Planning A Research Study

Neuman and Robson Ch. 4 and 5: Reviewing the Scholarly Literature and Planning a Study

Choosing a Research Problem

 Where do problems come from?

 Practical problems in the field  The literature in the field  Personal interest

Example of a Problem:

 The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of body image and PPF (perceived physical fitness) for different exercise settings

Feasibility of Study

 Feasibility is contingent on many factors:      Length of time to do the study Ethical constraints Cooperation of others Cost of conducting the research Researcher’s own skills

Reviewing the Literature

 Recommended Sources:      Journal articles Books Conference proceedings Government / corporate reports Library Databases  Other Sources (not recommended)  Newspapers and Magazines  Internet

The Annotated Bibliography

 A very useful first step…  Consists of a bibliographic citation and a descriptive and evaluative annotation of a selection of your most useful sources  Becomes the basis for the literature review later on in a study

Writing The Literature Review

 Concentrates on the scientific research  Provides the context for your research  Justifies the proposed study  Summarizes and evaluates the literature in the field

Questions to be answered in a literature review:

          1. What do we already know in the immediate area concerned?

2. What are the characteristics of the key concepts or the main factors or variables?

3. What are the relationships between these key concepts, factors or variables?

4. What are the existing theories?

5. Where are the inconsistencies/shortcomings in our knowledge and understanding?

6. What views need to be (further) tested?

7. What evidence is lacking, inconclusive, contradictory or too limited?

8. Why study (further) the research problem?

9. What contribution can the present study be expected to make?

10. What research designs or methods seem unsatisfactory?

Tips:

 Remember the purpose  Read with a purpose  Write with a purpose  Always put citations into your writing immediately  Keep a bibliographic file

Qualitative or Quantitative?

 For an examination of differences between qualitative and quantitative research see: http://publish.uwo.ca/~pakvis/QuanQual.doc

 Qualitative research tends to focus in and narrow down a topic during the research process  Quantitative research narrows down and focuses in on the problem first, in order to define hypotheses to be tested during the study.

 *See summary Table 5.1 p. 83 in text

Issues in Qualitative Design

 Issue of “soft data”?

 Data are gathered in real world…empirical  Grounded Theory    Inductive methodology Generalizations are “grounded” in the data Developed through systematic analysis and comparison of ideas and data

Issues in Qualitative (cont.)

 The context  The case as the unit of analysis  Time in social processes  Interpretation of data and subjectivity  Levels of interpretation  first, second, third order interpretations

Issues in Quantitative Design

 Variables and attributes  Types of variables  Dependent   Independent Intervening or control variables

The Causal Hypothesis

 Two variables – independent and dependent  Cause-effect relationship  Can be expressed as a prediction or outcome  Logical link to research question  Is falsifiable

Falsification (Karl Popper)

 “logic of disconfirming the hypotheses”  Null and alternate hypothesis   H o : there is no association or no difference H α : there is an association or difference

Level vs. Unit of Analysis

 Level of analysis  Micro, meso, macro  Unit of analysis   The unit that is measured Individual, family, society, etc.

Problem of Mismatched Units of Analysis

 Ecological Fallacy  when group characteristics or findings are applied to individuals  Reductionism  “fallacy of nonequivalence”  applying individual level data to large groups  Spuriousness  An association between two variables is not true but variation in both is actually caused by third variable

Other problems…

 Tautology   Circular reasoning Explanation simply restates same thing  Teleology  An explanation in terms of an ultimate goal