Research Design – by J.

Creswell
Three bullet points:
• Plan first. Plan again. Plan some more.
• Research design—including conscious choices
as to worldview, strategy, and method—is the
key part of planning.
• Plot and write the results of your research in a
methodical, structured way for best results.
 Who is the writer? Who is the audience?
• John W. Creswell
– Professor, Department of Educational Psychology, University of
Nebraska-Lincoln (1978-present)
– Ph.D., Higher Education, University of Iowa
– M.A., Student Personnel and Counseling, University of Iowa
– B.A., History/Political Science, Muskingum College
– Fulbright Scholar
– Author of 11 books
– Editorial Board member or reviewer for Journal of Higher Education,
Review of Higher Education, ASHE/ERIC Research Reports, Research in
Higher Education, Higher Education Reports – all for 20+ years.
• Audience: Primarily graduate students beginning theses or other
research projects
 Research design
• Comprehensive plan and procedure for
assessing a research problem
• Researcher has a choice of designs, each of
which will then contain worldviews, strategies,
and methods.
• Factors affecting the choice are the research
problem itself, the background and interests
of the researcher, and the intended audience.
 Research Design Categories
• Quantitative: numbers, closed-ended, data hypotheses,
experiments, deductive
– A means for testing objective theories by measurement of variables
– Use when research problem calls for understanding of
causality/influence, results of intervention, prediction of outcomes.
• Qualitative: words, open-ended, interviews, ethnography,
inductive
– A means for exploring meaning ascribed to social or human problems
– Use when problem is not well-understood and requires exploration
• Mixed – can be combination of Quantitative and Qualitative in
parallel, series, or transformational combination
– Use when problem can not be accurately assessed using only one
design.
 Worldviews/Philosophies
• Where is the researcher coming from?
• What assumptions does s/he make? (The
answer is never “none.”)
• Major Worldviews:
– (Post)positivism/Determinism/Empiricism
– Constructivism:
– Advocacy:
– Pragmatic:
 Worldviews/Philosophies (cont.)
• (Post)positivism/Determinism/Empiricism:
– Cause and effect/Scientific method
– Experimentation and measurement can reveal objective reality
– Strive for objectivity
– Start with hypothesis and test

• Constructivism:
– Reality is subjective and multiple
– Seek to understand meaning as experienced by participants
– Meaning of events is mediated by interactions with others, and
social and cultural context
– Start with open-ended inquiry and result in hypothesis
 Worldviews/Philosophies (cont.)
• Advocacy:
– Start with point of view as lens to interpret events
– Focus on marginalized groups and social justice; most participatory and
collaborative worldview
– A deliberate counterweight to more prevalent worldviews
– Seeks to change reality and not just describe or predict it
– Key types: Feminist perspectives, queer theory, race and origin discourses, critical
theory, disability theory.

