When it comes to research, it is important that you choose the appropriate research style.
In order to choose the appropriate research style, one must consider a few different factors. Some
of the factors is whether you have an independent and dependent variable to study. Another
factor is you intended purpose and outcome from conducting the research. In the text, they
discuss two types of research styles that I want to elaborate on. Those two research designs are
experimental and correlational. It is important to know the differences between the two before
deciding on which one to use.
Experimental research design is a research tool that involves two groups. They are the
experimental group and control group. In the experimental group, there is a variable that is being
tested. In the control group, experimental manipulation does not occur, therefore, there are not
variables being tested. Experimental groups use operational definition in order to provide an
exact description of the variables being tested. This is important because it allows people the
ability to understand the parameters that are used during the research process. When dealing with
this research type, it is important that no experimenter bias is used because it alters the validity of
the results from the experiment conducted. When you are doing an experiment that involves
people, you might want to consider the use of a single-blind study or double-blind study. In this
research type, a single-blind study either a group or one of the individuals are unaware of which
group that they are assigned to. The researcher who is conducting the experiment is the only
person that knows. On the other hand, in a double-blind study, the people that are a part of the
experiment and the researchers are in the blind when it comes to the group assignments. Some
people may wonder why these tools are necessary, it is because the studies can alter the placebo
effect. This deals with the expectations or influence from both the participants and the
researchers, or just one party. The beliefs and expectations of an experiment can affect the results
of the experiment.
Correlation research design is the other research type. In this research type, there are
variables that exist that have some type of relationship with one another. Although the fact that a
relationship exists is evident, it is not always based around a cause and effect type of
relationship. There is sometimes a need to measure the strength of the relationship. The
measurement that is displayed is referred to as a correlation coefficient. A positive correlation
indicates that the variables are similar when comparing the direction in which they move. On the
other hand, a negative correlation means that the variables are traveling in the opposite direction
of one another. There are times when identification of a relationship between variables can be a
mistake. In this case, that means that illusory correlations were made. In fact, no relationship
actually exists.
There are many examples that can be used in order to get a better understanding of the
research designs. First, I will start with correlational research. Imagine that there are a few
facilities in the area that house first responder vehicles. This could be the police station, fire
station, and hospital. Each has their own vehicles that produces a siren of some sort. People
could establish a relationship based on the siren that is heard and the distance of the first
responder vehicles. An example of an experimental research design is administering exams at the
end of a school semester. In this experiment, the students are the dependent variable. The
instructional periods throughout the course are considered the independent variables. Only one
group would be selected to participate in the research study. This makes it a pre-experimental
design. Lastly, this case study is a one-shot because the exams are only administered at the end
of the semester. Overall, both research designs can be used to serve different purposes. It is up to
the research team to determine which research design is best appropriate for the intended
purpose.