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Research Design
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Research design sits at the core of educational inquiry, shaping how questions are framed, how data is gathered, and how conclusions are drawn. Students encounter this topic in methodology courses, graduate seminars, and applied research practicums across education and the social sciences. Its academic interest lies in the foundational choices researchers must make before a single data point is collected — choices about paradigms, variables, populations, and the relationship between hypothesis and evidence. The tension between positivist and constructivist paradigms, for instance, runs through much of the field, raising genuine questions about objectivity, interpretation, and what counts as valid knowledge.

The papers archived on this topic take a wide range of approaches. Some focus on conceptual frameworks, examining how paradigm selection — positivist or constructivist — shapes the entire logic of a study. Others are more applied, proposing hypotheses and identifying dependent variables for specific investigations such as adolescent sexual behavior, assessment feedback, or videoconference-based technician training. Still others concentrate on discrete components of the research process, including literature reviews, data analysis strategies, and performance measurement indicators, treating each element as something worth examining on its own terms.

A strong essay on research design clearly justifies every methodological choice in relation to the central research question, showing how the selected design logically connects participants, variables, and data collection to a testable hypothesis. Evidence drawn from peer-reviewed methodology literature carries particular weight. The most common pitfall is treating design decisions as bureaucratic formalities rather than substantive arguments — every choice about population, measurement, or analysis should be explicitly reasoned, not simply listed.

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Paper Doctorate
Negative effects on healthcare access for undocumented immigrants
It is widely known that surgery is a specific cause of stress and anxiety among surgical patients. This stress begins when patients first learn that they require surgery and continues throughout pre and post-operative…
Paper Undergraduate
Cost assessment in sustainable waste management
Ghiban, a. & Moldovan, P. (2009). Structural characterization of some new glass ceramics from industrial wastes. DAAAM 20(1): 1539.
Research Paper Doctorate
Qualitative research approaches in Logan's study
Scott, Logan (Year). Using the writing of a virtual expert to scaffold the writing of students learning reading diagnosis. Journal Name, Vol., Page(s)
Paper Undergraduate
Application of research methods
¶ … Impression: New Media in the 2008 Presidential Nomination Campaigns," the authors Haynes and Pitts open by indicating the main premise of the article: that the phenomena known as the "new media" are making a…
Research Paper Doctorate
Information technology in research
¶ … presence of multiple views and voices that includes mainly lay voices and to examine its interactions. (Eysenbach; Till, 2001) From a variety of resources, Marie Hoepfl tries to explain the important characteristic…
Research Paper Doctorate
Career Plans in the Course
In the course of your review of letters of application for your program, I am sure you read many letters which have somewhat similar goals and career objectives. I have to admit I first felt a little strange about…
Paper Undergraduate
Article evaluation methods and frameworks
¶ … Wagner, J. & Rehfuss, M. (nd). Self-Injury, Sexual Self-Concept, and a Conservative Christian Upbringing: An Exploratory Study of Three Young Women's Perspectives.
Paper Undergraduate
Multivariate analysis of parametric data
For CASE5, you are to examine several articles and come to some conclusions regarding the appropriateness of using ANOVA vs. other GLM techniques. CASE5.1 - GLM (General Linear Model) Maddox, Lynda M (1999). The use of pharmaceutical Web sites for prescription drug information and product requests. Journal of Product and Brand Management, 8(6). 488-496. If the above link does not work, note that Maddox (1999) was available on 2012 January 30 in Emerald-Library via the Trident Univeristy / Touro College eLibrary. Lynda M Maddox (1999) asked her respondents a series of questions about why they visited a pharmaceutical Web site. These reasons included learning about a particular disease or drug, deciding which drug is right, getting a second opinion on a diagnosis, getting anonymous information from a medical expert, and being able to discuss a subject more knowledgeably with their doctor. Responses to the survey questions were rated on a five-point scale ranging from 1 (very unimportant) to 5 (very important). Respondents were next asked questions about their behavioral responses regarding how likely they were either to request more information about a drug from their doctor or to ask the physician to prescribe a particular medication. Responses to the survey questions were rated on a five-point scale ranging from 1 (very unlikely) to 5 (very likely). Age and gender were also recorded. In terms of the results: Maddox (1999) said that there were 132 usable questionnaires. These usable questionnaires were completed by subjects, respondents, or cases. So, there were 132 usable cases. So, in the lingo of research, several pieces of data were collected from and on each case. The primary reason for visiting the Web site was to learn about a particular medicine or