WEEK 2- L4.2 research design overview

Question 1

what’s a research design?

Answer 1

blueprint for;
1. **investigating the research question in a coherent and logical way **(type of research- normative, philosophical, empirical or more exploratory or confirmatory)
2. **including what kinds of data is needed **(for test, not confirmation)
3. how the data is collected (methods of data collection)
4. and what methods of analysis will be used (mode of analysis- logic to draw inferences)

Question 2

why is the explaratory-confirmatory distinction problematic?

Answer 2

1. exploratory research is less common and appreciated- can’t be just descriptive summary needs some theory development. confirmatory research draws on existing theories and applies and tests these- makes it the default choice
2. the word confirmatory sounds like you will only look at supporting evidence

Question 3

what’s research design- list:

Answer 3

1. type of research
2. evidence or data needed
3. method of data collection
4. mode of analysis (logic to draw inferences)
5. how threats to internal and external validity and measurement reliability are minimized

Question 4

research design types

Answer 4

1. experimental designs
2. cross sectional or longtidunial designs (observation)
3. comparative designs
4. historical designs

Question 5

idea behind experimental designs…

Answer 5

isolate the explanatory or causal factor, and randomly assigned them to the unit of analysis (radomized intervention)

Question 6

types of experimental designs

Answer 6

1. laboratory ruling out any other influence factors)
2. field done in the real world with a randomized intervention but less control over other factors
   3.** survey experiment** different order or phrase leading to difference
3. natural experiments interventions or treatments can occur naturally- when two similar cities enact different policies- there’s no random assignment or intervention- researchers draw conclusions about the policies. results can’t be conclusively attributed to the intervention

Question 7

what’s the problem with natural experiments?

Answer 7

results can’t be conclusively attributed to the intervention because there was no random assignment.
it fails the criteron of internal validity
=> it’s not an experiment

Question 8

what’s crossectional?

Answer 8

comparison of units of analysis at the same time

Question 9

what’s longtidunial?

Answer 9

implies a change over time

Question 10

when are observational designs (cross-long) used?

Answer 10

in large n research
quanitative

Question 11

panel and cohort designs add a…

Answer 11

time dimension to the design

Question 12

what’s a panel?

Answer 12

same units are observed repeatedly

Question 13

what’s a cohort?

Answer 13

doesn’t trace the same units, but repeats the same measurements/ observations over time with new samples.

Question 14

what does a panel study allow?

Answer 14

tracing individual changes over time

Question 15

comparative designs are used in…

Answer 15

single case studies => in depth process tracing
small n and large n case study

Question 16

which logic do historical designs follow?

Answer 16

longtidunial

Question 17

which logic do comparative design follow?

Answer 17

cross sectional

Question 18

what are methods of data collection? 3

Answer 18

1. questionaires/ surveys => standardized
2. interviews and focus groups => open answers
3. participant observation and ethnographic research => researchers observe behaviours of individuals
4. textual/ content/ discourse analysis

Question 19

internal validity

Answer 19

The extent to which we are confident that a causal relationship really exists between two variables.

Question 20

external validity

Answer 20

The extent to which findings of your research can be generalized to other similar situations.

Question 21

reliability

Answer 21

The extent to which a measurement produces the same results on repeated trials.

Question 22

(…) is concerned with explaining variation between places or between people at a single point in time, rather than explaining
variation within places over time

Answer 22

cross sectional design

Question 23

cohort and panel studies differ in that

Answer 23

panel uses same participants
cohort uses different participants