MODULE 4: RESEARCH DESIGN

WEEK 5: CHOOSING A RESEARCH DESIGN

Meaning of Research Design
Research designs are plans and procedures for research that span the decisions from broad
assumptions to detailed methods of data collection and analysis. Research design is a detailed
plan and guideline about carrying out the research study and answering a research question.

The overall decision involves which design should be used to study a topic. The selection of a
research design is also based on the nature of the research problem or issue being addressed, the
researchers’ personal experiences, and the audiences for the study.

Research Design in general terms can be referred to as the scheme of work to be done or
performed by a researcher during the various stages of a research project. With the help of the
research design, one can very easily handle and operate research work as research design acts as
a working plan, which is made by a researcher even before he starts working on his research
project. By this, the researcher gets great help and guidance in achieving his aims and goals. A
good research design possesses the following characteristics: Objectivity, Reliability; Validity;
Generalizability; and Adequate Information.

Features of a Research Design

Creating a research design means making decisions about:
 Your overall research objectives and approach
 Whether you’ll rely on primary research or secondary research
 Your sampling methods or criteria for selecting subjects
 Your data collection methods
 The procedures you’ll follow to collect data
 Your data analysis methods

A well-planned research design helps ensure that your methods match your research objectives
and that you use the right kind of analysis for your data. Choosing an appropriate research
design is crucially important to the success of your project. The decisions you make at this
stage of the research process do much to determine the quality of the conclusions you can draw
from your research results.

Purpose of a Research Design

Research designs are used for the following purposes;
(i) To minimize the expenditure: Research design carries an important influence on
the reliability of the results attained. It therefore provides a solid base for the whole
research. This makes the research as effective as possible by providing maximum
information with minimum spending of effort, money, and time by preparing the
advance plan of all about the research.
(ii) To facilitate the smooth scaling: Research design is needed because it facilitates
the smooth scaling of the various research operations, thereby making research as
efficient as possible yielding maximal information with minimal expenditure of
effort, time and money
(iii) To collect the relevant data and technique: Research design stands for advance
planning of the methods to be adopted for collecting the relevant data and the
techniques to be used in their analysis, keeping in view the objective of the research
(iv) To provide an overview and direction to other experts: A research design
provides an overview of all the research process and provides a proper or particular
direction to the others.

Types of Quantitative Research Designs

Scientific studies tend to focus on one or the other of two major activities. The first activity
consists of exploratory data collection and analysis, which has two aims. One aim is to classify
behaviors in a given research area. The other aim is to identify the variables involved in
explaining the behavior of interest or the cause of an effect. The second major activity is
hypothesis testing. Hypothesis testing consists of forming tentative explanations for behavior
and then testing those tentative explanations.
Descriptive Research
Descriptive research design is a type of research design that aims to systematically obtain
information to describe a phenomenon, situation, or population. The descriptive research design
involves observing and collecting data on a given topic without attempting to infer cause-and-
effect relationships. More specifically, it helps answer the what, when, where, and how
questions regarding the research problem rather than the why. It is important to note that in the
descriptive research method, the researcher does not control or manipulate any variables, unlike
in experimental research. Instead, the variables are only identified, observed, and measured.
The goal of descriptive research is to provide a comprehensive and accurate picture of the
population or phenomenon being studied and to describe the relationships, patterns, and trends
that exist within the data.

Uses of Descriptive Research Design

Descriptive research can be used to investigate the background of a research problem and get
the required information needed to carry out further research. There are many different contexts
in which the use of a descriptive research design is beneficial. Here are some important uses of
descriptive research design:
1. Measure Data Trends: The descriptive method of research can be used to measure
changes in variables over a period of time, allowing trends to be identified and
analyzed. Consider the case of individuals who want to invest in stock markets, so they
evaluate the changes in prices of the available stocks to make a decision investment
decision.
2. Comparison of Variables: Descriptive research can be used to compare different
variables and how different demographics respond to different variables.
3. Define Subject/Object Characteristics: It can also be used to determine the different
characteristics of the subjects/objects (variable of interest). This can include subject
characteristics such as opinions, traits, behavior, etc.
4. Verify or Validate Existing Conditions: Descriptive research can prove to be a useful
tool when trying to test the validity of an existing condition as it involves conducting an
in-depth analysis of every variable before drawing conclusions.
Correlational Research Design
In correlational research, your main interest is to determine whether two (or more) variables
covary and, if so, to establish the directions, magnitudes, and forms of the observed
relationships. Correlational research belongs to a broader category called nonexperimental
research. Correlational research involves observing the values of two or more variables and
determining what relationships exist between them. In correlational research, you
make no attempt to manipulate variables but observe them “as they are.” Establishing that a
correlational relationship exists between two variables makes it possible to predict from the
value of one variable the probable value of the other variable.

Uses of Correlational Research Design

There are a few situations where correlational research is an appropriate choice.
1. Investigating non-causal relationships: If you want to discover whether a relationship
between two variables exists, but you’re not expecting it to be causal in nature,
correlational research can be valuable. Correlational research is particularly useful for
recognizing general patterns, that can then help inform decisions;
2. Testing new measurement tools: If you’ve developed a new tool for measuring a
variable and its effects, you can use correlational research to test its reliability. You’ve
created a new scale for measuring life satisfaction. To test the scale, you collect data on
life satisfaction using existing tools and your new test scale. Correlation between the
different measurements indicates reliability in the new scale. Finding high correlations
means that your scale is valid.

