Types of Studies
To my mind, there are three basic kinds of empirical
studies: experiments, field studies, and simulations.
Experiments (and quasi-experiments)
The distinguishing feature of experiments and
quasi-experiments is the use of an intervention or treatment of some
kind, whose effects you are trying assess. Typically, they also involve
pre and post measurements of the dependent variable. See the
design
elements page for a detailed discussion.
Field studies
Field studies are observational studies. You go out
into the "field" and observe nature as it happens. Field studies can
often mimic experiments in the sense that one might observe several
different situations that vary by a single variable, very much like a
treatment. For example, you compare communities that use electronic
voting with communities that don't. See the discussion of
observational studies
for more information.
Simulations
Simulation studies tend to be controversial on a
number of grounds, and some people do not regard them as empirical. A
simulation creates a world (say, in a computer) that has certain rules,
and then the researcher observes how these rules play themselves out. In
my view, they are empirical in the sense that we too dumb to calculate
the outcomes of a given set of rules, so we run the "experiment" to see
what happens. But simulations are not empirical in the sense that the
real world is not actually examined. See the
simulations page for a full discussion. |
