Research Design
Seema Dhami
What is Research Design?
• It is overall frame work.
• Plan for the activities to be undertaken during the research.
• Guiding , collecting and analyzing of data.
• Organized approach for the research.
• It includes an outline of what the investigator will do from writing
the hypotheses and their operational implication to the final analysis
of data.
• It ask what methods will be used.
• It ask what strategies will be most effective.
Cont…
• Design is a plan of whole work. Design guides the all of project
tasks.
• Design answers ‘wh’ questions
What, when, where, why, who, how, which, how many,
• What do you want to do in your study?
• To design is to plan , that is the process of making decision before
the situation arises in which the design has to be carried out.
Designing is thus a process of deliberate anticipation directed
towards bringing an expected situation under control.
• What is the study about?
• Why is the study being made?
• Where will the study be carried out?
• What type of data is required?
• Where can the required data are found?
• What periods of time will the study include?
• What will be the sample design?
• What techniques of data collection will be used?
• How will the data be analyzed?
• In what style will the report be prepared?
• Research design is a plan or formation of a research.
• To conduct a research in timeframe, within certain budget, with the help of
certain human resources, with the help of certain infrastructure and to give
reliable and valid information and result there should be proper formulation of
research design.
• Research design is formulated and selected as per the nature of study subject and
the interest of researcher. Sometimes research design is guided by the interest of
researcher and resources available. If due consideration is not given to the fact,
the whole research goes wrong or it may give poor and unreliable information or
result.
Definition of Research Design
• According to Pauline [Link] “A R.D is a plan of action , a plan for
collecting and analyzing the data in an economic, efficient and
relevant manner.
• According to Kerlinger R.D is the plan , structure , and strategy of
investigation conceived so as to obtain answers to research questions
and to control variance. The plan is the overall scheme or program of
the research.
• According to Miller R.D is the planned sequence of the entire
process involved in conducting a research study.
• According to Nachmias and Nachmias the program that guides the
investigator in the process of collecting , analyzing and interpreting
observation.
Cont…
According to Selltiz and others R.D is a catalogue of the various
phases and facts relating to the formulation of a research effort. It is
an arrangement of the essential conditions for collection and analyzes
of data in a form that aims to combine relevance to research purpose
with economy in the procedure.
What is planning?
• What the study is?
• Why is the study made?
• What is its scope?
• What are the objectives?
• What are the proposition to be tested?
Cont..
• What are the major concept to be defined?
• On the basis of what place the study will be conducted?
• What is reference period of study?
• What kinds of data are needed?
• What is the type of research design?
• What are the sources of data?
• What is the type of report to be prepared?
• What is the budget and significant of the study?
What is Design?
• Nature of study.
• Objective of the study.
• Socio-cultural context of the study.
• Geographical area to be covered by study.
• Period of time.
• Dimension of the study.
• Sampling process.
• The bases for selecting the data
• Techniques of the study.
Purpose of R.D
Basically Research Design has four purpose
[Link] answer the research question or test research hypotheses
2. To control irrelevant independent variables
3. Generalization of Findings
4. To minimize the error variance.
Feature of R.D
• It should be economical and practical to be put into practice.
• There should be least scope for subjectivity.
• It should be easily understandable and free from unnecessary difficult research
jargons.
• It should have considerable flexibility to suit changed needs and circumstance.
• It should ensure maximum reliability of collected data.
• It should give the smallest experimental error.
• It should provide an opportunity for considering different aspect of the problem.
• It should have close and clear links with the purpose, objectives and nature of
research under study.
Elements of R.D
• The subject for the investigation.
• Methodology
• Data gathering
• Data analysis
• Report writing
TYPES OF RESEARCH DESIGN
• A single research design cannot give the answer of all types research problem.
Research design is selected as per the nature and subject of study. The
purpose or objective or research, timeframe, budget, human resource and
other resources also contribute for selecting research design.
• First ask ‘wh’ to yourself
• Once your question is answered, you can choose the best the type of research
design
Cont...
