RESEARCH DESIGN

By: Dr. Lucille C. Himpayan

College of Education
 What is Research Design?
 refers tothe overall strategy that you
choose to integrate the different
components of the study in a coherent and
logical way, thereby, ensuring you will
effectively address the research problem.
 constitutes the blueprint for the
collection, measurement, and analysis of
data.
 BASIC RESEARCH DESIGN
Descriptive research designs help provide answers
to the questions of who, what, when, where, and
how associated with a particular research problem;
a descriptive study cannot conclusively ascertain
answers to why.
 use to obtain information concerning the current
status of the phenomena and to describe "what
exists" with respect to variables or conditions in a
situation.
Types of Descriptive research
Case Study
involves an in-depth study of an individual or
group of individuals. Case studies often lead to
testable hypotheses and allow us to study rare
phenomena.
Case studies should not be used to determine
cause and effect, and they have limited use for
making accurate predictions.
 Survey Method
In survey method research, participants
answer questions administered through
interviews or questionnaires. After
participants answer the questions,
researchers describe the responses given.
In order for the survey to be both reliable
and valid it is important that the questions
are constructed properly. Questions
should be written so they are clear and
easy to comprehend.
 Observational Method

With the observational method

(sometimes referred to as field
observation)human behavior is
closely observed. There are two
main categories of the observational
method — naturalistic observation
and laboratory observation.
Experimental Research Design
 An experiment is a method of applying
treatments to a group and recording the
effects. Remember, a good group
experiment will have two basic
elements: a control and a treatment.
experimental research is what we call a
true experiment.
an experiment where the researcher
manipulates one variable, and
control/randomizes the rest of the
variables.
 True Experimental Design
 characterized by the random selection of
participants and the random assignment of the
participants to groups in the study.
 The researcher also has complete control over
the extraneous variables. Therefore, it can be
confidently determined that that effect on the
dependent variable is directly due to the
manipulation of the independent variable.
 For these reasons, true experimental designs
are often considered the best type of research
design.
 Types of True Experiment
Post-test Only Design – This type of design has
two randomly assigned groups: an experimental
group and a control group. Neither group is
pretested before the implementation of the
treatment. The treatment is applied to the
experimental group and the post-test is carried
out on both groups to assess the effect of the
treatment or manipulation. This type of design is
common when it is not possible to pretest the
subjects.
• Pretest-Post-test Only Design - The
subjects are again randomly assigned to
either the experimental or the control
group. Both groups are pretested for the
independent variable. The experimental
group receives the treatment and both
groups are post-tested to examine the
effects of manipulating the independent
variable on the dependent variable.
• Solomon Four Group Design – Subjects are
randomly assigned into one of four groups. There are
two experimental groups and two control groups. Only
two groups are pretested. One pretested group and
one unprotested group receive the treatment. All four
groups will receive the post-test. The effects of the
dependent variable originally observed are then
compared to the effects of the independent variable
on the dependent variable as seen in the post-test
results. This method is really a combination of the
previous two methods and is used to eliminate
potential sources of error.
Factorial Design – The researcher manipulates
two or more independent variables (factors)
simultaneously to observe their effects on the
dependent variable. This design allows for the
testing of two or more hypotheses in a single
project. One example would be a researcher who
wanted to test two different protocols for burn
wounds with the frequency of the care being
administered in 2, 4, and 6 hour increments.
Randomized Block Design – This design is used when
there are inherent differences between subjects and
possible differences in experimental conditions. If there
are a large number of experimental groups, the
randomized block design may be used to bring some
homogeneity to each group. For example, if a researcher
wanted to examine the effects of three different kinds of
cough medications on children ages 2-16, the research
may want to create age groups (blocks) for the children,
realizing that the effects of the medication may depend
on age. This is a simple method for reducing the
variability among treatment groups.
Crossover Design (also known as Repeat Measures
Design) – Subjects in this design are exposed to more
than one treatment and the subjects are randomly
assigned to different orders of the treatment. The groups
compared have an equal distribution of characteristics
and there is a high level of similarity among subjects that
are exposed to different conditions. Crossover designs
are excellent research tools, however, there is some
concern that the response to the second treatment or
condition will be influenced by their experience with the
first treatment. In this type of design, the subjects serve
as their own control groups.
A quasi-experiment is an empirical
interventional study used to estimate the
causal impact of an intervention on its
target population without random
assignment.
 it is defined as not a true experiment
since the main component of true
experiment is randomly assigned groups.
 Difference
between true experiments and quasi-
experiments
• : In a true experiment, participants
are randomly assigned to either the
treatment or the control group,
whereas they are not assigned
randomly in a quasi-experiment.
Types of Quasi experimental design
• Non-equivalent is between -subjects
design in which participants have not
been randomly assigned to conditions.
• Pre test-Post test the dependent
variable is measured once before the
treatment is implemented and once
after it is implemented
• Interrupted Time series Design is variant
of pre test-post test design. A time series
is set of measurements taken at intervals
over a period of time
• Combination design is better than either
the non equivalent groups or pre test-
post test design. There is a treatment
group that is given a pre test, receives a
treatment, and then is given a post test .
But at the same time there is a control
group that is given a pre test does not
receive the treatment and then is given a
post test.
 Pre- Experimental Design
• are so named because they follow basic
experimental steps but fail to include a
control group. In other words, a single
group is often studied but no
comparison between an equivalent non-
treatment group is made.
• It is the simplest form of research
design. A single groups are observed
subsequent to some agent or treatment
presumed to cause change.
One-shot case study design
• a single group is studied at a single point
in time after some treatment that is
presumed to have caused change. The
single instance is compared to general
expectations of what the case would
have looked like had the treatment not
occurred and to other events casually
observed. No control or comparison
group is employed.
One- group Pre test-Post test
• a single case is observed at two time
points, one before the treatment and the
other after the treatment. Changes in
the outcome of interest are presumed to
be the result of intervention of
treatment no control or comparison
group is employed
 Static –group comparison
• a group that has experienced some
treatment is compared with one that has
not. Observed differences between
groups re assumed to be a result of the
treatment
 Causal Design
• Causality studies may be thought of as
understanding a phenomenon in terms
of conditional statements in the form, “If
X, then Y.” This type of research is used
to measure what impact a specific
change will have on existing norms and
assumptions
• Most social scientists seek causal
explanations that reflect tests of
hypotheses. Causal effect (nomothetic
perspective) occurs when variation in
one phenomenon, an independent
variable, leads to or results, on average,
in variation in another phenomenon, the
dependent variable.
 Exploratory Design
• An exploratory design is conducted
about a research problem when there
are few or no earlier studies to refer to
or rely upon to predict an outcome
• The focus is on gaining insights and
familiarity for later investigation or
undertaken when research problems are
in a preliminary stage of investigation.
• Exploratory designs are often used to
establish an understanding of how best
to proceed in studying an issue or what
methodology would effectively apply to
gathering information about the issue.