as random number tables or coin flipping • Random assignment is not the same as random selection

31. True experimental designs • The purpose of an experimental design is to control factors that may influence internal validity • True experimental designs: • Posttest only control group design • Pretest-posttest control group design

32. Posttest only control group design • One experimental group • One control group • Is a treatment, • A posttest • Because of random assignment, differences in the posttest scores can be attributed to the treatment or the independent variable

33. Pretest-Posttest control group design • The dependent variable is measured before and after the treatment • The researcher can compare the pretest scores of the experimental group with results after the treatment • The presence of the control group ensures that threats to internal validity are controlled for.

34. Pre-experimental design • It is designs that do not controlfor alternative interpretations of the results – no control group • May or may not involve manipulation of treatment conditions • Do not include randomization, because there is only one research group

35. Pre-experimental design 4. One-group posttest-only design: a group of subjects who are given a treatment and then measured on the dependent variable 5. One-group pretest-posttest design: measuring the behaviour of the subjects both before and after the treatment 6. Used for reasons researchers cannot use a control group for. Example - evaluating a feeding scheme for malnourished children run by a welfare organisation. It would not be ethical to implement this scheme for some children but not for others

36. Quasi-experimental design • Quasi means resemble • Aims to establish cause-effect relationships • Do not involve randomization, for practical and ethical reasons • There are techniques for increasing the equivalence of comparison groups, but not always that easy • Two types of quasi-experimental designs • Time-series design • Single-case experiments

37. Time-series design • Comparing a number of observations of the same group over time • Researcher observes the trend of the data before and after treatment • The researcher studies a single group, but measurements are taken at regular time intervals before and after the treatment and then compared

38. Single-case experiments • Similar to time-series design, but involves only one sampling unit, often a single subject, or a group or a class for ex a sports team • Researcher observes the behaviour before the intervention • Researcher introduces the treatment and make observations during the period of treatment • In an alternative research design, the treatment is withdrawn after a period of time and another set of observations made to see if the subject’s behaviour returns toward the baseline

39. Nonexperimental research involving quantitative data • When studying the difference between existing groups that have been classified according to fixed levels of an independent variable for ex gender - what is the difference in emotional sensitivity between males and females

40. Nonexperimental research involving quantitative data 2. Ex post facto research: deals with relationships between two or more variables without any planned intervention. 3. Survey research design: to obtain information on social and behavioural variables and the relationships between these variables

41. Nonexperimental research involving quantitative data 4. Researcher selects a sample or subgroup of people and ask them questions about issues • Cross sectional surveys: the info is collected at one point in time, which could be during the course of one day or over a few weeks • Longitudinal surveys: involves collecting info repeatedly over a fairly long time. 7. Methods for collecting data include questionnaires and interviews

42. Qualitative research designs • Scope • Design flexibility • The research relationship • Intended outcome • Examples of qualitative designs

43. Qualitative research designs • Uses more open techniques • Focus on meaning, experience and understanding • Use interview and observation as data collection techniques • Is nonsequential = cyclical rather than linear in nature • Designs are in the form of general guidelines

44. Qualitative research designs 5 common strategies in qualitative research • Biography: individual’s life experiences • Phenomenology: interpreting the essence of meaning that subjects give to their daily lives • Grounded theory: Creation of a theory based on observation • Ethnography: the study of an intact cultural or social group • Case study: the observation of an individual bound within a specific time and setting

45. Qualitative research designs Scope • The range of situations, techniques and observations included in the research • The degree to which the findings of a study can be generalised to other settings or people • Triangulation: the collection of data from different sources and by using different techniques, then analysing the data using more than one type of analysis

46. Qualitative research designs Design flexibility • Refers to how adaptable the research process is • What are the limits of the flexibility for your research design?

47. Qualitative research designs The research relationship • Depends on the purpose of the research • For more objective research: • Use highly structured interview • Data analysis by more than one person • Use a structured form of analysis 3. For more subjective research, unstructured interviews and methods will be used

48. Qualitative research designs Intended outcome • Usually the researcher wants to provide a description and interpretation of the phenomena or event Examples of qualitative research designs

49. NEXT CHAPTER 6: SAMPLING Pp 148 - 168