Research Methods - an overview

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Research Methods: An
introduction
Dr. P Johnson
SS30013 Dissertation/Evaluative
Methods in Criminology

Selecting Texts
Searching literature can be time consuming.
You need to be organised.
If you have too few texts – broaden your
search – think again.
If you have too many texts – narrow your
search – think again, be more specific.

Make sense of the literature
In order to make sense of the literature you
will need a basic understanding of:
• Research design
• Sampling
• Techniques of data collection
• Techniques of data analysis

Research Design and
Sampling
Research Design –
This refers to the overall plan for collecting
and analysing data.
There are two broad approaches which we
will concern ourselves with –
1. Quantitative research design and
2. Qualitative research design.

Research Design
• Quantative research refers to studies in
which the researcher collects data which
can be measured and summarised
numerically.
• Qualitative studies often involve people
responding to a researchers questions in
their own words and it is these words that
are analysed and interpreted.

Quantitative Research
This approach relies on:
• Objectivity – the researcher collects data in a way
that is distant from practice.
• “hard” data – this is data which can be measured
and quantified in some way
• Statistics – the results from studies following the
quantitative approach to research are presented in
numerical form and are interpreted on the basis of
the statistics calculated.

For example if we analyse data by age
group we can identify how many people in
each age group we have in our study.
In this case we are using a numerical
figure to indicate what we have found in
this part of the data.

Quantitative research represents what
might be described as a traditional view of
science – that is measuring hard data and
accounting for the results in statistical
terms.
To do this in a sound and reliable way the
data collected must be objective and not
biased.

Qualitative Research
Qualitative research searches for meaning in a given
situation and therefore collects data in the form of
words – the medium by which most of us normally
explore meaning.
This is known as an “inductive” approach to research –
the purpose of the research being to find out what
people think and to bring that knowledge into view.
The inductive approach seeks to generate ideas rather
than test existing ideas.

Quantitative or Qualitative
Researches will often prefer one method over
the other.
Quantitative v Qualitative
Many would say that both have their place.
Consider horse racing as an example. We can
gather hard facts, Quantitative, material that
tells us about the horse, its age, gender, results,
handicap. This is a useful guide to selecting a
horse to bet on However…

What other information might we like to have?
Would seeing the horse help us?
Who might we want to talk to about the horse?

The fact is our chances of a winning bet will be greater when
we have more knowledge.
To this end we will want both Quantitative data – perhaps
gathered from published facts and statistics and we will want to
add Qualitative information perhaps gathered from the owner
or the jockey or an experts observations.

Qualitative or Quantitative
• Qualitative research
• Focuses on unknown
• Data in words
• Searches for
meanings
• Researcher interacts
with people being
studied
• Quantitative research
• Focuses on known
issues
• Data in numbers
• Identifies trends
• Researcher distant
from people being
studied

Triangulation
• Triangulation – is the use of more than
one method of collecting or interpreting
data,
• E.g. using observation and interviews
or
• Structured questionnaires and
interviews

We can see that Quantitative and Qualitative
are not mutually exclusive. In many studies
people will use a mix of both in their
approaches to collecting data.
Hence we have Triangulation – a mix of
methods which assists in stronger verification
of the research.

Assessing Probabilities
• Harry was very creative as a child and
loved attention. He didn’t always feel ‘part
of the gang’ and this led to a desire to try
to impress others with his talents. He went
through school rather self-obsessed, and
tried his hand at any creative field. He
really enjoyed any opportunity to give a
presentation or to show off in front of an
audience.

Take a look at the following statements regarding Harry as an
adult, and place them in order of most likely to least likely:
• A Harry is an accountant.
• B Harry is a professional actor.
• C Harry enjoys going to classical
concerts.
• D Harry is a professional actor and
enjoys going to classical concerts.

The power of numbers?
• A terrible disease is reported and although it
affects only 1:10 000 people it is absolutely
lethal. You are worried about contracting it so go
to see your doctor to take a test to see if you
have it. No medical test is ever 100% accurate
and your doctor explains that this one is 99%
reliable. In other words it will give a correct
positive (or negative) result 99% of the time. You
take the test and a blood sample is taken and
sent away and you are told you will receive the
results in the post.

How worried should you be?
• A week later you receive the results and
after opening the envelope see that the
test is positive, you have the lethal
disease.
• What are the chances of you having it?
• But....

Any Questions?

Research Methods - an overview

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