Lecture week 2 Research logic and Research design

Question 1

Types of research

Answer 1

normative or positive

Question 2

Types of positive research

Answer 2

theoretical or empirical

Question 3

Types of empirical research

Answer 3

descriptive
predictive
explanatory

Question 4

What is normative research

Answer 4

Questions that inquire ‘‘what ought to be?’’
* deals with ethics, values and value judgements
(aim= prescriptive)

Require the application of philosophy rather than of data.

Question 5

What is positive research?

Answer 5

• Questions that inquire ‘‘what is’’ (used to be, or will be?’)
• deals with empirical phenomena + theoretical concepts and the links between them
  aim is to avoid biased judgements.
• Capable of being researched through data collection.

Question 6

Theoretical research

Answer 6

Theory elaboration, conceptualizations.

• Analytical (truth statements are based on logical deductive reasoning)

Question 7

Empirical research (we focus on in this course)

Answer 7

Theory generating,
testing + application
conceptualization

Synthetic (truth statements result from a confrontation between theory + empirical content)

Question 8

types of empirical research

Answer 8

descriptive= what is going on
explanatory= why/how is it going on?

descriptive + explanatory research are NOT EXCLUSIONARY, they are often combined within one study at different stages.

Question 9

Descriptive

Answer 9

what is going on?
* collection of relevant facts that can be used as evidence in subsequent theory building or conceptualization.
* good descriptive research can lead to a ‘‘light bulb’’ moment.

Question 10

explanatory

Answer 10

Why or how is it going on?
* explanations can focus on causes of events, causal effects, or causal mechanisms.
- why questions= causal effects
- how questions= causal mechanisms.

Question 11

What is a research design?
according to Yin, 2014

Answer 11

a research design is a logical plan for getting from here to there, where ‘‘here’’ may be defined as initial set of questions to be answered, and there is some set of conclusions (answers) about these questions.

Question 12

What is research design? According to page 24: SSY12 (book !)

Answer 12

Research designs answer the question: How are you going to conduct the research that will address your research question?’’

Question 13

What is research design?