types of research methods slideshare

Guide to Research Methods

About the guide

This guide will

• Introduce you to a range of research methods
• Help you think about the value and limitations of different research methods
• Identify when to use alternative research methods

You should use the guide

• After or while you establish your research questions (See the Guide to Research Questions )
• When you are completing your Research Design Framework
• When you are thinking about who you want to talk to and why (See the Guide to Sampling )

You should print or read this guide

These slides are set up so that they can be printed back to back (two/four sided) to give:

• A short hand overview about when to use each method
• A summary of the method, what it’s good for and limitations (linking to other slides in this pack)

Choosing research methods

When you need to think about which method is best in theory and in practice

Choosing Research Methods

Providing a rationale for the methods you choose to use and how you employ them.

• What are your research goals? If you are looking to influence experts or policy makers, quantitative approaches will add weight to your findings. If you are looking to understand problems, inform innovation or develop a prototype, look at qualitative methods or user research
• What are your research questions? If they begin with ‘explore’ or ‘what’ look at qualitative methods (talking). If they begin with ‘identify’ or ‘why’ look at quantitative (see guide to research questions )
• What research traditions exist? You may choose to follow or challenge them. Think about whether you want your research to be noted for its quality and robustness or creative approach and unique insights
• What are your/your teams skills? You may not be an expert in the most appropriate method so consider asking for other team members or commissioning out research
• Who are you research participants? Think about your relationship to participants (especially if you are doing qualitative research) and how they will respond to you and the method. Consider if they are often consulted or surveyed and whether if could be helpful or unhelpful to stick with their comfort zone or not.

Using online tools

When you need to decide which tools to use for research

What to think about when choosing a tool to conduct research

• What’s the cost to the research quality ? Most tools are ‘freemium’, use a basic version for free. BUT these are designed to annoy you to pay to do good research. Consider privacy settings, data access, storage and value for money. Survey tools will have no option to filter participants (if yes/no answer this q), a 10Q limit, no branding. Mapping/visualisations are published online and open source tools aren’t always user friendly
• Start with user needs, understand the context and think about everyone. Consider what technology they have, how they will access the tool and what they need to do this. Do they have internet, data, time?
• Be creative: Online tools may not be designed for research, but Google Forms, Trello, Workflowy and Slack are all valuable collaboration tools. Twitter and Facebook polls may increase participation in research. However, think about what they are missing, what they can’t do and pilot your analysis approach first
• See what’s out there: This online sheet of Applied Social Research Guides and Resources includes a list of online tools for research and evaluation to test. Those widely used for your research method or sector are likely to be the best starting point. Some tools allow you to do research (see Tags for Twitter data capture), analyse it or present it in new ways (see Raw Graph s for data visualisation)

Contents: Methods summary

• Structured Interviews : When you want to gain a broad range of perspectives about specific questions
• Semi-Structured Interviews : When you want to gain in-depth insights about broad questions
• Unstructured Interviews : When you want to gain in-depth insights about a complex research topics
• Telephone Interviews : A tool for when you want to interview people quickly and easily
• Guerilla Interviews : When you want to carry out user research or explore general perspectives quickly
• Contextual Interviews : When you want to understand actions and particular experiences indepth and in context
• Focus Groups : When you want to understand shared experiences and different perspectives
• Participant Observation : When you want to ‘learn by doing’ or observe social interactions and behaviour
• Ethnography : When you want to experience social practices, interactions and behaviour with minimal influence
• Surveys: When you want to generate numerical data about the scale of people’s opinions and feelings
• Mixed Methods: When one method cannot fully answer your main research question
• User Research : When you want to learn about the behaviours and motivations of your target audience
• Service Design Research : When you want to design a service to meet people’s needs.
• Content Analysis : When you want to understand public discourse through secondary or online data
• Workshops : When you want to engage stakeholders in research, generate ideas or codesign solutions
• Usability tests : When you want to test prototypes or learn about problems with an existing service

Find out more

How to do good…

• Applied social research: A curated online sheet of Applied Social Research Guides and Resources
• Surveys : Guide to creating questions here and here , build on existing data/questions , analysis guide
• Interviews : A nice overview here which includes how to structure an interview
• User research : The GDS for intro guides and DisAmbiguity blog
• Service design: This is Service Design Doing has great tools and formats for workshops

