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FYA

Research Design


In this module we discuss different kinds of research designs, such as experiments, field studies, observation and simulations.

We also take up a number of abstract issues that arise in doing research, such as issues of validity, reliability, causality, generalizability and ethics.

 

Topics

  • Experiments, quasi experiments and field studies

    • ethnography & surveys

    • archival research

  • Inferring causality

  • Role of quantitative and qualitative

  • Validity and reliability

    • Issues of endogeneity

  • Role of Simulation

  • Ethics

  • Sampling

Handouts

  • Trochim. Language of research [php]
  • Trochim. Sampling [php]
  • Trochim. Design [php]
  • Trochim. Ethics in research [php]
  • Trochim. Validity and reliability [php]
  • Horan. Threats to validity [html]
  • Borgatti. What is qda? [html]
  • Borgatti. Types of research [html]
  • Neill. Qual vs Quant. [html]
  • Siva. Simulation [doc]
  • Burton. Simulation [doc]
  • Kendall. Hiawatha designs an experiment [pdf]
  • Borgatti. Types of validity. [html]
  • Research Methods in the Social and Natural Sciences - an interactive tutorial on five basic research strategies in science: experiments, correlation, surveys, naturalistic observation, and case studies
  • Morris. Notes on archival data. [pdf]
 

Readings

  • Sutton, R.I. and A. Rafaeli. 1988. "Untangling the relationship between displayed emotions and organizational sales: The case of convenience stores." Academy of Management Journal. 31(3):461-487. [pdf]
  • Borgatti, S.P. and Molina, J-L. 2003. Ethical and strategic issues in organizational network analysis. Journal of Applied Behavioral Science. 39(3): 337-350. [pdf]
  • Johnson, J. C. 1998. "Research design and research strategies," in Handbook of Methods in Cultural Anthropology. Edited by H. R. Bernard, pp. 131-171. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira. [pdf]

Related Modules

Links

Bibliography

Design Overviews

  • Dean, J. S., G. J. Gummerman, J. M. Epstein, R. L. Axtell, A. C. Swedlund, M. T. Parker, and S. McCarroll. 2000. "Understanding Anasazi culture change through agent-based modeling," in Dynamics in human and primate societies: Agent-based modeling of social and spatial processes. Edited by T. A. Kohler and G. J. Gummerman, pp. 179-205. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Brim, J. A., and D. H. Spain. 1974. Research design in anthropology: Paradigms and pragmatics in the testing of hypotheses. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
  • Marianne W. Lewis and Andrew J. Grimes. Metatriangulation: Building Theory from Multiple Paradigms.  The Academy of Management Review, Vol. 24, No. 4 (Oct., 1999), pp. 672-690 [^pdf]
  • Johnson, J. C. 1998. "Research design and research strategies," in Handbook of Methods in Cultural Anthropology. Edited by H. R. Bernard, pp. 131-171. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira.

Experiments

  • Shadish, W. R., T. D. Cook, and D. T. Campbell. 2002. Ch. 1 (p. 1-32), "Experiments and generalized causal inference," Experimental and quasi-experimental designs for generalized causal inference. New York: Houghton Mifflin Co.
  • Campbell, D. T., and J. C. Stanley. 1966. Experimental and quasi-experimental designs for research. Chicago: Rand McNally College Publishing Company.

Simulation

Alternative

  • Aunger, R. 2004. Chapter 5 (p. 94-115), "Reflexive realism: A new way of doing ethnography,"Reflexive ethnographic science. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press.

Classics

  • Emile Durkheim. Suicide.

Exemplars of four kinds of studies (courtesy of Martina Morris)

 

Archival research Participant Observation Survey Research Experimental research
Salem Possessed by Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum

The Cocaine Kids by Terence Williams

 

In Search of Respect by Philippe Bourgois

To Dwell Among Friends by Claude Fischer bedience to Authority, by Stanley Milgram

                                        

 

 


Send mail to sborgatti@uky.edu with questions or comments about this web site. Copyright © 2008 by Steve Borgatti. Last modified: 08/28/09.

 

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