Chapter 3

Research Design

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Research Design
Research design is a set of advance decisions that make up the
master plan specifying the methods and procedures for collecting
and analyzing the needed information.

Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. 4-2

Why Is Research Design Important?

 Good research design is the “first rule of good research.”

Knowledge of the needed research design allows advance
planning so that the project may be conducted in less time and
typically at a cost savings due to efficiencies gained in
preplanning.

Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. 4-3

 Types of Design

• According to the specific objectives research can be classified as:

• descriptive,
• explanatory, or
• exploratory research.

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1. Descriptive Research
• Descriptive research sets out to describe and to interpret what is.
• It looks at individuals, groups, institutions, methods and materials in
order to describe, compare, contrast, classify, analyze and interpret the
entities and the events that constitute the various fields of inquiry.
• It aims to describe the state of affairs as it exists.

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• Descriptive research, therefore, involves a variety of research methods
to achieve its goal. The methods that come under descriptive research
are:
• Surveys
• Correlation studies
• Observation studies
• Case studies

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 Surveys
• Surveys gather data at a particular point in time with the
intention of describing the nature of existing conditions, or
identifying standards against which existing conditions can be
compared, or determining the relationships that exist between
specific events.
• Typically survey method is used to scan a wide field of issues,
populations, programs etc. in order to measure or describe any
generalized features.

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• It is useful in that it usually:
• gathers data on a one-shot basis and hence is economical and efficient;
• represents a wide target population
• generates numerical data;
• provides descriptive, inferential and explanatory information;
• manipulates key factors and variables to derive frequencies; and
• presents material which is uncluttered by specific contextual factors.

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Correlational Studies
• Correlational studies trace relationships among two or more
variables in order to gain greater situational insight.
• We may wish to know, for example,
• whether there is relationship between sex and choice of field of
study;
• whether criminal behavior is related to social class background; or
• whether an association exists between the number of years spent in
full-time education and subsequent annual income.

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• The purpose of correlational studies is not to establish cause-effect
relationship among variables but to determine whether the variables
under study have some kind of association or not.
• Variables being studied may have positive or negative relationship or
they may not have relationship at all.

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Observation Studies
• There are many instances where we may be interested in a behavior
that occurs in its natural environment. In such situation we conduct
observation studies.
• Observation studies, as their name implies, involve observing and
recording of behavior or trait or attribute as it occurs in its natural
settings.

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Case Studies
• Case studies emphasize detailed contextual analysis of a limited
number of events or conditions and their relationships.
• They are largely descriptive examinations, usually of a small
number of sites (small towns, hospitals, schools).
• Case studies can provide very engaging, rich investigations of a
project or application as it develops in a real-world setting.

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2. Explanatory Research
• When we encounter an issue that is already known and have
a description of it, we might begin to wonder why things are
the way they are.
• The desire to know "why," to explain, is the purpose of
explanatory research.
• The researcher goes beyond merely describing the
characteristics, to analyze and explain why or how something
is happening.

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• Explanatory or analytical research looks for causes and
reasons. For example,
• It is one thing to describe the crime rate in a country, to
examine trends over time or to compare the rates in different
countries.
• It is quite a different thing to develop explanations about why
the crime rate is as high as it is why some types of crime are
increasing or why the rate is higher in some countries than in
others.

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• Answering the why questions involves developing causal explanations.
• Causal explanations argue that phenomenon Y is affected by factor X. In
this example, the cause or the reason is Y which is technically termed as
independent variable and the effect or the behavior is X which is also
known as dependent variable.
• Some causal explanations will be simple while others will be more
complex.
• There are two types of explanatory research:
• Experimental research
• Ex post facto research

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Experimental Research
• In its simplest form, experimental research involves
comparing two groups on one outcome measure to test some
hypothesis regarding causation.
• The key element in true experimental research is scientific
control and the ability to rule out alternative explanations.

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• An experimenter interferes with the natural course of
events, in order to construct a situation in which
competing theories can be tested.
• It is the best method when the purpose of research is to
determine causal influences between variables.
• In experimental research, the researcher intentionally
manipulates one variable to measure its effect on the
other.

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Ex Post Facto Research

• Ex post facto research is a method of teasing out possible

antecedents (background) of events that have happened and
cannot, therefore, be engineered or manipulated by the
investigator.
• Ex post facto in research means after the fact or retrospectively and
refers to those studies which investigate possible cause-and-effect
relationships by observing an existing condition or state of affairs
and searching back in time for reasonable causal factors.
• If a researcher is interested in investigating the reasons why fatal
traffic accident is increasing in Ethiopia, he/she can not do it by
randomly assigning research participants into experimental and
control group.
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• There is no way in which a researcher can study the actual
accidents because they have happened.
• What a researcher can do, however, is to attempt to reconstruct
the causal link by studying the statistics, examining the accident
spots, and taking note of the statements given by victims and
witnesses.
• This means that a researcher is studying the independent
variable or variables in retrospect for their possible relationship
to, and effects on, the dependent variable or variables.