Inspiration for emerging research methods and creative formats for research

• Ethnography and mixed methods presented well: Ikea At Home Report
• User mapping techniques as a social research method NPC Report
• User Research to understand domestic abuse experiences and the potential for technology Tech Vs Abuse
• Using Twitter data for social research Demos
• Data visualisation as a tool for research communication - Nesta data visualisation and Women’s Aid Map
• Data journalism and data storytelling - Guardian reading the riots
• An online games to shift perspective on a social problem - Financial Times Uber Story
• Content analysis to map trends - Nesta analysed creative skills in job adverts
• Issue mapping online - networks of websites and people on Twitter - Warwick University Issue Mapping

Structured Interviews

When you want to gain a broad range of perspectives about specific questions

Also consider

Semi-structured interviews

A conversation with a set structure (a script of fixed questions) and specific purpose. Can be a method to undertake a survey or called a ‘directed’ interview.

• Asking standardised questions across many participants makes data easier to analyse and compare
• Giving participants a clear guide about what you want to learn from them
• Topics that would be too complex to capture in a questionnaire tick box/short response
• Respondents with limited time, who want to consider responses in advance or do not want to write
• The quality of the interview is less dependent on the interviewer and their rapport with the interviewee

Limitations (and how to avoid or what to consider instead)

• The structure prevents participants from bringing in other ideas (consider semi-structured interviews )
• Whilst quicker to conduct and analyse than semi-structured interviews, they are still resource intensive and only possible to do with limited numbers of people (consider questionnaires online - see surveys )

Semi-Structured Interviews

When you want to gain in-depth insights about broad questions

Participant Observation

User research

Focus groups

Semi-Structured interviews

Conversation with a structure (set of open questions) and clear purpose. Also called directed interviews.

• Exploring a range of perspectives on research questions, engaging experts and getting buy-in to research
• Gaining in-depth insights about how people feel or interpret complex issues
• Topics which are sensitive, difficult to express in writing or to articulate views about in a survey
• Allowing participants to respond in their words, framing what they see as important

Limitations

• Quality can depend on interviewer skills and put people on the spot (consider setting topics in advance)
• The set-up affects the quality of engagement and discussion (consider location, relationship with the interviewee and whether you should do a face to face or Telephone/Online interview )
• Time consuming to do, analyse and compare (consider Structured Interviews or Focus groups )
• Can lack validity as evidence (consider Surveys )
• Explore what people say, think and remember, not what they actually do (consider Participant Observation contextual interviews or User Research ) or shared perspectives (consider Focus groups )
• Easy to provide too much structure and prevent open exploration of a topic (see unstructured interviews )

Unstructured Interviews

When you want to gain in-depth insights about a complex research topics

Contextual interviews

Unstructured interviews

A loosely structured open conversation guided by research topics (also called non-directed interviews)

• Very exploratory research and broad research questions
• Letting the participant guide the interview according to their priorities and views
• In-depth and broad discussion about a person's expertise, experiences and opinions
• Participant can feel like the they are not saying the ‘right’ thing (explain technique and rationale well)
• Whilst useful for expert interviews, an unstructured approach can give the impression that the interviewer is unprepared, lacks knowledge or the research purpose is unclear (consider semi-structured interviews )
• Interviews are longer, resource intensive and only smaller numbers are possible (consider focus groups )
• Generates in-depth insights that are difficult to analyse and compare
• A lack of structure can encourage participants to focus in-depth on one thing they are positive about or know very well in-depth (consider using desk research to inform the interview topics)

Guerilla Interviews

When you want to carry out user research or explore general perspectives quickly and easily

An ‘impromptu’ approach to interviewing, often talking to real people on the street or at a key site

• Gaining immediate responses to a tool or design and insights into a problem
• Informal method means participants can be more relaxed and open
• Speaking to a lot of people, simply, quickly and cheaply about one key question
• User research and user experience of interacting with digital products
• Speaking to people for convenience (users are available in a single place and time) introduces sample bias (but you can add more targeting and profiling of participants, see the Guide to Sampling )
• The lack of formal structure can mean that you miss important questions or insights
• Findings are often unreliable and not generalisable because they rely on a single type of user
• Difficult to understand complexity or gain contextual insights

Telephone / online interviews

A tool for when you want to interview people quickly and easily

Telephone or Online interviews

A tool to conduct an interview (it is not a method in itself) which is not in person/ face to face

• Conducting interviews without the costs of travel and meeting time (often shorter)
• Expert and stakeholder interviews, when you already know the participant well or they are short of time
• Taking notes and looking up information whilst interviewing is less disruptive than in person, easy to record
• Sending informed consent information and interview questions in advance
• Can be difficult to undertake an engaging interview (hard to build rapport on the phone)
• Often need to be shorter and put alongside other meetings

What method are you using?

