STEP 6: Research

Group 3
Design
Dalope, Lindcelle Jane R.
Esguerra, Donnabel A.
Juan, Loren Lee O.
Macasaquit, Trisha B.
Martin, Rhitz Gaile M.
Pinto, Razmen R.
Elements of Research
Designs

01 Purpose of the Study

02 Type of Investigation

Extent of Researcher
03 Interference with the Study 04 Study Setting

Experimental Designs
05 Unit of Analysis 06 Types of Experimental Designs
External and Internal Validity
Purpose of
the Study (Exploratory, Descriptive,
Hypothesis Testing, Case Study Analysis)
Lindcelle Jane R. Dalope
 Research Design
A research design is a blueprint or plan for the collection,
measurement, and analysis of data, created to answer your
research question.
 Purpose of the Study

Exploratory Descriptive

Hypothesis Case Study

Testing Analysis
 Exploratory Study

An exploratory study is undertaken when not

much is known about the situation at hand, or no
information is available on how similar problems
or research issues have been solved in the past.
 Example

The manager of a multinational corporation is curious to know if the work ethic

values of employees working in its subsidiary in Pennathur City would be different
from those of Americans. Religion, political, economic, and social conditions,
upbringing, cultural values, and so on play a major role in how people view their
work in different parts of the world.
 Descriptive Study

An descriptive study is undertaken in order to

ascertain and be able to describe the
characteristics of the variables of interest in a
situation.
 Reaction of organizational members
to a proposal to introduce an on-site
Example child care facility:

A bank manager wants to have a Whereas 30% of the employees were

profile of the individuals who have in favor of the idea, at least 40% felt
loan payments outstanding for 6 that on-site child care facility was
months and more. It would include unnecessary. 20% indicated hat it
details of their average age, earnings, would benefit only those with
nature of occupation, full-time/part- preschool children. The remaining
time employment status, and the like. 10% suggested the introduction of a
cafeteria style of benefits, so that
employees could opt for what they
preferred.
 Hypothesis Testing

Studies that engage in hypothesis testing usually explains the

nature of certain relationships, or establish the differences
among groups or the independence of two or more factors in
a situation.

It aims in determining in whether and in what manner

variables are related to each other and their tendency to
influence each other.
 Example
A marketing manager wants to know
if the sales of the company will
increase if he doubles the advertising
dollars.
“More men than women are
whistleblowers”.
If advertising is increased, then
sales will also go up.
 Case Study Analysis

Case studies involve in-depth, contextual analyses of

matters relating to similar situations in other
organizations, where the nature and definition of the
problem happen to be the same as experienced in the
current situation.
 Purpose of the Study

Exploratory Descriptive

Hypothesis Case Study

Testing Analysis
 TYPE OF
INVESTIGATION:
CAUSAL VERSUS
CORRELATIONAL
Presented by: Esguerra, Donnabel A.
 WHAT IS CAUSATION?

A B

Causation means that one event causes another event to occur.

Simply saying A causes B.
 CAUSAL STUDY

Can be defined as a research method that is used

to determine the cause and effect relationship
between two variables. 
 Example:

When a company wants to study the behavior of their consumers

towards the changing price of their goods, they use causal research.
 WHAT IS CORRELATION?

It is a term in statistics that refers to the degree

of association between two random variables.
 CORRELATIONAL
STUDY
Correlational research attempts to determine how related two or more
variables are.

When the researcher is interested in delineating the important

variables associated with the problem, the study is called a
correlational study.
 THREE TYPES OF CORRELATIONS:

A B A B A B

POSITIVE NO CORRELATION
NEGATIVE CORRELATION
CORRELATION

If A increases, B When an increase in A No correlation, when two

increases too or leads to a decrease in B or variables are completely
vice versa. vice versa. unrelated.
 Examples:

