Chapter 1. Foundations of Research Methods
What is Research?
Research is a type of systematic investigation that is empirical in nature and is designed to
contribute to public knowledge.
● Systematic investigation, is an activity that involves a prospective plan that incorporates
data collection, either quantitative or qualitative, and data analysis to answer a question
● Empirical endeavor, used to produce knowledge that is based on experience. At present, the
word “empirical” pertains to the gathering of data using evidence that is derived through
experience or observation or by using calibrated scientific tools (direct observation).
● Public effort: researchers typically conduct research so that it can contribute to a broader
base of knowledge than just their own.
The research enterprise is the macro-level effort to accumulate knowledge across multiple empirical
systematic public research projects
Translational research: is the systematic effort to move research from initial discovery to practise
and ultimately to impacts on our lives.
Research synthesis is a systematic study of multiple prior research projects that address the same
research question or topic and summarize the results in a manner that can be used by practitioners.
● Meta-analysis uses statistical methods to combine the result of similar study quantitatively
in order to allow general conclusions to be made.
● systematic review is a research synthesis approach that focuses on a specific question or
issue and uses specific preplanned methods to identify, select, assess, and summarize the
findings of multiple research studies. It may or may not include a meta-analysis (a
quantitative synthesis of results).
a guideline is the result of a systematic process that leads to a specific set of research-based
recommendations for practice that usually includes some estimates of how strong the evidence is for
each recommendation.
1
,Evidence-based practice (EBP) is a movement designed to encourage or require practitioners to
employ practices that are based on research evidence as reflected in research syntheses or practice
guidelines.
Evolutionary epistemology: The branch of philosophy that holds that ideas evolve through the
process of natural selection.
Requests for proposals (RFPs): A document issued by a government agency or other organization
that, typically, describes the problem that needs addressing, the contexts in which it operates, the
approach the agency would like you to take to investigate the problem, and the amount the agency
would be willing to pay for such research.
Literature review is a systematic compilation and written summary of all of the literature published
in scientific journals that is related to a research topic of interest.
Peer review: authors submit potential articles to a journal editor who solicits several reviewers who
agree to give a critical review of the paper.
Whether the study is feasible at all. Several major considerations come into play. Many of these
involve making trade-offs between rigor and practicality.
Research vocabulary
● Theoretical: meaning that much of it is concerned with developing, exploring, or testing the
theories or ideas that social researchers have about how the world operates.
● Empirical: meaning that it is based on observations and measurements of reality on what
you perceive of the world around you.
● Probabilistic Based on probabilities.
● Causal Pertaining to a cause-effect relationship, hypothesis, or relationship. Something is
causal if it leads to an outcome or makes an outcome happen.
● Causal relationship A cause-effect relationship. For example, when you evaluate whether
your treatment or program causes an outcome to occur, you are examining
Types of studies:
1. Descriptive studies are designed primarily to document what is going on or what exists.
Public opinion polls that seek to describe the proportion of people who hold various opinions
are primarily descriptive in nature. For instance, if you want to know what percentage of the
2
, population would vote for a Democrat or a Republican in the next presidential election, you
are simply interested in describing something.
2. Relational studies look at the relationships between two or more variables. A public opinion
poll that compares the proportion of males and females who say they would vote for a
Democratic or a Republican candidate in the next presidential election is essentially studying
the relationship between gender and voting preference.
3. Causal studies are designed to determine whether one or more variables (for example, a
program or treatment variable) causes or affects one or more outcome variables. If you
performed a public opinion poll to try to determine whether a recent political advertising
campaign changed voter preferences, you would essentially be studying whether the
campaign (cause) changed the proportion of voters who would vote Democratic or
Republican (effect).
Time in research
● Cross-sectional studies take place at a single point in time. In effect, you are taking a slice or
cross-section of whatever it is you’re observing or measuring.
● Longitudinal studies take place over multiple points in time. In a longitudinal study, you
measure your research participants on at least two separate occasions or at least two points
in time. If you have two or a few waves of measurement, you are using a repeated measures
design. If you have many waves (atleast 20) of measurement over time, you have a time
series.
Types of relationships
● A correlational relationship simply says that two things perform in a synchronized manner
(but one does not give the cause for the other, inflation and unemployment). Be careful
when interpreting correlations due the third variable or missing variable problem.
● A causal relationship is a synchronized relationship between two variables just as a
correlational relationship is, but in a causal relationship we say that one variable causes the
other to occur.
3
, Hypotheses:
● Hypothesis: A specific statement of prediction.
● Alternative hypothesis: A specific statement of prediction that usually states what you
expect will happen in your study.
● Null hypothesis: The hypothesis that describes the possible outcomes other than the
alternative hypothesis. Usually, the null hypothesis predicts there will be no effect of a
program or treatment you are studying.
● one-tailed hypothesis: A hypothesis that specifies a direction; for example, when your
hypothesis predicts that your program will increase/decrease the outcome.
● two-tailed hypothesis: A hypothesis that does not specify a direction. For example, if your
hypothesis is that your program or intervention will have an effect on an outcome, but you
are unwilling to specify whether that effect will be positive or negative, you are using a two-
tailed hypothesis.
Hypothetico-deductive model A model in which two mutually exclusive hypotheses that together
exhaust all possible outcomes are tested, such that if one hypothesis is accepted, the second must
therefore be rejected.
Variables
● Variable: Any entity that can take on different values. For instance, age can be considered a
variable because age can take on different values for different people at different times.
● Quantitative: The numerical representation of some object. A quantitative variable is any
variable that is measured using numbers.
● Attribute: A specific value of a variable. For instance the variable sex or gender has two
attributes: male and female.