• Structured interviews : When you want to gain a broad range of perspectives about specific questions
• Semi-structured interviews : When you want to gain in-depth insights about broad questions
• Unstructured interviews : When you want to gain in-depth insights about a complex research topics

Further guides to Interviews : A nice overview here , including how to structure an interview

Contextual Interview

When you want to understand actions and particular experiences in-depth and in context

Ethnography

Interviews conducted with people in a situational context relevant to the research question; also known as contextual inquiry.

• Understanding what happens, experiences and emotions whilst interacting with a tool, service or event.
• Easier for research participants to show rather than explain, participants are active and engaged
• Uncover what happens, what people do, how they behave in the moment, rather than how they remember this and give meaning to these responses later.
• Open and flexible method giving depth of insights about a tool or specific interaction
• Time and resource intensive for the researcher
• Each context is unique - making it difficult to generalise from or to answer broader research questions about experiences (consider semi-structured interviews )
• The researcher influences the interactions and events (consider ethnography or participant observation )

When you want to understand shared experiences and different perspectives

Focus Groups

An organised discussion with a group of participants, led by a facilitator around a few key topics

• Gaining several perspectives about the same topic quickly
• Research contexts and topics where familiarity between participants can generate discussion about similar experiences (or different ones) which may not arise in a one to one interview
• When attitudes, feelings and beliefs are more likely to be revealed in social gathering and interactions
• Including tasks and creative methods to elicit views (e.g. shared ranking of importance of statements)
• Difficult to identify the individual view from the group view (consider semi-structured interviews )
• Group dynamics will affect the conversation focus and participation levels of different members
• The role of the moderator is very significant. Good levels of group leadership and interpersonal skill are required to moderate a group successfully.
• The group set-up is an ‘artificial’ social setting and discussion (consider Participant Observation )

Participant observation

When you want to ‘learn by doing’ and observe social interactions and behaviour

Participant observation/ shadowing

The researcher immerses themselves in lives of participants as an ‘observer’ of their behaviours, practices and interactions. A type of ethnography. The people being observed know about the research.

• Understanding everyday behaviours, interactions and practice in the context that they occur
• Gaining an intuitive understanding of what happens in practice and what this means for those involved
• Allowing research participants to show you what they do, when they can’t describe and remember this well
• Establishing topics for further investigation through more structured or focused research methods
• If explicit (shadowing for example) the research situation is still ‘artificial’
• Your audience may not respect it and can be difficult to generalise from (consider mixed methods)
• The quality of the data is dependent on the researchers’ skills and relationships with participants

When you want to experience social practices, interactions and behaviour with minimal influence on what happens

The systematic study of a group of people or cultures to understand behaviours and interactions. The researcher becomes an ‘insider’. It is a way of presenting research findings, as well as a method, which can include participant observation, document analysis and visual methods.

• When you need to be an ‘insider’ to fully access the research context (such as organisational cultures)
• Presenting how everyday behaviours, interactions and practice occur in context
• Gaining an in-depth knowledge of your research context, participants and social relationships
• When little is known about a research context or topic
• If covert (at a conference or workplace for example) it has implications for informed consent
• If explicit (shadowing for example) the researcher’s presence can affect the interactions and findings

Example use case : Ikea At Home research study to understand how people feel about their home

When you want to generate numerical data about the scale of people’s opinions and feelings

Mixed Methods

A process of systematically collecting information from a large number of different people. Responses are summarised as statistics (online surveys automate this analysis for you).

• Targeting specific types of research participant and providing data about their views
• If designed well, they can be quick, simple and non intrusive for research participants
• Findings can have more credibility than other methods because of their breadth
• Describing, measuring and understanding (a basic questionnaire)
• Statistical analysis, modelling cause and effect (large scale survey designed to represent the population)
• Can raise more questions about what happens and why, lack depth of insight (consider mixed methods )
• Hard to design well and require a lot of time upfront and data skills to analyse the results
• Low completion rates and people feel ‘over surveyed’ (consider incentives )
• Assumes people will be honest and sufficiently aware of the research context to provide credible answers.

