Lecture 1 (04/09-2023)

(Monday)

Research Methods | Definitions, Types, Examples

Research methods are specific procedures for collecting and analyzing data.
Developing your research methods is an integral part of your research design.
When planning your methods, there are two key decisions you will make.

First, decide how you will collect data. Your methods depend on what type of
data you need to answer your research question:

 Qualitative vs. quantitative: Will your data take the form of words or
numbers
 Primary vs. secondary: Will you collect original data yourself, or will
you use data that has already been collected by someone else?
 Descriptive vs. experimental: Will you take measurements of
something as it is, or will you perform an experiment?

Second, decide how you will analyze the data.

 For quantitative data, you can use statistical analysis methods to test
relationships between variables.
 For qualitative data, you can use methods such as thematic analysis to
interpret patterns and meanings in the data.

Methods for collecting data

Data is the information that you collect for the purposes of answering
your research question. The type of data you need depends on the aims of
your research.

Qualitative vs. quantitative data

Your choice of qualitative or quantitative data collection depends on the type
of knowledge you want to develop.

 Pros  Cons
Qualitative  Flexible – you can often adjust your  Can’t be analyzed statistically, and
methods as you go to develop new not generalizable to broader
knowledge. populations.

 Can be conducted with small samples.  Difficult to standardize research, at

higher risk for research bias.
Quantitativ  Can be used to systematically describe  Requires statistical training to
e large collections of things. analyze data.

Generates reproducible knowledge.  Requires larger samples.

For questions about ideas, experiences and meanings, or to study something
that can’t be described numerically, collect qualitative data.

If you want to develop a more mechanistic understanding of a topic, or your

research involves hypothesis testing, collect quantitative data.

You can also take a mixed methods approach, where you use both qualitative
and quantitative research methods.

Primary vs. secondary research

Primary research is any original data that you collect yourself for the purposes
of answering your research question (e.g. through surveys, observations
and experiments). Secondary research is data that has already been collected
by other researchers (e.g. in a government census or previous scientific
studies).

If you are exploring a novel research question, you’ll probably need to

collect primary data. But if you want to synthesize existing knowledge,
analyze historical trends, or identify patterns on a large scale, secondary
data might be a better choice.

Descriptive vs. experimental data

 Pros  Cons
Primary  Can be collected to answer your  More expensive and time-consuming
specific research question. to collect.

 You have control over the sampling and  Requires training in data
measurement methods. collection methods.
Secondary  Easier and faster to access.  No control over how data was
generated.
 You can collect data that spans longer
timescales and broader geographical  Requires extra processing to make
locations. sure it works for your analysis.
 Pros  Cons
Descriptive  Allows you to describe your  No control over confounding variables.
research subject without
influencing it.  Can’t establish causality.

 Accessible – you can gather more

data on a larger scale.
Experimental  More control over confounding  You might influence your research
variables. subject in unexpected ways.

 Can establish causality. Usually requires more expertise and


resources to collect data.
In descriptive research, you collect data about your study subject without
intervening. The validity of your research will depend on your sampling
method. In experimental research, you systematically intervene in a process
and measure the outcome. The validity of your research will depend on
your experimental design. To conduct an experiment, you need to be able to
vary your independent variable, precisely measure your dependent variable,
and control for confounding variables. If it’s practically and ethically possible,
this method is the best choice for answering questions about cause and
effect.
 Examples of data collection methods

Research methods for collecting data

Research method Primary or Qualitative or When to use
secondary? quantitative?
Experiment Primary Quantitative To test cause-and-effect relationships.
Survey Primary Quantitative To understand general characteristics of a
population.
Interview/focus Primary Qualitative To gain more in-depth understanding of a topic.
group
Observation Primary Either To understand how something occurs in its
natural setting.
Literature review Secondary Either To situate your research in an existing body of
work, or to evaluate trends within a research
topic.
Case study Either Either To gain an in-depth understanding of a specific
group or context, or when you don’t have the
resources for a large study.

Methods for analyzing data

 Your data analysis methods will depend on the type of data you collect and
how you prepare it for analysis.Data can often be analyzed both quantitatively
and qualitatively. For example, survey responses could be analyzed
qualitatively by studying the meanings of responses or quantitatively by
studying the frequencies of responses.

Qualitative analysis methods

Qualitative analysis is used to understand words, ideas, and experiences. You
can use it to interpret data that was collected:

 From open-ended surveys and interviews, literature reviews, case

studies, ethnographies, and other sources that use text rather than
numbers.
 Using non-probability sampling methods.

Qualitative analysis tends to be quite flexible and relies on the researcher’s

judgement, so you have to reflect carefully on your choices and assumptions
and be careful to avoid research bias.

Quantitative analysis methods

Quantitative analysis uses numbers and statistics to understand frequencies,
averages and correlations (in descriptive studies) or cause-and-effect
relationships (in experiments).

You can use quantitative analysis to interpret data that was collected either:

 During an experiment.
 Using probability sampling methods.

Research methods for analyzing data

Research Qualitative or When to use
method quantitative?
Statistical Quantitative To analyze data collected in a statistically valid manner (e.g. from
analysis experiments, surveys, and observations).
Meta-analysis Quantitative To statistically analyze the results of a large collection of studies.
Can only be applied to studies that collected data in a statistically
valid manner.
Thematic Qualitative To analyze data collected from interviews, focus groups, or textual
analysis sources.
To understand general themes in the data and how they are
communicated.
Content Either To analyze large volumes of textual or visual data collected from
analysis surveys, literature reviews, or other sources.
Can be quantitative (i.e. frequencies of words) or qualitative (i.e.
meanings of words).
Because the data is collected and analyzed in a statistically valid way, the
results of quantitative analysis can be easily standardized and shared among
researchers.