1. Research Design - Unit 3
Dr. Jeanie M. Thorndike

2. Research Design
The research design is the master plan specifying the methods and procedures for collecting and analyzing the needed information (i.e., data).

3. Types of Research Design
Three traditional categories of research design:
Exploratory
Descriptive
Causal
The choice of the appropriate design depends largely on the objectives of the research and and how much is known about the problem and the objectives.

4. Basic Research Designs
Exploratory Research
Descriptive Research
Causal Research

5. Exploratory Research Objective and Design
Exploratory research is used in a number of settings:
To gain background information
To define terms
To clarify problems and hypotheses
To establish research priorities
To develop questions to be answered
A variety of methods are used to conduct exploratory research designs:
Experience surveys
Focus groups
Case analysis
Secondary data analysis

6. Descriptive Research Objective and Design
Is undertaken to answer questions of who, what, when, where,
and how, but not why
Two Classifications of descriptive research studies:
Cross-sectional studies
Measure units from a sample of the population at only
one point in time.
Samples are drawn is such a way as to be representative
of a specific population
Longitudinal studies
Repeatedly draw sample units over time

7. Causal Research Objective and Design
To determine causality
To test hypotheses
To make “if – then” statements
“If x, then y.”
To answer questions
Causal relationships are typically determined by the use of experiments