Hello all researchers
I am going to develop and prepare a PhD research proposal and am interested in designing experimental research. Due to my research design, the first study will focus on qualitative (interview) to explore variables, and connecting with the second study will focus on quantitative by using the first study variables as independent variables to find an effect on dependent variables. As a quantitative step, I will give the questionnaire to people who have been using Instagram for more than a year (pre-stage). Can I select samples from the pre-stage to do a focus group if I want to study them deeply via the post-stage to see their post-experience with them?
For example,
Study 1: qualitative to explore variables
Study 2: quantitative to find an effect using the SEM model (pre-stage). The outcome will be on behavior intention. Then, for the post-stage, I will conduct qualitative research as a focus group to extend the outcome as post-experience (after using).
Are they involved in the experimental research design?
First, clean up your purpose. Experimental means you will have control/experimental groups and manipulate a variable. Are you doing that? You might be quasi-experimental, descriptive, or some other type.
Then decide briefly what is the end result and how will you get there.
in social science research experimental design is almost impossible and never possible-- closest would be quasi experimental; similarly experimental is no used/possible in qualitative research. please read up on experimental and quasi experimental designs.
Sorry for being blunt. You are looking at the wrong end of the telescope. Start with an interesting research question that is capable of being answered. And yes it is possible to use an experimental design with controls and randomisation in social science.
Kelvyn Jones-- yes but not that simple and very specific; please document, provide resources or explain
See the classic Montgomery Design and analysis of experiments. I believe the key point in Prof. Jones reply is that you start with a question (s) that you wish to study not with a design. The question leads to the design which is a organized way (experimental) to answer the question. Best wishes David Booth
"...you start with a question (s) that you wish to study not with a design..." that goes for any research; "design which is a organized way (experimental) .." is not what experimental means/defined
Mary-Helen Castanuela I have a shelf of books detailing experimental methods in the social sciences - here are just a few
Druckman, J. N., Green, D. P., Kuklinski, J. H., & Lupia, A. (Eds.) (2011). Cambridge Handbook of Experimental Political Science. Cambridge University Press
John, P (2016) Field Experiments in Political Science and Public Policy: Practical Lessons in Design and Delivery, Routledge.
Kittel, B., Luhan, W. J., & Morton, R.B. (Eds) (2012) Experimental Political Science: Principles and Practices. Palgrave-Macmillan
Morton, R.B. & Williams, K. (2010). Experimental Political Science and the Study of Causality. From Nature to the Lab. Cambridge University Press.
It is also worth reading this very thoughtful account by a noted qualitative researcher:
Oakley, A (2000) Experiments in Knowing: Gender and Method in the Social Sciences.
And this classic article:
Oakley A. Who's afraid of the randomized controlled trial? Some dilemmas of the scientific method and "good" research practice. Women Health. 1989;15(4):25-59. doi: 10.1300/j013v15n04_02. PMID: 2618063.
I make no claim about it being easy or straightforward.
a list of books??? i'm laughing-- i guess u never taught a classroom. as one of my professors would tell us, "if u can't explain it, u don't understand it."
Mary Helen, then your professor was a fool. You can't explain an entire subject in one paragraph. In my opinion the most concise basic explanation was by Mendenhall's Design and analysis of experiments the most comprehensive one that I have used Is Montgomery Design and analysis of experiments, if you wish a single sentence, experiment design is the subject that allows one to get the most useable information that is statisticly valid at a known level of accuracy. If that doesn't suffice then read a book. You may have noticed that research publications in your field are longer than you requested. Perhaps those people know something that you don't.
David Booth
Emeritus Professor of Statistics
he was not a fool but sound like u r-- u can certainly explain something in a para or 2 and a long list of books was certainly a fool's answer
Mary Helen thank you for your advice I am certainly a fool but if you can do that for experimental design then you easily qualify as certainly my better. I invite you to try. I noticed that you claimed none of us know what experimental design is but if as you claimed it's impossible in your field perhaps you can enlighten us by giving us a paragraph description of exactly why it is impossible in your field. Best wishes and looking forward to your reply. David Booth
Mary-Helen Castanuela
Sorry I was not clear. You wrote "in social science research experimental design is almost impossible ". The list of books was to try and refute that. In recent years people have been trying to develop and apply all sorts of novel experimental approaches.
There are of course situations where you would use other approaches, and that is why I stressed that the research question should come first.
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