1. Yohan notices that students in his class 2. A principal collected data on all
with larger shoe sizes tend to have higher students at her high school and
grade point averages. Based on this concluded that there is no correlation
observation, what is the best description of between the number of absences and
the relationship between shoe size and grade grade point average.
point average?
 Why doesn't correlation mean
causation?
Even if there is a correlation between two variables, we
cannot conclude that one variable causes a change in the
other. This relationship could be coincidental, or a third
factor may be causing both variables to change.
 Example:
Liam collected data on the sales of ice
cream cones and air conditioners in his
hometown. He found that when ice
cream sales were low, air conditioner
sales tended to be low and that when ice
cream sales were high, air conditioner
sales tended to be high.
 EXTENT OF
RESEARCHER
INTERFERENCE
WITH THE STUDY
 The researcher tries to interfere or manipulate certain
variables so as to study the effects of such manipulation on
the dependent variable of interest. In other words, the
researcher can change certain variables in the setting and
interferes with the events as they normally occur in the
organization.
1. Minimal Interference
the researcher interviews employees
and administers questionnaires at the
workplace.
Example:

A hospital administrator wants to examine the relationship

between the perceived emotional support in the system and the
stresses experienced by the nursing staff. In other words, she
wants to do a correlational study.
STUDY SETTING:
NONCONTRIVED
AND CONTRIVED
Presented by: Juan, Loren Lee
 Continuation of Extent of Researcher
Interference with the Study

EXCESSIVE INTERFERENCE
MODERATE INTERFERENCE - the researcher has intervened
- researcher is now no longer maximally with the normal setting,
content with finding the the participants, and their duties.
correlation, but wants to firmly
establish a causal connection.
NONCONTRIVED

Business research done in the

natural environment.
FIELD STUDIES A bank manager wants to analyze the relationship
between interest rates and bank deposit patterns of
clients. She tries to correlate the two by looking at
Studies done in non- deposits into different kinds of accounts (such as
contrived settings with savings, certificates of deposit, golden passbooks,
minimal researcher and interest‐ bearing checking accounts) as interest
interference. rates change. This is a field study where the bank
manager has merely taken the balances in various
types of account and correlated them to the changes
in interest rates.
FIELD
EXPERIMENTS The bank manager now wants to determine the
cause‐ and‐effect relationship between the
interest rate and the inducement it offers to clients
Where cause‐and‐effect to save and deposit money in the bank. She
relationships are studied with selects four branches within a 60‐mile radius for the
some amount of researcher experiment. For one week only, she advertises the
interference, but still in the annual rate for new certificates of deposit received
during that week in the following manner: the interest
natural setting. rate will be 9% in one branch, 8% in another, and 10%
in the third. In the fourth branch, the interest rate
remains unchanged at 5%. Within the week, she will
be able to determine the effects, if any, of interest
rates on deposit mobilization.
 CONTRIVED

Controlled setting/ artificial environment .

LAB
EXPERIMENTS
The banker in the previous example may now want to
establish the causal connection between interest rates and
savings, beyond a doubt. Because of this, she wants to
create an artificial environment and trace the true cause‐
Contrived settings and and‐effect relationship. She recruits 40 students who are all
maximum interferences business majors in their final year of study and are more or
less of the same age. She splits them into four groups and
gives each one of them chips that count for $1000, which
they are told they might utilize to buy their needs, or save
for the future, or both. She offers them, by way of incentive,
interest on what they save but manipulates the interest
rates by offering a 6% interest rate on savings for group 1,
8% for group 2, 9% for group 3, and keeps the interest at the
low rate of 1% for group 4.
She has also chosen subjects with
similar backgrounds and exposure to
financial matters (business students). If
the banker finds that the savings by the
four groups increase progressively,
keeping in step with the increasing
rates of interest, she will be able to
establish a cause‐and‐effect
relationship between interest rates and
the disposition to save.
 Unit of
Analysis
Macasaquit, Trisha Anne B.
 UNIT OF ANALYSIS
• level of aggregation of the data collected during
the subsequent data analysis stage

• the entity about whom or which the researcher

gathers information
 What is the
importance of Unit
of Analysis?
 Individuals as Unit of Analysis

• The Chief Financial Officer of a manufacturing company wants to

know how many of the staff would be interested in attending a three-
day seminar on making appropriate investment decisions.

• Data will have to be collected from each individual staff

 Dyads as Unit of Analysis

• Study on perceived benefits of mentor-mentee system in an

organization

• Dyads – two-person interactions

 Groups as Unit of Analysis

• A manager wants to see the patterns of usage of the newly installed

information system by the production, sales, and operations
personnel.
 Divisions as Unit of Analysis

• P&G wants to see which of its various divisions (soap, paper, oil, etc)
have made profits of over 12% during the current year.
 Industry as Unit of Analysis

• An employment survey specialist wants to see the proportion pf the

workforce employed by the health care, utilities, transportation, and
manufacturing industries.
 Countries as Unit of Analysis

• A Chief Financial Officer of a multinational corporation wants to

know the profits made during the past five years by each of the
subsidiaries in England, Germany, France, and Spain.
 UNIT OF ANALYSIS
• Unit of Analysis has to be clearly identified as
dictated by the research question.

