Research design
PART I
WHAT IS RESEARCH DESIGN?
1
THE CONTEXT OF DESIGN
Before examining types of research designs it is important to be clear about the role and purpose of research design. We need to understand what research design is and what it is not. We need to know where design ®ts into the whole research process from framing a question to
®nally analysing and reporting data. This is the purpose of this chapter.
Description and explanation
Social researchers ask two fundamental types of research questions:
1
2
What is going on (descriptive research)?
Why is it going on (explanatory research)?
Descriptive research
Although some people dismiss descriptive research as `mere description', good description is fundamental to the research enterprise and it has added immeasurably to our knowledge of the shape and nature of our society. Descriptive research encompasses much government sponsored research including the population census, the collection of a wide range of social indicators and economic information such as household expenditure patterns, time use studies, employment and crime statistics and the like.
Descriptions can be concrete or abstract. A relatively concrete description might describe the ethnic mix of a community, the changing age pro®le of a population or the gender mix of a workplace. Alternatively
2
WHAT IS RESEARCH DESIGN?
the description might ask more abstract questions such as `Is the level of social inequality increasing or declining?', `How secular is society?' or
`How much poverty is there in this community?'
Accurate descriptions of the level of unemployment or poverty have historically played a key role in social policy reforms (Marsh, 1982). By demonstrating the existence of social problems, competent description can challenge accepted assumptions about the way things are and can provoke action.
Good description provokes the `why' questions of explanatory research. If we detect greater social
WHAT IS RESEARCH DESIGN?
1
THE CONTEXT OF DESIGN
Before examining types of research designs it is important to be clear about the role and purpose of research design. We need to understand what research design is and what it is not. We need to know where design ®ts into the whole research process from framing a question to
®nally analysing and reporting data. This is the purpose of this chapter.
Description and explanation
Social researchers ask two fundamental types of research questions:
1
2
What is going on (descriptive research)?
Why is it going on (explanatory research)?
Descriptive research
Although some people dismiss descriptive research as `mere description', good description is fundamental to the research enterprise and it has added immeasurably to our knowledge of the shape and nature of our society. Descriptive research encompasses much government sponsored research including the population census, the collection of a wide range of social indicators and economic information such as household expenditure patterns, time use studies, employment and crime statistics and the like.
Descriptions can be concrete or abstract. A relatively concrete description might describe the ethnic mix of a community, the changing age pro®le of a population or the gender mix of a workplace. Alternatively
2
WHAT IS RESEARCH DESIGN?
the description might ask more abstract questions such as `Is the level of social inequality increasing or declining?', `How secular is society?' or
`How much poverty is there in this community?'
Accurate descriptions of the level of unemployment or poverty have historically played a key role in social policy reforms (Marsh, 1982). By demonstrating the existence of social problems, competent description can challenge accepted assumptions about the way things are and can provoke action.
Good description provokes the `why' questions of explanatory research. If we detect greater social