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Research Design
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Research Design
Introduction
Research design can be considered as the structure of
research it is the “Glue” that holds all of the elements in a research
project together, in short it is a plan of the proposed research work.
Research design is defined by different social scientists in different
terms; some of the definitions are as: according to Jahoda, Deutch &
Cook “A research design is the arrangement of conditions for the
collection and analysis of data in a manner that aims to combine
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relevance to the research purpose with economy and procedure”.
Research design is the plan, structure and strategy and investigation
concaved so as to obtain ensured to search question and control
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variance”. Henry Manheim says that research design not only
anticipates and specifies the seemingly countless decisions
connected with carrying out data collection, processing and analysis
4
but it presents a logical basis for these decisions. Zikmund defined
as “a master plan specifying the methods and procedure for collecting
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Research in Social Science: Interdisciplinary Perspectives
5
and analyzing the needed information”. The definitions stress
systematic methodology in collecting right information for
interpretations with economy and procedure. In-fact the research
design is the conceptual within which research is conducted:
1. The blueprint for the collection.
2. Measurement and
3. Analysis of data.
Aresearch design should be based more or less on some
methodology the research design should be made once the topic and
problem of research have been selected and formulated, objectives
have been properly outlined, concepts have been properly defined
and the hypothesis have been properly framed. The research design
should be able to provide answers of the following reserve queries:
Origins
Research design emerged as a recognizable field of study in
the 1960s, at first marked by a conference on Design Method at
Imperial college, London in 1962. It led to the founding of the Design
Research Society (DRS) in 1966. John Christopher Jones founded a
postgraduate Design Research laboratory at the University
Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (who initiated the
1962 conference) and L. Bruce Scher founded the postgraduate
Department of Design Research at the Royal College of Art, London
7
and became the first professor of Research Design. Some of the
origin of design methods and research design lay in the emergence
after the and world management decision making technique the most
fundamental challenge to conventional ideas on design has been the
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Research in Social Science: Interdisciplinary Perspectives
grouching advocacy of systematic methods of problem and the
development of design solutions. Herbert Simon (1969) established
the foundations for a science of design which would be a body of
intellectually tough, analytic, partly formalizable, partly empirical,
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teachable doctrine about the design process.
Features
1. It is a plan that specifies the sources and type of information
relevant to the research problem.
2. It is a strategy specifying which approach distill be used
gathering and analyzing data.
3. It also includes the time and cost budgets since most studies are
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done under these two constraints.
In brief research design must at least contain-
1. A clear statement of research problem.
2. Procedures and technique to be used for gathering data or
information.
3. The population to be studied.
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4. Methods to be used in processing & analysis data.
Elements of Design
Observation our Measures
These are symbolized by an „O‟ in design notation. An O can
refer to a single measure (e.g. measure of a body weight), a single
instrument with multiple items (e.g. a 10 item self-esteem scale), a
complex multipart instrument (e.g., survey), or a whole battery of tests
or measures given out on one occasion. If you need to distinguish
among specific measures, you can use subscripts with the O, as in
O1, O2 & So on.
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Research in Social Science: Interdisciplinary Perspectives
Group:- Each group in a design gives its own line in the design
structure if the design notation has three lines, there are three groups
in the design.
Assignment to Group
Assignment to group is designed by a latter at the beginning
of each time (eg. Group) that describe how the group was assigned.
The major types of assignment are: -
R = Random Assignment
N = Nonequivalent groups
C = Assignment by cutoff
Time
Time moves from left to right elements that are listed on the
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left occur before elements that are listed on the right.
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Research in Social Science: Interdisciplinary Perspectives
ideas in a shape whereby it will be possible for him to look for errors
14
and shortages.
Theory – Grounded
Good research reflects the theories which are being
investigated where specific theoretical expectations can be
hypothesized these are incorporated into the design.
Situational
Good research designs make known the settings for the
study, this was shown above where a specific need of teacher and
administrators was openly addressed in the design plan. Similarly,
demoralization, intergroup competition and competition might be
accessed throughout the use of the additional comparison group who
are not in direct contact with the original group.
Feasible
Good design can be implemented. The series and timing of
events are cautiously throughout. Possible problems in measurement,
devotion to project database construction and the like, are
predictable.
