Research Design Homework: Understanding Research Methods Overview

This homework assignment provides solutions to questions related to research design. It covers key concepts such as the selection of research design based on research objectives, and the differences between experimental, quasi-experimental, and pre-experimental designs. It further explores non-experimental designs and the distinction between cross-sectional and longitudinal research. The assignment also addresses extraneous variables and methods for controlling them, along with factors influencing internal validity in quantitative research. Additionally, it delves into emergent design in qualitative research, outlining its key features and traditions like grounded theory, ethnography, phenomenology, and case studies. Finally, it discusses different types of research designs, including descriptive qualitative, quantitative, and quasi-experimental approaches, providing a comprehensive overview of research methodologies.

Answer 1:
1. In case of research design for a quantitative study, it is necessary to review the research
question and objectives of research and interpret the research design that would fulfil the
study objective. The selection of research design is influenced by availability of
information, sufficiency of data, time availability, rigour in sample selection, technical
understandings of research and internal and external variables of research. This helps in
the review of proper qualitative factors that influence the search process (Patten &
Newhart, 2017).
Answer 2:
Experimental research design: It is a research method in which several manipulations and
controlled testing is done to evaluate the causal effect of an intervention. However, human error
is a threat to the validity of this research.
Quasi-experimental research design: It is a type of experimental research design, where
interventions are not randomly allocated to a group and other eligibility criteria is used to assign
participants to treatment and control group. The advantage of this research design is that it takes
less time and it eliminates ethical issues associated with random assignment of study
participants. However, this design lacks generalizability as it may lead to creation of non-
equivalent test groups because of random assignment.
Pre-experimental designs: In pre-experimental designs, only single group is observed regarding
effect of treatment instead of comparison between two groups. This is planned before
implementation of a true experiment and the main purpose is to see the effect before a true

experiment is implemented. However, this research design lacks validity (Patten & Newhart,
2017).
Non-experimental designs: It is a type of research design in which independent variables cannot
be manipulated and the study depends on the interpretation or observation to come to conclusion
of the study. Hence, cause and effect relationship cannot be explored through this type of
research design and the data for this research depends on case studies or surveys. The key
advantage of non-experimental design is that the findings can be generalized for the larger target
population group (Campbell & Stanley, 2015).
Answer 3
The difference between cross-sectional and longitudinal research design is that longitudinal
research is done with fresh sample of research participants, whereas cross-sectional research is
done with same sample at several point of time. The advantage of cross-sectional research design
is that it facilitates comparison of different variables at the same time. However, cause and effect
relationship cannot be explored. In contrast, longitudinal research designs give researchers the
advantage of interpreting trends or development related to change in characteristics of target
population group (Creswell & Creswell, 2017).
Answer 4
Extraneous variables are those variables that negatively affect the data collection process and
interfere with the validity of data. The methods that are used to control extraneous variables
include controlling differences between participants in terms of age, ability or other factors,
making research variables consistent throughout the research and controlling situational variables

in the place where the research needs to be carried out. Random allocation and blinding also
ensures that sample group are equally treated and any confounding factors are eliminated.
However, this is effective only in case of large sample size (Nielsen & Raswant, 2018).
Answer 5
In quantitative research designs, the factors that influence internal validity includes changes
in study subject over the course of experiment, lost to follow up cases and failure of research
participants to complete all phase of the research. Instrumentation related issues such as changes
in calibration of research tool or change in observer may threaten internal validity of research
(Edmonds & Kennedy, 2016).
Answer 6:
Emergent design is used in qualitative research to adapt to new ideas during qualitative
research. This helps to collect many unanticipated information and increase the richness of
research. Hence, this design helps to explore a research phenomenon in-depth.
The key features of a qualitative research design are as follows:
 The research focus on collection of descriptive details related to the research question
 It does not rely on specific tool for data collection. Researcher’s judgment determines the
method of data collection
 It involved subjective interpretation of events
 It is a time consuming process and it involves lack of generalizability of data.

Answer 7
The following are the traditions for qualitative research:
Grounded theory: It is an inductive form of inquiry that focuses on collecting and analyzing
qualitative data to create a theory related to the phenomenon.
Ethnography: The domain of inquiry for this research is social relations as this research method
focuses on knowing the world from the point of social relations. It investigates particular human
society or culture.
Phenomenology: It is a research approach focussing on how a human or particular group
experience a phenomenon. The focus is to examine perceptions, feelings and experience of
people in relation to lived experience of a phenomenon.
Case study: Case study is a qualitative approach that involves the interpretation of complexity of
a case by means of observation or interview with people (Flick, 2018).
Answer 8
Ethnographic: The focus is on first hand observation and creation of social relationship with
research participants. It involves inquiry for a long term period to understand the complexity of
people’s belief.
Phenomenologic: This research method focus on evaluating experience of a people towards a
phenomenon or situation. It is dependent on in-depth conversations and interviews. The sample
size of small and it is depended on open-ended questions for data analysis.

Grounded theory studies: It involves development of theoretical aspects related to a research
phenomenon. Data collection and analysis are combined to extract the theory behind a research
phenomenon (Kumar, 2019).
Answer 9
The types of research design are as follows:
Descriptive qualitative: The goal is collect descriptive information related to opinion and
perception of research participants related to a phenomenon. It is done by means of interview and
survey.
Quantitative: The goal is collect numerical or objective data related to research topic and
generalize it to larger population. It is done by means of survey or online questionnaire.
Quasi-experimental: The goal is to evaluate the effect of a treatment and it is mainly involved
manipulation of independent variables. It can be done by taking cohort or case-control designs
(Patten & Newhart, 2017).

References:
Campbell, D. T., & Stanley, J. C. (2015). Experimental and quasi-experimental designs for
research. Ravenio Books.
Creswell, J. W., & Creswell, J. D. (2017). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed
methods approaches. Sage publications.
Edmonds, W. A., & Kennedy, T. D. (2016). An applied guide to research designs: Quantitative,
qualitative, and mixed methods. Sage Publications.
Flick, U. (2018). An introduction to qualitative research. Sage Publications Limited.
Kumar, R. (2019). Research methodology: A step-by-step guide for beginners. Sage Publications
Limited.
Nielsen, B. B., & Raswant, A. (2018). The selection, use, and reporting of control variables in
international business research: A review and recommendations. Journal of World
Business.
Patten, M. L., & Newhart, M. (2017). Understanding research methods: An overview of the
essentials. Routledge.