LITERATURE REVIEW AND EVALUATION, THEORIES, AND HYPOTHESES

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RESEARCH QUESTION

Is the main idea behind conducting the research

Research with wrong or improper question might fail.

Normative Questions Vs. Empirical Questions

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PURPOSE OF THE LITERATURE REVIEW

Determines if the chosen topic is worth while studying

Indicates how the topic relates to theory

Indentifies key terms

Shows the methods that have been used to research the topic previously

Illustrates the findings of previous research

Highlights what aspect of the topic has not been researched previously

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CONDUCTING A THE LITERATURE REVIEW

Identify key words from your research question. Select concepts (or demographic attributes) rather than places or industries

My research question: What is the role of social networks on voter participation in election?

Key words: “social networks” and “participation in election”

Alternative key words: “turnout”, “networks”

Use Google Scholar, Proquest/Ebsco, etc.,

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SELECTING APPROPRIATE ARTICLES

• Choose articles with most appropriate titles/abstracts• Look for review articles (Annual Review of Sociology)• Choose articles in major journals• In general, choose articles from the last few years rather

than prior to 1980 • Select other papers cited in your most relevant articles• Use Google scholar to see who is citing your most relevant

articles

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DIFFERENT TYPES OF ARTICLES AND BOOKS

Review articles – Very useful

Theoretical articles

Empirical research articles – Will have tables (quantitative research) or interview quotes.

Monologues – Academics often publish key points in articles (shorter and more easily available)

Methodological books

Edited volumes – May include several articles on your topic

Text books – A good place to begin

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CREATE A LITERATURE MAP

• Write short summaries of each document (be careful not to plagiarize). Include what is good and what is wrong with the article

• Research question• Definition of terms• Hypotheses• Methods and data (sample)• Findings

Try to create a visual picture of how research fits together. Look for themes in the literature. Is it about specific concepts, demographic variables, processes over time, theories, levels of analysis (people, teams, organizations)

Use the literature map to help organize your literature review

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EXERCISE

Choose key words from your research question.

Identify 10-15 key articles using Google Scholar and Proquest.

Find and download the articles

Can you identify the research question in each article?

From the abstracts, research question, and conclusion can you create a literature map

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SCIENTIFIC THEORIESLogical description or explanation of how something occurs in the world.

• Theories propose a causal process or mechanism that produces a certain type of outcome.

• Scientific theories are positive not normative. They describe how things are, not how they should be.

• Theories are probabilistic. They predict how things occur on average .• Hypotheses are testable statements derived from the theory• Variables are measurable and their measurements vary!• Quantitative research design

A qualitative theory is an explanation you will develop from your analysis of data collected around a particular issue.

• Qualitative research design

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HYPOTHESES IN QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH

A tentative explanation for an observation, phenomenon, or scientific problem that can be tested by further investigation.

• Psycho-social mentoring (role modeling) will be positively related to performance

• Perceived coworker support is negatively related to turnover.• Network centrality is negatively related to turnover.• Network expansion follows a process in which new partners

are chosen on the basis of their similarity to previous partners (homophily).

• Network expansion entails herdlike behavior, with participants matching their choices with the dominant choices of others(follow-the-trend).

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VARIABLES IN QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH

Variables:

• Categorical • Nominal (counties)

• Dichotomous (male vs. female, yes vs. no)

• Ordinal (strongly disagree – strongly agree)

• Continuous (miles to walk, income, number of items sold)

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VARIABLES IN QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH

Dependent variable: A variable that depends on another variable

Independent variable: The presumed cause of another variable

Control variables: Allow us to hold constant other factors that might be affecting the relationship between the independent variable and the dependent variable.

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DEFINING ‘RESEARCH DESIGN’

A Research Design describes a flexible set of guidelines that connect theories to:

• strategies of inquiry.• methods for collecting empirical material.

Quantitative research design: Relies primarily on the collection of quantitative data.

Qualitative research design: Relies primarily on the collection of qualitative data.

Mixed methods research design: A mixture of quantitative and qualitative methods.

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QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH: EXPERIMENTAL

Study cause and effect relationships between variables

Active manipulation of an independent variable

Random assignment of participants to groups which creates equivalent groups

Pretest ---Treatment---Posttest

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QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH: NON-EXPERIMENTAL

No manipulation of the independent variable

No random assignment of participants to groups

In this case to establish cause-effect relationship you have to measure the correlation (-1 to +1): positive and negative correlation (This can be carried out using simple statistical software such as SPSS).

Remember: You cannot conclude that a relationship is causal when you only have one independent variable and one dependent variable in non-experimental research without controls.

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QUALITATIVE RESEARCH

Qualitative research involves the studied use and collection of a variety of empirical materials: case study, personal experience, introspection, life story, interview, artifacts, cultural and historical texts, observation, focus groups, etc.

Qualitative research emphasizes the qualities of the entities and on processes as well as the value-laden nature of inquiry

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EXERCISE

What methodology do you think is most suited for your research project?

• If it is a quantitative research design what variables might you want to collect data on?

• If it is a qualitative research design what type of data would you collect and how?

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DEFINING ‘RESEARCH DESIGN’

A Research Design describes a flexible set of guidelines that connect research questions and hypotheses to:

• strategies of inquiry.• methods for collecting empirical material.

Quantitative research design: Relies primarily on the collection of quantitative data.

Qualitative research design: Relies primarily on the collection of qualitative data.

Mixed methods research design: A mixture of quantitative and qualitative methods.

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WHY USE A QUANTITATIVE METHODOLOGY?

Quantitative methods require the use of standardized measures so that the varying perspectives and experiences of people can fit into a limited number of predetermined response categories to which numbers are assigned (Patton, 2002).

The advantage of a quantitative approach is that it is possible to measure the reactions of a great many people to a limited set of questions, thus facilitating comparison and statistical aggregation of the data. This gives a broad generalizable set of findings.

Use this methodology when numeric evidence satisfies the research issue.

Often used for who, what, where, when, how many, how much type of questions

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WHY USE A QUALITATIVE METHODOLOGY?

Trade-off between breadth and depth

More descriptive ability

Useful at the exploratory stage to give direction to your research

More suitable to the appropriate measurement of certain variables as compared to quantitative methods

Often used for how and why types of questions

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MIXED RESEARCH: TRIANGULATION

“Triangulation”: from land surveying.

Knowing a single landmark only locates you somewhere along a line in a direction from the landmark, whereas with two landmarks (and your own position being the third point of the triangle) you can take bearings in two directions and locate yourself at their intersection (Fielding & Fielding, 1986:23)

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BENEFITS OF MIXED METHOD RESEARCHTriangulation strengthens a study by combining methods.

This means using several kinds of methods or data, e.g. quantitative and qualitative approaches (Patton, 2002).

Because each method reveals different aspects of empirical reality, multiple methods of observation can be employed. This is termed triangulation (Denzin, 1978b).

Non-overlapping weaknesses but complementary strengths (Brewer & Hunter, 1989).

Triangulation is particularly appropriate for initial research in an area, because it provides both generalizable findings and “thick descriptions” of phenomena and facilitates their interpretation (Meyer, 1982).

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EXAMPLE OF MIXED METHODOLOGY

Analysis of employee satisfaction with IT systems (User study)

Quantitative data can give you numeric baselines of satisfaction on “who, what , where, and when”

Qualitative data can provide thicker descriptive data on “how and why”.

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FINAL WORD……

Once you have identified a research question and created a research design the next step is to collect the data.

• Data can be collected through interviews, surveys, experiments, participant observation, etc.

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Thank you

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