Doing Real Research

A Practical Guide to Social Research

Eric Jensen,Charles Laurie

• Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781473944282
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Social Science Research & Methodology
• Index: Social Sciences

Challenging the formality and idealized settings of conventional methods teaching and opting instead for a real world approach to social research, this book offers frank, practical advice designed to empower students and researchers alike.

Theoretically robust and with an exhaustive coverage of key methodologies and methods the title establishes the cornerstones of social research. Examples reflect research conducted inside and outside formal university settings and range from the extremes of war torn countries to the complexities of school classrooms.

Supported by a wealth of learning features and tools the textbook and website include:

• Video top tips
• Podcasts
• Full text journal articles
• Interviews with researchers conducting field research
• Links to external websites and blogs
• Student exercises
• Real world case studies

Part I Laying the Foundations

1 Research Design Planning for the Unknowable, the Unexpected and the Undesirable

• 1.1 Introduction 4
• 1.2 Get started on research design 4
  • 1.2.1 Begin planning by looking at the road ahead 4
  • 1.2.2 Your research question is your foundation 6
• 1.3 Operationalize your key research concepts 10
  • 1.3.1 Choose between quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods approaches 11
  • 1.3.2 Choose between a cross-sectional and a longitudinal approach 15
  • 1.3.3 Choose a research strategy 15
  • 1.3.4 Evaluate your project’s limitations and opportunities 18
• 1.4 Manage your time in the research design process 21
  • 1.4.1 Avoid time-wasting research practices 22
  • 1.4.2 Create a timeline for your research project 23
• 1.5 Conclusion 25

This Chapter Covers the Following Topics

• Developing a sound research question.
• Finding appropriate and feasible ways of measuring key concepts in your research question.
• Matching your overall research goals to specific research methods.
• Anticipating and avoiding obstacles in your data collection, analysis and write-up.
• Deciding between qualitative, quantitative and ‘mixed’ methods research approaches.
• Choosing whether to use a cross-sectional or longitudinal research design.
• Selecting a research strategy, if appropriate.
• Planning and organizing your time to successfully complete your project.

1.1 Introduction

As you begin your research, you face many decisions. To achieve your research objectives, you need a roadmap to keep you on a feasible and appropriate path – this is your research design. Your research design is the plan you develop to identify the methods and procedures you’ll use throughout your research project. This design will help you anticipate and navigate risks and uncertainties in a systematic and rigorous manner. A good research design gives you the best chance of successfully achieving your research objective: a completed report that effectively addresses your research question(s). In this chapter, we first identify the early decisions you need to make in order to develop a good research question to guide your research decisions. We then help you pinpoint precisely what you will measure and what research approach would be most suitable for your project.

1.2 Get Started on Research Design

1.2.1 Begin Planning by Looking at the Road Ahead

Crafting an appropriate research design involves matching the research goals motivating your study with methods for meeting those goals. For example, you might decide that the goal of understanding a social problem such as homelessness is best addressed through an ethnographic study, that is, observing and interviewing homeless people in their own environment. As your research design develops, you need to choose what kind of data to collect, from whom, in what setting and with which methods. This process rarely involves drawing a straight line from general idea to detailed plan. You are likely to adjust your research design to accommodate new information, face obstacles to your initial ideas and rethink some of your assumptions. Figure 1.1 illustrates the planning and decision-making process involved in research design.

As you develop your research design, remember that there is rarely one ‘right’ way to conduct a study. There will be a range of options, each involving trade-offs of some kind. Always document and justify the decisions you make along the way.

In Chapter 10 we show you how to track your decision-making by documenting the issues you face, options you consider and ultimately what choices you make and why. Keeping a ‘research diary’ establishes an audit trail for your thought process as it develops along your research journey. A decision may seem obvious at the time, but it’s easy to forget your reasoning later.

Figure 1.1 Developing your research design

Key Tips

Crafting a research design is an ongoing process

You are unlikely to create a robust and defensible research design on your first attempt. More realistically, aim to start with a solid – but not necessarily perfect – research question. Then, as you move through the research design phases and encounter barriers or opportunities, you can double back and adjust your research question or other aspects of your research design. For most researchers this process is ongoing and carries on into the initial data collection phase. So your research design is only truly complete when you’ve finished the research. Consider this ongoing process of adjusting your research question or design, exploiting opportunities and circumventing problems not as ‘correcting mistakes’ but rather as a natural part of the research design process. It is important to remain open to new ideas and innovations throughout this process, while also keeping your project focused.

1.2.2 Your Research Question is Your Foundation

Your research question governs all components of your research project. It defines what data you collect and how you analyse them. It also needs to be both feasible and worthy of academic attention. Consider the following points when crafting your research question:

• What are you looking to find out?
• What are your key explanatory (‘independent’) and outcome (‘dependent’) variables?
• What information do you need to answer your research question?
• Will it be feasible to gather the data required to answer your research question in the time you have available? If ‘no’, you probably need to narrow or change your research topic.
• Does the answer to your research question offer useful insights that contribute to your field of study?
• Would your research results add to established knowledge by shedding light on a new or under-researched dimension of the topic?
• Would your research results help develop theory or shed new light on an existing theory?
• Is your question too broad, possibly leading you into an impossibly open-ended study? Remember, it is nearly impossible to have a research question that is too focused!

Developing a tightly focused, answerable research question is the crucial first step in the research design process and will be the foundation of your project. A poorly formulated question may result in a research project that is hopelessly broad and potentially unachievable within your budgetary and time constraints. By contrast, a carefully crafted question will enable you to focus your efforts, thereby putting you on a good track. Once you have your research question honed, you will build the rest of your project around it. Even as you develop your project around your initial research question, it is normal to use new ideas and information to refine your research question and focus further.

Find an Appropriate Research Topic

Developing a good research question requires selecting a workable research topic. If you’re already clear on your interests and the direction you wish to take your research, that’s great. Some of the best research is driven by a strong personal interest. This interest can help you persist through challenges that you may face during the research process. Your topic should be important and vivid: ‘Anything can be cocooned by studies and theories, but something beautiful emerges only if there lies, in its center, something alive’ (Gray & Wegner, 2013, p. 550). However, it’s important to ensure that your topic is of general interest in your academic field. Does it address an important theoretical concept, for example, or could it open up new avenues or areas for research? Interesting topics are often those that pursue unexpected angles or that may achieve surprising outcomes. A good test to evaluate your idea is to imagine the best and most surprising outcome possible, and think about whether this would be interesting (Gray & Wegner, 2013, p. 550). Toiling away on a subject that motivates you but is of limited interest to your field can undermine the value of your efforts and make securing funding, research participation and a positive outcome from your project difficult.

The following are key strategies to help you determine whether the research topic you’re considering has relevance and value in your field:

• Thoroughly explore the topic in existing academic literature. Who is studying it and in what academic disciplines? This can indicate whether there is an academic audience for your topic in your discipline. Many journal articles include in their final section a discussion of ‘directions for future research’, which highlight unanswered research topics within the scope of that study. Finding any such discussion on your topic can help point you towards fruitful avenues of exploration.
• Evaluate whether you are in a particularly good position to conduct research on the topic. For example, if you have special access or a background that will make the topic easier to explore, this weighs in favour of selecting the topic.
• Discuss your potential ideas with your supervisor, colleagues and other academics. This process is particularly useful because you can gain insights and guidance from seasoned researchers who can recognize hidden pitfalls in...