Devising and implementing a research strategy Flashcards
What is the first step to devising and implementing a research strategy?
Choosing a research topic
What affects the choice of a research topic?
The researchers observations, interests and experiences.
Whether funding is available
Whether the research is practical or not
Whether ethical issues are raised
What is known and what isn’t known about the topic
What is literature review(second step)?
Reviewing existing evidence. Finding out what is already known and looking at how the research was previously conducted.
What is a hypothesis (third step)?
A theory or explanation at the start of the research that the research is designed to test
What are the last two steps?
Deciding on a research method and implementing the research method
What problems are faced when deciding on a research topic?
Foreseen practical problems such as finding respondents. It may be difficult to get funding
What problems are faced when reviewing existing evidence?
It may be difficult to find existing evidence. The researcher may have to check many sources
What is a possible problem when forming a hypothesis?
Making difficult decisions about the overall approach, such as what kinds of data are needed.
What problems are faced when deciding on a research method?
The chosen method could give data that doesn’t prove or disprove the hypothesis. It may not fulfil the aim of the project
What three issues affect the implementation of a research strategy?
Practical, ethical, theoretical
What are the four ethical issues?
Harm, gaining informed consent, invasion of privacy, deception
How could it be difficult to make sure participants aren’t harmed?
It is not easy to decide what harm means or to know in advance that harm will be caused
How is informed consent gained?
Explaining the reasearch fully by outlining the purpose, where and when the findings will be available and what they might be used for.
What are the problems with gaining informed consent?
It is unclear how much information needs to be given .
It can be time consuming and unecessary to explain everything
What is anonymity
Making sure the name of the respondent, or anything else that could identify them, is not included in the survey form so that their identity is not revealed
What is confidentiality?
Making sure it is impossible to trace the answers of an individual from the published findings
What are practical issues
These are to do with time and money
What are theoretical issues?
The approach taken by the researcher. Positivists would prefer methods yielding quantitative data while interpretivists prefer qualitative data
What is a pilot study?
A small scale test of a part of the research project before the main research
What are the advantages of pilot studies?
You can check for errors in the design of the research or
You can check if the research plan can be improved.
Correcting errors before the main research saves money, effort and time later
What is sampling?
Selecting some people from the survey population and including them in the research
What is the survey population?
The people that the research is about. A sample is taken from them and the findings will apply to them
What is random sampling?
When everyone in the sampling frame has an equal chance of being selected
What is stratified sampling?
When the sampling frame is divided by age, gender , ethicity etc
What is quota sampling?
The researcher is sent out with instructions about who to choose. They look for specific characteristics
What is snowball sampling?
When one respondent gets the researcher in touch with other respondents