•Sampling plan decisions will also be

governed by the unit of analysis.
EXPERIMENTAL
DESIGNS
 WHAT IS
EXPERIMENTA
L DESIGN?
EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN
to examine possible cause‐and‐effect
relationships among variables.
it involves the deliberate manipulation of
one variable, while trying to keep all other
variables constant

INDEPENDENT Effect on DEPENDENT

VARIABLE is being VARIABLE is being
altered by researcher measured
INDEPENDENT VARIABLE DEPENDENT VARIABLE

What we can control or What we observe or measure

manipulate
FOLK WISDOM – eating cheese
shortly before going to bed gives people
nightmares.
EXPERIMENTAL GROUP CONTROL GROUP

INDEPENDENT DEPENDENT
VARIABLE – VARIABLE – number of
Cheese consumption frequency of nightmares
EXPERIMENTAL
DESIGNS
Martin, Rhitz Gaile M.
 TYPES OF
EXPERIMENTS
• LABORATORY EXPERIMENT
• FIELD EXPERIMENT
 THE LAB EXPERIMENT

• an experiment conducted under highly controlled

conditions
• All situational variables are controlled

• Participants are randomly allocated

CONTROL

An experiment or observation designed to

minimize the effects of variables other than the
independent variable.
 CONTROL
A Human Resource Development manager might arrange special training for a
set of newly recruited secretaries in creating web pages, to prove to his boss that
such training causes them to function more effectively.

However, some of the new secretaries might function more effectively than others
mainly or partly because they have had previous intermittent experience with
using the web.

The learners’ previous experience has to be controlled.

CONTROL: not including in the experiment those who already

have had some experience with the web.
MANIPULATION
Creates different levels of the independent
variable to assess the impact on the dependent
variable.
 MANIPULATION
test the effects of lighting on worker production levels among
sewing machine operators.
60 operators 15-day period
Group 1 Group 2 Group 3

20 operators 20 operators 20 operators

INTENSITY OF INTENSITY INTENSITY OF LIGHT:

LIGHT: OF LIGHT: 100 watt
60 watt 75 watt
Controlling the contaminating exogenous or
“nuisance” variables

MATCHING GROUPS
used in experimental research in order for different
experimental conditions to be observed while being able to
control for individual difference by matching similar
subjects or groups with each other.
Controlling the contaminating exogenous or
“nuisance” variables

RANDOMIZATION
the process by which individuals are drawn and their
assignment to any particular group are both random.
RANDOMIZATION
 FIELD EXPERIMENT

• Experiment carried out in a natural environment

• Independent variable is manipulated by the experimenter

• Some situational variables are controlled

 FIELD EXPERIMENT
Hofling’s Hospital Study on Obedience

INDEPENEDENT VARIABLE – order over the phone from

“Dr. Smith” to give patient 20mg of Astroten

DEPENDENT VARIABLE – whether they gave the patient the

drug or not
RESULT: 21 out of 22 nurses did as they were told
 TYPES OF
EXPERIMENTAL
DESIGNS
QUASI-EXPERIMENTAL
DESIGNS
A research that resembles experimental research wherein the
independent variable is manipulated, participants are not randomly
assigned to conditions or orders of conditions
( Cook & Campbell, 1979)
 DESIGNS OF
QUASI-
EXPERIMENTAL
DESIGNS
PRETEST AND POSTTEST
EXPERIMENTAL GROUP DESIGN

an experiment where measurements are taken both before and after a

treatment.
PRETEST AND POSTTEST
EXPERIMENTAL GROUP DESIGN
 NONEQUIVALENT GROUPS
DESIGN
a between-subjects design in which participants have
not been randomly assigned to conditions.
 NONEQUIVALENT CONTROL
GROUPS POSTTEST-ONLY DESIGN

measures a dependent variable following a treatment in

one group and compares that measure to a
nonequivalent control group that does not have the
treatment.
 NONEQUIVALENT CONTROL
GROUPS POSTTEST-ONLY DESIGN

