Unit VI.

Methods of Research

In this unit, you will learn about the methods of research, its aims, characteristics, types,
strengths and limitations, and application to nutrition.

Learning Outcomes

After you have studied this unit, you should be able to:

1. Describe the characteristics of the different methods of research.

2. Discuss the strengths and limitations of the different methods of research.
3. Identify the method of research appropriate in food and nutrition research.

There are several specific research methods or traditions under the qualitative and quantitative
research designs.

Basic research methods. Researchers are tasked to explain the method of data gathering and
analysis at the beginning of their research, particularly in the stage of research or thesis proposal. The
main task of research is to obtain knowledge or information from various sources, i.e., experience,
expert opinion and reasoning. However, to obtain such information, researchers need to employ one or
more methods of data gathering.

Basic research designs. Researches formulate research design and methodology before
collecting the data to guide their conduct of research. Each research methodology and design has sets
of assumptions, concepts, and values, which the researchers must know and understand. According to
its design and methodology, a research can be:

a) Quantitative or
b) Qualitative in nature

They are also known as the research paradigms.

Quantitative research aims to explore and describe. The quantitative research paradigm relies
primarily on the collection of quantitative data for it operates with some statistical measures as basic
part of an over-all design. While the Qualitative research aims to describe, predict and explain. The
qualitative research paradigm relies on the collection of qualitative data. Its research design emerges or
surfaces as the researchers decide about how best to obtain data, from whom to obtain data, how long
to collect data and what to do with the collected data. The third type of research design and
methodology is the mixed research paradigm which integrates the characteristics and methods of the
first two research paradigms.

The goal or purpose of research paradigm whether in qualitative, quantitative or mixed

research, is to facilitate not only the research process but also the writing process. Research design
integrates all aspects of research from process to outcome. The specific designs and methods to collect
data are identified and explained under each category of research.

A. Quantitative Research Design

Researchers need some building blocks for a quantitative research design or paradigm. First, it
needs to be based or built upon past research. It has to review prior research to formulate its research
method. Second, its basic building blocks are variables. Using quantitative research paradigm requires
a good research design to address the research questions and thereby solve the research problem. The
quantitative research design indicates the degree of intervention, the nature of any comparisons, the
methods used to control extraneous variables, and the timing and location of data collection. It has no
permanent typology because it varies depending on the dimensions of research, i.e., the element of
control over the independent variables, the type of comparison, among other things.

Quantitative research can be classified into two basic methodological approaches:

1. Experimental design, and

2. Non-experimental design
 This general classification focuses on the methodological approaches in acquiring knowledge,
improving and assessing existing knowledge, methodologies and strategies for research and
development. Polit (2006) summarized the dimensions of quantitative research design as follows:

DIMENSION DESIGN MAJOR FEATURES

Experimental  Manipulation of independent variable;
control group; randomization
Quasi-experimental  Manipulation of independent variable; no
control group and/or no comparison group
but efforts to compensate for this lack
 Manipulation of independent variable; no
Pre-experimental randomization or no comparison group;
Control over
independent variable limited control over extraneous variables
 No manipulation of independent variable
Nonexperimental
Between-subjects  Subjects in groups being compared are
Type of group different people
comparison  Subjects in groups being compared are the
same people at different times or in different
Within-subjects
conditions
Cross-sectional  Data are collected at a single point in time
 Data are collected at two or more points in
Longitudinal time over an extended period
Timeframes
Retrospective  Study begins with dependent variables and
Observance of looks forward for cause or influence
independent and Prospective  Study begins with independent variable and
dependent variables looks forward for the effect
Naturalistic setting  Data collected in a real-world setting
Setting
Laboratory  Data collected in contrived laboratory setting

Types of Quantitative Research paradigm

There are two common quantitative research designs:

1. Experimental paradigm
2. Non-experimental paradigm

Each of these paradigms contains a set of assumptions, concepts and values peculiar to the
study. Their basic building blocks are variables, which can take different values or categories, as
opposed to constants which cannot vary such as a single value or category of a variable.

The two basic variables in quantitative research design are:

1. Independent variable (IV), which are the presumed cause of another variable; and
2. Dependent variable (DV), which are the presumed effect or outcome.

