Summary of the book Research Methods - The Essential Knowledge Base by W.M. Trochim, J.P. Donnelly & K. Arora. Lecture notes are included and the summary is provided with figures and tables from the book.
TEST BANK FOR RESEARCH METHODS THE ESSENTIAL KNOWLEDGE BASE 2ND EDITION BY WILLIAM TROCHIM (ISBN 978-1133954774)
TEST BANK FOR RESEARCH METHODS THE ESSENTIAL KNOWLEDGE BASE 2ND EDITION BY WILLIAM TROCHIM (ISBN 978-1133954774)
(Grade 8) - Premaster Introduction to Academic Research
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Research Methods - The essential knowledge base
William M. Trochim, James P. Donnelly, Kanika Arora
1. Foundations of Research Methods
1.1 The Research Enterprise
1.1a What Is Research?
The term research has many different meanings, but in all cases, it is systematic investigation.
Research is a type of systematic investigation that is empirical in nature and is designed to contribute
to public knowledge.
Topics that are investigated in social research have to do with our society; the things we do, how we
interact, how we live, file and how we see ourselves.
The research enterprise is the macro-level effort to accumulate knowledge across multiple empirical
systematic public research projects.
1.1b Translational Research
Translational research is the systematic effort to move research from initial discovery to practice and
ultimately to impacts on our lives. (‘to move research from discovery to impact in the research
enterprise.’)
Research-practice continuum: The process of moving form an initial research idea or discovery to
practice, and the potential for the idea to influence our lives or world.
Basic research: Research that is designed to generate discoveries and to understand how the
discoveries work.
Applied research: Research where a discovery is tested under increasingly controlled conditions in
real-world contexts.
Implementation and dissemination research: Research that assesses how well an innovation or
discovery can be distributed in and carried out in a broad range of contexts that extend beyond the
original controlled studies.
Impact research: Research that assesses the broader effects of a discovery or innovation on society.
Policy research: Research that is designed to investigate existing policies or develop and test new ones.
Figure 1.1 Translational Research (p.7)
The bidirectional arrow in the figure is meant to convey that the translational process works in both
directions. ‘Sometimes insights from practitioners and policy makers can inform basic and applied
researchers and improve their ability to transform their discoveries to better anticipate the real-world
contexts that they will eventually need to be implemented in.’
1.1c Research Syntheses and Guidelines
Research synthesis: A systematic study of multiple prior research projects that address the same
research question or topic and that summarizes the results in a manner that can be used by
practitioners.
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,Meta-analysis: A type of research synthesis that uses statistical methods to combine the results of
similar studies quantitatively in order to allow general conclusions to be made.
Systematic review: A type of research synthesis that focuses on a specific question or issue and uses
preplanned methods to identify, select, assess, and summarize the findings of multiple research
studies. Often, a systematic review involves a panel of experts who discuss the research literature and
reach conclusions about how well a discovery works to address a problem or issue.
A meta-analysis is always a quantitative synthesis, a systematic review may be a judgmental expert-
driven synthesis, a meta-analysis, or both.
A practice guideline: A systematic process that leads to a specific set of research-based
recommendations for practice that usually includes some estimates of how strong the evidence is for
each recommendation.
1.1d Evidence-Based Practice
Evidence-based practice (EBP): A movement designed to encourage or require practitioners to employ
practices that are based on research evidence as reflected in research syntheses or practice guidelines.
Engagement with corporate managers, instead of doing what feels right, making decisions on a
research basis. To solve the science-practice gap.
1.1e An Evolutionary Perspective on the Research Enterprise
Evolutionary epistemology: The branch of philosophy that holds that ideas evolve through the process
of natural selection. In this view, an individual discovery or idea is like an organism in biology. It
competes with other established and emerging discoveries.
1.2 Conceptualizing Research
1.2a Where Research Topics Come From
Probably one of the most common sources of research ideas is the experience of practical problems in
the field.
Another source for research ideas is the literature in your specific field.
Request for proposals (RFPs): A document issued by a government agency or other organization that,
typically, describes the problem that needs addressing, the contexts in which it operates, the approach
the agency would like you to take to investigate the problem, and the amount the agency would be
willing to pay for such research.
Also, many researchers simply think up their research topic on their own.
1.2b The Literature Review
Literature review: A systematic compilation and written summary of all of the literature published in
scientific journals that is related to a research topic of interest. A literature review is typically included
in the introduction section of a research write-up.