TREATMENT
GROUP

NONEQUIVALENT
CONTROL GROUP
 TIME SERIES DESIGN

• A quasi-experimental research design in which a dependent variable is

measured at many different points in time in one group before and after a
treatment that is manipulated by the researcher is administered.
 TIME SERIES DESIGN

After
Intervention

Before
intervention
 TRUE EXPERIMENTAL DESIGNS

regarded as the most accurate form of experimental

20%
research, in that it tries to prove or disprove a hypothesis
mathematically, with statistical analysis.
(Shuttleworth, 2009)
THREE REQUIREMENTS THAT MUST BE MET:

1. Control Group and Experimental Group

2. Researcher-manipulated Variable 20%
3. Random Assignment
 DESIGNS OF
TRUE
EXPERIMENTAL
DESIGNS
The Posttest-only Control Group Design: 

20%
subjects are randomly selected and assigned to the two groups
(control and experimental), and only the experimental group is
treated. After close observation, both groups are post-tested, and a
conclusion is drawn from the difference between these groups.
The Posttest-only Control Group Design: 

20%
 The Pretest-Posttest Control Group
Design:

20%
subjects are randomly assigned to the two groups, both groups
are pretested, but only the experimental group is treated. After
close observation, both groups are post-tested to examine the
effects of manipulating the independent variable on the
dependent variable.
The Pretest-Posttest Control Group Design:

20%
 Solomon four-group Design:

This is the combination of the posttest-only and the pretest-posttest

20%
control groups. In this case, the randomly selected subjects are
placed into four groups.
Solomon four-group Design:

20%
 Two General
Criteria of Research
Designs
Razmen R. Pinto
 OVERVIEW

Here’s what you’ll find in my report:

 Internal Validity vs. External Validity
 Trade-off between Internal and External Validity
 Threats to Internal Validity and how to counter them
 Types of External Validity
 Threats to External Validity and how to counter them
INTERNAL VALIDITY vs. EXTERNAL VALIDITY

Internal validity External validity

 refers to the degree of  refers to the extent to
confidence that the causal which results from a
relationship being tested is study can be applied
trustworthy and not (generalized) to other
influenced by other situations, groups or
factors or variables. events.
Trade-off between Internal and
External Validity

There is an inherent trade-off between internal and external validity; the more
you control extraneous factors in your study, the less you can generalize your
findings to a broader context.
 Example:
You want to test the hypothesis that drinking a cup of coffee improves memory.
You schedule an equal number of college-aged participants for morning and
evening sessions at the laboratory. For convenience, you assign all morning
session participants to the treatment group and all evening session participants
to the control group.

Once they arrive at the laboratory, the treatment group participants are given a cup
of coffee to drink, while control group participants are given water. You also
give both groups memory tests. After analyzing the results, you find that the
treatment group performed better than the control group on the memory test.
How to check whether your
study has internal validity?
 Example:
You want to test the hypothesis that drinking a cup of coffee improves memory.
You schedule an equal number of college-aged participants for morning and
evening sessions at the laboratory. For convenience, you assign all morning
session participants to the treatment group and all evening session participants
to the control group.

Once they arrive at the laboratory, the treatment group participants are given a cup
of coffee to drink, while control group participants are given water. You also
give both groups memory tests. After analyzing the results, you find that the
treatment group performed better than the control group on the memory test.
 Conditions

1 2 3

Your treatment and response Your treatment precedes No confounding or extraneous

variables change together. changes in your response factors can explain the results
variables of your study.

 Drinking coffee and  Drinking coffee × The time of day of the

memory performance happened before the sessions is an extraneous
increased together. memory test. factor that can equally
explain the results of the
study.
Threats to Internal
Validity and How to
counter them
The management of company X wants to know if flexible
working hours will improve job satisfaction among
employees. They set up an experiment with two groups: 1)
control group of employees with fixed working hours 2)
experiment group with employees with flexible working
hours. The experiment will run for six months. All employees
fill in a survey measuring their job satisfaction before the
experiment (pre-test) and after the experiment (post-test).

—Research example
 Threats

History Maturation Testing

An unrelated event The outcomes of the study The pre-test (used to
influences the outcomes. vary as a natural result of establish a baseline)
time. affects the results of the
post-test.

