ppt

1. Research
Methods

2. The Application of Research
The service
provider
• How many
people are using
the service or
product?
• Why do different
people use
different
services?
The administrator
manager
• What are the
training needs of
the staff?
• How can the
effectiveness of
the workers be
evaluated?
The consumer
• Am I getting
value for my
money?
• How good are
the service
providers?
The Professional
• What is the most
effective
relationship
between x and
y?
• How valid is the
particular theory
in this contet?

3. What is Research?
 Research is a structured inquiry that utilizes
acceptable scientific methodology to solve
problems and creates new knowledge that is
generally applicable (Grinnell, 1993)

4. What is Research?
 Scientific methods consist of systematic
observation, classification, and interpretation of
data. Now, obviously this process is one in which
nearly all people engage in the course of their
daily lives. The main difference between our day
to day generalizations and the conclusions usually
recognized as scientific method lies in the degree
of formality, rigorousness, verifiability and general
validity of the latter (Lundberg, 1942)

5. Characteristics of Research
1. Testability/Verifiability/non-circularity
2. Empirical: based on real life experiences
3. Combination of Deductive-Inductive
4. Systematic : logical sequence, not haphazard
5. Rigorous: maximum possible application of
scientific methods
6. Control: minimizing the effects of other variables
affecting the relationship among main variables

6. Types of Research
Application
Pure
research
Applied
research
Objectives
Descriptive
Research
Exploratory
Research
Correlational
Research
Explanatory
Research
Inquiry
mode
Quantitative
Qualitative

7. Pure Research
 Involves developing and testing theories and
hypotheses that are intellectually challenging
to the researcher but may or may not have
practical application at the present time or in
future. Thus such work often involves the
testing or hypotheses containing very abstract
and specialized concepts. (Kumar, 2005)

8. Pure Research
 Developing a sampling technique
 Developing a methodology to assess the
validity of procedure
 Finding best way to measure people’s
attitudes
 Usually helps in adding into existing body of
knowledge

9. Applied Research
 Research techniques and procedures (…)
that are applied to the collection of information
about various aspects of a situation, issue or
problem or phenomenon so that information
gathered can be used in other ways- such as
for policy making, administration and
enhancement of understanding of
phenomenon.

10. Descriptive Research
 Attempts to describe systematically a
situation, problem, phenomenon, service or
program
 E.g. attempt to describe services provided by
an organization
 Living conditions of village people in internal
Sindh
 How a child feels living in a house with
domestic violence

11. Correlational Research
 Discover or establish the existence of
relationship between 2 or more aspects of a
situation.
 E.g. impact of advertisement on sale
 Relationship between stress and heart attacks
 Relationship of technology with
unemployment

12. Explanatory Research
 Why and how there is a relationship between
two aspects
 Cause-Effect relation
 How home environment effects child’s
academic achievement.

13. Exploratory Research
 To explore an area about which little is known
or to investigate the possibilities of
undertaking a particular research studies.
 E.g. understanding the living conditions of sex
workers/ exploring beliefs of people going to
shrines etc…

14. Qualitative Research
 Unstructured approach
 Exploratory studies/descriptive studies
 More flexible methodology
 Usually information is gathered on nominal or
ordinal scales
 Small samples/ getting info till saturation
 Not highly objective
 Description of observed situation, historical
analyses etc
 Identifying themes/Content analysis

15. Quantitative Research
 Structured approach
 Usually to determine the extent of some well
established phenomenon
 More hypothesis testing involved
 More inferential statistics are used
 Large samples
 More objectivity
 How many people hold a particular
attitude?/relationship between anxiety and exam
performance?

16. Research Process
Methods of
data
analyses…
Statistical
expertise
SPSS,
NVivo,
AMOS etc.
7. Data
Analysis
6. Collecting
Data
Contents of
the Research
Proposal
Usually APA
style
5. Writing a
Research
Proposal
Sampling
Theory and
Sampling
types
4. Selecting a
Sample
Methods and
tools of data
collection
Validity and
Reliability of
tools
3. Instrument
for data
collection
Study
Designs
2. Research
design
Literature
Review
Hypotheses
and
variables
1. Research
Problem

17. 1. Formulating a Research Problem
 First and most important step
 Should be precise, specific and clear
 No ambiguity allowed
 Everything in the study follows from the
research statement
 Should thoroughly observe subject area
before formulating a problem

18. Literature Review
 Provides a theoretical background to study
 Helps in refining research methodology
 Can create a link between what has already done
and what needs to be done
 Enables to contextualize research findings
 Can integrate new findings with old findings
 Helps in saving time and energy for uselessly
repeating studies

