1. Week 2 Fundamental Research Approaches
Research Methods
Week 2
Fundamental Research Approaches

2. 3 General Research Approaches
Portray the characteristics of a particular individual, situation or a group (descriptive research studies);
Determine the frequency with which something occurs or with which it is associated (diagnostic research studies);
Test a hypothesis of a causal relationship between variables (hypothesis-testing research studies).

3. Descriptive Research Studies
Such research typical includes:
What was done
Frequency of an action
Relationships
Example: A particular group of shoppers – what did they do when they entered the store? How long did they look at items? How did they interact with each other? With other non-group members?
Our purpose is likely to be to characterize this group in some way – “Millennial shoppers”

4. Diagnostic Research Studies
Research includes:
How often something occurred
What it might be associated with
Example: Last winter 14,000 more people got the flu in Oman. It was an exceptionally cool winter.

5. Hypothesis-testing Research
Our goal is to find causal relationships. To do so, we set up test conditions and control groups. Example – We wonder if sugary sodas are making students act out in class. So we give one third grade class fruit juices and another third grade class Coca cola. We then observe behaviors during the school day.

6. Qualitative and Quantitative research
Quantitative research is based on the measurement of quantity or amount. It is applicable to phenomena that can be counted or measured.
Qualitative research is concerned with quality or kind or an object. It is expressed in words, not numbers. Techniques include word association tests, sentence completion tests, story completion tests. Interpreting results can be hard. After 15 people complete a sentence completion test, we might count the use of common words, or group general comments in some categories.

7. Qualities of a good research question
Size – should be big enough to matter, but limited enough to be achievable.
Example: Why do students drop out of school?
This could refer to students from high school through university. It may refer to many places. Surely there are multiple causes. Will you study all of them?
Better: Is the lack of public transportation causing students in rural Oman to quit school?

8. Qualities of a good research question
Clarity – all the terms used should be careful defined Example: Why are some people more successful in life? Besides the size problem (there might be lots of reasons and different reasons in different places) we now have the problem defining “successful.” It is unlikely everyone would agree on what success is – money? Fame? Popularity? A good family? Better: Which college major leads to the highest lifetime earnings?

9. Qualities of a good research question
Resource availability – some questions are just too hard or too expensive to answer. Example: Do tourists like Oman enough to recommend the country to their friends? How would you gather the data? Visit Germany and ask people who have been to Oman? Better: Tourist visas show people stayed in Oman an average of 3.2 days this year. How does that compare to past years?

10. Practice Create 3 good research questions for each of these subjects:
The popularity of McDonalds
Traffic conditions in Oman
The best way to raise children
Ways to improve LuluHypermarket

11. Practice
Now pick one of your improved research questions. Explain how you would design a study using
Descriptive research methods
Diagnostic research methods
Hypothesis – testing research methods

12. Practice
Take your initial research topic. How would your research efforts be directed using each of the three standard research methods?
Descriptive research methods
Diagnostic research methods
Hypothesis – testing research methods