Research Questions to Research Design Week 9

1. DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY
Research Questions to Research
Design (SY7034)
Edmund Chattoe-Brown
ecb18@le.ac.uk
Thursdays 1500-1700 (Brookfield 0.24)

2. WEEK 9

3. 1. Plan
• Administration.
• The logic of qualitative and quantitative research.
• Quantitative exercise.
• Break.
• Supervision and feedback.
• Qualitative exercise.
• My “formative”.
• Other methods?

4. 2. Administration
• Registration.
• https://leicester.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/sy7034-
research-questions-to-research-design-2014

5. 3. Qualitative and quantitative revisited
• You really need to understand this “deeply”.
• I still had quite a number of people telling me about
“variables” or “factors” in qualitative research. No!
• Combining design, method, data and analysis in a
way that has a certain logic.
• Numbers versus narratives? What can you do with
numbers scientifically? What can you do with
narratives scientifically?
• Variants exist: For example quantitative analysis of
observational data.

6. 4. Quantitative Research 1
What is the cross-
national relationship
between time spent
eating and obesity rate?
Does eating more slowly
stop you getting fat?
How does slow eating
prevent obesity?

7. 5. Quantitative Research 2
• What data do we need? Household time diaries and
maybe “administrative data” (don’t need to ask people
what they weigh let alone if they are “fat?”)
• How much data do we need? The intended tests
decide. What happens if we get more data?
• Which countries do we need and why? Has this
research been “messed up” by country selection?
• How “good” (convincing?) is the line?
• How do we justify a curved line not a straight line?

8. 6. Quantitative Research 3
• Multiple regression: Effects of several things at once.
• But how can we know about this when everything
varies at once?
• Big sample allows us to look for “matched” data in
some variables. But this means data must also be
“well spread” over the alternatives. (No good having
1000 butchers and 1000 “other professions”.)
• The logic of quantitative research is thus maximal
relevant variability and minimum bias.

9. 7. Qualitative research 1
• R: But obviously, erm, when I retired I got a lump sum [I: Uh huh] and I got a
redundancy which I didn’t really I should have but everybody had it but still
[tails off] …
• I: Oh. Even though you were retiring …
• R: Yes well I retire … what happened was that our nurse education
department was going into university status and I was four months off being
sixty and I intended to retire then so they offered me (and many others) a
very good package.
• I: Oh! Mmm. That’s very nice of them.
• R: So that is erm whereby that I’m I invested … well, I moved from a very
small flat to this house [I: Uh huh.] because I felt I wanted more freedom [to
retire?] Erm. But going back to your original question … erm … oh yes … I
mean it’s the state pension and my NHS pension that I try and live on. A lot
of what I got from my package (other than buying the house ‘cos there’s
quite a discrepancy between the flat and here) I’ve invested in things like
building society bonds, erm, I’ve got a TESSA, I’ve got a what’s the other
one, er a PEP [I: Right.] Those sort of things.

10. 8. Qualitative research 2
• Narratives: Not counting anything.
• Even comparing men and women talking about
budgets we would want to avoid quantification
(although we might talk about different gendered
“themes”.)
• “Findings”: Two bank accounts and practices for
moving between them. Varying “controllability” as
required.
• Why can’t we answer: “How much does poverty affect
reported levels of budgetary control?”

11. 9. Qualitative research 3
• What data do we need? Lots of “raw” conversation
about the “right stuff” (but not the “right answers” if
such things exist). Look at how little I talked and I am
a “gabby” interviewer.
• Arguably aiming for minimal variation: How do retired
white men manage money? You aren’t exploring
variations but commonalities and you can’t explore 5
variations with 20 interviews anyway.
• How much data do I need? The data will tell you. (Not
the statistical test.)

12. 10. Exercise 1 (30 minutes)
• Design, in as much detail as you can, a survey to research
rumours.
• What is an appropriate research question?
• Who do you need to survey and how many?
• Where would you get them?
• What would be good questions to ask?
• What are the drawbacks of using a survey to research rumours?
How can these be reduced?
• What are the advantages of using a survey to research
rumours?

13. 11. Break
• 10 minute “comfort break”.

14. 12. The logic of supervision
• The supervisor mustn’t do anything that stops the work
“belonging” to the student. This is a “dry run”.
• You need to be able to respond effectively to feedback and to
be confident about whether you have actually done so. (But
you are allowed to get feedback on the feedback!)
• This is a specific employability (and PhD) skill.
• Applies to formatives too: We can’t “approve” your summative
nor can we keep feeding back on drafts till you “get it right”.
• Practical reasons: Comparability, can only assess “the actual
document”, I’m not the sole marker.
• Watch out for supervision avoidance behaviour.

15. 13. Concerns
• Deja vu: “Don’t ask in 5 weeks time about things
already in the module handbook.” (Week 1.)
• Missing slides example.
• Reading allergy?

16. 14. Exercise 2 (30 minutes)
• Design, in as much detail as you can, qualitative interviews to
research rumours.
• What is an appropriate research question?
• Who do you need to interview and how many?
• Where would you get them?
• What would be good questions to ask?
• What are the drawbacks of using qualitative interviews to
research rumours? How can these be reduced?
• What are the advantages of using qualitative interviews to
research rumours?

17. 15. My “formative”
• Two pages including references.
• Done in about 2 hours at one sitting including references. (Not
a fair comparison but the fairest I could manage.)
• 4 articles, 1 “general” book, 1 “grace” citation.
• Fitted to two pages by editing, margins, font type. No cutting of
content: Actually adding at the end!
• 1430 odd words already: You can probably see how easy it
would be to expand some sections (like literature review).
• I would draw “negative” feedback for my comparative design.
• No “cheating”: Notice I didn’t use any technical knowledge in
discussing research design.

18. 16. Exercise 3 (if time)
• What other research methods might deal with the
drawbacks of a survey or qualitative interviews about
rumours?
• We should be able to return to this next week.

19. 17. Next week
• Déjà vu: “The more you put in, the more you will get
out.”
• Last chance to discuss things not understood, ask
(appropriate) questions and so on. (Email me to
prepare?)