19. How to do Literature Review?
 Search for existing literature
1. Books
2. Journals
3. E-Journal

21. How to do Literature Review?
 Review the selected literature
 Read critically and look for important themes and
theoretical framework
 Read criticism as well to get more comprehensive
picture
 Look for methodologies adopted in different studies,
research designs, instrumentation, sampling,
analyses etc.
 Look for significant differences of opinion
 Look for gaps in studies, areas where more work is
needed

22. How to do Literature Review?
 Develop a theoretical framework
 Use a Narrow Down Approach
 A problem may be understood by various theoretical
frames
 Highlight common and uncommon themes in order to
make a holistic picture
 You may be interested in one approach more than others
and want to work in that area further
 So focus on those aspects that look to you more
appropriate (make your own subjective framework)
 Differentiate between Universal and Local trends in
theories and studies

23. How to do Literature Review?
 Develop a Conceptual Framework
 Develop your own conceptual framework that includes
theories and works that suit you most and upon which you
want to base your work
 Use that framework in your study

24. Research Problem
 Sources of Research Problem (4 Ps)
1. People: (individuals or groups that are studied)
2. Problems: (examining certain issues, rate of
suicide, marital discord)
3. Programs: (evaluation of interventions, like
therapies, advertisements)
4. Phenomena: (may be pure phenomena like
relationship of intelligence with speed of
reading)

25. Considerations in selecting a research
problem
 Interest
 Magnitude (manageable)
 Measurement of concepts
 Level of expertise
 Relevance/ utility
 Availability of data
 Ethical Issues

26. Steps in formulation of Research
Problem
1. Identify a broad Field or area of interest (e.g.
mental illnesses, political instability, extremism,
terrorism etc.)
2. Narrow Down and Dissect broad area into
subareas
 Mental illness:
 types of illnesses,
 prevalence of some specific illness e.g. Depression,
 Profile of families in which depression occurs
 Who are most affected by depression
 Reasons for depression
 Types of depression
 Treatment of depression
 Previous work done on depression

27. Steps in formulation of Research
Problem
3. Select area Most interesting for you
4. Make research questions (write down what you really
want to find out in this specific area and why?)
5. Formulate your objectives (Affirmative statements
about what you are going to do in your research)
6. Assess your objectives

28. Variables
 An image, perception or concept that is
capable of measurement-hence capable of
taking on different values- is called a Variable
(Kumar, 2005)
 A variable is a property that takes on different
values. Putting it redundantly, a variable is
something that varies… a variable is a symbol
to which numeral or values are attached
(Kerlinger, 1986)

29. Difference between a concept and
variable
 Concepts are mental images or perceptions;
highly subjective, vary from individual to individual
(e.g. self-esteem, richness, achievement,
violence)
 Concepts are not measureable per se
 Variables can be subjected to measurement as
they are subjective/objective quantifiable units
(e.g. gender, income, weight, religion, age)

30. Difference between a concept and
variable
 In order to measure the Concepts, we have to
convert them into variables first
 This process is known as
“OPERATIONALIZATION”
 To give an operational definition of concept,
first we need to identify the defining
INDICATORS of that concept

31. Difference between a concept and
variable
 Some indicators are easy to establish, like
operationally defining Richness (we can take Annual
income and Assets as the operational definition)
 More abstract concepts are more difficult to define (e.g.
Self-esteem, intelligence).
 Intelligence consists of more underlying concepts like
speed of processing, comprehension, analytical ability
etc. that are claimed to be measured through some IQ
tests… So the IQ test becomes the Operational
definition of the concept Intelligence.

32. Types of Variables
 Independent Variables
 Supposed to bring out change/manpulateable
 Dependent variables
 Outcome of change due to IVs
 Extraneous Variables
 Several other factors in real life situations like noise, temperature etc.
that are not measured but might affect the results
 Confounding variables
 Attached with IVs, cannot be controlled and IV has a cumulative affect
(Mortality-Fertility relationship)
 Attribute Variables
 Cannot be changed or manipulated like age, gender, education etc.

