Research Design
Purposes for Research
Criteria for Causation
Units of Analysis
The Time Component
Three Purposes of Research
• Exploration
• Description
• Explanation
Criteria for Causation
• Two Things Must be Related (Correlation)
• The Cause Must Precede the Effect (Time
ordering)
• The Relationship Must be “Non-Spurious”
Common Mistakes
• “Complete” causation
• Exceptional cases
• Majority of cases
Necessary / Sufficient
• A Necessary Cause
– X must be present for Y to occur
• A Sufficient Cause
– If X is present, Y must occur
Units of Analysis
• This is the “what” that is being studied
– Social scientists can have almost anything as
the unit of analysis
– It is even possible to have a study with
multiple units of analysis
• Be CAREFUL
– Knowing that a person studied “people” does
not necessarily tell you the unit of analysis
Some of my tricks…
• Look at what a researcher is predicting or
counting—if something is expressed in “rates,” it
is a group level unit of analysis
• Rephrase a persons research hypothesis or
statement in way that makes the unit of analysis
more explicit
• If “groups” are a part of the study, figure out
whether the researcher is comparing groups, or
simply using group status as an “attribute” in
order to compare individuals
The Individual Level
• Typically, individual people
– Don’t confuse “generalizing” with units of
analysis
– You can study “groups” or “classes” of people,
but still have individuals as unit of analysis
• Non-people examples
– Social artifacts and Social interactions
• Typically individual, but could be aggregates
Group (Aggregate) Level
• KEY = the group is the entity we study—
looking at attributes of the group
– May sometimes studies individuals to
construct such attributes (e.g., construct rate)
• Organizations
– Corporations, churches,
TIME
• Why is “time” important?
– Causal ordering
– Generalization
• Cross-Sectional Research
• Longitudinal
– Trend
– Cohort
– Panel
Ways to Get Around Longitudinal
Research (e.g., Cheating)
• Logic can sometimes dictate cause and
effect
• Sometimes the data can help draw
conclusions about cause and effect
• Retrospective studies
• Use age differences within sample to
reach conclusions
• Repeat a prior cross-sectional study
Designing a Research Project
• Research is MESSY!!!
• Theories and Ideas
• Starting Point
– Read, read, read
– Purpose of research
• Conceptualization
• Choice of Research Method