A Research design is concerned with turning a research question into a testing project.

The best design depends on the research questions. Every design has its positive and negative sides. The research design has been considered a "blueprint" for research, dealing with at least four problems: what questions to study, what data are relevant, what data to collect, and how to analyze the results.[1] Research design can be divided into fixed and flexible research designs (Robson, 1993). Others have referred to this distinction with quantitative research designs and qualitative research designs. However, fixed designs need not be quantitative, and flexible design need not be qualitative. In fixed designs the design of the study is fixed before the main stage of data collection takes place. Fixed designs are normally theory-driven; otherwise its impossible to know in advance which variables need to be controlled and measured. Often these variables are quantitative. Flexible designs allow for more freedom during the data collection. One reason for using a flexible research design can be that the variable of interest is not quantitatively measurable, such as culture. In other cases, theory might not be available before one starts the research.

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1 Examples of fixed (quantitative) designs o 1.1 Experimental design o 1.2 Non-experimental research designs o 1.3 Quasi experiment 2 Examples of flexible (qualitative) research designs o 2.1 Case study o 2.2 Ethnographic study 3 References

[edit] Examples of fixed (quantitative) designs

[edit] Experimental design
See also Design of experiments. In an experimental design, the researcher actively tries to change the situation, circumstances or experience of participants (manipulation), which may lead to a change in behaviour of the participants of the study. The participants are (randomly) assigned to different conditions, and variables of interest are measured. The researcher tries to keep the other variables as similar as possible. Experiments are normally highly fixed before the data collection starts. In a good research design, a few things are of great importance. First of all, it is necessary to think of a proper way to operationalise the variables that you want to measure. Do you want to measure your variable with a questionnaire? Do you measure it physically? Secondly, the

statistical analysis has to be taken into account. What are your expectations? How do you want to analyse this? Thirdly, in a design you have to think of the practical limitations. Can you find enough participants for your study? Are the participants that you want to include in your study representative for the population? The most important thing is that when you want to execute a good research, you think of all these questions beforehand (Adr, Mellenbergh & Hand, 2008). Read more about experiental research designs here Experiment.

[edit] Non-experimental research designs

Non-experimental research is almost the same as experimental research, the only difference is that non-experimental research does not involve a manipulation of the situation, circumstances or experience of the participants. Non-experimental research designs can be split up in three designs. First, relational designs, in which a range of variables is measured. These designs are also called correlational studies, since the correlation is most often used analysis. The second type is comparative designs. These designs compare two natural groups. The third type of non-experimental research is a longitudinal design. See Longitudinal study.]

[edit] Quasi experiment

Quasi research designs are research design that follow the experimental procedure, but do not randomly assign people to (treatment and comparison) groups. See Quasi-experiment and natural experiment for more details.

[edit] Examples of flexible (qualitative) research designs

[edit] Case study
In a case study, one single unit is extensively studied. that can be a case of a person, organization, group or situation. Famous case studies are for example the descriptions about the patients of Freud, who were thoroughly analysed and described. Read more on case study. Bell (1999) states a case study approach is particularly appropriate for individual researchers because it gives an opportunity for one aspect of a problem to be studied in some depth within a limited time scale.

[edit] Ethnographic study

This type of research is involved with a group, organization, culture, or community. Normally the researcher shares a lot of time with the group. Read more on Ethnography.

[edit] References
1. ^ Philliber, Schwab, & Samsloss, 1980