Dependent variables are influenced by one or more independent variables. For example, to
study the relationship of obesity and heart attack, obesity is the IV and heart attack is the DV. The third
variables which may come in-between the IV and the DV is the intervening variable (also called as
mediator or mediating variables). Hypertension is one intervening variable in the obesity and heart
attack relationship.

Experimental approach is basically applied and conducted in natural sciences than in the social
sciences because the objects or variables can be more readily controlled or manipulated in the former
than the latter. It is a research design that is characterized by comparison of two or more groups which
are the same or similarly situated, the manipulation of independent variable, the use of inferential
statistics, and the stringent control of extraneous factors. A research study using the experimental
research design aims to find the cause-effect relationships, and thereafter, predict and explain the
phenomenon under study.

Non-experimental research is a research conducted without manipulation of the independent

variable and random assignment of the participants to groups. The non-experimental research put
forward a lot of alternative explanations of the variables under study. It cannot simply conclude the
cause and effect of relationships but offer other explanations.
 Mixed methods research design is the third type of research design and methodology, which is
defined as “the class of research where the researcher mixes or combines quantitative and qualitative
research techniques, methods, approaches, concepts, language or other paradigm characteristics in a
single study” (Johnson and Onwuegbuzie, 2004). The quoted authors highly recommend the mixed
research in education subjects because they believe that when two different approaches are used to
study the same phenomenon and produce the same result, the researchers have superior evidence
form the result.

The two common types of mixed research design are:

a) Mixed method research, in which “the researcher uses the qualitative research paradigm for
one phase of a research study and the quantitative research paradigm for another phase of
the study,” and
b) Mixed model research, in which “the research mixes both qualitative and quantitative
research approaches within a stage of the study or across the stages of the research
process” (Johnson, 2007).

There are eight distinct steps in the mixed methods research process:
1. Determine the research question
2. Determine whether a mixed design is appropriate;
3. Select mixed-method or mixed model research design;
4. Collect data;
5. Analyze data;
6. Interpret data;
7. Legitimate data; and
8. Draw conclusions (if warranted) and write the final report

According to (Johnson and Onwuegbuzie, 2004), the five major purposes or rationales for
conducting mixed methods are:

a) triangulation (i.e., seeking convergence and corroboration of results from different

methods and designs studying the same phenomenon; triangulation is also called
comparative method which is used as “alternative methodologies to reveal the same aspect
of empirical reality”) (Katigbak, 2006).
b) complementarity (i.e., seeking elaboration, enhancement, illustration, and clarification of
results from one method with results from the other method);
c) initiation (i.e., discovering paradoxes and contradictions that lead to a re-framing of the
research questions);
d) development (i.e., using the findings from one method to help inform the other method);
and
e) expansion (i.e., seeking to expand the breath and range of research by using differen
methods for different inquiry components).

There are also research design and methodology which use mixed methods of data gathering
such as interviews, observations, documents and questionnaire. They can be considered mixed
methods research when they combine all the said qualitative and quantitative approaches in their
studies, e.g., the case study, survey, secondary analysis, methodologic study, mixed method studies,
and multi-layered research. The following can also be done by combining quantitative and qualitative
methods and approaches:

a) case study is an exhaustive study of a single phenomenon or group of phenomenon, e.g.,

individual, club, community, etc., over a period of time;
c) survey is the intensive study of the people’s traits, characteristics, behaviors, attitudes and
desires by asking them questions using questionnaires;
d) secondary analysis is the study of previously collected data using qualitative and/or
quantitative design depending on the data requirements and analytical framework.
e) methodologic analysis is the study of methodologic tools and strategies in research through
development, validation and evaluation; and
f) multi-layered research method is a method of research which “explores the external validity
of (research) work without necessarily getting involved in a costly multi-method time series”
 (Agnew and Pyke, 1987). A popular form of this method is triangulation research, which
“involves locating something by viewing it from different angles.
B. Qualitative Research

To understand human behavior in a natural setting requires qualitative research design. It is

naturalistic in nature because it is used to study human behavior and the reasons that govern it.
Qualitative research paradigm is most commonly used in the social science researches because it is
used to explore or describe a phenomenon. Neither it manipulates variables, nor controls the
extraneous factors. However, in the process of analyzing data, a hypothesis may arise which can be
then empirically tested. It can be exploratory (exploring what exists without any research data in the
area), explanatory (explaining a particular phenomenon), and a correlational study (exploring the
relationship between the different states). Thus, it analyzes data to lead to the formation of a hypothesis
to be thereafter empirically tested.