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3. Exploratory research
• Exploratory research is conducted when there are few or no earlier
studies to which references can be made for information.
• It provides insights into and comprehension of an issue or situation for
more rigorous investigation later.
• Exploratory research is a type of research conducted because a problem
has not been clearly defined.
• Its purpose is to gain background information and better understand
and clarify a problem.

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• It can be said that exploratory research is generally a precursor
to a more formal study. It helps save time, and resources.
• If a researcher is starting a new project, she/he probably should
start with exploration.
• Exploratory research often relies on secondary research such as
reviewing available literature and/or data, or qualitative
approaches such as informal discussions with consumers,
employees, management or competitors, and more formal
approaches through in-depth interviews, focus groups,

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• The results of exploratory research are not usually
useful for decision-making by themselves, but
they can provide significant insight into a given
situation.
• Although the results of qualitative research can
give some indication as to the "why", "how" and
"when" something occurs, it cannot tell us "how
often" or "how many."

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 Measurement & Measurement Scales
 Measurement is the process through which researchers describe,
explain, and predict the phenomena and constructs of our daily
experiences
 The concept of measurement is important in a research in two key
areas:
 Enables researchers to quantify abstract constructs & Variables.

 used to analyze sophisticated statistical data

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 Non metric Data vs. Metric Data

 Non-metric data (also referred to as qualitative data)-which

cannot be quantified and are predominantly used to describe
and categorize.
 Metric data (also referred to as quantitative data)-are used to
examine amounts and magnitudes.

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Four main scales of measurement
1. Nominal scales
2. Ordinal scales
3. Interval scales, and
4. Ratio scales.
 Nominal and ordinal scales are non metric
 Interval & ratio scales  metric
1. Nominal scales:- are the least sophisticated type of
measurement and are used only to qualitatively classify
or categorize.
 Measures identity only
 They have no absolute zero point and cannot be
ordered in a quantitative sequence, and there is no
equal unit of measurement between categories.
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 They do not imply amounts of an attribute or
characteristic.
 This makes it impossible to conduct standard
mathematical operations such as addition,
subtraction, division, and multiplication.
 Examples of nominal scale data include gender,
religious and political affiliation, place of birth, city of
residence, ethnicity, marital status, eye and hair color,
and employment status

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2. Ordinal scale:- measurement is characterized by the ability to measure
a variable in terms of both identity and magnitude.
 This makes it a higher level of measurement than the nominal scale
 Measures relative magnitude in relation to other variables.

 Variables can be ranked in relation to the amount of the attribute

possessed.
 Ordinal scales represent the rank or ordering of variables

Example - finishing position of runners in a race.

 Lack the mathematical properties necessary for sophisticated
statistical analyses.

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3. Interval scale:-
 builds on ordinal measurement by providing information about both
order and distance between values of variables.
 The numbers on an interval scale are scaled at equal distances, but
there is no absolute zero point. Instead, the zero point is arbitrary.
 Examples include temperature measured in Fahrenheit and Celsius.
 Lack of an absolute zero point makes division and multiplication
impossible

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4. Ratio scale:- The properties of the ratio scale are identical to those of
the interval scale, except that the ratio scale has an absolute zero
point, which means that all mathematical operations are possible.
 Example –Money- It is possible to have no (or zero) money—a zero
balance in a checking account is an example of an absolute zero
point.
Characteristics:
 Identical to the interval scale, except that they have an absolute
zero point.
 Unlike with interval scale data, all mathematical operations are
possible.
Examples include height, weight, and time.
 Highest level of measurement.
 Allow for the use of sophisticated statistical techniques.

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Reliability of the Instrument measurement

 Deals with the extent to which the instrument yields the same results
on repeated trials.
 Reliability refers to the consistency, stability or equivalence of a
number of measurements taken using the same measurement
method on the same subject.
 If repeated measurements are highly consistent (even identical),
then there is a high degree of reliability with the measurement
method.
 If the variations among the repeated measurements are large, then
the reliability of the instrument is low.

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Validity of the Instrument measurement

 Validity of an instrument refers to the degree to which a study

accurately reflects or assesses the specific concept that the
researcher is attempting to measure through insuring the data
collection instrument’s ability to collect the intended data fully and
appropriately.
 In short, validity is concerned with the study's success at measuring
what the researchers set out to measure and indicates the extent to
which the data collected reflects the phenomena under investigation.

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