Research Design

paper_data_gathering_-_order_2200493_0 study_notes_1

Please answer each question within that question’s section, quoting at least one reference to support your writing – use proper APA citation. EACH QUESTION MUST HAVE AT LEAST 1 QUOTE. I will use this data to craft the paper. 6 – 7 Pages total work. Use same writer as order #2199054

Please answer each question within that question’s section, quoting at least one reference to support your writing – use proper APA citation. EACH QUESTION MUST HAVE AT LEAST 1 QUOTE. I will use this data to craft the paper. 6 – 7 Pages total work.

REFERENCES ARE:

Creswell, J. W. (2007). Qualitative Inquiry & Research Design: Choosing Among Five Approaches. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.

Singleton, R.A., Straits, B. C. (2010). Approach to Social Research (5th,ed). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

READ THE REFERENCES TO GET THE BELOW DATA NEEDED FOR THE PAPER

1. Describe what methodological empathy is and why it is important in field research. (1 – 2 PARAGRAPHS)

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2. What are the strengths and weaknesses of field research as compared with experimental and survey research?  Please make direct comparisons with survey or experimental as appropriate. (1 – 2 PARAGRAPHS)

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3. Describe how non-participant observation and participant observation are different. (1 – 2 PARAGRAPHS)

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4. Set up a causal-comparative study to use that data (see #4 Data Below on next page). Remember when you set up a casual-comparative study, you will use existing data. For example you might want to compare the number of complaints to customer service with sales charts. You might want to compare performance evaluations with employee morale or employee performance. Respond to the items below. (2 PARAGRAPHS PER LETTERED ITEM, Separated by Lettered Question)

A. Describe how you would set up the study. Include the independent and dependent variables.

B. Where would you obtain the raw data and how would you retrieve it?

C. How would you measure those variables-comparisons you would make? Include what statistics you would use. 

D. What extraneous variables might interfere with possible cause and effect?

E. What do you think the results might be like and what might be the value of the study to your organization?

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5. Describe what you think would be the most difficult part of writing up the results of a qualitative study.  Why would the factor you selected be difficult? (1 PARAGRAPH)

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6.  Suppose you wanted to do a case study of an organization that is allegedly having trouble with employee morale. Describe how you would set up the methods including the following. (Make sure your focus is on morale-you may want to do a bit of reading on employee morale before responding to the assignment. You do not need to set up a program to deal with what you might find.) (2 PARAGRAPHS PER LETTERED ITEM, Separated by Lettered Question)

A. What types of data gathering would you use? (Remember you need multiple data sources)
B. How would you select employees for participation? (A purposive sample should be strongly considered.)
C. How would you record information you collected?
D. How would you analyze the data? (Creswell suggest specific methods for analyzing case studies.)
E. Against what would you judge success or lack of success of the study? (Remember what you are studying) 

DATA FOR NUMBER #4 ABOVE (in Blue):

1. Select a topic and set up an experimental or quasi-experimental design. Describe all the elements you would include and why you would include those. Some content to include follows: (1/2 page total)
a. What is the problem you are addressing?
Determine credibility of two outsourced pharmacy continuing education vendors and their programs.
b. What is the name of the design?
The Posttest-Only Control Group Design
c. Why would you use that design?
No pretest required – it is the simplest form of the experiment. There are many situations where a pre-test is impossible because the participants have already been exposed to the treatment, or it would be too expensive or too time-consuming. Also, the control group is large in size. The population has already been exposed to this information previously, this is continued education.
d. How would you sample and assign participants?
There are 98 pharmacists, 267 pharmacy techs, 48 specialists and 34 clinicians along with 40 members of management.
Of the total the sample size would be about 5% with the group comprised the in the following manner then split between programs:
Pharmacist: 20% or 6 FTE
Pharmacy Techs: 54% or 12 FTE
Specialists: 10% or 4 FTE
Clinicians: 7% or 2 FTE
Management: 9% or 2 FTE
The computer application would compile all above employee types, find like tenure within the pharmacy department and randomly select subjects to fulfill the above numbers, then equally divide amongst the two vendor programs.
e. What would the treatment be?
An equal split of the total population sample size by role would attend each of the vendors continuing education programs. Each subject would be given a questionnaire on the program as well as take an aptitude test to determine the amount of knowledge gained as compare to the questionnaire data. This is difficult since the subject have been exposed to this data before. Tenure would off-set this variable.
f. What sources of internal invalidity does the design control? What extraneous variables might interfere with your research?
Intelligence or knowledge retention may affect this study as some learn and retain knowledge better than others. Internal validity control comes in selection and tenure in the position, but not necessarily the knowledge – I am struggling with this piece. I can control the testing and questionnaire sets.
g. What level of significance would you set and why?
5% was chosen because the methodology in selecting /assigning the population.
h. Will this be a causal relationship? Why or why not?
Each group will have their pharmacy knowledge (dependent) affected, but by how much and which group will retain that that knowledge longer based on how the information was delivered (independent)?

