Quantitative Research Designs

You are now at a similar point in your understanding of the research process, such that an overall framework, including philosophical orientation, theory, literature, problem, and purpose, is falling into place. This week, you will continue to expand your understanding of this framework by analyzing and evaluating research questions and hypotheses in quantitative studies. You will also learn about various quantitative research designs that researchers use to answer their research questions. You will also continue to analyze the interrelated elements of a research study, making the connection among theory, problem, purpose and, now, research questions, hypotheses, and design.

Discussion: Evaluating Research Questions, Hypotheses, and Quantitative Research Designs

With a clear purpose in place, quantitative researchers have a roadmap for crafting their research questions and hypotheses that will further focus the approach they will take to investigate their topic (i.e., their study’s research design).

The selection of a research design is guided by the study’s purpose and research questions and hypotheses, and the design then links the research questions and hypotheses to the data that will be collected. You should keep in mind, however, that the research process is interactive, not necessarily proceeding in a linear fashion from one component to the next. Rather, the writing of research questions could, for example, necessitate adjustments to the study’s purpose statement. Nevertheless, when presented together, the various components of a research study should align. As you learned last week, alignment means that a research study possesses clear and logical connections among all of its various components.

In addition to considering alignment, when researchers select a research design, they must also consider the ethical implications of their choice, including, for example, what their design selection means for participant recruitment, procedures, and privacy.

For this Discussion, you will evaluate quantitative research questions and hypotheses in assigned journal articles in your discipline and consider the alignment of theory, problem, purpose, research questions and hypotheses, and design. You will also identify the type of quantitative research design the authors used and explain how it was implemented.

With these thoughts in mind, refer to the Journal Articles document for your assigned articles for this Discussion. If your last name starts with A through I, use Article A. If your last name starts with J through R, use Article B. If your last name starts with S through Z, use Article C.

If your last name starts with S through Z, use Article C.

Article C:

de la Sablonnière, R., Auger, E., Taylor, D. M., Crush, J., & McDonald, D. (2013). Social change in South Africa: A historical approach to relative deprivation. British Journal of Social Psychology, 52(4), 703–725. doi:10.1111/bjso.12003

Babbie, E. (2017). Basics of social research (7th ed.). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.

· Chapter 5, “Conceptualization, Operationalization, and Measurement”

Burkholder, G. J., Cox, K. A., & Crawford, L. M. (2016). The scholar-practitioner’s guide to research design. Baltimore, MD: Laureate Publishing.