Social Research: Design, Objectives, and Approaches
Research Design
Coming to the planning of research to find out something scientific, you must design a strategy. For this, you must:
- Specify exactly what you want to find out.
- Decide how best to do it.
You have to make observations and interpret what has been observed. But before this, you must have a plan. You have to decide what is to be observed and analyzed: why and how. Herein is research design.
Research Objectives
Social research can have many goals, but three of the most common and useful are:
- Scanning: When the subject is little studied, when you want to become familiar with the matter, when there is a new interest. Studies are starting to see profound themes. They provide feasibility of a theme and new vertices of a research topic.
- Description: Researchers observe and describe what they observed. They describe situations and events with precision and detail, looking to make accurate reports.
- Explanation: The investigator has explanatory purposes. For example, can it be explained why young Chileans do not want to register on the electoral rolls?
Analysis Units
Who or what are you studying? Social scientists often use people as units of analysis. They are also considered units of observation. These are those units or things under review to create descriptions and/or explanations.
Customary Units of Analysis
- Individuals: People, students, residents, workers, voters, parents, boyfriends, etc.
- Groups: Gang members, family, friends club, etc.
- Organizations: Municipal corporations, institutions such as universities, public sector, etc.
It should be clear the unit of analysis to understand the research project. Always be identified.
The Dimension of Time in the Design of the Investigation
Investigations can be made more or less simultaneously, or over a long period of time.
- Cross-Sectional Studies: The census is a study that describes the population at a time.
- Longitudinal Studies: Studies designed to allow observations over a period of time.
- Cohort studies: look specifically at sub-populations as they change over time. A cohort is an age group or with a temporary feature.
Approaches to Research
- Quantitative Approach: A data collection and analysis sheet to answer research questions and test hypotheses. It relies on numerical measurement, counting, and using statistics to pinpoint patterns in a population.
- Qualitative Approach: Holistic approach, flexible, few or no numerical measurements, reconstructs the observed reality as actors. It seeks to understand reality and is interpretive.
Design Research
It refers to the plan or strategy designed to get the information you want: collection, immersion approach, etc. A well-conceived design ensures success, and the design approach depends on the researchers to use.
- Experimental Research: A quantitative approach. It is based on an experiment that considers the manipulation of variables and verifies its consequences. The experiment is controlled by the researcher. Statistics are used for analysis. The deductive paradigm is based. Hypothesis down.
- Nonexperimental research: It is done without manipulating variables. Observed phenomena as given in their natural context. You do not build any situation.
The Sample
What or who are the subjects, objects, events, or contexts of study? First, you define the unit of analysis: individuals, organizations, journalism, communications, events, etc. Delimited the population, which is the set of all cases that match a set of specifications.
Quantitative Displays
Sample is a subset of population.
Sample Types
- Probabilistic: One in which all elements have the possibility to be chosen.
- Non-random: One in which the choice of the elements does not depend on the probability.
How do you select a probability sample?
With a random procedure, for example, random numbers raffle.