Further information: A great guide to creating questions here and here , build on existing data/questions here

When one research method cannot fully answer your main research question

Mixed methods

Combining different methods to answer your research questions, can be a mix of quantitative or qualitative methods or both. It may mean working with different types of data, research designs or being part of a research team (covering different research disciplines)

• Overcoming the limitation of relying on a single research method or approach
• Triangulating findings (i.e. using an additional method) can give them more validity
• Accessing different types of research participants
• A more holistic understanding about how, why and the extent to which something happens
• Answering different types of research questions about frequency and perceptions
• Giving findings more validity and influence because of the range of data and insights
• Requires a broader range of skills and more time to deliver, analyse and report on
• Research design must have strong sequencing (when each method is used and analysed , why) to make the most of a mixed methods approach - not always possible in a tight timescale or short research project

User Research

When you want to learn about people’s needs, behaviours and motivations for using a service

Service Design

S emi-Structured Interviews

Usability testing

A research approach employed to understand users and their needs, motivations and behaviours, primarily to inform service design.

• User-centered design processes which look to ensure services meet the needs of their audience
• Gaining specific insights into how a person interacts with a digital tool or service
• Exploring general needs, behaviours and motivations for a specific target group using a range of services
• Focus on a tool or service can prevent wider analysis, relevance and applicability
• Research can lack credibility due to small numbers, set up, documentation (often highly specific focus)
• Can overlook those who do not use a service for a whole range of reasons

What method?

• User research involves any method which looks at who users are, the problems they face, what they are trying to do and how they use existing services. This can create user personas, user journeys and user experience maps. It largely includes qualitative research methods.

When you want to design a service to meet people’s needs, including planning, organising, infrastructure, communication and components)

A research approach employed in the activity of planning and organising of people, infrastructure, communication and material components of a service, in order to improve quality and interaction.

• Gaining a holistic picture of all components (infrastructure, people, organisations, culture) affecting how a person interacts with a service
• Service design often begins with user research but participants in research include all those involved in delivering (not just using) a service, such as employees and stakeholders in an organisation as well as looking at the context and system which affect how a service works and its effectiveness

Content analysis

When you want to understand public discourse through secondary or online data

A systematic process of classifying and interpreting documents, text or images to analyse key discourses (their meaning) or to quantify patterns (such as word frequencies). This can be done manually or it can be automated.

• Exploring the focus of messages, text or imagery and change over time
• Secondary data sources, such as archives, online social media data (such as Tweets) and news articles
• Gaining a qualitative or quantitative insights about key messages
• Focuses on public and documented interpretations of events and experiences
• Documents are not exhaustive and not all are accessible (or available online/freely)
• Qualitative coding is time intensive to manually classify, reliant on researcher interpretation
• Automated coding for key words can miss nuances and difficult to produce meaningful findings

When you want to engage stakeholders in research, generate ideas or codesign solutions

Also consider:

A tool to undertake research. It is an interactive session, often taking a full day, in which research participants sor stakeholders work intensively on an issue or question. The process can combine elements of qualitative research, brainstorming or problem solving.

• Engaging stakeholders - building empathy with and understanding of research findings
• Understanding problems or prototyping solutions, linked to user research and service design approaches
• Participatory research, allowing participants to shape agendas and outcomes
• Creative, collaborative and engaging activities to build rapport and understanding with participants
• Participatory design, enabling participants to co-design solutions which work for them
• Highly dependent on the right people attending and the facilitation skills
• Can be a lot of time and effort to coordinate a workshop effectively and analyse findings
• The immersive and collaborative environment makes it difficult to document effectively
• Collaborative solutions may duplicate existing problems or solutions

When you want to test prototypes or learn about problems with an existing service

A user research method where you watch participants try to complete specific tasks using your service. Moderated testing involve interaction with the research participant, asking them to explain what they are doing, thinking and feeling. Unmoderated testing is completed alone by the participant.

• Identify any usability issues with a digital service - for example, problems with the language or layout
• Seeing if users understand what they need to do in order to complete designated tasks
• Generating ideas to improve a prototype of existing digital service
• Assessing user experience
• Focus is not on ‘natural’ use (consider contextual interviews , participant observation , ethnography )
• Data is about a specific design and interaction with a tool at that moment
• Findings cannot be generalised or applicable more broadly to understand users and behaviours

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Types of Research – Explained with Examples

• By DiscoverPhDs
• October 2, 2020

Types of Research

Research is about using established methods to investigate a problem or question in detail with the aim of generating new knowledge about it.

It is a vital tool for scientific advancement because it allows researchers to prove or refute hypotheses based on clearly defined parameters, environments and assumptions. Due to this, it enables us to confidently contribute to knowledge as it allows research to be verified and replicated.