• Historical ,Experimental and inferential Design. (American
Marketing Association )
• Descriptive, Exploratory and causal Design (Selltiz, Jahada,
Deutsch &Cook)
• Experimental and ex-post facto (Kerlinger)
• Historical Method, cause and clinical studies. (Goode& Scates)
• (i) controlled experiment (ii) study (iii) survey (iv) investigation
and (v) action research(McGrath)
• (1) historical (2) descriptive (3) developmental (4) correlational (5)
Case or Field Study (6) Causal-comparative (7) True Experimental
(8) Quasi-experimental and (9) Action (Wolff and Pant have
followed Isaac’s)
Cont…
• Sampling , survey, field studies . Experiments in the field setting , and
laboratory experiments. (Festizer & Katz)
• Exploratory ,Descriptive and Experimental studies. (Body &Westfall)
• Exploratory ,Descriptive and causal (Green &Tull)
• Experimental, Quasi- Experimental Design (Nachmias & Nachmias)
• True Experimental, Quasi- Experimental and non- Experimental Design
(Smith)
• Experimental, Pre- Experimental , Quasi- Experimental and Survey Research
Design (Kidder Judd)
• Exploratory, Descriptive, causal , Experimental (Coper)
• Descriptive, Comparative, Interventional and qualitative (Schindler)
Cont...
• (1) research design in case of exploratory research studies; (2)
research design in case of descriptive and diagnostic research
studies, and (3) research design in case of hypothesis-testing
research studies (C. R. Kothari )
• (1) exploratory or formulative studies (2)descriptive studies
• (3) experimental studies (Dr. S.R. Myneni)
Broadly R.D can be studied as follow
• Descriptive
• Experimental
• Exploratory
• Comparative
• Qualitative
• Quantitative
Exploratory or Formulative Research Design
In this research design, researcher formulates a hypothesis of
the research problem and tries to find out the cause of the
problem. This type of research design is formulated to study
the reason or cause.
For example: If the government is intended to find out the
reason or cause of population growth, it is necessary to design
the research in exploratory design. After finding out the cause
of population growth the researcher suggests as per the
findings.
Descriptive Research Design
• This type of research design is formulated when the purpose
of any research study is to describe the characters of a
particular event or unit.
• This type of research design does not intend to find out cause
or effect. It only describes what had happened, what is
happening or what has happened. It either describes of past
event or present.
• In this design hypothesis is not formulated because the
research is not focused on finding out the cause.
• Information of events, opinions, behaviour, or characteristics
of a given population is gathered, assessed and presented
• For example: If one is interested to study on ‘How Newars
of Bhaktapur celebrate Bisket Jatra?’ s/he has to design
her/his research design in this design. It is because the nature
of the study is to describe the patterns or the way of
celebrating Bisket Jatra. It neither tries to find out the impact
of festival to Newars nor the reason for celebrating the
festival.
Experimental Research Design
• Experimental research design is formulated when the nature
of the study requires investigation into cause and effect
relationships between variables. This type of design is
formulated when some results are expected from the
experiments and comparative analysis with control group or
groups.
• Experimental research design is result oriented. It is the
most appropriate design for action research.
In experimental research design, one unit or event is studied
comparatively with another control group. It is not always that
there should be control group in experimental research design.
Basically, events, episodes or research problems are
experimented as per hypotheses formulated, applying any
research method. In this design the relation between
independent and dependent variables, experiment and control
groups are taken into account.
For example:
If anyone is interested to find out or know about the impact
of literacy on fertility, it is better to formulate an
experimental research design. If the research problem is
‘what is the impact of literacy on fertility?,’ the researcher
needs an experimental group and a control group to find
out the reliable information. The experimental group is
given literacy training, education on family planning,
reproductive health and other education and control group
is not given such education. After pre determined period,
the impact of education is compared with the control group
which was not given the education.
SELECTING RESEARCH DESIGN
• Every research design has separate purpose.
• Formulating any research design is based on the purpose and
nature of research.
• Uniformity is seen among most of the researchers and writers
about the criteria for selecting research design for any kind of
research.
THINGS TO BE CONSIDERED WHILE SELECTING R D
• Whether the research is the nature of pure experimental,
semi-experimental, exploratory or descriptive.
• Why is this study being made? whether the study is intended
to explore any new thing, to recommend as per the finding, to
describe about the event or to check out cause and effect
among variables?
Cont…
• Sometimes qualitative data are required and sometimes
quantitative are required as per the nature of the study. This
also plays role in selecting research design. For example: If
quantitative data are necessary for any research, there may
be census survey design.
• Source of information also plays role in selecting research
design. (Census, Historical Development of CJS of Nepal)
Cont…
• Time factor also plays decisive role in selecting research
design. Sometimes, the time necessary and time available
does not match.
• Available resources and resources needed plays great role in
selecting research design.
• Socio-cultural context sometimes does not let us do as we
want to do. Natural calamities, disasters, conflict and similar
other factors also contribute for selecting research design.