Participant selection
Participants in the control and experimental
group differ substantially and can thus not
be compared.
 Threats

Attrition Regression towards Instrumentation

Over the course of a (longer) mean There is a change in how the
study, participants may drop Extreme scores tend to be dependent variable is
out. If the drop out is caused closer to the average on a measured during the study.
by the experimental treatment second measurement.
(as opposed to coincidence) it
can threaten the internal
validity.

Social interaction
Interaction between
participants from different
groups influences the
outcome.
 How to
counter
threats to
Internal
Validity
 Threats

Maturation
History If feasible within your Testing
Evaluators should do their best evaluation questions, reducing Keep an eye out for this threat
to identify any external events the amount of time between whenever there is a pretest-
or changes that may impact the pretest and posttest can posttest design and no
their program results limit maturation threats comparison group to help
control for the learning curve
of taking the pretest.

Participant selection
Be alert for this potential threat if you are
working with a nonequivalent comparison
group.
 Threats

Attrition Regression towards Instrumentation

Evaluators should seek to mean Keep an eye out for this if
employ intensive strategies to Avoid selecting participants there are multiple
minimise study attrition such based on extreme performance observation/test points in your
as through offering incentives, or scores study
alternative locations for data
collection and repeat
reminders via mail

Social interaction
The threats described here can
often be minimized by
constructing multiple groups
that are not aware of each
other
Types of External
Validity

There are two main types of external

validity: population validity and
ecological validity.
1. Population validity
Example

You want to test the hypothesis that people tend to

perceive themselves as smarter than others in terms
Population validity refers to whether you of academic abilities. Your target population is the
can reasonably generalize the findings from 10,000 undergraduate students at your university.
your sample to a larger group of people
(the population). You recruit over 200 participants. They are science
and engineering majors; most of them are Filipino,
male, 18–20 years old and from a high
socioeconomic background. In a laboratory setting,
you administer a mathematics and science test and
then ask them to rate how well they think performed.
You find that the average participant believes they are
smarter than 66% of their peers.
 Example
You want to test the hypothesis that driving
reaction times become slower when people pay
attention to others talking.
2. Ecological validity In a laboratory setting, you set up a simple
computer-based task to measure reaction times.
Participants are told to imagine themselves
Ecological validity refers to whether driving around the racetrack and double-click
you can reasonably generalize the the mouse whenever they see an orange cat on
findings of a study to other situations the screen. For one round, participants listen to a
and settings in the ‘real world’. podcast. In the other round, they do not need to
listen to anything. After assessing the results,
you find that reaction times are much slower
when listening to the podcast.
 Threats to
External Validity
and How to
counter them
 Example
A researcher wants to test the hypothesis that
people with clinical diagnoses of mental
disorders can benefit from practicing mindfulness
daily in just two months time. They recruit people
who have been diagnosed with depression for at
least a year, are aged between 20–29, and live
locally.
Participants are given a pretest and a post-test
measuring how often they experienced anxiety in
the past week. During the study, all participants
are given an individual mindfulness training and
asked to practice mindfulness daily for 15
minutes in the morning.

Since the levels of anxiety decreased between

the pre- and post-test, the researcher concludes
that all clinical populations can benefit from
mindfulness.
 Threats to External Validity
Experimenter
Sampling Bias History
effect

The characteristics or
The sample is not behaviors of the
An unrelated event
representative of the experimenter(s)
influences the outcomes.
population. unintentionally influence
the outcomes.
 Threats to External Validity

Hawthorne Aptitude- Situation

Testing effect
effect treatment effect

The tendency for

participants to Interactions between Factors like the
The administration characteristics of the setting, time of day,
change their
of a pre- or post- group and individual location, researchers’
behaviors simply variables together characteristics, etc.
test affects the
because they know influence the limit generalizability
outcomes.
they are being dependent variable. of the findings.
studied.
 How to counter
Threats to
External Validity
 How to counter threats to external validity

Field Probability
Replications Recalibration
Experiments Sampling

Probability sampling
Replications counter Recalibration or
Field experiments counters selection bias
almost all threats by reprocessing also
counter testing and by making sure
enhancing counters selection bias
everyone in a
generalizability to situation effects by population has an
using algorithms to
other settings, using natural correct weighting of
equal chance of being
populations and contexts. factors (e.g., age)
selected for a study
conditions. within study samples.
sample.