Knowing the types of research and what each of them focuses on will allow you to better plan your project, utilises the most appropriate methodologies and techniques and better communicate your findings to other researchers and supervisors.

Classification of Types of Research

There are various types of research that are classified according to their objective, depth of study, analysed data, time required to study the phenomenon and other factors. It’s important to note that a research project will not be limited to one type of research, but will likely use several.

According to its Purpose

Theoretical research.

Theoretical research, also referred to as pure or basic research, focuses on generating knowledge , regardless of its practical application. Here, data collection is used to generate new general concepts for a better understanding of a particular field or to answer a theoretical research question.

Results of this kind are usually oriented towards the formulation of theories and are usually based on documentary analysis, the development of mathematical formulas and the reflection of high-level researchers.

Applied Research

Here, the goal is to find strategies that can be used to address a specific research problem. Applied research draws on theory to generate practical scientific knowledge, and its use is very common in STEM fields such as engineering, computer science and medicine.

This type of research is subdivided into two types:

• Technological applied research : looks towards improving efficiency in a particular productive sector through the improvement of processes or machinery related to said productive processes.
• Scientific applied research : has predictive purposes. Through this type of research design, we can measure certain variables to predict behaviours useful to the goods and services sector, such as consumption patterns and viability of commercial projects.

According to your Depth of Scope

Exploratory research.

Exploratory research is used for the preliminary investigation of a subject that is not yet well understood or sufficiently researched. It serves to establish a frame of reference and a hypothesis from which an in-depth study can be developed that will enable conclusive results to be generated.

Because exploratory research is based on the study of little-studied phenomena, it relies less on theory and more on the collection of data to identify patterns that explain these phenomena.

Descriptive Research

The primary objective of descriptive research is to define the characteristics of a particular phenomenon without necessarily investigating the causes that produce it.

In this type of research, the researcher must take particular care not to intervene in the observed object or phenomenon, as its behaviour may change if an external factor is involved.

Explanatory Research

Explanatory research is the most common type of research method and is responsible for establishing cause-and-effect relationships that allow generalisations to be extended to similar realities. It is closely related to descriptive research, although it provides additional information about the observed object and its interactions with the environment.

Correlational Research

The purpose of this type of scientific research is to identify the relationship between two or more variables. A correlational study aims to determine whether a variable changes, how much the other elements of the observed system change.

According to the Type of Data Used

Qualitative research.

Qualitative methods are often used in the social sciences to collect, compare and interpret information, has a linguistic-semiotic basis and is used in techniques such as discourse analysis, interviews, surveys, records and participant observations.

In order to use statistical methods to validate their results, the observations collected must be evaluated numerically. Qualitative research, however, tends to be subjective, since not all data can be fully controlled. Therefore, this type of research design is better suited to extracting meaning from an event or phenomenon (the ‘why’) than its cause (the ‘how’).

Quantitative Research

Quantitative research study delves into a phenomena through quantitative data collection and using mathematical, statistical and computer-aided tools to measure them . This allows generalised conclusions to be projected over time.

According to the Degree of Manipulation of Variables

Experimental research.

It is about designing or replicating a phenomenon whose variables are manipulated under strictly controlled conditions in order to identify or discover its effect on another independent variable or object. The phenomenon to be studied is measured through study and control groups, and according to the guidelines of the scientific method.

Non-Experimental Research

Also known as an observational study, it focuses on the analysis of a phenomenon in its natural context. As such, the researcher does not intervene directly, but limits their involvement to measuring the variables required for the study. Due to its observational nature, it is often used in descriptive research.

Quasi-Experimental Research

It controls only some variables of the phenomenon under investigation and is therefore not entirely experimental. In this case, the study and the focus group cannot be randomly selected, but are chosen from existing groups or populations . This is to ensure the collected data is relevant and that the knowledge, perspectives and opinions of the population can be incorporated into the study.

According to the Type of Inference

Deductive investigation.

In this type of research, reality is explained by general laws that point to certain conclusions; conclusions are expected to be part of the premise of the research problem and considered correct if the premise is valid and the inductive method is applied correctly.

Inductive Research

In this type of research, knowledge is generated from an observation to achieve a generalisation. It is based on the collection of specific data to develop new theories.

Hypothetical-Deductive Investigation

It is based on observing reality to make a hypothesis, then use deduction to obtain a conclusion and finally verify or reject it through experience.

According to the Time in Which it is Carried Out

Longitudinal study (also referred to as diachronic research).