Experimental Research
Unlike correlational research, experimental research incorporates a high degree of
control over the variables of your study. This control, if used properly, permits you to
establish causal relationships among your variables. Experimental research is a powerful tool
for understanding cause-and-effect relationships. It allows us to manipulate variables and
observe the effects, which is crucial for understanding how different factors influence the
outcome of a study. But the importance of experimental research goes beyond that. It’s a critical
method for many scientific and academic studies. It allows us to test theories, develop new
products, and make groundbreaking discoveries.

Experimental research, often considered to be the “gold standard” in research designs, is one of
the most rigorous of all research designs. In this design, one or more independent variables are
manipulated by the researcher (as treatments), subjects are randomly assigned to different
treatment levels (random assignment), and the results of the treatments on outcomes (dependent
variables) are observed. The unique strength of experimental research is its internal validity
(causality) due to its ability to link cause and effect through treatment manipulation while
controlling for the spurious effect of extraneous variables. Experimental research is best suited
for explanatory research (rather than for descriptive or exploratory research), where the goal of
the study is to examine cause-effect relationships. It also works well for research that involves a
relatively limited and well-defined set of independent variables that can either be manipulated
or controlled. Experimental research can be conducted in laboratory or field settings.

Characteristics of Experimental Research

Experimental research has specific characteristics derived from its methods of analysis.
1. Dependent variables and independent variables: All experimental research starts
from dependent or fixed variables (which serve as a control group). These have to be
contrasted with the independent variables, which are those that the researcher
manipulates to obtain certain results.
2. Controlled conditions: The experiments are applied under rigorously controlled
conditions to be clear about the factors that affect the behavior of the object of study.
3. Manipulation of variables: The experiment is introduced or provoked by the
researcher, who deliberately manipulates the independent variables to obtain various
results, always under controlled and rigorous conditions.
4. Observation of the object of study: The researcher must observe the behavior of the
object of study in each of the scenarios built for it, from which he will be able to obtain
more or less conclusive data.
Uses of Experimental Research
The experimental study design benefits physical disciplines, social sciences, education, and
psychology. It’s utilized to make predictions and come to conclusions about a topic. The
following are some examples of how experimental research design can be used.
Medicine: Experimental research is utilized to develop effective disease treatments. Rather
than directly employing patients as research subjects, researchers typically extract a bacteria
sample from the patient’s body, which is then treated with the newly created antibiotic.
Education: It can be used to improve the standard of an academic institution and science topics
like Chemistry and Physics, which include teaching students how to do experimental research.
This includes assessing students’ understanding of various topics, developing more effective
teaching methods, and implementing additional programs to help pupils learn.
Human behaviour: Social scientists are the ones who employ experimental studies to
investigate the most. Consider two people who were chosen at random to be the subjects of a
social interaction study in which one person was placed in a room with no human interaction
for a year.

Causal Versus Correlational Relationships

The activities mentioned above fall into two broad categories: causal and correlational. In a
causal relationship, one variable directly or indirectly influences another. In other words,
changes in the value of one variable directly or indirectly cause changes in the value of a
second. Causal relationships can be unidirectional, in which case variable A influences
variable B but not vice versa. They also can be bidirectional; in which case each variable
influences the other. Simply observing that changes in one variable tend to be associated with
changes in another is not enough to establish that the relationship between them is a causal one.
In a correlational relationship, changes in one variable accompany changes in another, but the
proper tests have not been conducted to show that either variable actually causes changes in the
other. Thus, all that is known is that a relationship between them exists. Correlational
relationships can be positive, negative, or zero directions. A positive correlation means that both
variables change in the same direction. A negative correlation means that the variables change
in opposite directions. A zero correlation means there's no relationship between the variables
Research Settings
Research experiments are conducted in different settings:

Laboratory Experiments
A laboratory experiment may be defined as an experiment under controlled conditions in which
the experimenter can control and vary the independent variable. In such experiments, the
experimenter has full control on the experiment and manipulates the independent variable under
controlled conditions to see its impact on the dependent variable. A laboratory experiment is the
most powerful method for investigating cause-and-effect relationship between variables. It is
generally preferred over other methods because of its ability to understand the causal factors.

Field Experiments
Field experiments also use scientific methods to investigate the effect of the independent variable
on the variable of interest but in the naturally occurring environment. Field experiment may be
defined as an experiment in which the experimenter varies independent variables in natural
setting to investigate its effect on the behavior of the participants/objects. Like laboratory
experiments in field experiments, also treatments are randomly allocated to the subjects and
outcomes are compared among treatment groups. Thus, a field experiment is like a laboratory
experiment; the difference is only the situation or the place where they are being conducted.

Field Studies
In field studies, variables of interest are investigated in their natural environments without trying
to manipulate or control anything. In this method, the researcher observes the behaviour of the
variables of interest in its natural setting. The observations are made without any preparation or
participation of the researcher. The behaviour of subjects/objects is observed in different outside
locations/situations. The aim of such investigation is to study relationships and interactions
among different variables. In field studies, events are studied when they have already occurred
in the field or in natural situations, and attempts are made to investigate the correlation
between the different aspects of events.