1. Chapter 4
Research Design

2. Three Purposes of Research
Exploration
Description
Explanation

3. Purpose of Exploratory Studies
Satisfy researcher’s curiosity and desire for better understanding.
Test the feasibility of undertaking a more extensive study.
Develop methods to be employed in a subsequent study.

4. Purpose of Descriptive Studies
Observe and describe situations and events
Answer questions of what, where, when, and how
Examples: US Census, American Housing Survey, Unified Crime Reports

5. Purpose of Explanatory Studies
Answer questions of why?
Test hypotheses and theories.

6. Explaining a Political Phenomenon
Identifying causality
Not an easy thing to do
Multiple factors likely to influence an event or behavior
Approach my depend on approach
Idiographic
nomothetic

7. Criteria for Nomothetic Causality
A statistical correlation between the two variables.
The cause takes place before the effect.
There is no third variable that can explain away the observed correlation as spurious.

8. Remember
Research can determine some causes, but it cannot determine complete causation.
Exceptions do not disprove a causal relationship.
Causal relationships can be true even if they don’t apply in a majority of cases.

9. Necessary & Sufficient Causes
Necessary cause - a condition that must be present for the effect to follow.
Sufficient cause - condition that if present, guarantees the effect in question.
Causes that are both necessary and sufficient are the most satisfying outcome in research.
Note – this is language used in the sciences, it is hard to find a necessary or sufficient cause in political science

10. Units of Analysis What is a “Unit of Analysis”? What or whom to study:
Individuals
Groups
Organizations
Social artifacts

11. Units of Analysis and Faulty Reasoning
Ecological fallacy – assuming something learned about an ecological unit says something about the individuals in the unit.
Reductionism – Reducing something to a simple explanation when in reality it is complex.

12. Time Dimension Cross-Sectional Studies Longitudinal Studies Trend
Cohort
Panel

13. Example

14. How to Design a Research Project
Define the purpose of your project.
Specify exact meanings for the concepts you want to study.
Choose a research method.
Decide how to measure the results.

15. How to Design a Research Project
Decide whom or what to study.
Collect empirical data.*
Process the data.*
Analyze the data.*
Report your findings.*
* We will not be collecting or analyzing data for the research paper, only identifying data sources and measures.

16. Elements of a Research Proposal
Problem or objective
Literature review
Subjects for study
Measurement
How do you measure:
Corruption
Equality
Effectiveness

17. Elements of a Research Proposal
Data-collection methods
Analysis
Schedule
Budget
For you research project imagine you have a limited budget