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Research design process, bias and subjectivity
In each step of the research design process, bias and subjectivity are inevitable.
Humans are wired to develop pre-conceived notions, assumptions, subjective judgements,
and cognitive and unconscious biases based on individual own beliefs, opinions,
environment, and a host of other factors. In the world of research, there are vast amount of
biases that researchers should be aware of and avoid. King, Keohane, Verba, and Keohane
highlighted several that researchers should be aware of and recommendations for dealing
with them. The primary bias that King, Keohane, Verba, and Keohane expounds on is
selection bias, which can occur at various stages of research planning and design, such as
when selecting theories and observable implications and can easily filter into the data
collection process and can also occur in selection of the research topic. Biases are one of
those fallacies of research that while cannot always be prevented, they must be controlled.
King, Keohane, Verba, and Keohane refers to biases as a form of systematic miscalculations
in our thought processes and may be extremely difficult to avoid, but not impossible. In the
case of selection bias, to deal with biases in research, King, Keohane, Verba, and Keohane
recommends the researcher controls the research situation by randomizing selection
processes. As KKV (1994) states, “Randomness assures us that no relevant variables are
omitted and that we are not selecting observations by some rule correlated with the dependent
variable (p.206).
Another common fallacy in research are lack of ethical considerations. A point that Angrist
and Pischke’s touches on in their piece. The main points of Angrist and Pischke’s piece
highlights the importance of ethical practices in economic research design. Given the very
critical role that economic studies play in society from a public policy perspective, integrity
in research design is paramount as not to comprise the reliability and validity of the
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information. As Angrist and Pischke (2010) argues, “a clear- eyed focus on research design is
at the heart of the creditability revolution in empirical economics” (p.6). Angrist and Pischke
argues that the goal of creditability in research design is to ensure that the theoretical and
conceptual frameworks are built on reliable information and data collection to provide
accurate information that supports policy making that may have profound impact on society.
They highlighted that gains in ethical consideration had resulted in less “cons” in economics
because of better data, fewer distractions, more transparency, and improvements in research
design.
Moral and ethical considerations are extremely important in government and statesmanship.
Statesmen often finds themselves in between ethical and moral principles and taking actions
that are presumably good for society as a whole. There’s usually a fine line between moral
obligations and personal ambition, but there will always be instances when statesmen do
abandon their ethical and moral principles, even in a government that consists of several
constitutional guard rails such as separation of powers. Their personal character and
creditability would be tarnished and history would not always judge them based on their
accomplishments, rather on the very acts that compromised their values and integrity (Ethics
and Statesmanship, 2022). The consequences usually extend beyond just the compromising
of individual values. Public service is public trust and statesmen abandoning ethical and
moral principles usually tarnishes the creditability of the very systems and institutions that
they represent. For example, the presidency of the United States is more than just one
individual, and even if our system of government establishes system to replace them when
they have violated public trust, the individual’s actions runs the risk of loss in faith in the
presidency and the executive branch as an institution and can take years to repair (Weimer &
Vining, 2017). This is why limited powers in government is so important. When it comes to
biblical principles government and statesmanship, Fischer speaks of the importance of moral
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and ethical principles in government and reasoning behind limited power. According to
Fischer (1998), “A person who is not humble before the lord will not necessarily feel the need
to submit himself to any moral or spiritual guidelines” (p.12).
References:
Angrist, J. D., & Pischke, J.-S. (2010). The Credibility Revolution in Empirical Economics:
How Better Research Design is Taking the Con out of Econometrics. The Journal of
Economic Perspectives, 24(2), 3–30. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25703496
Ethics and Statesmanship. Retrieved
from https://canvas.liberty.edu/courses/197626/pages/watch-ethics-and-statesmanship?
module_item_id=25255995
Fischer, K. J.,(1998) "Biblical Principles of History & Government". Faculty Dissertations.
https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/fac_dis/37
King, G., Keohane, R. O., Verba, S., & Keohane, R. O. O. (1994). Designing social inquiry :
Scientific inference in qualitative research. Princeton University Press.
Weimer, D. L., & Vining, A. R. (2017). Policy analysis : Concepts and practice. Taylor &
Francis Group.
