Social Research (SR) Design

Annotations:

• Scientific inquiry comes down to making observations and interpreting what you have observed. Before observe you need a plan to determine: what you are going to observe? and analyze: Why? and How?

1. Major task
   1. 1. What it is you want to find out
   2. 2. The best way to do it
2. Purpose
   1. Exploration
      1. Much of SR is conducted by.
         1. Because: It's a way to start to familiarize with a topic. For relatively new subject. For persistent phenomena
      2. Is pursued by: Focus group or guided small-group discussions
      3. Purpose:
         1. 1- Satisfy a better understanding.
         2. 2- Feasibility of undertaking a more extensive study.
         3. 3- To develop the methods to be employed in any subsequent study
      4. Disadvantages: Seldom provide satisfactory answers to research questions because of the representativeness is not quit good.
      5. Is the attempt to develop an initial, rough understanding of some phenomenon (WHY)
   2. Description
      1. is the precise measurement and reporting of the characteristics of some population or phenomenon under study (WHAT, WHERE, WHEN, HOW)
      2. Purpose
         1. Carefully chronicles events
      3. Characteristic: Such studies are seldom limited to a merely descriptive purpose, researchers go on to why the observed patterns exist and what they imply
   3. Explanation
      1. Is the discovery and reporting of relationships among different aspects of the phenomenon under study. Descriptive studies answer the question "What's so?"; explanatory tend to answer "Why"
      2. Idiographic explanation
         1. Understanding of the causes producing events and situations in a single or limited number of cases
         2. Techniques
            1. Pay attentions to the explanation offered by the people living the social processes you are studying
            2. Comparisons with similar situations,either in different places or at different times in the same place, can be insightful
      3. The logic of nomothetic explanation
         1. Criteria for causal relantionships in SR Nomothetic Casuality
            1. The variables most be correlated
               1. Unless some actual relationship-a statistical correlation-is found between two variables, we can not say that a causal relationship existi
            2. The cause takes place before the effect (Time order)
            3. The variables are nonspurious
               1. It's mean that a variables is NOT the cause of the other. There is not a 3 variable that can explain away the observed correlation as spurious
            4. False criteria for Nomothetic causality
               1. Complete causation
               2. Exceptional cases
               3. Majority of cases
3. How to Design a Research project?

   Annotations:

   • Research design review: The research design is the process of focusing your perspective for the purpose of a particular study. In designing a research project first assess three things: your interest, your abilities, the available resources. Spend some time thinking about the kinds of questions that interest and concern you. Think about the info. needed to answer them. What research units of analysis would provide the most relevant info . Then  ask which aspects of the units of analysis would provide the info you need in order to answer your research question. How you might go about getting that info. Keep in mind research abilities and resources available to you. Then make a review previous research in journals and books to see how other researchers have addressed the topic and what they have learn. Your review of the literature may lead you to revise your research design.   A valuable research strategy is: Triangulation. In the best of all words, your own research design should bring MORE THAN one research METHOD to bear on the topic.
   1. Purpose: Interest, Idea, Theory (I-I-T)
      1. What kind of study: exploratory, descriptive, explanatory?

         Annotations:

         • Description of the kind of outcomes you want to achieve
         1. Conceptualizacion

            Annotations:

            • Specify what do you mean about your idea or topic. Specify exact meanings for all concepts you plan to study.
            1. Choice of research method

               Annotations:

               • The best study design uses more than one research method, taking advantages of their different strengths.
               1. Experiment
               2. Survey research
                  1. Interviews
                  2. Telephone/online surveys
               3. Content analysis
               4. Operationalization

                  Annotations:

                  • In research design, especially in psychology, social sciences, life sciences, and physics,operationalization is a process of definingthe measurement of a phenomenon that is not directly measurable, though its existence is indicated by other phenomena.
                  1. Meaning of variables in a study: deciding measurement techniques. How will we actually measure the variables under study
                  2. Population and Sampling
                     1. Whom do we want to be able to draw conclusion about? who will be observed for that purpose?
                     2. Observations: Collect empirical data
                        1. Data processing
                           1. Transforming the data collected into a form appropiate to manipulation and analysis. Depended on the research method chosen.
                           2. Analysis
                              1. Application
                                 1. Involves the uses and conclusion you have reached. What you have learned. What your work suggest in regard to further research on your subject. What mistakes should be corrected. What should be pursued further.
                              2. It is about to interpret the collected data for the purpose of drawing conclusions that reflect I-I-T that initiated the inquiry. The result of your analyses FEED BACK into your initial: I-I-T
               5. Field research
               6. Existing data research
               7. Comparative research
               8. Evaluation research
            2. Specify the meaning of the concepts and variables to be studied
4. The research Proposal
   1. It;s about to lay out the details of your plan for someone else's review or approval.
   2. Elements
      1. Problem or objective:
         1. Literature review

            Annotations:

            • You should write it with an eye toward introducing the reader to the topic you will address, laying out in a logical manner what has already been learned on the topic by past, then leading up the holes or loose ends in our knowledge of the topic, which you propose to remedy. Or may point to inconsistencies or disagreements among existing finding, in that case will aim to resolve the ambiguities that plagues us.
            1. Subjects for study
               1. Measurement
                  1. Data collection methods
                     1. Analysis
                        1. Schedule
                           1. Budget
                              1. Institutional Review Board
                              2. Where the money will go?
                        2. Description? why things are the way they are? To account Variations?
                     2. How will you collect the data for your study?
                  2. What are the key variable?
               2. Whom or what will you study in order to collect data? sample? how? qualitative or quantitative study.
         2. What do you want to study? Why is it worth?
5. Units of analysis: what or whom can be studied
   1. Individuals
   2. Groups
   3. Organizations
   4. Social Interactions: Kisses, dancing, e-mails
   5. Social Artifacts: books, poem
6. Options for dealing with the issue of time
   1. Cross-Sectional Studies
      1. involves
         1. Observations of a sample, or cross section, of a population or phenomenon that are made at one point in time
      2. Example: Exploratory and descriptive studies
      3. Problem: Their conclusions are based on observations made at only one time, typically they aim at understanding causal processes that occur over time.
   2. Longitudinal Studies (LE)
      1. Involves
         1. Observations of the same phenomenon over an extended period
      2. Types of LS
         1. Trends
            1. Examines CHANGES within a populations over time
         2. Cohort
            1. Examines SPECIFIC subpopulations
         3. Panel
            1. Similar to trend and cohort, but, data are collected from the same set of people (Sample or PANEL) at several points in tiime