Research Design Part Two

8/8/2019 Research Design Part Two

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Research Design

(Part Two)

Sivakami M


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Unit of analysis The what orwhom being studied.

In social science research, the most

typical units of analysis are anindividual although there aretimes groups or organizationsbecome unit of analysis.

Units of analysis in a study areusually also the units of

observation.


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"Educated (12 or more years of

education) women had fewer mean

children ever born (mean CEB=2.15)than uneducated women (mean

CEB=4.71) in India. (NFHS-3).

What is the unit of analysis???

Example (1)


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Suppose your aim is to discover whether

students with good study habits received

better grades than students with poor

study habits in School of Health Systems

studies.

What is unit of analysis?

Example (2)


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Any type of individual may be unit of

analysis Students

Faculty members

Auto drivers

Single parents

Children

Women Men

These individuals are used to make

generalizations about the population

they belong to

Individuals


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The presentation yesterday

Diarrhea in Dharavi Slum

Farmers suicide

Who is the unit of analysis??

Example of Diarrhea study


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Interested in characteristics that belong toone group which is considered as one single

entity

Example: Criminals behaviors

To understand the members of a criminal gang tolearn about criminals

Who is the unit of analysis???

To understand all the criminal gangs in a city tolearn the differences

between big gangs and small gangs

Slum and non-slum gangs

Who is the unit of analysis

Groups


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To understand the dynamics of

household food consumption

Who is the unit of analaysis

To understand the intra household allocation

of food consumption

Who is the unit of analysis

Household consumption


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Formal social organisations

Study on corporations

Study on academic departments,

supermarkets, colleges

Organizations


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Any product of social beings or their

behaviour can also be unit of analysis

Books, poems, paintings, automobiles,

buildings, songs, pottery, jokes etc

Interested to how the gender issues aretaught in a class

Interested to know the paintings from

different countries towards working

population

Social Artifacts


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Ecological fallacy

Making errors while drawing conclusions

about individuals based solely on the

observation of groups

Reductionism Seeing and explaining complex phenomena in

terms of a single, narrow concept or sent of

concepts

Sociologist

Demographers

Economist

Faulty reasoning about unit of

analysis


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The time dimension


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Researchers have two options to deal

with the issue of time in the research

design

Cross sectional studies

Longitudinal studies

Two principal options


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Cross Sectional Study (1)

A study based on based on observationspresenting a single point in time.

Exploratory and descriptive studies are

often cross-sectional.

Retrospective information can be

collected.

Example: census, NFHS, RCH etc.


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Cross Sectional Study (2)

Explanatory cross-sectional studies have an

inherent problem.

Although their conclusions are based on observations

made at only one time, typically they aim at

understanding causal processes that occur over time.

Example: causal relationship between working

status and fertility based on NFHS-3.


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Longitudinal study

Longitudinal study is designed to permitobservations of the same phenomenon over

an extended period.

Longitudinal studies can be more difficult for

quantitative studies such as large-scale

surveys. Nevertheless, they are often the best

way to study change over time. There arethree types of longitudinal studies:

Trend studies

Cohort studies

Panel studies


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Trend Studies

A trend study is a type of longitudinal studyin which a given characteristic of some

population is monitored over time.

Example:

Indian census showed the increasing trend in literacy rate.

NFHS also shows the same picture, even though different samples

were interviewed at each point.

Examines change over period of time.


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Cohort Studies (1)

A study in which some specificsubpopulation, or cohort, is studied

over time, although data may be

collected from different members ineach set of observations.

Cohort is an age group, such aspeople born during the war, people

who got married in 1947, and so

forth.


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Cohort Studies (2)

Example: if you are interested to study the attitudes

of the cohort in the age group of 15-20

years in Iraq towards US .

2004 invasion of Iraq

A sample of people 15-20 years old might be

surveyed in 2006,

Another sample of those 25-30 years old in 2016,

And another sample of those 35-40 years old in

2026.


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Panel Studies

It is similar to trend and cohort studies but

panel study examines the same set of people

each time.

The data are collected from the same set ofpeople at several points in time.