33. Types of measurement for variables
 S S Stevens’s classification of levels of
measurement
1. Nominal/categorical scales
 Two or more subcategories
 For identification and classification
 E.g. gender, religions, political orientation etc.
2. Ordinal/ranking Scales
 Categorical in nature
 Categories are arranged in ranks
 Ranks are discrete not continuous
 E.g. class positions, high, average, low income groups

34. Types of measurement for variables
3. Interval Scale
 All characteristics of nominal and ordinal scale + unit of
measurement with arbitrary starting and ending point
 Relative scale that plots position of individuals in relation to
one another with respect to magnitude
 No equal intervals
 E.g. Celsius scale with arbitrary zero point
4. Ratio Scale
 All the properties of previous scales + plus an absolute fixed
zero point where some property is non existent
 Age, salary etc

35. Constructing Hypotheses
 A proposition that is stated in a testable form
and that predicts a particular relationship
between two (or more) variables. In other
words, if we think that a relationship exists,
we first state it as a hypothesis and then test
the hypothesis in the field. (Bailey, 1978)

36. Characteristics of Hypotheses
 Simple, specific, clear
 Testable, verifiable
 Parsimonious (emerge from existing body of
knowledge and relate to it)
 Operationalizable/measureable

37. Types of Hypotheses
 Null Hypothesis (Ho: no
difference/relationship exists among
variables)
 Research Hypothesis (main hypothesis)
 Hypothesis of difference
 Hypothesis of Point-prevalence
 Hypothesis of association

38. Research Design
 A traditional research design is a blueprint or
detailed plan for how a research study is to be
completed-operationalizing variables so the
can be measured, selecting a sample of
interest to study, collecting data to be used as
a basis for testing hypotheses, and analyzing
the results (Thyer, 1993)

39. Types of Research design
 Cross Sectional Study Design
 One shot studies, only one contact with study
population
 Studies conducted to find out prevalence of
some phenomenon, problem, issue etc. by
taking cross-section of a population
 Cheaper study
 Cannot measure change as only one contact
with population

40. Types of Research design
 Before-and-after study design
 Pretest-posttest studies
 Two times contact with population
 Good for assessing impact of some program, intervention
 Differences are compared
 Disadvantages can be
 Only total change can be measured (so difficult to assess
contribution of extraneous variables)
 Maturation effect
 Reactive effect (research instrument educates sometime)
 Regression effect (from initial extreme position to tending toward
mean)

41. Types of Research design
 Longitudinal Research Design
 Contact with population a number of times
 To assess reduction of disease like polio with
passage of time
 To assess the effectiveness of some therapy for drug
addicts
 Assessing performance of students during particular
session
 Disadvantages can be
 Same as in before-and-after study design
 Conditioning effect (respondent might become aware of the
process and give casual responses)
 mortality

42. Types of Research design
 Replicated Cross-Sectional Design
 Cross sectional study substituting Longitudinal
study
 Choosing clients who are at different phases of a
program
 Choosing students from the same institute who
are studying with different durations, 1st year, 2nd
year, 3rd year etc.

43. Types of Research design
 Experimental designs
1. After-only design
2. Before-and-after design
3. Control-group design
4. Double-control design
5. Comparative design
6. Matched control design
7. Placebo design

44. Types of Research design
 Experimental designs
1. After-only design (post-test only design)
1. Intervention is introduced and its effect measured
2. Baseline is usually created by past records or
subjects’ recall of the situation before the intervention
 Disadvantage: No actual baseline to compare

45. Types of Research design
 Control-group design
 2 population groups are selected (experimental
and control groups)
 Control group is introduced for comparison
 The groups are comparable in every respect
except the intervention which is introduced to
Experimental group only
 Before and after measurements are conducted for
both groups
 Effect of extraneous variables is quantified

46. Types of Research design
 Double-Control design
 2 control groups are used to check the effects of
maturation, regression or reactive effect
 Researcher excludes one of the control groups
from the ‘before’ observation.
Exp1-exp2 (mixed difference)
Con1-con2 (difference without treatment effect)
Only one Con (no reactive effect)

47. Types of Research design
 Comparative Design
 To compare effectiveness of different treatment
modalities
 Study population is divided into same number of
subgroups as the number of treatments need to be
tested
 Before and after measurements are done while
introducing treatments to subgroups
 Degree of change in the DV in different populations is
compared to establish the relative effectiveness of
various interventions

48. Types of Research design
 Matched-Control Experimental design
 Comparative groups are formed on matched
characteristics e.g. socioeconomic status, age,
disease (diabetic) etc.
 To reduce individual differences
 Disadvantages can be
 On more than one variables matching becomes
difficult
 On abstract concepts (self-esteem, EQ, etc matching
is very difficult)

49. Types of Research design
 Placebo Design
 Patients’ beliefs sometimes effect the treatment
they are receiving
 This design contains experimental, control and
placebo groups (who receive a fake treatment)
 The groups are compared

