Research Designs and Methods - Essay Example

 A Critical Essay on Research Designs and Methods. Scientific research often seems like a tedious task to the lay man since it requires dedication, standardisation, and a structured approach. It involves making a number of decisions in order to ensure that the results of the study are usable in the real world. Often, inspire of great care, some uncontrolled factor can affect the results. This causes people to be sceptical of research and therefore, avoid it (Bischoping, 2005; pp25-27). But the alternate is even more problematic. If we were to not use scientific research, we would have to rely on intuition, guess and whims. All through history one can see examples of how important decisions can go wrong because the decision maker relied on these. Intuition is often influenced by a few events that are not representative of the norm. The decision maker may not even realize how much weightage a particular incident may be given simply because it has had an emotional impact on them; and not because it is really relevant. Statistical studies have shown that any one of a number of guesses has exactly the same chance of being right as any other in the set. Nevertheless, we often make the mistake of believing that a particular guess has a greater probability of being right. This is a fallacy that motivates every gambling situation. The whims and ideas of monarchs have often been their downfall. Major decisions of corporations, countries and even individuals, if taken without the backing of facts and research can often lead to costly mistakes – sometimes irreversible. Research, on the other hand, is dedicated to enabling sustainable decisions. A major chunk of research is conducted to estimate the possibility of an event occurring in the population from where the sample is taken. Such research helps us take decisions about policies and systems of functioning such that they are the most likely to facilitate the end goal. Another type of research focuses on indentifying relationships between events that exist naturally in the population. Understanding how objects and events affect each other can help us use naturally occurring conditions to our best advantage. Some research attempts to predict one function from another function or set of functions. Such research can help us take decisions even when only partial information about our environment is available to us. (Baily, 1994; 76-83). A majority of the type of research mentioned is conducted by using mathematical and statistical functions. But when the object of study is a human being, quantitative measurement of phenomena is not always possible. Human experience is inherently qualitative; and often it is best reported thus. A number of researchers have understood this, and choose to study phenomena from a qualitative and descriptive point of view. While such research is often criticised for not being able to present hard data, the insight it provides into the human experience makes it well worth the effort. It is of course difficult to generalize from subjective data; a strength of objectively collected data. In some cases, there is no attempt at all to apply the findings in a larger context. Qualitative research is also more fallible in its interpretation. But in spite of all its flaws, qualitative data – especially in the Social Sciences – can provide an understanding and a perspective that empirical data cannot afford. (McBurney, 2002; pp168-69; Patten, 2002; pp 47-52).  To take the example of a research problem, we could attempt to evaluate the extent to which parents of high school student's benefit from being involved in the career counselling offered to their students. The parent of a high school student today is often as anxious as the teenager about the future; sometimes more so. The parents are continually experiencing the competition and challenges of the working world, and know that their children will have to face more of the competition than they did. Parents can feel hopeless and worried about the decisions their children take since they may be unfamiliar with the fields their children show interest in. one way to help them cope would be to encourage participation in the process of taking decisions. Under these circumstances, the parents also gain an understanding of their children’s’ choices, and are able to support and affirm these decisions in a more effective manner. This situation could be studied using a variety of techniques. As regards quantitative methods, the parents who join into the process of career counseling could be measured against other parents who either choose not to participate, or are unable to on relevant factors. This would tell us whether parents participating in the process of career counseling experience different conditions as compared to those who don’t. The set of participating parents can also be measured on the chosen factors before they get involved in the career counseling process and after they have experienced it. This will give us an understanding of how much change is experienced – if at all – on the chosen factors due to the involvement. It is also possible to study the experiences of the teenagers undergoing the process to see if they find any difference in their experiences due to their parents being involved in the process of their career counseling. A research scientist wishing to study any of the following effects can use a variety of instruments; the choice of a particular type of instrument being influenced by the specific research question they have. Checklists, standardized tests, objective questionnaires and scales are some of the most often used with similar research. All these instruments are designed to translate the human experience into a numerical function as best possible. Checklists are the simplest of these instruments and a simply addition of the number of items selected by the subject is used to give the subject a score. Standardized tests, on the other hand, are painstakingly developed instruments that have been proven to give valuable information. In the present example, the parents could be tested on anxiety, stress, experience of supportiveness and many such variables. The researcher chooses a pre-existing instrument; or if none is available, designs and standardizes one. Questionnaires that yield objective data constitute of multiple choice or dual choice items, with a different numerical value assigned to each possible