There are qualitative studies that do not identify the specific tradition involved by simply stating
in the research that the study is descriptive qualitative. There are also studies, particularly on health,
culture, history, ethnicity and behavior of individual, groups and community, particular disciplines and
professions, and other behavioral and social phenomena, specifically state the methods of inquiry, e.g.,
historical research, ethnographic research, phenomenology, hermeneutics, human ethology, ecological
psychology, grounded theory research, discourse analysis, ethno-methodological study and
biographical research. These methods of research under qualitative research use documents,
testimonial evidence, physical and material evidence or observation data.

The following belong to qualitative research traditions:

Historical research is the systematic study of past events or occurrences through description
and analysis. It is a research about the events the occurred in the past such as the study of the origin of
the capital punishment.

Ethnographic research refers to the systematic process of observing, describing, exploring,

documenting and analyzing the life ways and cultural beliefs of a group of people particularly the
indigenous people.

Phenomenological research is the systematic study of lived experiences of individuals through

description and analysis. It is a research on how one or more individuals experience a phenomenon
such as a study of the experiences of children who lived at the orphanage.

Hermeneutic research is a research tradition that uses the lived experiences of people as a tool
for better understanding of the social, cultural, political and historical context in which those experiences
occur.

Human ethology, also known as the biology of human behavior studies as it evolves in its
natural context. It explores through observation method the universal behavioral structures.

Ecological psychology is a study that focuses on the influences of the environment on human
behavior and aims to identify the principles that explain the interdependence of humans and their
environmental context.

Grounded theory research is a systematic collection of data through observations

and interviews to generate a comprehensive explanation of phenomenon grounded in reality .

Discourse analysis is a research tradition that attempts to understand the rules, mechanisms
and structure of conversations. The domain of inquiry used by socio-linguists focuses on human
communication.

Ethno-methodologic study is concerned with the discovery of how people make sense of
everyday activities and interpret their social world in order to behave in socially acceptable ways.
 Biographical research is a systematic study of the life of an interesting individual who made
excellent and remarkable contributions to specific discipline, profession, country and to the world, e.g.,
the life of a hero or philosopher.

Case study research is a form of qualitative research that is concerned with a detailed account
and analysis of one or more cases under study such as a study of the sleeping pattern of elderly
hospital patients.

The table below shows some social science disciplines together with their specific traditional
qualitative underpinnings, domains and areas of inquiries for qualitative studies of various phenomena.

DISCIPLINE DOMAIN RESEARCH AREA OF INQUIRY

TRADITION
Anthropology Culture Ethnography Holistic view of a culture
Ethnoscience Mapping of the cognitive
world of a culture; a culture’s
shared meanings, semantic
rules
Psychology Lived Phenomenology Experiences of individuals
/philosophy Experience within their life world
Hermeneutics Interpretations and meaning
of individuals’ experiences
Psychology Behavior and Ethology Behavior observed overtime
Events in natural context
Ecologic Psychology Behavior as influenced by the
environment
Sociology Social Grounded theory Social structural processes
Settings within a social setting
Ethnomethodology Manner by which shared
agreement is achieved in
social settings
Sociolinguistics Human Discourse analysis Forms and rules of
comm. conservation
History Past Historical analysis Description and interpretation
behavior, of historical events
events and
conditions
Source: Polit , D.F., 2006

The foregoing studies of social phenomena under specific social science disciplines are
typically qualitative in nature as they rely primarily on qualitative data and interpretative method of
analysis.

Every social science discipline has its own specialized methods of inquiry suited to address its
specific area of interest. In utilizing quantitative research design, it also adheres to the following
characteristics of research applicable across disciplines:

a) It is flexible and elastic, capable of adjusting to what is being learned during the course of
data collection;
b) It requires researchers to become intensely involved, often remaining in the field for lengthy
period of time;
c) It requires the researchers to become the research instruments;
d) It requires ongoing analysis of the data to formulate subsequent strategies and to determine
when the fieldwork is done;
e) It tends to be holistic, striving for an understanding of the whole; and
f) It typically involves a merging together of various data collection strategy.

**************************************