drug, with 55 percent rating this reason as important or very important. This was followed by learning about a particular disease (48 percent important or very important), getting a second opinion on a medical diagnosis (43 percent important or very important), getting anonymous information from a medical expert (34 percent important or very important), deciding which medication or drug is right for them (34 percent important or very important), and, last, to be able to discuss knowledgeably with their doctor (25 percent). A total of 36 percent said they would be likely or very likely to request more information from their doctors. A further 32 percent said they would actually ask their doctor to prescribe a particular medication. In Maddox (1999), the means reported in Table I reflect these data. On average, females gave higher importance and higher likelihood ratings than males on all questions. A total of 70 percent of women versus 42 percent of men said they went to the Web site to learn more about a particular medicine or drug, and 45 percent of women and 24 percent of men went to decide which drug was right for them. A total of 69 percent of women and 32 percent of men wanted to learn more about a particular disease. Further, 57 percent of women and 32 percent of men wanted to get a second opinion on a medical diagnosis, and 43 and 24 percent respectively wanted anonymous information from a medical expert. A total of 45 percent of women and 30 percent of men were likely or very likely to request more information from their doctor on a particular product; while 37 percent of women and 27 percent of men were likely or very likely to ask their doctor to prescribe a particular medication. Results T-tests were used to analyze the data. All significance testing was at the 0.05 significance level (p < 0.05). Gender differences On average, females gave higher importance and higher likelihood ratings than males on all questions. In matched-sample t-tests conducted separately on each rating, women were significantly higher than males in every case. There were no significant interactions between gender and the reason that was rated, however, suggesting that the difference between men and women was statistically the same for all the reasons rated. Age differences As is shown in Table II in Maddox (1999), on average, respondents aged 50+ gave higher importance ratings than did the younger respondents. For three of the importance ratings (get a second opinion, decide which drug is right, and discuss subject knowledgeably with doctor), the means for respondents aged 50+ were significantly higher than the means for at least one of the younger age groups, according to t-tests Please answer the following questions: 5.1. What is Maddox's research design? 5.1a. Do you agree with the following statement? Maddox (1999) should have used a Repeated Meassure ANOVA to test for differences (based on AGE and GENDER) in the set of responses. In answering this and the following questions, remember that a quasi-experiment (eg demographics as independent variables) can be analyzed using the techniques of experimental design. So, even if the people were not assigned to groups, you can still analyze the differences between the groups as if the people were randomly assigned to those groups. Defend your answer. 5.1b. Do you agree with the following statement? Maddox (1999) should have used a Multipoe Factor MANOVA to test for differences (based on AGE and GENDER) in the set of responses. Defend your answer. 5.1c. Do you agree with the following statement? To show that the effect of AGE and GENDER on each of the dependent variables holding constant the effects of co-variates, Maddox (1999) should have used a Repeated Measure ANCOVA. Defend your answer. 5.1d. Do you agree with the following statement? To show that the effect of AGE and GENDER on each of the dependent variables holding constant the effects of co-variates, Maddox (1999) should have used a Multiple Factor ANCOVA (that is, Maddos (199) should have used a MANCOVA). Defend your answer. 5.1e. Do you agree with the following statement? Maddox (1999) should have examined the responses to each of her questions using Multiple Regression, using 0 and 1 for Gender and 1, 2, 3, and 4 for AGE, and should have computed partial correlations thereby holding the effects of one of the predictor variables constant while she examined the effect of the other predictor variable. Defend your answer. CASE5.2 - MANOVA (Multivariate Analysis of Variance) Bello, Daniel & Williamson, Nicholas (1985, Fall). The American Export Trading Company: Designing a New International Marketing Institution. Journal of Marketing, 49(4). 60-69. Available on 2011 January 19 in EBSCOhost via the Trident Univeristy / Touro College eLibrary . Daniel Bello & Nicholas Williamson (1985) use MANOVA and ANOVA to test four hypotheses. In hypothesis 1, Bello & Williamson (1985) state that: The importance of services provided by export intermediaries is influenced by the type of product exported, export role of the intermediary, and supplier's export sales volume. In hypothesis 2, Bello & Williamson (1985) state that: Type of product influences the importance of services provided by export intermediaries in the following manner: Transaction creating services are more important for differentiating products Physical fulfilling services are more important for undifferentiated products. Please do the following tasks: 5.2 Describe the research design. 5.2a. There are so many variables described in this article that it would be helpful to me, if you would tell me who (or what) are the cases.