Research Design Flashcards
What is research design? (Aim, Controversy, Positivist)
Aim: Expand boundaries of existing knowledge.
Controversy: Interpretive knowledge.
Positivist: Broad research of causal things.
Objective: Why do we conduct research?
Obtain valid answers reliably and efficiently.
Between epistemological and methodological approaches.
Applied (operational) epistemology – understanding how we know.
Levels of Generality, Level 1
Ontological, epistemological, broad theoretical outlook.
Explicit, not implicit.
Types: Ask about them.
Levels of Generality, Level 2
Research goal, question, theory relation, conceptualization, methodology.
Identifying characteristics of theoretical outlook.
Levels of Generality, Level 3
Cases, variables, evidence.
How do we identify a gap in our knowledge?
Recognizing absence in existing knowledge.
What is the general aim of research?
Advance the ‘state of the art.’
Motivation: Puzzles, lacunae, substantive problems.
When does theory come into play?
Guides operationalization, conceptualization.
Essential for behavioralist, large statistical methodology.
Is research methodology solely dependent on research questions?
Example: Investigating Trumpism may involve elite interviews, discourse analysis.
Experimental vs. Observational Designs: Why can’t social sciences often mimic laboratory experiments?
Complexity, ethical reasons.
Observational designs in political science.
What does the researcher control in observational methods?
Cases to study, number of cases, features to observe, data to collect.
Qualitative methods when quantitative is not available.
What is the first step in theory development?
Abstract, unobservable concepts.
Contestation, inductive element.
Operationalization follows conceptualization.
How does the choice of N impact research design?
Large-N: Positivist designs, causality.
Small-N: Interpretivist designs, understanding phenomena.
When is the comparative method preferred?
Focus on small-N case studies.
Alternative when experimental or statistical methods are not feasible.
How does MDSD work?
Find somewhat similar cases with different outcomes.
Identify common conditions, nuance understanding.