Research process 1. Formulation of a research problem 5. Writing the research proposal 2. Creation of a research design 6. Collecting data 3.

Constructing instruments for data collection 7. Processing data 4. Selecting a sample 8. Writing the report Main Steps in Quantitative Research: 1. Theory 7. Administer research instruments/ collect 2. Hypothesis data 3. Research design 8. Process data 4. Devise measures of concepts 9. Analyse data 5. Select research site(s) 10. Write up findings and conclusions 6. Select research subjects/respondents Main Steps in Qualitative Research 1. General research question 6. Tighter specification of the research 2. Select relevant site(s) and subjects question 3. Collection of relevant data 7. Collection of further data 4. Interpretation of data 8. Conceptual and theoretical work 5. Conceptual and theoretical work 9. Write up findings Formulating research problem 1. Tasks: 2. Literature review 3. Formulating the research problem 4. Identifying variables 5. Constructing hypotheses Methods for generating ideas 1. Rational thinking 2. Creative thinking Examining your own strengths and Keeping a notebook of ideas interests Exploring personal preferences using past Looking at past project titles projects Discussion Relevance trees Searching the literature Brainstorming Factors to consider in the choice of a research topic 1. Novel When considering a research topic, the researcher has to focus on one which has not been investigated before. 2. Interesting 3. Relevant 4. Feasible 5. Researchable 6. Ethical Sources of lit: 1. Books 2. Journals 3. Electronic resources: online and offline Guidelines in doing the Review 1. Search for existing literature in the library and on the web; 2. Prepare a working bibliography. 3. Examine each material, then decide which ones will actually be included in your review Characteristics of the Review 1. The text of the review should be brief and to the point. 2. Have a plan on how you are to present the review. 1

3. Emphasize relatedness 4. Review the literature, dont reproduce it Writing the Review Approaches to presenting the review: 1. Chronological Literature and studies are presented according to the year they were written 2. Thematic Literature and studies with the same findings are grouped together 3. Country of origin Literature and studies are categorized based on the country/continent where they came from. A. Introduction B. Foreign literature & studies C. Local literature & studies D. Synthesis of the review It is in the introduction where you make your readers aware of your approach in presenting the related literature; It is the synthesis where you specify the uniqueness of your study vis--vis the literature you had just discussed in the review. Defining Key Terms Two types of definitions: 1. Conceptual definition definition of a term as given by authoritative sources (e.g. Websters dictionary; 2. Operational definition researchers own definition, based on how it will be used in the study This requires the researcher to specify actions or operations necessary to identify and measure the term Formulation of objectives 1. Objectives are goals of your study 2. Main objectives 3. Secondary or sub-objectives 4. They must be clear, complete and specific(SMART)

Identifying variables A variable refers to a concept or perception that takes on different values and that can be measured. Types of variables: Independent variables (they are responsible for bringing about change in a phenomenon, situation). the cause supposed to be responsible for the bringing about change in a phenomenon or situation. Dependent variables (effects of a change variable, the outcome of the changes brought about by changes in an independent variable) the outcome of change brought about by change in the independent variable Extraneous variables(Moderator variable). other factors that affect the changes bring about by independent variables. A variable that may or may not be controlled but has an effect on the research situation/phenomenon Intervening variables (confounding variables) . those that link the independent and dependent variables. a variable whose existence is inferred but cannot be manipulated or controlled Example -Does a commitment to ethics among media practitioners depend on their educational or professional training? 1. Independent variable: educational attainment of journalist. 2. Dependent variables: ethical behavior, knowledge of Code of Ethics 3. Intervening variable: newsroom policies 4. Moderator variables: civil status, age, years of work experience Constructing hypotheses 1. a tentative statement about something, the validity of which is usually unknown 2. It should be simple, specific and conceptually clear Research design 1. It is the plan, structure and strategy of investigating the research problem. 2. It is an operational plan 3. Procedures to be adopted 4. Testing the design