• Pragmatic:
– Analogue of mixed-method strategy
– Mixes aspects of other worldviews to get at “what works”
– No need for ideological consistency
– Believe in objective reality (as with empiricists), but acknowledge context is
inescapable (as per constructivists)
 Research Strategies
• Specific approaches to inquiry within design
categories
• Quantitative: Experimental and quasi-
experimental, surveys
• Qualitative: Narrative, case study,
ethnography, grounded theory
• Mixed: Parts of both, in parallel, series, or
combination
 Research Methods
• How to collect, analyze, and interpret data. As
with strategies, tend to be associated with
specific design categories.
• Quantitative: Closed-ended, pre-determined
questions, observational or instrumented
numeric data, statistical analysis/interpretation
• Qualitative: Open-ended, pre-determined or
evolving questions, non-numeric data
• Mixed: Some of each
 Literature Reviews
• Part of the planning stage of the research design –
helps show where proposed research problem fits into
existing knowledge, why it is worthy of study, and
whether contemplated design is possible
• Purposes:
– Summarize the state of knowledge about the research
problem and closely-related areas.
– Frame the research problem by illustrating gaps in
knowledge or conflicting/ambiguous results
– Place results and conclusions of the research in context by
showing where they differ or what they add
 Literature Reviews (cont)
• Steps to a literature review:
– Identify key words and ideas related to the research problem
– Locate most prominent journal articles and books
– Use cites from these works to identify other works, and
relationships between works
– Summarize/abstract most relevant works
– Map key concepts and schools of thought
– Identify and define key terms/constructs to be used in
research design
– Determine key theories which can be used to explore or
explain the research problem
 Theories in research
• Theories are hypotheses which specify or explain the
relationship among variables
• The “rainbow bridge” between independent (cause or
predictor) and dependent (outcome or effect) variables.
• Theories can be micro/meso/macro level
• Quantitative research designs typically begin with a
theory, and work to disprove or support it
• Qualitative research designs may begin with a theory,
or build one up inductively from data collected and
analyzed.
 Ethical considerations in research
• Anticipating and considering ethical issues is a core part of
research design
• Is the study properly disclosed to participants?
• Do they give informed consent to participate, and understand that
they can leave at any time?
• Does the study risk harm to (or withhold care from) some of the
participants?
• Does the research design safeguard participant data and identity?
• Is the language of the write-up inclusive and sensitive to the
wishes of participants?
• Does the research document fully credit all those (and only those)
actually involved in its design and execution?
 Cases, Numbers, Models – by Sprinz &
Wolinsky
Three bullet points:
• Methods in scholarly research in international
relations are changing, but the literature
dealing with IR methods is still outdated
• The field is increasingly quantitative and mode-
oriented rather than descriptive
• Quantitative and hybrid analysis in IR is a
positive thing for the field, and should be
encouraged and supported
 Who are the writers? Who is the audience?
• Detlef Sprinz
– Professor, Department of Economic and Social Sciences, The University of Potsdam
– Senior Research Fellow I, Center for International Climate and Environmental Research – Oslo
– Previously Chairman/Member, Scientific Committee, European Environment Agency (2004-2012)
– Ph.D./M.A (Political Science), University of Michigan. Dissertation: “Why Countries Support International
Environmental Agreements: The Regulation of Acid Rain in Europe”
– M.A. (Economics), University of the Saarland
– Journals:
• Global Environmental Politics (Editorial Board)
• Journal of Environment & Development (Editorial Board)
• Weather, Climate, and Society (Associate Editor for Political Science)
– Self-description: “His areas of research and publications encompass long-term policy, inter/national institutions & the
evaluation of their performance, European & international environmental policy, and modeling political decisions.”
• Yael Wolinsky-Nahmias
– Senior Lecturer, Department of Political Science, Northwestern University
– Co-director, Northwestern Environmental Field School
– Director, Program In Environmental Policy and Culture
– Ph.D. Political Science, University of Chicago
– M.A. Political Science, University of Pennsylvania
– B.A. International Relations and East Asian Studies, Cum Laude, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
– Field of active study appears to be environmental policy and its international relations aspects.
• Intended Audience: Practitioners of Research in International Relations
 What are IR studies?
• They explain politico-military interactions among
countries, societies, and organizations.
• Purpose of the book:
– Historically IR field is descriptive and qualitative – this is
changing
– More quantitative analysis – use of game theory, statistical
methods
– New sub-fields and more specialization (ex: int’l environmental
politics)
– Existing works on research methodologies in the field have not
kept up – this work helps fill the void
– Advances positivist agenda in field
 Findings and Conclusions
• Main Points:
– No one methodology or perspective is suitable for the entire field
– IR research problems are susceptible to the use of quantitative analysis, case study
method, and other formal models (such as game theory)
– New methodologies can expand the range of testable (and hence usable) theories in the
field
– Analogy is to political science field, which moved in the quantitative direction from the
1970s
– Hybrid research designs can add substantial value to the field by increasing reliability of
results, but are not yet popular

• Research Design and Findings:

– Classification of articles published in 6 major journals in the field between 1975 and 2000
into categories based on methodology(ies) employed
– Number of articles with no methodology has fallen from appx 1/2 to under 1/3 since the
late 1970s
– Greatest increase is in articles using statistical and formal model methodologies
 Questions - Creswell
• Research Design
– Who is the intended audience of your research project?
– Identify what your worldview is.
– What factors from your personal/professional background inform your
worldview?
– Identify the research method that is most appealing and state why.

• Literature Reviews
– Draft and share a central research question.

• Ethical Considerations in Research

– Identify two anticipated ethical issues that could arise, or that should be
considered when constructing your research proposal.
 Questions - Sprinz & Wolinsky
• Does the design of the Sprinz & Wolinsky
study support their conclusions?
• What biases and pre-conceived opinions
might they have about the subject?
• What issues are raised by these potential
biases in terms of the conduct of the research
study?