50. Types of Research design
 Cohort studies
 These are based on the existence of a common
characteristic such as year of birth, graduation or
marriage, within a subgroup of a population.
 E.g. finding marital satisfaction among couples
who married in 1990s

51. Types of Research design
 Case Studies
 An approach to studying a social phenomenon
through a thorough analysis of an individual
case.
 The case may be an individual, group, episode,
process, organization, community, society or
any other unit of social life

52. Types of Research design
 Retrospective Study Design
 These studies investigate a phenomenon,
situation, problem or issue that has happened in
the past
 E.g. relationship between levels of unemployment
(past event) and street crime
 Effect of early childhood experiences on certain
mental disorders

53. Methods of Data Collection
Methods of data
collection
Secondary Sources
Documents
Govt. documents
Earlier research
Personal records
Client histories
Primary Sources
Observation
Participant/non
participant
Interview
Structured/Unstructur
ed
Questionnaires
Mailed/Collective

54. Methods of Data Collection
 Observation
 A purposeful, systematic and selective way of
watching and listening to an interaction or
phenomenon as it takes place
 E.g. interaction of a group, dietary patterns of a
population, studying behavior or personality traits
of individuals
 More appropriate when information can’t be
accessed by questioning

55. Methods of Data Collection
 Types of Observation
 Participant: when researcher participates in the
activities of the group being observed, with or
without the knowledge of the group the group that he
is being observed (e.g. attitude of people toward
people on wheelchairs)
 Non-Participant: Researcher does not get involved
in the activities of the group and remains a passive
observer, e.g. observation of students in class rooms
with cameras

56. Methods of Data Collection
 Disadvantages
 Hawthorne Effect: If people get to know that they
are being observed they may change their behavior
 Observer Bias
 Difference in interpretation among observers
 Possibility of incomplete observation
 Error of Central Tendency: (Less experienced
observers may record findings toward the mean as a
precaution)
 Halo effect: Judgment in one area may generalize
into other areas as well

57. Methods of Data Collection
Interview
Semi-Structured:
Flexible structure
Flexible contents
Flexibility in
questions (mostly
open ended)
Semi-Structured:
Relatively flexible
but structured
Structured:
Rigid Interview
structure
Rigid Contents
Rigid format of
questions (close
ended)

58. Methods of Data Collection
 Unstructured Interviews
 In-depth Interviews: repeated face to face encounters
between the researcher and informants directed
towards understanding informants’ perspectives on
their lives, experiences, or situations as expressed in
their own words (Taylor & Bogdan, 1984)
 E.g. client-therapist relationship
 Focus Group Interviews: same as in-depth
interviews but taken with a group instead of individuals.
 To explore the perceptions, feelings of those people who
have some common experiences, e.g domestic violence,
refugees etc.

59. Methods of Data Collection
 Unstructured Interviews
 Narratives: No predetermined content, researcher
seeks to hear personal experiences of a person with an
incident or happening in his/her life, researcher is
passive and uses techniques of ‘active listening’ saying
words like ‘hmm, huh, ok’
 Good for exploring sensitive personal issues like child
sexual abuse, domestic violence
 Oral Histories: for learning about past events, to gain
cultural or historical understanding
 E.g. to understand political conditions of Pakistan during
1970s, people who were young at 1970 could report their
perceptions.

60. Methods of Data Collection
 Advantages of Interview
 Appropriate for complex situations
 Useful for in-depth information
 Information is supplemented by non-verbal cues
 Questions can be explained
 Disadvantages
 Time consuming, expensive
 Depends on nature of interaction
 Expertise and experienced required
 Subjectivity, different interpretations by different
interviewers
 Researcher/interviewer bias

61. Methods of Data Collection
 Questionnaire
 A questionnaire is a written list of questions, the
answers to which are recorded by respondents.
 Ways of Administering
 Mailed questionnaires
 Collective Administration
 Administering in a public place
 Questionnaires can be open ended or closed ended

62. Methods of Data Collection
 Advantages in questionnaires:
 Less expensive
 Offers greater anonymity
 Can be administered on large samples
 Disadvantages
 Application is limited (only literate)
 Response rate is low (esp. mailed quest..)
 Self-selecting bias (more motivated individuals return questionnaires)
 Opportunity to clarify issues is lacking
 Spontaneous responses are not allowed usually
 Consultation with others is possible
 Response to one question may be influenced by another question

63. Establishing Reliability and Validity of
Research Instrument
 Validity of Research instrument
 The degree to which the researcher has
measured what he has set out to measure (Smith,
1991)
 Are we measuring what we think we are
measuring? (Kerlinger, 1973)