Redundant
Good research designs have some flexibility built into them
often this flexibility results from the repetition of essential design
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features.
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Research in Social Science: Interdisciplinary Perspectives
Efficient
Good research design strikes a balance between
redundancy and the tendency to over design. Where it is responsible,
other, less costly, strategies for ruling out potential threats validity
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cure utilized.
Exploratory Research
It is the primary stage of research and the purpose of this
research is to achieve new insights into a phenomenon. This research
is one which has the purposes of formulating a problem for more
accurate investigating a problem for more accurate investigation or for
developing a hypothesis. This is applied when there are few or no
earlier research/studies to which references can be made for
information. The focus of this research is on gaming insights and
familiarity with the subject area fair more rigorous investigation later.
Exploratory studies are usually more appropriate in case of problem
about which little research knowledge is available, for instance, there
is little knowledge available about social interaction pattern of
members of a most monastery an enterprising researcher may be
interested in such a problem to obtain insights in the face of little
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knowledge available about it.
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Research in Social Science: Interdisciplinary Perspectives
than a detached exercise. The following methods may be is helpful for
exploratory research:-
Survey of Literature
An exploratory is concerned with an area of subject matter in
which hypothesis have not got been formulated. The researcher‟s
task then is to review the available material with an eye on the
possibilities of developing a hypothesis from it. In some areas if the
subject matter, the hypothesis may have been stated by previous
research works. The researcher has to gather these various
hypothesis with a view to evaluate their usefulness for further
research and to consider whether they suggest new hypothesis.
Behavioural Possibility
It introduces the different study of behavioural possibility.
Knowledge of Facilities
By the help of knowledge of facilities source of important
knowledge can be found.
Control Factor
By the help of related factors controlled and un-controlled knowledge
can be found.
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Research in Social Science: Interdisciplinary Perspectives
Case Study
In a case study, the insight-stimulating cases should be
selected for special study. For particular problems, certain cases may
be found more appropriate than others. The observations of strangers
or foreigners may be very valuable, with reference to a certain
community or culture. In case study, the researcher himself has to be
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very alert.
Descriptive Research
It is also known as statistical research, this describes
phenomena as they exist. It is used to identify and obtain information
on characteristic of a particular issue like community, group or people.
In other words, we can say that this type of research describes social
events, social structure, social situations, etc. The observer observe
and describe what did he find? Descriptive research answers the
questions, what, who, where, how and when. It is used to study the
current situation. It is widely used in the physical and natural science.
But it is used more common in the social sciences, as in socio-
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economic survey and job and activity analysis.
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Research in Social Science: Interdisciplinary Perspectives
Descriptive research aim at portraying accurately the
characteristics of a particular group or situation, one may undertake a
descriptive study about the works in a factory, their age distribution,
their community-wise, distribution, their educational level, their state
of their physical health and so on also one may study the conditions
of work in a factory health, safety and welfare. One may undertake to
describe the organization of industrial establishment or if a trade
union congress. A descriptive study may be concerned with the
attitude or views (of a person) towards anything e.g., attitudes
presidential form of government, right to strike, capital punishment,
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prohibition, college autonomy etc.
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Research in Social Science: Interdisciplinary Perspectives
Limitation of Descriptive Research
The Research may make description an end itself research
is essentially creative and demand the discovery of the facts in order
to lead to a solution of the problem. Another limitation lies in going to
the other extreme, and generally is associated weather the statistical
technique dominates. This limitation arises because statistics, which
is partly a descriptive tool of analysis can aid, but not always explain
causal relation. Thus, the major goal of a descriptive research is to
describe events, phenomena and situation. Since the description is
made on the basis of scientific observation, it is expected to be more
accurate and precise than casual. Descriptive research cannot be
used to create a causal relationship, where one variable affects
another; in other words, description research can be said to have a
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low requirement for internal validity.
