Chapter 3: Research Design and Rationale (qual, quant, mixed)

This section introduces the research design of your study. Each of the types of design has slightly different requirements for this section.

Quantitative: State your variables, indicate which are independent, dependent, moderating, etc. Then clearly state the type of research design you will be using, an example, might be a 2 (gender) x 3 (age: 20-30, 30-40, 50-60 yrs) repeated measure design. Which means that you will have an equal number of males and females; equal number of people from each of the age groups, and each person will be tested more than once. Relate the design to your research questions.

Discuss how your choice of designs makes sense with what is needed to advance the literature. Perhaps, a great deal is known about the variable, gender and people's age at a single point in time. However, your design allows a look at how things might change over time by testing them at 2 time points.

Qualitative: Begin by restating your research questions (from c. 1). Then you want to describe the main concepts that you will be addressing. Next, you will discuss the research tradition you are using, some examples include phenomenology, case study, narrative, etc. You need to then provide a rationale for using that tradition. Why is one you chose most appropriate for your study? Why not one of the other traditions?

Mixed: This one also begins by restating your research questions (from c. 1). Then you want to describe the main concepts that you will be addressing. You then need to identify how you are using a mixed method and how the data collection and analyses work together. Discuss how this is best approach to answer your research questions, and why you need to use both quantitative and qualitative elements.

Finally, discuss why you have chosen the analysis method you will use and how you will be analyzing the data.

Next time I will discuss the role of the researcher. Do you have an issue or a question that you would like me to discuss in a future post? Would you like to be a guest writer? Send me your ideas! leann.stadtlander@waldenu.edu