END OF DATE FOR #4

Study notes
Some of the information below may be repetitive of what you have read in Creswell. In chapter 10, Singleton addressed field research, which overlaps with some qualitative designs, but for Singleton it is different from qualitative research because field research often involves quantification and more than simply observation. (Sometimes qualitative research also involves quantification) What Singleton addressed as field research is out the traditions of sociology and anthropology. Field research is probably more like ethnography than it is like other qualitative designs.
In a previous unit, we mentioned the use of existing data for research. Sometimes using data that are available lessens the data gathering task because you do not have to be dependent on others to return a survey or agree to an interview. Here is a good example of the use of existing data in a causal-comparative design. A former Princeton student who was in the Education program and is an assistant principal did her dissertation using existing data. She wanted to know if the reading scores on a standardized test (ITBS) were different after a new approach to teaching reading than before the new approach began. She went back to 1991 and recorded scores of 1st and 2nd graders for a five-year period before the intervention in 1996. Then she obtained scores of 1st and 2nd graders for five years after the new program and then did a number of statistical comparisons. She found significant differences on the comparisons so it would appear that the new approach to reading was effective. She could have set up a quasi-experimental design, but unless she did it for a number of years, she would not have had nearly as much data. This is a case in which it was not feasible to do an experimental design, but she obtained useful data.
Not all research using available data is causal-comparative. Much is descriptive. Probably the use of available data for research is among the top three types of designs used. Think of all the studies that come from the U.S. Census every ten years. You may have some good data stored at your place of employment. One researcher in Arizona has studied the trash/garbage of people for 25 years to find out how they live. Can you imagine sifting through someone’s trash for 25 years? He has, however, learned a great deal about how the people whose trash he has swiped in the Tucson area live.
Moving back now to Chapter 10 in Singleton. While qualitative research is simply not acceptable to some researchers, in many ways, it can be more valuable than quantitative research when specificity and correctness are not necessary. Probably about 40% of Princeton students do some type of qualitative research for their dissertations.
Singleton refers to qualitative research as field research. He simply uses a broad category to cover various kinds because qualitative research is done in the real world (field).
One primary difference between quantitative and qualitative research is the way data are analyzed. In quantitative research, analysis is done using some quantitative measure-numbers-statistics. In qualitative research the researcher is the instrument of the analysis. That, of course, leaves room for bias so extra care must be taken when analyzing data. Qualitative research is often more difficult to do because you must come up with a method of analysis and then analyze the data drawing from your own brain.
Below is a list of some qualitative designs and a brief description of what each is.
1. Case study – To understand one person or situation or perhaps a very small number in great depth such as one might do in historical case studies or an organizational case study. You can study many entities using case study-schools-organizations-churches-businesses-basically anything that you can put a boundary around, you can study using case study techniques.
2. Ethnography – To understand how behaviors reflect the culture of the group. (Margaret Mead studied people of some Pacific islands for years) (A 5’2″ female psychologist lived with the Crips or Bloods-don’t remember which one-for two years to study their behavior-gutsy huh?)
3. Phenomenological – To understand an experience from another’s point of view.
4. Grounded theory – To try to derive a theory from data collected in a natural setting.
5. Content analysis – To identify the specific characteristics of a body of material. (Leedy, 2001 p. 157)(This could be quantitative or qualitative)
If you want to research something that is better studied using a qualitative method, do some reading of any of he following-Yin, Merriam, Stake, Creswell.
In chapter 9, Creswell describes factors you should address in writing the results of a qualitative study. Please note the differences.