Читать книгу The Research Experience - Ann Sloan Devlin - Страница 113

This chapter introduces basic concepts and considerations regarding research design and the kinds of research questions that can be answered, depending on your approach. More detailed information about specific designs will come in Chapters 7–10. Fundamental to understanding what research can tell you is the degree of certainty about the results, in particular, the distinction between a study with correlational results and one where causality can be inferred. Moreover, although different research approaches (e.g., experimental and quasi-experimental design) may use the same statistical analyses, what can be claimed about the results is not the same. In designing a research study, there may be many threats to internal validity, that is, whether the design is adequate to answer your research question and evaluate any hypotheses. This chapter will cover those threats to internal validity, talk again about external validity (i.e., generalizability or how broadly the findings can be applied; see Chapter 2), and about two kinds of errors: Type I error (claiming a result was significant when you should not have done so; also called a “false alarm” or a “false positive”) and Type II error (not claiming a result as significant when you should have; also called a “miss” or a “false negative”). Aspects of the study that relate to the roles of both the researcher and the participant will be covered, as well as ways to do preliminary testing of your study (pilot studies and manipulation checks). The chapter will briefly describe the different settings in which research takes place, from the laboratory to the field. By the end of the chapter, you should be well versed in the fundamentals of research that apply across different types of research designs.

At the end of this book, Appendix A (Figure A.1) presents a decision tree to help guide which statistical approach should be used for which kind of research question, and Appendix G presents a table of the statistical analyses in terms of the scale types that are used in common research designs. You may find these appendices helpful to consult throughout the research process.