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Study on parental work participation

and its effects on children

Many panel studies in developed countries

Understanding the impact of cancer

treatment

Example


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Modes of observation


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Experiments

Experiments are done often in natural sciences

Very often it is done in social sciences

An experiment is a mode of observation that enables

researchers to probe the causal relationships.


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The classical experiment

Three major pairs of components:

1. Independent and dependent variables

2. Pre testing and post testing

3. Experimental and control groups


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Independent and dependent variables

An experiment e

xamines the effect of anindependent variable on dependent variable.

Independent variable takes the form of an

experimental stimulus, which is eitherpresent or absent.

Example: (1) smoking and lung cancer.

Effect of IEC campaign (regarding small family

norm) on adoption of contraception.


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Pretesting and posttesting

Subjects are measured in terms of a dependent

variable (pretesting), exposed to a stimulus

representing an independent variable, and then

remeasured in terms of the dependent variable.

Any difference between first and last measurements

on the dependent variable are then attributed to the

independent variable.

Effect of IEC (regarding small family norm) on adoption of

contraception.


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Experimental and control groups

Experimental group to which a stimulus has been

administered ( IEC materials has been distributed).

Control which does not receive the experimental

stimulus (IEC materials has not been distributed).

For example, residents of village A received the IEC

materials (regarding advantages of small family

norm) and village B has not received.


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Preexperimental research designs

Preexperimental research designs, not torecommend to use because they don't meet the

scientific standards of experimental designs.

One shot case study : Researcher measures a

single group of subjects on a dependent variable

following the administration of some experimentalstimulus. Lacking of pretest.

One-group pretest-posttest design: Pretest for

experimental group but lacks a control group.

Static-group comparison: Based on experimentaland control groups but has no pretests.


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Quasi-experimental design

Quasi-experiments are distinguished from

true experiments primarily by the lack of

random assignment of subjects to an

experimental and a control group.


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Natural Experiments

For example, hurricane has struck a particular town.

Some residents of the town suffer severe financial

damages, and others escape relative lightly. What, we

might ask are the behavioral consequences of suffering a

natural disaster? Are those who suffer most more likely to take

precautions against future disasters than are those who

suffer least?

Then we can conduct the study. We might question them

regarding their precautions before the hurricane and theones they are currently taking, comparing the people who

suffered greatly from the hurricane with those who

suffered relatively little.


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Issues

For example, residents of village A received

the IEC materials (regarding advantages of

small family norm) and village B has not

received.

Can you tell some issues related to such

type of design.


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Validity Issues in Experimental Research

Internal validity: It refers to the possibility that

the conclusions drawn from experimental

results may not accurately reflect what has

gone on in the experiment itself.

The threat of internal invalidity is present

whenever anything other than the experimental

stimulus can affect the dependent variable.


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Sources of internal validity

1. History: (Historical events may occur that will confoundthe experimental results.)

2. Maturation: (People are continuing growing andchanging, and such changes can affect the results ofthe experiment.)

3. Testing: (Testing and retesting influences peoplesbehaviour, thereby confounding the experimentalresults.)

4. Instrumentation: (If we use different measures of thedependent variable in the pretest and posttest, saydifferent questionnaires.)

5. Statistical regression: Choosing wrong sample andwrong tests


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6. Selection bias

7. Experimental mortality (Drop out): It will create biases in

the experiment and control group.

10. Compensation: Control groups are often deprived of

something. For example, hospital staff might feel sorry for

control group patients and give them extra tender loving

care. In such a situation, the control group is no longer a

genuine control group.

11. Compensatory rivalry: Suppose an experimental math

program is the experimental stimulus; the control group

may work harder than before on their math in an attempt

to beat the special experimental subjects.

12. Demoralization: In educational experiments, demoralizedcontrol-group subjects may stop studying or get angry.


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Sources of external validity

External validity: Refers to the possibility that

conclusions drawn from experimental results maynot be generalizable to the real world.

For example, residents of village A received the IEC

materials (regarding advantages of small family norm) and

village B has not received.

If we distribute the IEC materials in the general population

then can we get expected results.

There should not be any interaction between the testing andthe stimulus.

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Research Design Part Two