(1) Research designs - is the plan, structure, and strategy of the investigation.

Plan - over all scheme that you will follow in the conduct of research
Structure - more specific outline of how you are going to operationalize the variables
Strategy - is a description of the details such as methods to be employed in collecting and analyzing data

(2) Research Designs examples - Case Study, Experimental, Survey, Qualitative Research Design

(3) Survey - perhaps the most common RD employed in political science research. It is probably said to be
overused. But not to say it has lost is usefulness and appropriateness

By definition, survey research design is a strategy that enables you to study “naturally occurring phenomena”
and answer questions about the distribution of relationships among characteristics of people as they exist in
their natural setting.

It has the following characteristics:

A. It’s purpose is to produce statistics, that is, quantitative or numerical descriptions about some aspects of
the study population
B. The main way of collecting information is by asking people questions; their answers constitute the data to
be analyzed
C. Information is collected about only a fraction of the population called sample, rather than every member
of the population.

(4) CENSUS - information of general public

(5) Survey is common in polsci and uses: a) measurement of public opinion for newspaper and magazine
articiles; b) mmeasurement of political perceptions and opinions to help political candidates in the elections
and c) market research - understand consumer preferences and interests

Major Applications:

A. Unemployement rates
B. Literary rates
C. Peopls income and the way they spend their money
D. Statistics and behaviour of people suffering depression
E. Main source of data about criminal events

Components of Survey

Survey not a stand-all research design without the following method:

1. You need Sampling - sample, to select a small subset of a population representative of the whole
population.

2. Question Design - using questions as measures is another essential part of the survey process. You have to
write clear questions that you will administer and to generate good results. It would be impossible for any
research without a questionnaire.

3. Interviewing - although not all surveys involve interviewing, it certainly is common to use an interviewer
to ask questions and record answers.

4. Mode of Data Collection - are you going to do the surveying in person? Through telephone? Through
email? Through social media sites?
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Sampling Techniques

Normally the number of respondents would be large it is not possible to collect data from all of these
individuals. Hence it become necessary to collect data from a smaller group of individuals with the same
CHARACTERISTICS from which observations may be made.

If you are doing all the work yourself, its next to impossible to interview more than a few hundred people.
With 500 population, youd need several interviewers to rach all those people withinb a reasonable amount of
time.

The sample frame is the set of people that has a chance to be selected, given the samplimg approach that is
chosen. Statistically speaking, a sample can be representative of the population included in the sample
frame.

How do we determine the sample? How large should it be?

First determine the sample size of your population Sometimes they say that it should be 25% to 30%. Let’s
say you have a population of 500 then 25%, you have to select 125 sampling.

Remember: You don’t need a sample if the population is small and can be handled f you include all the
individuals
Another thing is that your sample size depends also of your desired level of significance or reliability: +- 1%,
+-2, 3, 4, 10 so on.

This will change on the number of your respondents.

If population is 500 and the needed sample size of reliability is 10% therefore you have 85 respondents only.
There is a TABLE OF SAMPLE SIZE already for quick reference.

Question now: Who are those 125? Are those 125 representative of the whole population. To do this, you
have two options:

A. Non - probability sampling - where every member of the population does not have a chance to be
selected as part of the sample

1. incidental/accidental sampling - you get the respondent whoever happens to be around during the
interview

2. Purposive sampling - you select your respondents based on your subjective judgment

B. Probability sampling - in this sampling technqiue, every member of the population (N) have a chance to
be chosen as part of the sample (n)

1. simple random sampling - selecting n out of N, randomly, through the use of lottery or draw lots.
To get a simple random sample of 200 out of 640 professors in a university, you number each individual
from 1 to 640 and then take a random grab of 200 out of the numbers from 1 to 640. When you have a list
of random numbers, then whoever goes with each one is the sample.

2. Systematic random sampling - this technique starts by numbering consecutively all individuals in the
population. Then you get the nth of the population through SRS.

Example: if the population is 5000 and the desired sample is 100,

5000/100 = 50.

Get the number 50 as the first sample and every 50th person in the list or 100, 150, 200 until there will be
100 respondents that are picked out.

3. Stratified Sampling - this is applicable when the population is not homogenous. Stratefied random
sampling ensures that key subpopulations are included in your sample. You divide a population into
subpopulations, based on key independent variables and then take a randon sample from each of those
subpopulations.

For instance.

- Divide first the population into their homogenous group called strata

Research that involves different type of works:

High School Students - strata -freshmen, sophomore, junior, senior

Farmers - coconut farmers, rice farmers, rootcrops
Men - aged 15 - 29, 30 - 44 and over 45 and Women 15 - 29, 30 -44 and over 45

- Each strata get your respondents through SRS

If you need 100 respondents, then each strata must have 25 respondents

4. Cluster sampling - a technique herein the population is grouped into clusters or small units composed of
population elements. (geographical sampling)

A cluster sampling is based on fact that people act out their lives in more or less natural groups, or clusters,
like geographic areas (regions, provinces) and institutions (like schools, churches, brotherhoods) By
smapling from those clusters, we narrow the sampling field from large, heterogenous chunks to small,
homogenous ones that are relatively easy to find.
It also lets you sample populations for which there are no convenient lists or frames. For example, there are
no lists of school children in the city, but children cluster in schools. There are lists of schools, so you can
take a sample of them, and then sample children within each school selected.

- Assign a cluster or grouping of your population. For instance if your respondents are teachers in Eastern
Samar. You cluster Eastern Samar into its geographical location.

Norther, Western, Southern, Eastern Sides

In - land, Coastal, Remote

5. Multi - stage sampling - this is used when there is no detailed or actual listing of individuals. Sampling is
done in stages.

For instance, you want to get the representatives sample of all farmers in the Philippines.

A. From 12 regions, randomly select, let’s see three Region

B. Then each of the 3 regions, randomly select, 5 municipalities
C. From each 5 municipalities, you randomly or use stratefied sampling, 5 barangays
D. From each of the barangays, randomly select 50 farmers.

Assignments:

1. Determine the population, respondents, sample size and sampling technique of your proposed research
topic. Use the following table.

Research Title Objectives Respondents Sample Size Sampling

Technique
(Description)
Used
(at ____
reliability)
2. Look for three researches (thesis or journal) and fill in the information as provided in the table above.