It is the monitoring of the same event, individual or group over a defined period of time. It aims to track changes in a number of variables and see how they evolve over time. It is often used in medical, psychological and social areas .

Cross-Sectional Study (also referred to as Synchronous Research)

Cross-sectional research design is used to observe phenomena, an individual or a group of research subjects at a given time.

According to The Sources of Information

Primary research.

This fundamental research type is defined by the fact that the data is collected directly from the source, that is, it consists of primary, first-hand information.

Secondary research

Unlike primary research, secondary research is developed with information from secondary sources, which are generally based on scientific literature and other documents compiled by another researcher.

According to How the Data is Obtained

Documentary (cabinet).

Documentary research, or secondary sources, is based on a systematic review of existing sources of information on a particular subject. This type of scientific research is commonly used when undertaking literature reviews or producing a case study.

Field research study involves the direct collection of information at the location where the observed phenomenon occurs.

From Laboratory

Laboratory research is carried out in a controlled environment in order to isolate a dependent variable and establish its relationship with other variables through scientific methods.

Mixed-Method: Documentary, Field and/or Laboratory

Mixed research methodologies combine results from both secondary (documentary) sources and primary sources through field or laboratory research.

You’ll come across many academics with PhD, some using the title of Doctor and others using Professor. This blog post helps you understand the differences.

A science investigatory project is a science-based research project or study that is performed by school children in a classroom, exhibition or science fair.

A thesis and dissertation appendix contains additional information which supports your main arguments. Find out what they should include and how to format them.

Join thousands of other students and stay up to date with the latest PhD programmes, funding opportunities and advice.

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Find out the different dissertation and thesis binding options, which is best, advantages and disadvantages, typical costs, popular services and more.

In this post you’ll learn what the significance of the study means, why it’s important, where and how to write one in your paper or thesis with an example.

Dr Singh earned his PhD in Nanotechnology from Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati (IIT Guwahati), India in 2018. He is now a Senior Research Fellow developing low cost and biocompatible micro/nanomotors for anti-cancer therapy.

Noelia is just two months away from submitting her PhD thesis at the University of East Anglia. Her research focuses on the application and the study of novel tissue engineering strategies for tendon repair, aiming to overcome some limitations from current therapies.

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• Research Methods
• VIVA Grant Recipients
• Vgr-social-work-research

Education Standards

Radford university.

Learning Domain: Social Work

Standard: Basic Research Methodology

Lesson 10: Sampling in Qualitative Research

Lesson 11: qualitative measurement & rigor, lesson 12: qualitative design & data gathering, lesson 1: introduction to research, lesson 2: getting started with your research project, lesson 3: critical information literacy, lesson 4: paradigm, theory, and causality, lesson 5: research questions, lesson 6: ethics, lesson 7: measurement in quantitative research, lesson 8: sampling in quantitative research, lesson 9: quantitative research designs, powerpoint slides: sowk 621.01: research i: basic research methodology.

The twelve lessons for SOWK 621.01: Research I: Basic Research Methodology as previously taught by Dr. Matthew DeCarlo at Radford University. Dr. DeCarlo and his team developed a complete package of materials that includes a textbook, ancillary materials, and a student workbook as part of a VIVA Open Course Grant.

The PowerPoint slides associated with the twelve lessons of the course, SOWK 621.01: Research I: Basic Research Methodology, as previously taught by Dr. Matthew DeCarlo at Radford University. 

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TYPES OF RESEARCH.

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Chapter 10: Experimental Research

Jan 02, 2020

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Chapter 10: Experimental Research. Objectives: Briefly state the purpose of experimental research and list the basic steps involved in conducting and controlling an experiment. Briefly define internal validity and describe eight major threats to the internal validity of an experiment.

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Chapter 10: Experimental Research • Objectives: • Briefly state the purpose of experimental research and list the basic steps involved in conducting and controlling an experiment. • Briefly define internal validity and describe eight major threats to the internal validity of an experiment.

Chapter 10: Experimental Research • Objectives: • Briefly define external validity and describe six major threats to the external validity of an experiment. • Identify and briefly describe five ways to control extraneous variables.

Chapter 10: Experimental Research • Objectives: • Define and provide examples of single-variable designs (i.e., pre-experimental, true experimental, and quasi-experimental designs) and factorial designs, and explain how they differ.

Experimental Research • Experimental research is the only type of research that can test hypotheses to establish cause-effect relations. • The researcher manipulates at least one independent variable and controls other relevant variables, and observes the effect on one or more dependent variables. • The researcher manipulates the treatment. • The researcher has control over selection and assignment.

