Basic development design

• Basic Research Designs


  • Descriptive
  • Case Study
  • Ethnographic Studies
  • Correlational Study
  • Experiment
  • Quasi-Experiment
• Descriptive


  Aims to observe and record behavior
• Case Study


  • Study of a certain individual or group
  • Useful in rare cases
  • Offers useful, in-depth information
  • Can explore sources of behavior, test treatments, and suggest directions for further research
  • Cannot be easily generalized to other population
  • Cannot make strong causal statements
• Ethnographic Studies


  • Seek to describe the pattern of relationships, customs, beliefs, technology, arts, and traditions that make up a society's way of life
  • Case study of the culture
  • Open to observer bias
  • Help overcome cultural biases in theory and research
  • Debunks the logic of western developed theories can be universally applied
• Correlational Study


  • Determine whether a correlation exist between variables, phenomena that change or vary among people or can be varied for purposes of research
  • Study of the relationship between one variable and another without manipulation
  • No random assignment
  • Lack of control over extraneous variables
  • Cannot establish causation
  • Used to study many important issues that cannot be studies experimentally for ethical reasons
  • Can study multiple influences operating in natural settings
• Experiment


  • Controlled procedure which the experiment manipulated variables to learn how one affects another
  • Establish cause-and-effect
  • Permit replication
  • Manipulation
  • Could encounter ethical issues
  • Can be artificial
• Quasi-Experiment


  Natural experiment; compares people who have been accidentally assigned to separate groups by circumstances of life
• Quasi-Experiment is actually a correlational study