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Research in Social Science: Interdisciplinary Perspectives
The research purpose in this case is to gain familiarity in
unknown areas. Often explanatory research design is used to
formulate a problem for specific investigations, or aim at formulating
research Design thus, often when the universe of study is an
unidentified community, this design forms the first step of research,
after which other types of research designs can be used. The
hypothesis in an explanatory research that states the relationship
between two or more variable, i.e., not only it is hypothesized that A is
related to B but rather that A has some particular effect on B. In other
words, we can say an explanatory study thus focuses on determining
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the „why‟ aspect of correlationship. Example; we can say that the
study of voting behavior of people in parliamentary elections, held in
March 1998 and September 1999 respectively, were explanatory
student because these explained how people so voted because of,
programmers and policies of political parties, language or alignments,
caste, political ideology, committed image and honest of the
candidate, etc. The important variable between two periods was
Kargil was because of which there was a swing in votes in famous of
NDA, led by BJP this research was conducted into two situations at
the times, but it was focused on causal factors of more votes in favor
of the BJP due to Kargil war, Decision of congress into two groups
after Sharad Pawar‟s forming a separate political party, and alignment
30
of the BJP with more regional party. Thus, explanatory studies have
not confused with empiricism, with fact gathering, i.e., unrelated to
sociological theory. Explanatory research also, many kinds of designs
could be appropriate, e.g. two-cell, four-cell design, marching design.
The explanatory study always carries with it a set of concept that
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guide the researcher to look for the facts.
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Research in Social Science: Interdisciplinary Perspectives
be tested, and causal relationship may be found out. In short, here
„control‟ means holding once factor constant while others are free to
vary in the experiment. Independent variable are manipulated and its
effect upon dependent variable is measured, while other variables
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which may confound such a relationship are controlled.
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Research in Social Science: Interdisciplinary Perspectives
different kinds of data. In this, the researcher may secure direct
evidence of time relationship among variables. It involves repeated
observations on the same subject at different period of time. In after
sense it is a time-series study. In the panel technique, the variation in
the result may be attributed to a real change in phenomena. It is
continuous, through deep & reliable, it has also many limitations, e.g.,
loss of panel members, non-representativeness, rigid attitude of the
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members and so on.
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Research in Social Science: Interdisciplinary Perspectives
37
decision has to be carried out. Research design is the preparation of
a strategy of conducting research these are the important points to be
considered in formulating any research. All these steps are to be put
on paper to avoid ambiguity at a later stage. The work in research
design, thus starts after the selection of problem and ends before
collection of data. The gap between two should be bridged carefully
with a well planned research design.
Reference
1. Ahuja Ram, (2010), Research Method, New Delhi: Rawat
Publication
2. Ahuja Ram, (2010), Research Methodology, New Delhi: Rawat
Publication
3. Borwankar P.V., (1995), Research Methodology, New Delhi: Seth
Publisher
4. Claire Selltiz and others, (1962), Research Methods in Social
Sciences, New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston: Published for
the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues
5. Coldwel D. and Herbst F.J., (2004), Business Research, Cape
Town: Juta and Company Ltd
6. Crotty, M., (1998), The foundations of social Research: Meaning
and Perspective in the Research Process, London: Sage
Publication
7. Dawson Catherine, (2002), Practical Research Methods, New
Delhi: UBS Publisher‟s Distributors
8. Gupta Mukul and Gupta Deepa, (2011), Research Methodology,
New Delhi: PHI Learning Private Limited
9. Khanzode V.V., (1995), Research Methodology: Technique &
Trends, New Delhi: APH Publishing Corporation
10. Kothari C.R., (2010), Research Methodology: Methods and
Technique, New Delhi: New Age International Publishers
11. Kumar Ranjit, (2005), Research Methodology-A Step-by-Step
Guide for Beginners, (2nd.ed.), Singapore: Pearson Education.