4
What is Research?
Research is a type of systematic investigation that is empirical in nature and is designed to
contribute to public knowledge.
● Systematic investigation, is an activity that involves a prospective plan that incorporates
data collection, either quantitative or qualitative, and data analysis to answer a question
● Empirical endeavor, used to produce knowledge that is based on experience. At present, the
word “empirical” pertains to the gathering of data using evidence that is derived through
experience or observation or by using calibrated scientific tools (direct observation).
● Public effort: researchers typically conduct research so that it can contribute to a broader
base of knowledge than just their own.
The research enterprise is the macro-level effort to accumulate knowledge across multiple empirical
systematic public research projects
Translational research: is the systematic effort to move research from initial discovery to practise
and ultimately to impacts on our lives.
Research synthesis is a systematic study of multiple prior research projects that address the same
research question or topic and summarize the results in a manner that can be used by practitioners.
● Meta-analysis uses statistical methods to combine the result of similar study quantitatively
in order to allow general conclusions to be made.
● systematic review is a research synthesis approach that focuses on a specific question or
issue and uses specific preplanned methods to identify, select, assess, and summarize the
findings of multiple research studies. It may or may not include a meta-analysis (a
quantitative synthesis of results).
a guideline is the result of a systematic process that leads to a specific set of research-based
recommendations for practice that usually includes some estimates of how strong the evidence is for
each recommendation.
1
,Evidence-based practice (EBP) is a movement designed to encourage or require practitioners to
employ practices that are based on research evidence as reflected in research syntheses or practice
guidelines.
Evolutionary epistemology: The branch of philosophy that holds that ideas evolve through the
process of natural selection.
Requests for proposals (RFPs): A document issued by a government agency or other organization
that, typically, describes the problem that needs addressing, the contexts in which it operates, the
approach the agency would like you to take to investigate the problem, and the amount the agency
would be willing to pay for such research.
Literature review is a systematic compilation and written summary of all of the literature published
in scientific journals that is related to a research topic of interest.
Peer review: authors submit potential articles to a journal editor who solicits several reviewers who
agree to give a critical review of the paper.
Whether the study is feasible at all. Several major considerations come into play. Many of these
involve making trade-offs between rigor and practicality.
Research vocabulary
● Theoretical: meaning that much of it is concerned with developing, exploring, or testing the
theories or ideas that social researchers have about how the world operates.
● Empirical: meaning that it is based on observations and measurements of reality on what
you perceive of the world around you.
● Probabilistic Based on probabilities.
● Causal Pertaining to a cause-effect relationship, hypothesis, or relationship. Something is
causal if it leads to an outcome or makes an outcome happen.
● Causal relationship A cause-effect relationship. For example, when you evaluate whether
your treatment or program causes an outcome to occur, you are examining
Types of studies:
1. Descriptive studies are designed primarily to document what is going on or what exists.
Public opinion polls that seek to describe the proportion of people who hold various opinions
are primarily descriptive in nature. For instance, if you want to know what percentage of the
2
, population would vote for a Democrat or a Republican in the next presidential election, you
are simply interested in describing something.
2. Relational studies look at the relationships between two or more variables. A public opinion
poll that compares the proportion of males and females who say they would vote for a
Democratic or a Republican candidate in the next presidential election is essentially studying
the relationship between gender and voting preference.
3. Causal studies are designed to determine whether one or more variables (for example, a
program or treatment variable) causes or affects one or more outcome variables. If you
performed a public opinion poll to try to determine whether a recent political advertising
campaign changed voter preferences, you would essentially be studying whether the
campaign (cause) changed the proportion of voters who would vote Democratic or
Republican (effect).
Time in research
● Cross-sectional studies take place at a single point in time. In effect, you are taking a slice or
cross-section of whatever it is you’re observing or measuring.
● Longitudinal studies take place over multiple points in time. In a longitudinal study, you
measure your research participants on at least two separate occasions or at least two points
in time. If you have two or a few waves of measurement, you are using a repeated measures
design. If you have many waves (atleast 20) of measurement over time, you have a time
series.
Types of relationships
● A correlational relationship simply says that two things perform in a synchronized manner
(but one does not give the cause for the other, inflation and unemployment). Be careful
when interpreting correlations due the third variable or missing variable problem.
● A causal relationship is a synchronized relationship between two variables just as a
correlational relationship is, but in a causal relationship we say that one variable causes the
other to occur.
3
, Hypotheses:
● Hypothesis: A specific statement of prediction.
● Alternative hypothesis: A specific statement of prediction that usually states what you
expect will happen in your study.
● Null hypothesis: The hypothesis that describes the possible outcomes other than the
alternative hypothesis. Usually, the null hypothesis predicts there will be no effect of a
program or treatment you are studying.
● one-tailed hypothesis: A hypothesis that specifies a direction; for example, when your
hypothesis predicts that your program will increase/decrease the outcome.
● two-tailed hypothesis: A hypothesis that does not specify a direction. For example, if your
hypothesis is that your program or intervention will have an effect on an outcome, but you
are unwilling to specify whether that effect will be positive or negative, you are using a two-
tailed hypothesis.
Hypothetico-deductive model A model in which two mutually exclusive hypotheses that together
exhaust all possible outcomes are tested, such that if one hypothesis is accepted, the second must
therefore be rejected.
Variables
● Variable: Any entity that can take on different values. For instance, age can be considered a
variable because age can take on different values for different people at different times.
● Quantitative: The numerical representation of some object. A quantitative variable is any
variable that is measured using numbers.
● Attribute: A specific value of a variable. For instance the variable sex or gender has two
attributes: male and female.
4