Experimental Research • In experimental research studies the independent variable is also called the treatment, causal, or experimental variable. • In experimental research studies the dependent variable is also called the criterion, effect, or posttest variable.

Experimental Research • Experimental research is the most structured of all research. • When conducted well, experimental research studies can provide evidence for cause-effect relations. • Several experimental studies taken together can provide support for generalization of results.

Experimental Research • The experimental process • The steps in the experimental research process are the same as in other types of research. • Selecting and defining a problem • Selecting participants and measuring instruments • Preparing a research plan • Executing procedures • Analyzing the data • Formulating conclusions

Experimental Research • The experimental process • In experimental studies, the researcher controls selection and assignment. • Experimental studies often examine comparisons between or among groups. • Comparison of approaches (A versus B) • Comparison of an approach to an existing approach (A versus no A) • Comparison of different amounts of a single approach (A little of A versus a lot of A)

Experimental Research • The experimental process • In experimental research studies the group that receives the treatment is the experimental group and the group that does not receive the treatment is called the control group. • Sometimes groups are comparison groups that receive alternative treatments (e.g., two types of instruction in a content area).

Experimental Research • Manipulation and control • In experimental studies, researchers control or remove the influence of extraneous variables. • Participant variables • Organismic (e.g., age) • Intervening (e.g., interest) • Environmental variables (e.g., school or teacher effects)

Threats to Experimental Validity • Internal validity refers to the degree to which observed differences in the dependent variable are a direct result of manipulation of the independent variable and not some other variable. • Internal validity is concerned with rival explanations for an effect.

Threats to Experimental Validity • External validity, sometimes referred to as ecological validity, is the degree to which the results from a study are generalizable to other groups. • When researchers increase the internal validity of their study, they decrease their external validity.

Threats to Experimental Validity • When researchers are concerned with external validity, their ability to control important extraneous variables suffers. • When there is a choice, researchers should err on the side of control and maximize internal validity.

Threats to Internal Validity • History • Maturation • Testing • Instrumentation • Statistical regression • Differential selection of participants • Mortality • Selection-maturation and interactive effects

Threats to Internal Validity • History • Any event occurring during a study that is not part of the experimental treatment but that may effect the dependent variable represents a history threat. • Longer-lasting studies are more prone to history threats.

Threats to Internal Validity • History threat example • In a study of the effects of instructional simulations in learning chemistry content, a history threat would be demonstrated if students in the study were exposed to simulations in a different setting, such as when learning geography, while the study was being conducted.

Threats to Internal Validity • Maturation • Maturation refers to physical, intellectual, and emotional changes that naturally occur within participants over a period of time.

Threats to Internal Validity • Maturation threat example • In studies of interventions that are designed to increase children’s theory of mind, if the interventions lasted more than a couple of weeks at critical time points, participants may gain critical theory of mind awareness simply due to cognitive development and not due to the treatment.

Threats to Internal Validity • Testing • Testing as a threat to internal validity is demonstrated when taking a pretest alters the result of a posttest.

Threats to Internal Validity • Instrumentation • Instrumentation is a threat to internal validity when the instrumentation is either unreliable or is changed between pre- and posttesting.

Threats to Internal Validity • Statistical regression • Extremely high or low scores tend to regress to the mean on retesting. • Statistical regression example • If students perform poorly on a pretest it is difficult to determine if the gain in their scores is due to treatment effects.

Threats to Internal Validity • Differential selection of participants • Participants in the control and experimental groups differ in ways that influence the dependent measure.

Threats to Internal Validity • Mortality • Participants drop out of the study at differential rates across conditions.

Threats to Internal Validity • Selection can interact with other threats to internal validity (i.e., history, maturation, instrumentation). • Participants selected into the treatment and control conditions have different experiences or maturation rates or instrumentation varies across conditions.

Threats to External Validity • External validity threats can be divided into two categories: • ‘Generalizing to whom’ threats • Threats affecting groups to which the study can be generalized • ‘Generalizing to what’ threats • Threats affecting the settings, conditions, variables, and contexts to which the results can be generalized

Threats to External Validity • Pretest-treatment interaction • Multiple-treatment interference • Selection-treatment interaction • Specificity of variables • Experimenter effects • Reactive arrangements

Threats to External Validity • Reactive arrangements • Hawthorne effect: Any situation in which participants’ behavior is affected because they are in a study. • John Henry effect (Compensatory rivalry): Members of the control group compete with the experimental group.

