{"id":3273,"date":"2016-11-01T04:02:46","date_gmt":"2016-11-01T04:02:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/course.oeru.org\/research-methods\/?page_id=3273"},"modified":"2016-11-01T04:02:46","modified_gmt":"2016-11-01T04:02:46","slug":"basics-of-research-design","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/course.oeru.org\/research-methods\/modules-1-3\/module-3-research-design\/basics-of-research-design\/","title":{"rendered":"Basics of research design"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n

Introduction<\/span><\/h2>\n

Political Science is in part a social science, and in part a humanity. Both are important. In this topic, we’ll look at the basics of social science inquiry, and then proceed to show how this differs from, on the one hand, inquiry in the natural sciences and, on the other, inquiry in the humanities.
\nBroadly speaking, research design in political science can be divided into exploratory<\/i> and explanatory<\/i>. The differences between these types of research design are summarised in the table below.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Types of research design\n<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
\n<\/th>\nExploratory research design\n<\/th>\nExplanatory research design\n<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
Research questions\n<\/th>\n What, where, who, how much, how many\n<\/td>\n Why, How\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Example of research questions\n<\/th>\n\n
    \n
  • “What are the curricula taught in various sectarian schools in Punjab?”\n<\/li>\n
  • “Who benefits and who suffers from incentives and constraints placed on Pakistan\u2019s foreign policy by the US?”\n<\/li>\n
  • “How much effect did the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers have on global poverty?”\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n
\n
Common design\n<\/th>\nSurvey, Archival\n<\/td>\nComparative, Narrative, Case study\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Common methods\n<\/th>\nExperimental, Statistical\n<\/td>\nThematic analysis\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Basics of research design<\/span><\/h2>\n

A research project is meant to contribute to theory. You have learned about the two dominant forms of theory in political science, descriptive and normative<\/a>. Whether it contributes to descriptive theory or normative theory, we should have a look at how such theories are structured, and how your research would contribute to them.\n<\/p>\n

\nlet’s look at a research question asked as part of a descriptive theory: Why do some people vote for the Labour party, while others vote for the Greens?<\/i>. The researcher would look for differences between the two groups of voters.\n<\/p>\n

A characteristic that differs one individual (or “aggregate,” such as state, country, etc.) from another is called a variable<\/b><\/i>. If a characteristic does not differ them, it is called a constant<\/b><\/i>. Constants are generally less interesting than variables. There is not much point in trying to explain voting choices in a country in which only one party appears on the ballot. Of course, we might then ask why some countries have only one party whereas others have multi-party systems, but now we are treating \u201cnumber of parties\u201d as a variable.\n<\/p>\n

Variables take on different values<\/b><\/i>. These may or may not be mathematical values. If we are comparing party systems of different countries, the values of the variable may be the number of parties the country has. On the other hand, if we are studying individual party identification, the values of our variable might be \u201cLabour,\u201d \u201cGreen,\u201d and so on.\n<\/p>\n

The researcher may notice that the values that a variable takes on are not random, but are related to the values of another variable. For example, one-party political systems may be more common in countries with low levels of literacy.\n<\/p>\n

A statement positing a relationship between two variables is called a hypothesis<\/b><\/i>. Hypotheses have three elements:\n<\/p>\n