response. Such data is very valuable when the construct being studied is one that is quite complex in its facets. Scales are used when one wishes to study relative standing; especially on a variable that is dynamic. These are often used in a pre – post research scenario, and with variables on which previous exposure to a question is not expected to influence an answer. Mood, emotion, attitude are all internal constructs that are quite fluid; and can easily be measured with scales so that multiple readings per subject are possible. The same study can be conducted from the qualitative point of view. Questionnaires made up of open ended items, use of a verbatim narrative, and such other techniques can be used for analyzing the data from a phenomenological viewpoint. Open ended questionnaires will help in understanding the nuances of the person’s experiences. They also give the respondent a chance to explain the details or contradictions they may experience that cannot be translated into objective values easily. In our example, the who are part of the study can describe their experiences. Even when the experiences and emotions are mixed up without any one being dominant, it is possible to record them. In cultural research, a verbatim narrative is taken via an essay or interview and then analysed to identify the key elements. This is a good technique when we have a small sample size – like for example – if only about 3 or 4 parents choose to get involved in the counseling process. Their experiences can be recorded in-depth so that further research can be planned on the basis of the findings. Most often qualitative research designs are used when exploring a novel area of study, or when it is felt that the quantitative methods are not doing justice to the range of the concept being studied. The Survey One popular technique of conducting research in the Social Sciences is the Survey method. It is quite a versatile technique; equally robust to test a small and a big population. The survey has the flexibility to be used not just for quantitative research, but also for qualitative research. The survey also has the ability to adjust to the scope of the topic - whether narrow or wide. Thus, the survey technique can be used to study attitudes, facts, opinions and technical responses. The survey can also be tested for accuracy by retesting a few participants to find how accurate it really is. (Kerlinger, 1986; pp 379; Dillman, 1998; pp 2-4) This versatility of the survey comes from the set of techniques that it encompasses. These include interviews – in person as well as using an artificial mode of communication, mail questionnaire, and panel discussions. Depending on the topic, and the specific research question, it is possible to use one or more of these to effectively gather data. (Warwick & Lininger, 1977; pp 150-50) Coming back to the example we are exploring, depending on the particular study question, different survey methods can be used to gather information. If the researcher is interested in the detailed experiences of the parents who are a part of the study, then it is possible to gather this data using a face to face interview; the best structure being the use of a semi-structured interview which allows for the researcher to ask about novel points as they come, but still provides a guideline to the areas that need to be covered. On the other hand, if the researcher wishes to understand if these experiences are similar of different across cultural groups; then telephone or internet based interviews can be used. In the event that the researcher wants to contact past clients of the career counseling bureau, or wishes to conduct a follow up study, a mailed questionnaire may suffice. Mailed questionnaires work best when the questions are simple, easy to respond to and at a minimum. The likelihood of getting a response reduces as complexity and time required increase. In the event that the researcher wishes to evaluate how different parents will feel about their experiences when they interact with other parents who have also had the same experiences; a panel discussion is the best technique. Panels are optimal when the number of participants is about six to eight; so the researcher may prefer to conduct multiple panels for a single study. This also ensures that the thoughts of a dominate member of one panel do not dominate the study (Dillman, 1998; pp 60-69; McBurney, 2002; pp 193-120). While the survey is a very flexible, accurate, often economical and multi-purpose technique; it is not without disadvantages. The most important one is that while the survey is flexible enough to take on multiple roles; it often needs to choose between depth of topic and width of facets covered. Another weakness in its armor is that it often is time and resource consuming; and thus rarely used by the independent researcher. In our example, the most likely party to sanction and conduct a survey is the organization that conducts the career counseling. The third weakness is shared by many techniques; is that it is subject to sampling error. This is due to the fact that with a small sample; the participants may typically be from one or the other end of the normal distribution. On the other hand, with a large sample, unless it is picked carefully, a particular subsection may be over-represented. The use of a good sampling technique is recommended when conducting a widespread survey. A final concern with using a survey is that responding to a survey makes the respondent review their own experiences or behaviours; an activity that may cause consequent change in the target experience / behavior. This defeats the purpose of having collected data on that experience / behavior. (Kerlinger, 1986;pp 387; Neuman, 2007; McBurney, 2002;pp 120 ). Conclusion Thus we find that the use of scientific research and its techniques is invaluable to our understanding and responding to our world. But the choice of the technique should be made carefully; and not in an arbitrary manner. A well chosen technique that is applied to a properly selected sample will yield results that afford us a far better understanding of our world than any other means possible. Reference List Alreck, P. L. & Settle, R. B. (1985). The Survey Research Handbook, Homewood, Illinois: Irwin. Babbie, E. R., (1990). Survey Research Methods, Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.  Baily, Kenneth D. (1994). 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