Click here to view a Power Point presentation covering research design and concepts from Babbie Chapter 4.
Click here to view a Power Point presentation covering logic models.
Outline for Week Two: Basic Research Designs and Logic Models
At the end of this class you will be able to:
• Know some basic purposes of research.
• Know some basic principles/considerations of research designs;
• Identify some basic research designs and when to apply them;
• Identify how to apply selected research designs;
• Appreciate the relationship between logic models and research.
Two purposes for Tonight:
1. Have a basic understanding of common research designs and when to use them.
2. Have a basic understanding of logic models, when and why to use them.
A couple of things about research designs (my personal bias):
1. Address the research question.
2. Research Designs as tools.
3. Objectivity in research.
Basic Terms (from Babbie)
Research Purposes:
- Explore
- Describe
- Explain
Examples of purposes of research and corresponding design examples
Nomothetic vs ideographic explanation .
Issues in inferring cause.
Correlation
Time order
Nonspurious
Examples of spurious variables.
Necessary and Sufficient Conditions. Useful terms when thinking about cause and effect.
Units of analysis .
Time Dimension (& examples).
• Cross-sectional Studies
• Longitudinal Studies
• Trend
• Cohort
• Panel
Social Interaction models
Exercise 1: Click here to view the Design Situations. Identify, the purpose (explore, describe, or explain), whether it is a Nomothetic or ideographic study, what are the units of analysis, and the time dimension (cross-sectional, or longitudinal). If it is longitudinal is it a trend, cohort, or panel.
At the end of this class you will be able to:
• Know what logic models are and what they are not;
• Identify and understand the components of a logic model;
• Identify the uses of logic models;
• Know how and when to apply logic models;
• Know a good logic model from a bad one;
• Construct a usable logic model for a program;
• Know where to obtain more information than you will ever want to know about logic models.
Click here to view the Logic Model template