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PlanningYourResearchProjectChapterFour.pdf

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FOCUSING YOUR RESEARCH

EFFORTS

Planning Your Research Project Chapter Four

What is the Research Design?

 The research design is the general strategy that

provides the overall structures for the procedures

used in the research project. It is the planning

guide.

The Basic Format of the Research

Design

 The question

 The question converted to a research problem

 A temporary hypothesis

 Literature search

 Data collection

 Organization of the data

 Analysis of the data

 Interpretation of the data

 The data either support or do not support the hypothesis

Planning vs. Methodology

 The general approach

to planning research is

similar across all

disciplines

 The strategies used to

collect and analyze

data may be specific

to a particular

academic discipline

Research Planning Research Methodology

General Criteria for a Research Project

 Universality (can be carried out by any competent

researcher)

 Replication

 Control (important for replication)

 Measurement

The Nature and Role of Data

 Data (plural) ‘data are’

 Data ARE NOT absolute reality

 Data are transient and ever changing

 Primary Data are closest to truth

 No researcher can glimpse ABSOLUTE TRUTH

Criteria for the Admissibility of Data

 Any research effort should be replicable

 Restrictions we identify are the criteria for the

admissibility of data

 Standardize the data

Planning for Data Collection

 What data are needed?

 Where is the data located?

 How will data be obtained?

 How will data be interpreted?

Defining Measurement

 Measurement is limiting the data of any

phenomenon – substantial or insubstantial – so that

those data may be interpreted and ultimately

compared to a particular qualitative or quantitative

standard

 Measurement is ultimately a comparison: a think or

concept measured against a point of limitation

Types of Measurement Scales

 Nominal Scales

 Ordinal Scales

 Interval Scales

 Ratio Scales

Nominal Scales

 A nominal scale limits the data

 Nominal measurement is simplistic, but it does divide

data into discrete categories that can be compared

to one another.

 Only a few statistical procedures are appropriate

for analyzing nominal data (a) mode, (b)

percentage, and (c) chi-square test

Ordinal Scales

 Ordinal scales allow us to rank-order data

 In addition to using statistics we can use with

nominal data, we can also use statistical procedures

to determine (a) the median, (b) the percentile rank,

and (c) Spearman’s rank order correlation

Interval Scales

 An interval scale is characterized by two features: (a) it has equal units of measurement, and (b) its zero point has been established arbitrarily

 Interval scales allow statistical analyses that are not possible with nominal and ordinal data

 Because an interval scale reflects equal distances among adjacent points, any statistics that are calculated using addition for subtraction (a) means, (b) standard deviation, and (c) Pearson product moment correlations can be used

Ratio Scales

 A ratio scale has two characteristics: (a) equal

measurement units and (b) an absolute zero point

 The ratio scale can express values in terms of

multiples and fractional parts

 The ratios are true ratios

 Ratio scales outside the physical sciences are

relatively rare

Summary of Scales

 If you can say that….

 One object is different from another, you have a

nominal scale

 One object is bigger or better or more of anything

than another, you have an ordinal scale

 One object is so many units (degrees, inches) more

than another, you have an interval scale

 One object is so many times as big or bright or tall

or heavy as another, you have a ratio scale

What is Validity?

 The validity of a measurement instrument is the

extent to which the instrument measures what it is

intended to measure

 The validity of any instrument can vary

considerably depending on the purpose for which it

is being used.

 The validity of an instrument is specific to the

situation

Four Types of Validity

 Face Validity

 Content Validity

 Criterion Validity

 Construct Validity

Face Validity

 Face validity is the extent to which, on the surface,

an instrument looks like it is measuring a particular

characteristic

 Face validity relies entirely on subjective judgment

 It is not, in itself, a dependable indicator that an

instrument is truly measuring what the researcher

wants to measure

Content Validity

 Content validity is the extent to which a

measurement instrument is a representative sample

of the content area being measured

 A measurement instrument has high content validity

if its items or questions reflect the various parts of

the content area in appropriate proportions and it

if requires the particular behaviors and skills that

are central to that domain

Construct Validity

 Construct validity is the extent to which an

instrument measures a characteristic that cannot be

directly observed but is assumed to exist based on

patterns in people’s behavior

Determining Validity of a

Measurement Instrument

 Table of specifications

 Multi trait-multi method approach

 Judgment by a panel of expers

Table of Specifications

 To establish content validity the researcher often

constructs a two-dimensional grid (table of

specifications) listing the specific topics and

behaviors that reflect achievement in the domain

Multi trait – Multi method Approach

 Two or more characteristics are each measured

using two or more different approaches

Judgment by a Panel of Experts

 Several experts in a particular area are asked to

scrutinize and instrument and give an informed

opinion about its validity for measuring the

characteristic in question

Internal Validity

 Internal validity is the extent to which the design of

a research study and the data it yields allow the

researcher to draw accurate conclusions about

cause-and-effect and other relationships within the

data

 Hawthorne effect

 Novelty effect

Internal Validity - Strategies

 A controlled laboratory study

 A double-blind experiment

 Unobtrusive measures

 Triangulation

External Validity

 External validity of a research study is the extent to

which its results apply to situations beyond the study

itself

External Validity - Strategies

 Real-life setting

 A representative sample

 Replication in a different context

Validity in Qualitative Research

 Extensive time in the field

 Negative case analysis

 Thick description

 Feedback from others

 Respondent validation

What is Reliability?

 Reliability is the consistency with which a measuring instrument yields a certain, consistent result when the entity being measured has not changed

 For each of the (4) forms of reliability, determining reliability involves two steps (a) getting two measures for each individual in a reasonably large group of individuals and (b) calculating a correlation coefficient that expresses the degree to which the two measures are similar

 Reliability is a necessary but insufficient condition for validity

Four Types of Reliability

 Interrater reliability

 Test-retest reliability

 Equivalent forms reliability

 Internal consistency reliability

Interrater Reliability

 Interrater reliability is the extent to which two or

more individuals evaluating the same product or

performance give identical judgments

Test-retest Reliability

 Test-retest reliability is the extent to which a single

instrument yields the same results for the same

people of two different occasions

Equivalent Forms Reliability

 Equivalent forms reliability is the extent to which

two different versions of the same instrument yield