Peer review: A system for reviewing potential research publications where authors submit potential
articles to a journal editor who solicits several reviewers who agree to give a critical review of the
paper. The paper is sent to these reviewers with no identification of the author so that there will be
no personal bias. Based on the reviewers’ recommendations, the editor can accept the article, reject
it, or recommend that the author revise and resubmit it.
1.2c Feasibility Issues
- How long will the research take
- Do any important ethical constraints require consideration
- Can the cooperation needed be acquired
- To what degree will the costs be manageable
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,1.3 The Language of Research
1.3a Research Vocabulary
Theoretical: Pertaining to theory. Social research is theoretical, meaning that much of it is concerned
with developing, exploring, or testing the theories or ideas that social researchers have about how the
world operates.
Empirical: Based on direct observations and measurements of reality.
Probabilistic: Based on probabilities.
Causal: Pertaining to a cause-effect relationship, hypothesis, or relationship. Something is causal if it
leads to an outcome or makes an outcome happen.
Causal relationship: A cause-effect relationship. For example, when you evaluate whether your
treatment or program causes an outcome to occur, you are examining a causal relationship.
1.3b Types of Studies
1. Descriptive studies: are designed primarily to document what is going on or what exists. Public
opinion polls that seek to describe the proportion of people who hold various opinions are primarily
descriptive in nature.
2. Relational studies: look at the relationships between two or more variables. A public opinion poll
that compares the proportion of males and females who say they would vote for e Democratic or a
Republican candidate in the next presidential election.
3. Causal studies: are designed to determine whether one or more variables causes or affects one or
more outcome variables.
1.3c Time in Research
Cross-sectional study: A study that takes place at a single point in time.
Longitudinal: A study that takes place over time.
- Repeated measures: Two or more waves of measurement over time (collecting data in month 1,
month 3, month 6)
- Time series: Many waves of measurement over time (collecting data every day for ten year)
1.3d Types of Relationships.
The Nature of a Relationship
A correlational relationship simply says that two things perform in a synchronized manner. For
example, inflation and unemployment; when inflation is high, unemployment also tends to be high.
A causal relationship is a synchronized relationship between two variables just as a correlational
relationship is, but in a causal relationship we say that one variable causes the other to occur.
Third variable or missing variable problem: An unobserved variable that accounts for a correlation
between two variables.
Patterns of Relationships
No relationship: if you know the values on one variable, you don’t know anything about the values on
the other.
Positive relationship: A relationship between variables in which high values for one variable are
associated with high values on another variable, and low values are associated with low values on the
other variable. (e.g. years in school – salary expectation)
Negative relationship: A relationship between variables in which high values for one variable are
associated with low values on another variable. (e.g. time spent gaming – GPA)
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, 1.3e Hypotheses
Hypotheses: A specific statement of prediction. ‘What I as a researcher expect to see’.
Usually, the hypothesis that you support (your prediction) is called the alternative hypothesis (HA/H1),
and the hypothesis that describes the remaining possible outcomes is termed the null hypothesis
(HO/H0).
Null hypothesis: A specific statement that predicts there will be no effect of a program, or other
independent variable you are studying.
One-tailed hypothesis: A hypothesis that specifies a direction; for example, when your hypothesis
predicts that your program will increase the outcome.
HO: As a result of the new program, there will either be no significant difference in depression or there
will be a significant increase,
HA: As a result of the new program, there will be a significant decrease in depression.
Figure 1.4 One-tailed hypothesis test (p.17)
Two-tailed hypothesis: A hypothesis that does not specify a direction. For example, if your hypothesis
is that your program or intervention will have an effect on an outcome, but you are unwilling to specify
whether that effect will be positive or negative, you are using a two-tailed hypothesis.
HO: As a result of 300 mg/day of the ABC drug, there will be no significant difference in depression,
HA: As a result of 300 mg/day of the ABC drug, there will be a significant difference in depression.
The logic of hypothesis testing is based on these two based principles:
- Two mutually exclusive hypothesis statements that, together, exhaust all possible outcomes, need to
be developed.
- The hypothesis must be tested so that one is necessarily accepted and the other rejected.
Hypothetic-deductive model: A model in which two mutually exclusive hypotheses that together
exhaust all possible outcomes are tested, such that if one hypothesis is accepted, the second must
therefore be rejected.
1.3f Variables
Variable: Any entity that can take on different values. For instance, age can be considered a variable
because age can take on different values for different people at different times.
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