Week 4 (RQ, quantitative research) Flashcards
Quality criteria of quantitative research
replicability, validity, reliability
4 types of validity
Measurement validity (is the measurement OK?)
Internal validity (are the causality claims OK?)
External validity (are the generalization claims OK?)
Ecological validity (Are the results valid in real life?)
Reliability is
Stability and consistency of the measurement
Different types of measurement validity
Face validity: does the measure reflect the concept? self evident.
concurrent validity: does the new indication correlate highly with the other ones?
construct validity: correlation with other concepts (animal friendly, eating meat)
Quantitative preoccupations
measuring social phenomena
profiling causal explanations
generalizing to larger groups
enabling replication
criticism on quantative research
people are not natural things
measurements are artificial, precision false
low ecological validity
too objective and static
reasons for using ‘mixed methods’
answers different research (sub)questions
as ‘triangular’: check findings with other methods
to further interpret initial findings
using interviews to develop better survey
using survey to find interview respondents
Sources for a RQ
Theoretical puzzles
Gap in literature
New developments in society
test a theory on different social phenomenon
test a different theory on a social phenomenon
explore a social problem
personal interest
The introduction to research proposal must contain
research questions and subquestions
motivation on your topic of interest
brief overview of literature in which its embedded
brief overview of methods
Requirements RQ
clear and ambiguous
researchable
connection with theory and research
original (unless replication)
not too broad, not to narrow
sub-questions should be related
not subjective
end with an “?”
types of research questions
descriptive (characteristics, typology, correlations)
comperative (between cases/places/time periods)
causal
interpretive
three things in formulating research questions
many phenomena are gradual, not dichotomous. ‘To what extent’ rather than ‘is it’.
multi causality: ‘what are the causeS’.
comparative research often multi-dimensional. ‘What are differences and similarities between…’
