Theory and Research Design

One of the common issues students have when they are beginning to think about doing research is how all of the pieces, which are necessary, fit together. Do you begin with the research design and try to find a study to fit it? What is the deal with theories, where do they fit into the thinking? There actually is a way to clarify these pieces. Let us begin even broader by considering reviewing the literature. What does that mean? It means finding recent articles on your general topic of interest and beginning to read. Notice what theories the authors discuss when talking about the topic. After you have read 10 articles or so on the topic, stop and evaluate. Are there consistent issues mentioned? What theories were discussed; did the authors make predictions for their study based on the theory? If you are not seeing any predictions or discussions about how the theory is impacted by the new findings, you need to look for a new theory. It is important that you are able to make predictions based on the theory you will finally use.

As an example, say you have narrowed the search down to two theories. It is time to go back to the library and find some review articles using those theories. When you have read those, you should have good understanding of the theories and how they relate to your topic of interest. Think about the variables other researchers have used, which are related to your topic and how the theory suggests the variables should interact.

Next time I will examine theories. Do you have an issue or a question that you would like me to discuss in a future post? Send me an email with your ideas. leann.stadtlander@waldenu.edu