64. Establishing Reliability and Validity of
Research Instrument
 There are generally 2 ways of establishing validity
of a research instrument, Rational and empirical
(theory based tests and empirical tests)
 Types of Validity
1. Face and content validity
2. Criterion validity (Concurrent and predictive)
3. Construct validity (Convergent and Divergent)

65. Establishing Reliability and Validity of
Research Instrument
 Face and content validity
 Face Validity: The judgment that there is a logical
link between contents of the test and what it is
supposed to measure
 Content Validity: Items and questions (i.e. test
content) should cover the full range of issue or
attitude being measured
 Content is usually assessed by panel of experts

66. Establishing Reliability and Validity of
Research Instrument
 Criterion validity
 Predictive Validity: the degree to which an
instrument can forecast an outcome (SAT test,
Mechanical Aptitude test etc)
 Concurrent Validity: How well an instrument
compares with a second assessment concurrently
done (two assessments matched, mechanical
aptitude test comparison with mechanical tasks)

67. Establishing Reliability and Validity of
Research Instrument
 Construct validity
 Determined by ascertaining the contribution of
each construct to the total variance observed in
a phenomenon (e.g. Factor Analysis)
 Convergent Validity: Similar constructs should
converge or correlate positively
 Divergent Validity: Dissimilar constructs
should diverge or correlate negatively

68. Establishing Reliability and Validity of
Research Instrument
 Reliability of research instrument
 Degree of accuracy and precision in the
measurements made by a research instrument
 Types of reliability
 Test/retest
 Parallel forms
 Internal consistency (Split-half, Chronbach alpha,
inter-item and item-total correlation)

69. Concept of Sampling
 Sampling is a process of selecting a few (a
sample) from a bigger group (the sampling
population) to become the basis for estimating
or predicting the prevalence of an unknown
piece of information, situation or outcome
regarding the bigger group

70. Concept of Sampling
 Population: The group of individuals from whom you select a
small group for your study (N)
 Sample: the small group of individuals from whom you collected
required information to estimate trends in population (n)
 Sampling design/strategy: the way you select individuals
 Sampling element/unit: each individual in the sample
 Sampling Frame: a list identifying each element in the
population
 Sample statistic: findings based on the information obtained
from the sample
 Population Parameters: the estimates arrived at from the
sample statistics

71. Types of Sampling
 Sampling in Qualitative research
 No predefined rigid rules
 We are more interested in exploring phenomena
and don’t go for inferences
 Even one individual can be a sample
 Saturation Point: in order to explore diversity,
you go on interviewing as long as you keep
getting new information(until you reach a
saturation point)

72. Types of Sampling
 Probability Sampling: (each individual has
an equal chance to be included or excluded
from the sample)
 Non-Probability Sampling: (Individuals don’t
have an equal opportunity to be included or
excluded in the sample)
 Mixed Sampling

73. Probability Sampling
 Simple Random Sampling
 Each individual has an equal chance…
 Lottery method, computer programs, random number
tables
 Stratified Random Sampling
 For heterogeneous populations
 Different homogenous strata are made
 Simple random sampling is used within each strata
 E.g. Study on Physicians (defining strata on the basis of
specialization such as psychiatrists, cardiologists,
nephrologists etc.)

74. Probability Sampling
 Cluster Sampling
 Less detailed than stratified sampling
 For large populations
 Clusters are formed on some common characteristics
such as geographical proximity
 E.g. three clusters of University, College and Madrassah
 One-Stage/two-stage/Multi-Stage

75. Non-Probability Sampling
 Convenience Sampling
 Ease of access to sample population
 Selected from the location convenient to the researcher
 The process continues until the researcher has been
able to contact the required number of
respondents(quota)
 Accidental sampling
 Accidental sampling makes no attempt to include people
possessing an obvious characteristic
 Such as in marketing research

76. Non-Probability Sampling
 Judgmental or Purposive Sampling
 Judgment of the researcher as to who can provide
the best information to achieve the objectives of the
study
 To create a historical reality, to understand a rare
phenomenon
 Snowball Sampling
 Selecting a sample using networks
 Used when little is known about the target population
 Like prostitutes, gamblers etc

77. Mixed Sampling
 Systematic Random Sampling
 Sampling frame is first divided into a number of
segments called intervals. Then from first interval
using the SRS technique, one element is selected.
 Selection of other elements is totally dependent
on the selection of first element

78. Thanks for Patience

79. Reference
 Kumar, R. (2005). Research Methodology: A
step by step guide for beginners. Australia,
Pearson Education