The document discusses research design and its key principles. It defines research design as a plan or blueprint for conducting a study that maximizes control over interfering factors and validity of findings. Some key points made:
- Research design refers to how a study will be conducted, the type of data collected, and means used to obtain the data.
- Reliability refers to consistency of data, while validity refers to accuracy and truth of measurements.
- Threats to validity include history, selection, testing, instrumentation, maturation, and mortality.
- Descriptive, experimental, and qualitative designs are three basic types of research design.