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Research in Social Science: Interdisciplinary Perspectives
12. Manheim Hanry, (1977), Sociological Research: Philosophy and
Methods, Illinois: The Dorsey Press
13. McNabb David E., (2010), Case Research in Public
Management, New York: Routledge Publication
14. Michael Crotty, (1998), The Foundations of Social
Research: Meaning and Perspective in the Research Process,
New Delhi: SAGE Publications
15. Mustafa A., (2010), Research Methodology, Delhi: A.I.T.B.S
Publishers
16. Sam Daniel P. and Sam Aroma G., (2011), Research
Methodology, Delhi: Kalpaz Publication
17. Sharma Vimlesh, (2003), Residual Sighted Children, New Delhi:
Discovery Publishing House
18. Shrivastva T.N. and Rogo Shailaja,(1958), Business Research
Methodology, New Delhi: Tata McGraw Hill Private Limited
19. Singh Tejinde Jeet and Sahu Shantanu Kumar, (2015), Research
Methodology, Agra: SBPD Publication
20. Trivedi R.N. and Shukla D.P., (1998), Research Methodology,
Jaipur: College Book Depot
21. Trochim William, Donnelly James P. and Arora Kanika, (2015),
Research Methods: The essential Knowledge Base, United
Kingdom: CENGAGE Learning
22. Vaus David de., (2001), Research Design in Social Research,
New Delhi: Sage Publication
23. Zikmund William, (1988), Business Research Methods, Chicago:
The Dryden Press.
Foot Notes
1. Vaus David de., (2001), Research Design in Social Research,
New Delhi: Sage Publication, p.16
2. Claire Selltiz and others, (1962), Research Methods in Social
Sciences, New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston: Published for
the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues, p. 70,
Also See: Gupta Mukul and Gupta Deepa, (2011), Research
Methodology, New Delhi: PHI Learning Private Limited, p. 32
3. Ahuja Ram, (2010), Research Methodology, New Delhi: Rawat
Publication, p. 121
4. Manheim hanry, (1977), Sociological Research: Philosophy and
Methods, Illinois: The Dorsey Press, p. 140
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Research in Social Science: Interdisciplinary Perspectives
5. Zikmund William, (1988), Business Research Methods, Chicago:
The Dryden Press, p. 41
6. Kothari C.R., (2010), Research Methodology: Methods and
Technique, New Delhi: New Age International Publishers, p. 31
7. Sam Daniel P. and Sam Aroma G., (2011), Research
Methodology, Delhi: Kalpaz Publication, p. 91
8. Selltiz ,op.cit., p. 71
9. Kothari, (2010), p. 32
10. Ibid
11. Ahuja Ram, (2010), Research Method, New Delhi: Rawat
Publication, p. 125
12. Trochim William, Donnelly James P. and Arora Kanika, (2015),
Research Methods: The essential Knowledge Base, United
Kingdom: CENGAGE Learning, p. 219,220
13. Kothari, p. 32
14. ibid
15. Ibid
16. Coldwel D. and Herbst F.J., (2004), Business Research, Cape
Town:Juta and Company Ltd, p. 37, 38
17. ustafa A., (2010), Research Methodology, Delhi: A.I.T.B.S
Publishers, p. 86,87
18. Sellitz op.cit., p. 50
19. Mustafa, op.cit., p. 91
20. Borwankar P.V., (1995), Research Methodology, New Delhi: Seth
Publisher, p. 45
21. Michael Crotty, (1998), The Foundations of Social
Research: Meaning and Perspective in the Research Process,
New Delhi: SAGE Publications, p. 5
22. Sellitz op.cit., p.72, Also see, Singh Tejinde Jeet and Sahu
Shantanu Kumar, (2015), Research Methodology, Agra: SBPD
Publication, p. 9
23. Khanzode V.V., (1995), Research Methodology: Technique &
Trends, New Delhi: APH Publishing Corporation, p. 35
24. Ibid
25. Borwankar, op.cit., p.46
26. Crotty, M., (1998), The foundations of social Research: Meaning
and Perspective in the Research Process, London: Sage
Publication, p. 115
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Research in Social Science: Interdisciplinary Perspectives
27. Shrivastva T.N. and Rogo Shailaja,(1958), Business Research
Methodology, New Delhi: Tata McGraw Hill Private Limited, p.
1.19
28. Trivedi R.N. and Shukla D.P., (1998), Research Methodology,
Jaipur: College Book Depot, p. 54.
29. McNabb David E., (2010), Case Research in Public
Management, New York: Routledge Publication, p.29
30. Singh and Sahu, op.cit., p.40
31. Sellitz op.cit., p.73
32. Kothari, op.cit. p.39
33. Ibid, p. 40
34. Ibid, p. 41
35. Ibid, p. 42
36. ibid
37. Sharma Vimlesh, (2003), Residual Sighted Children, New Delhi:
Discovery Publishing House, p. 48
84