Threats to External Validity • Reactive arrangements • Placebo effect: To combat compensatory rivalry, researchers attempt to give control groups a placebo, not the experimental treatment, but something to decrease the perception that they are in the control group. Participants should perceive they are all getting the same thing. • Novelty effect: When participants are engaged in something different this may increase attention, interest, behavior, learning, etc., just because it is something new.

Group Experimental Designs • The validity of an experiment is a function of the degree to which extraneous variables are controlled. • Randomization is the best mechanism to control for extraneous variables. • Randomization distinguishes experimental designs. • Randomization should be used whenever possible. • If groups cannot be randomly formed, variables should be held constant when at all possible (e.g., time of day, which researcher is present).

Group Experimental Designs • Participant variables can be controlled and held constant • Matching can equate groups through random assignment of pairs. • Comparing homogeneous groups allows the researcher to control for extraneous variables.

Types of Group Designs • Single-variable designs are any design that involves one manipulated variable. • Pre-experimental designs do not adequately control for extraneous variables and should be avoided. • True-experimental designs offer a very high degree of control and are always preferred designs. • Quasi-experimental designs do not control as well as experimental designs but are preferable over pre-experimental designs.

Pre-Experimental Designs • The one-shot case study involves a single group that is exposed to a treatment (X) and then posttested (O). X O • Threats to validity are not adequately controlled with this design. • Do not use this design.

Pre-Experimental Designs • The one-group pretest-posttest design involves a single group that is pretested, exposed to treatment, and then tested again. O X O • The success of the treatment is determined by comparing pretest and posttest scores. • This design does not control for history, testing, instrumentation, regression, or maturation. • Statistical regression is not controlled nor is pretest-treatment interaction.

Pre-Experimental Designs • The static-group comparison design involves at least two nonrandomly formed groups. One group receives an experimental treatment and the other group receives the traditional treatment. Both groups are posttested. X1 O X2 O

Pre-Experimental Designs • The number of groups can be expanded beyond two. • The groups are better described as comparison, not experimental and control. • This design does not control for maturation, selection effects, selection interactions, and mortality.

Pre-Experimental Designs • There is some control for history in this design. • This design is sometimes used in exploratory studies.

True Experimental Designs • The pretest-posttest control group design requires at least two groups. • Groups are formed by random assignment. • Both groups are administered a pretest, each group receives a different treatment and both groups are posttested. • The design may be extended to include additional groups.

True Experimental Designs R O X1 O R O X2 O R O X3 O • The combination of random assignment and the presence of a pretest and a control group serve to control for all threats to internal validity.

True Experimental Designs • The only potential weakness in this design is a possible interaction between the pretest and the treatment. • Researchers should report assess and report the probability of a pretest-treatment interaction.

True Experimental Designs • There are a few variations on the basic pretest-posttest control group design. • One variation includes random assignment of matched pairs to the treatment groups. • There is little advantage to this variation. • Another variation of this design involves one or more additional posttests. R O X1 O O R O X2 O O

True Experimental Designs • The posttest-only control group design is the same as the pretest-posttest control group design except that it lacks a pretest. • This design is often expanded to include more than two groups. R X1 O R X2 O

True Experimental Designs • The posttest-only control group design is best used when there is likelihood of a pretest-treatment interaction threat. • As with the pretest-posttest control group design, the addition of a matched random assignment does not represent an increased advantage.

True Experimental Designs • The Solomon Four-Group Design is a combination of the pretest-posttest control group design and the posttest-only control group design. R O X1 O R O X2 O R X1 O R X2 O

True Experimental Designs • The analysis of the Solomon four-group design is a 2 x 2 factorial analysis of variance. • This analysis tests if those who received the treatment performed differently than those who did not. • This analysis can assess if there is a testing effect. • This analysis assesses for pretest-interaction effects.

True Experimental Designs • The Solomon four-group design requires a large number of participants. • The Solomon four-group design may not always be the best design. • The design selected should be based upon potential threats and the nature of the proposed study.

Quasi-Experimental Designs • When it is not possible to assign participants to groups randomly, researchers can use quasi-experimental studies. • In the nonequivalent control group design, two or more treatment groups are pretested, administered a treatment, and posttested. O X1 O O X2 O

Quasi-Experimental Designs • The nonequivalent control group designinvolves the random assignment of groups not individuals. • The lack of random assignment introduces validity threats (e.g., regression, and selection interaction effects). • To reduce threats when using this design researchers often assure groups are as equivalent as possible (e.g., use ANCOVA).

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