WEEK 2- L4.2 research design overview Flashcards

1
Q

what’s a research design?

A

blueprint for;
1. **investigating the research question in a coherent and logical way **(type of research- normative, philosophical, empirical or more exploratory or confirmatory)
2. **including what kinds of data is needed **(for test, not confirmation)
3. how the data is collected (methods of data collection)
4. and what methods of analysis will be used (mode of analysis- logic to draw inferences)

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2
Q

why is the explaratory-confirmatory distinction problematic?

A
  1. exploratory research is less common and appreciated- can’t be just descriptive summary needs some theory development. confirmatory research draws on existing theories and applies and tests these- makes it the default choice
  2. the word confirmatory sounds like you will only look at supporting evidence
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3
Q

what’s research design- list:

A
  1. type of research
  2. evidence or data needed
  3. method of data collection
  4. mode of analysis (logic to draw inferences)
  5. how threats to internal and external validity and measurement reliability are minimized
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4
Q

research design types

A
  1. experimental designs
  2. cross sectional or longtidunial designs (observation)
  3. comparative designs
  4. historical designs
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5
Q

idea behind experimental designs…

A

isolate the explanatory or causal factor, and randomly assigned them to the unit of analysis (radomized intervention)

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6
Q

types of experimental designs

A
  1. laboratory ruling out any other influence factors)
  2. field done in the real world with a randomized intervention but less control over other factors
    3.** survey experiment** different order or phrase leading to difference
  3. natural experiments interventions or treatments can occur naturally- when two similar cities enact different policies- there’s no random assignment or intervention- researchers draw conclusions about the policies. results can’t be conclusively attributed to the intervention
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7
Q

what’s the problem with natural experiments?

A

results can’t be conclusively attributed to the intervention because there was no random assignment.
it fails the criteron of internal validity
=> it’s not an experiment

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8
Q

what’s crossectional?

A

comparison of units of analysis at the same time

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9
Q

what’s longtidunial?

A

implies a change over time

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10
Q

when are observational designs (cross-long) used?

A

in large n research
quanitative

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11
Q

panel and cohort designs add a…

A

time dimension to the design

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12
Q

what’s a panel?

A

same units are observed repeatedly

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13
Q

what’s a cohort?

A

doesn’t trace the same units, but repeats the same measurements/ observations over time with new samples.

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14
Q

what does a panel study allow?

A

tracing individual changes over time

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15
Q

comparative designs are used in…

A

single case studies => in depth process tracing
small n and large n case study

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16
Q

which logic do historical designs follow?

A

longtidunial

17
Q

which logic do comparative design follow?

A

cross sectional

18
Q

what are methods of data collection? 3

A
  1. questionaires/ surveys => standardized
  2. interviews and focus groups => open answers
  3. participant observation and ethnographic research => researchers observe behaviours of individuals
  4. textual/ content/ discourse analysis
19
Q

internal validity

A

The extent to which we are confident that a causal relationship really exists between two variables.

20
Q

external validity

A

The extent to which findings of your research can be generalized to other similar situations.

21
Q

reliability

A

The extent to which a measurement produces the same results on repeated trials.

22
Q

(…) is concerned with explaining variation between places or between people at a single point in time, rather than explaining
variation within places over time

A

cross sectional design

23
Q

cohort and panel studies differ in that

A

panel uses same participants
cohort uses different participants