{"id":52,"date":"2013-11-27T19:36:58","date_gmt":"2013-11-27T19:36:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/evst399.coolsociology.net\/?page_id=52"},"modified":"2016-08-23T17:36:50","modified_gmt":"2016-08-23T17:36:50","slug":"design-tasks","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/evst399.mcguire-spickard.com\/?page_id=52","title":{"rendered":"6 Design Steps"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>People who design research have to make\u00a0<strong>six basic decisions<\/strong>. \u00a0 They need to:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Identify a <strong>research topic<\/strong>, then decide which part of that topic they will investigate, phrasing their choice as a <strong>research<\/strong> <strong>question<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>Choose a\u00a0<strong>logical structure<\/strong> for their research.\n<ul>\n<li>Much research, for example,\u00a0<em>describes\u00a0<\/em>some state of affairs.<\/li>\n<li>Other research\u00a0<em>correlates<\/em> the existence of one fact or thing with other facts or things.<\/li>\n<li>Still other research tries to identify the\u00a0<em>causal\u00a0<\/em>\u00a0relationships between two or more things.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Determine what\u00a0<strong>type of data<\/strong> they need in order to answer this research question.<\/li>\n<li>Identify a\u00a0<strong>data-gathering method<\/strong>\u00a0suitable for finding this particular type of data.\n<ul>\n<li>Interviews, for example, are good ways to get at people&#8217;s <em>opinions in depth<\/em>.\u00a0 Surveys are not; they only collect relatively <em>shallow views<\/em>.\u00a0 The two methods find different kinds of things.<\/li>\n<li>Similarly, we as people to <em>report their actions<\/em>, but if we want to know <em>what they really did<\/em>, we have to observe them.\u00a0 Each of these two data types requires a different method of gathering data, and thus a different research design.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Choose a <strong>research site<\/strong>\u00a0where they&#8217;ll find the data we need.<\/li>\n<li>Choose a <strong>method of data analysis<\/strong>\u00a0that is appropriate for the data they have collected.\n<ul>\n<li>You can&#8217;t analyze\u00a0<em>interview data<\/em> the same way you analyze <em>demographic data<\/em>.\n<ul>\n<li>The former are typically nuanced and complex; they call for <strong>qualitative<\/strong> data analysis.<\/li>\n<li>The latter, on the other hand, usually consist of numbers: of people, houses, animals, and so on.\u00a0 They call for <strong>quantitative<\/strong> analysis.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>The distinction between <em>qualitative<\/em> and <em>quantitative<\/em> research is really a distinction between two kinds of data analysis.\u00a0 It is\u00a0important to the design process, but it is certainly not central to it.\u00a0 Most textbooks forget this, so they organize things backwards.<\/p>\n<p>This course puts things in their proper order, as the following graphic shows:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/evst399.coolsociology.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/Revised-Graphic-v2-no-title.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-637\" src=\"http:\/\/evst399.coolsociology.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/Revised-Graphic-v2-no-title-1024x631.jpg\" alt=\"Revised Graphic, v2 no title\" width=\"604\" height=\"372\" srcset=\"https:\/\/evst399.mcguire-spickard.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/Revised-Graphic-v2-no-title-1024x631.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/evst399.mcguire-spickard.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/Revised-Graphic-v2-no-title-300x185.jpg 300w, https:\/\/evst399.mcguire-spickard.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/Revised-Graphic-v2-no-title.jpg 1231w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 604px) 100vw, 604px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>People who design research have to make\u00a0six basic decisions. \u00a0 They need to: Identify a research topic, then decide which part of that topic they will investigate, phrasing their choice as a research question. Choose a\u00a0logical structure for their research. Much research, for example,\u00a0describes\u00a0some state of affairs. Other research\u00a0correlates the existence of one fact or [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/evst399.mcguire-spickard.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/52"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/evst399.mcguire-spickard.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/evst399.mcguire-spickard.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/evst399.mcguire-spickard.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/evst399.mcguire-spickard.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=52"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/evst399.mcguire-spickard.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/52\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":921,"href":"https:\/\/evst399.mcguire-spickard.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/52\/revisions\/921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/evst399.mcguire-spickard.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=52"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}