CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH

METHODOLOGY
 Research Method/Design
 In this part, you have to choose the appropriate method or design
you are going to use.
Example: If the study is descriptive research, you have to choose one of
the types of descriptive research. Likewise, if the research is
experimental, you have to choose the right design.
 Once you have selected the most appropriate method/design, you
have to explain why you use such method/design in detail.
 The research methods you intended to develop or employ and their
justification must be clearly discussed.
 It is more than a description of the techniques or procedures and
should outline the key assumptions your approach made.
 It will foreshadow some of the “methodological issues” which you
anticipate will arise in developing your research problem.
 How you describe your methodology will depend on what kind of
approach you are taking:
 Notes: In describing the research method or design, you must
consider the following:
1. Analyze critically the to method data, utility of the method or
design.
2. Describe how the method/design will help you in the conduct of the
study
3. Highlight problems in developing a suitable method or design
4. Refer to an appropriate and accepted method or design.
5. If you plan a quantitative study, you will refer to method, data
collection and analysis.
 Types of Research Methods/Design
 When the research study has been formulated, the next step is to
construct the method or design.
 Consider, what approach to the problem will be taken?
 Design decisions depend on the purpose of the study, the nature of
the problem, and the alternatives appropriate for its investigation.
 Once the purpose have been specified, the study should have
explicit scope and direction, and attention can be focused on a
delimited target area.
The nature of the problem then plays the major role in determining
what approaches are suitable. Design alternatives can be organized
into functional categories based on differing problem characteristics:
 Causal-Comparative
This can be used to investigate possible cause and effect
relationships by observing some existing consequence and searching
back through the data for plausible causal factors. This is contrast to
the experimental research method which collects data under
controlled conditions in the present.
 Causal-comparative research is “ex post facto” in nature, which
means the data are collected after all the events of interest have
occurred.
 The investigator then takes one or more effects (dependent
variables) and examines the data by going back through time, seeking
out causes, relationships, and their meanings.
Examples:
1. To identify factors characterizing college students having either
excellent or below average grades in the major and minor subjects,
using the scholastic records and demographic profiles.
2. To determine the attributes of effective instructors as measured by
their performance evaluations and other data in their personal files
as well as other school related factors.
 Correlational
 This method is use to investigate the extent to which variations in
one factor correspond with variations in one or more other factors
based on correlation coefficients (a constant number that serves as a
measure of some property or characteristic.)
 This method is appropriate where variables are very complex and /
or do not lend themselves to the experimental method and
controlled manipulation; permits the measurement of several
variables and their interrelationships simultaneously and in a realistic
setting; and gets at the degrees of relationship.
 Among its limitations are the following: Identifies association not
causation; Less control over the independent variables; Can identify
false relational patterns and the relational patterns are often
arbitrary and ambiguous.
 Examples:
1. A study investigating the relationship between students learning
style and their academic performances
2. A study to predict success in graduate school based on
intercorrelation patterns of various variables in the undergraduate
school.
 Descriptive
 This method is to describe systematically the facts and
characteristics of a given population or area of interest, factually and
accurately. The characteristics of descriptive research are
accumulating a database to describe a situation, event or entity.
 The purpose of survey studies are to collect detailed factual
information that describes existing phenomena; to identify problems
or justify current conditions and practices; to make comparisons and
evaluations; and to determine what others are doing with similar
problems or situations and benefit from their experience in making
future plans and decisions.
 Examples:
1. A school survey to determine or assess the environmental
performance of elementary schools in the Division of Olongapo.
2. A study of the leadership and management style of business
managers in some fast food chains in Olongapo City.
3. Professor’s competencies in teaching business-related courses in
Columban College INC.
 Developmental
 This method is to investigate patterns and sequences of growth and
or change as function of time.
 The characteristics of the developmental study include the
following: Studies some entity’s development over time; Complicated
sampling in longitudinal studies (attrition biases; can’t improve
techniques without losing the continuity; and expensive)
 Cross-sectional studies are less expensive and faster, but to
generalize intrinsic developmental patterns from these sequential
samples of subjects runs the risk of confusing differences due to the
development with other differences between the groups that are
artifacts of the sampling process; and Trend studies are vulnerable to
unpredictable factors that modify or invalidate trends based on the
past.
 Examples:
1. Developmental studies directly measuring the characteristics and
rate of improvement in the oral and written communication skills
among college students based on the number of English subjects per
course in Columban College INC.
2. Trend studies designed to establish patterns of change in the
number of enrollees in the last five years in order to predict future
needs of faculty members in Columban College.
 Quasi-Experimental
 To approximate the conditions of the true experiment in a setting which does
not allow the control and or manipulation of all relevant variables. The
researcher must clearly understand what compromises exist in the internal and
external
 Population/Respondents
 The researcher has to explain how and where the
population/respondents are taken.
 Be specific in describing your subjects so that someone replicating your
study could collect comparable data on a sample drawn from the sample
population from which your subjects were obtained.
 Describe carefully the population from which your samples were
obtained.
Population – is whatever group you happen to be interested in. As a general
rule it will probably be people, but it may be a population of Narra Trees,
Mango Tress or population of Cows, population of teachers or students. It
refers to all the cases that the statistician wants his inference to apply to.
 If your study involves looking at every member of a given population, we
say that you have performed a census.
Otherwise, you will be studying just a certain sample of the
population: this will involve using certain sampling techniques.
 Use words like selected, representative, typical, certain, a random
sample of.
 Meaning you have to discuss precisely what you mean.
 Sampling Technique – is a method by which the researcher can
derive a sample from population.
 Statistics – is the science of collecting, organizing and analyzing data.
 Data – facts or pieces of information
 Two main division of Statistics
“The difference between descriptive and inferential statistics is based
precisely upon this distinction between samples and population.”
 Descriptive statistics is concerned with describing or summarizing a
sample or data. (Ex. Table, Graph, Chart, arrange data descending
ascending)
 If we Illustrate or Summarize ….the data we already have
 Inferential statistics is concerned with going beyond the sample to
make predictions about the population from which the sample is
drawn. Consists of using data you have measured to form conclusion.
(Ex. Compare groups, test hypothesis, make predictions)
 If we attempt to compare, test, or predict…about Whole group not
examined directly
Sampling Design
Quiz 2. Practical Research/Methodology
1. It is concerned with describing or summarizing a sample or data. (Ex.
Table, Graph, Chart, arrange data descending ascending)
2. It is a method that includes design, respondents, instruments,
validation of instruments, data gathering procedure and treatment of
data.
3. It is also called as “ex post facto” in nature, which means the data
are collected after all the events of interest have occurred.
4. It is a method to describe systematically the facts and characteristics
of a given population or area of interest, factually and accurately.
5. It is a method to investigate patterns and sequences of growth and
or change as function of time.
6. It is a method by which the researcher can derive a sample from
population.
7. It is facts or pieces of information
8. It is the science of collecting, organizing and analyzing data.
9.It is concerned with going beyond the sample to make predictions
about the population from which the sample is drawn.
10. It is a subset of the population
11. It is a list of all members of a population.
(12-15). Enumerate the 4 steps in describing the research design:
1. Descriptive statistics
2. Methodology
3. Causal-comparative research
4. Descriptive research
5. Developmental research
6. Sampling technique
7. Data
8. Statistics
9. Inferential Statistics
10. Sample
11. Sampling Frame
In describing the research method or design, you must consider the following:
1. Analyze critically the two method data,utility of the method or design.
2. Describe how the method/design will help you in the conduct of the study
3. Highlight problems in developing a suitable method or design
4. Refer to an appropriate and accepted method or design.