* Then, using the format for a codebook, list the variables (add as many rows as you need to add to the following table), and list value labels for each of those variables. - Case is a term that was coined by the writer's of BMP, a computer program that was the precursor to BMPD, SAS. SPSS, etc. It was chosen by those writers because BMP was originally written for BioMed research where, in the medical sense, a Cases are individuals. Today, at least in business lingo, a case can be an individual, a division of a company, a company, an industry, a state, a region, a country, or whatever the researcher deems appropriate. Variables Value Labels 1. 2. ... n. 1. 2. ... n. 5.2b1. Choose either 5.2b1 OR 5.2b2. 5.2b1a. Based on Hypothesis 1, write out a multiple regression equation using as your dependent variable importance of services provided and as your independent variables each of the factors influencing the importance of those services. 5.2b1b. Using the terminology of partial correlation/regression, explain how you could show the effect of each of the independent factors, holding constant the effect of the other factors. 5.2b1c. Explain why a partial correlation between each these factors and theimportance of services provided if you chose Hypothesis 1 or the (holding constant the other factors) is a better measure of the relationship than simple correlations between each factor and the importance of services provided. Or 5.2b2a. Based on Hypothesis 2, write out a regression equation using as your dependent variable importance of services provided and your independent variable type of services. Then write a multiple regression equation using as your dependent variable importance of services provided and as your independent variables type of products and type of service. Then explain how the information in these equations can be used to determine if type of product moderates of the relationship between type of service and importance of service provided. 5.2b2b. Using the terminology of partial correlation/regression, explain how you could show the effect of each of the independent factors, holding constant the effect of the other factors. 5.2b2c. Explain why a partial correlation between each these factors and the the importance of services provided if you chose Hypothesis 2 or the (holding constant the other factors) is a better measure of the relationship than simple correlations between each factor and the importance of services provided. Case5.3 - Multiple Regression Hise, Richard T; Gable, Myron; Kelly, J. Patrick; and McDonald, James B (1983, Summer). Factors Affecting the Performance of Individual Chain Store Units: An Empirical Analysis. Journal of Retailing, 59(2). 22-39. Available on 2011 January 19 in EBSCOhost via the Trident Univeristy / Touro College eLibrary. Hise, Gable, Kelly,,and McDonald (1983) tried to predict Retail Store Performance based on 18 Variables. Hise, Gable, Kelly,,and McDonald (1983) measured Performance in terms of Sales Volume Contribution Income, and Return on Assets For each of these measures of performance, Hise, Gable, Kelly,,and McDonald (1983) ran StepWise regressions. 5.3. What is the research design? 5.3a. What is a stepwise regression? 5.3b. As is shown in Table 2 in Hise, Gable, Kelly,,and McDonald (1983), explain why a predictor (for example, Hours Worked Per Week, in this case), which, on its own, is not a significant predictor (for example of Sales Volume, in this case), remains as a step in the Multiple Regression. 5.3c. What is multi-colinearity? 5.3d. Why is it important to estimate muli-colinearity among independent variables in a Multiple Regression? CASE5.4 - Multiple Regression Tharenou, Phyllis (2001, December). The relationship of training motivation to participation in training and development, Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology. 74 (5). 599-622. Available on 2011 January 19 in EBSCOhost via the Trident Univeristy / Touro College eLibrary. Tharenou (2001) assessed how training motivation, in terms of the expectation of gaining valued outcomes and motivation to learn, explains participation in training and development. Direct, mediator, and moderated explanations were tested. Survey data were gathered at Time 1 and a year later at Time 2, providing a longitudinal sample of 1705 Australians. Multiple regression analyses show that, the higher the training motivation, the more employees participated in training and development in the next 12 months, as they also did from higher supervisor support. Training motivation did not mediate the effects of the work environment on participation but moderated the prediction by employer support. Employer support predicted participation in training and development in the next 12 months more for employees with higher than lower training motivation. 5.4. What is the research design? 5.4a. Why did the author choose multiple regression analysis to show the relationship between a set of independent variables and a single dependent variable? 5.4b. Given the multiple regression analysis the author conducted, how can we interpret the significance of the various coefficients the author shows to be significant or not to be significant. EG - on page 612, the author's direct explanation of her findings is. As can be seen from Step 2 (Table 4; all p
Research Paper Doctorate
Quantitative vs. Qualitative Research a Comparative Analysis
A comparative analysis of quantitative and qualitative research designs
Paper Undergraduate
Data collection methods and applications
The user perspective of counseling was explored by the use of evaluation methods and post counseling interviews (Huntington, Lettenmaier, & Obeng-Quaidoo, 1990). In Ghana, there has been little research on the views of…