I. Theory Building: Concepts and Hypotheses We construct theories for two reasons. First, we hope they will help simplify reality so that we might understand it, in order better to control it or adapt to it. Second, once we have developed such an understanding, theories can guide us in testing its accuracy. Theories are sets of logically related symbols that represent what we think happens in the world. They are simply intellectual tools. An inadequate knowledge of the facts could have fundamentally misdirected our theory-building efforts. This is why exploratory research, which is designed to establish the facts, is important. The process of generalizing from what we have observed to what we have not or cannot observe is called induction. It forms the basis of scientific theory. Theories built through inductions from observations are said to be empirically grounded. This process of reasoning from the abstract and general to the concrete and specific is known as deduction. We all use deductive logic in everyday life. Deduction is the process that enables us to use theories to explain real-world events.
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The process of theory construction generally involves the interaction of both inductive and deductive logic in the following stages: 1. we use induction to translate what we have observed into assumptions; 2. we employ deduction to derive predictions; 3. we test these predictions against new observations; and 4. we revise our assumptions to make them consistent with the results of our observations. For a theory to be useful in explaining observations, it must meet several standards. -It must be testable. Can the theory be related to the world in systematic ways, or is it only a set of abstractions? -It must be logically sound. Is the theory internally consistent? Are its assumptions compatible, and the terms it contains unambigious? -It must be communicable. Can other, properly trained people understand the theory in ways that allow them to use it to explain events and to come up with tests of hypotheses derived from it? -It must be general. Is it possible to use it to explain a variety of events in different times and places? -It must be parsimonious. Is it simple enough to be readily applied and understood, or is it so complex, so filled with conditions and exceptions, that it is difficult to derive explicit expectations about real-world events from it? Theories are composed of sets of concepts that are related by propositions logically derived from a set of assumptions. The quest for a useful theory begins with the decisions we make about the building blocks of theories: concepts. A concept is merely a word or symbol that represents some idea. The point is that concepts, like theories, do not have a life of their own. They are tools we create for specific purposes and can not be labeled true or false, but only more or less useful. What makes a concept useful? There are three major considerations. First, since we are involved in empirical inquiry, the concept, if it is to be useful, must refer to phenomena that are at least potentially observable. If it is to have any scientific value, a concept must refer to something in some way measurable with our ordinary senses. This does not mean that all concepts must refer to directly observable things. Some of the most useful concepts in the social sciences refer to properties we can not observe directly. Second, in addition to empirical referents, concepts must be precise. They must refer to one and only one set of properties of some phenomenon. We must be able to know exactly what we are talking about when we use a concept to describe an object. Precision is important because it tells us what to observe in order to see how a concept is manifested in any given case. Only if we can see this can we use the concept in empirically grounded explanations. Finally, useful concepts have theoretical import. A concept has theoretical import when it is related to enough other concepts in the theory that it plays an essential role in the explanation of observed events.

theory makes concepts useful by trying them together so that they can be used in formulating explanations. Theories tie concepts to one another by stating relationships between them. These statements take the form of propositions derived from our assumptions. Propositions generally posit one of two major types of relationship among concepts. These are covariation and causation. Covariational relationship indicates that two or more concepts tend to change together. As one increases (or decreases), the other increases (or decreases). Covariational relationships tell us nothing about what causes the two concepts to change together. Causal relationships state that changes in one or more concepts lead to or cause changes in one or more other concepts. Theory testing is at the center of the research process. Because our theories are generally developed from bits of knowledge about actual relationships, the tasks of the theory testing are essentially those of using the theory to formulate some expectations about other relationships we have not observed and then checking to see whether actual observations are consistent with what we expect to find. We cannot rely on relationships we have already observed, because showing that the theory leads us to expect the very relationships the theory was built to explain would be no test at all. Theories, as sets of concepts, assumptions, and propositions, are never finally proved or disproved. Rather, our confidence in the usefulness of a theory builds as we accumulate observations that are consistent with the expectations or hypotheses derived from it. Alternatively, our confidence diminishes as we accumulate observations that are inconsistent with theoretically derived from hypotheses. Therefore, what we refer to as theory testing actually reduces to hypothesis testing. Theory elaboration is based largely on a process of comparing hypothesized conditions with reality and, once we have the results, modifying our theory so that the hypothese that can be derived from it are more and more consistent with what we observe. A hypothesis is essentially a statement of what we believe to be factual. It tells what we expect to find when we make properly organized observations of reality A variable may be defined as an empirically observable characteristic of some phenomenon that can take on more than one value. Variables that are thought to change value in response to changes in the value of other variables are referred to as dependent variables. Their value depends on the value of other variables. Variables that influence the value of other variables through changes in their own values are referred to as independent variables. On the other hand, intervening variables provide the link between independent and dependent variables. Antecedent variables constitute the final type of variable that is important in this regard. Whereas intervening variables come between independent and dependent variables, antecedent variables come into play before the independent variable does. Using both intervening and antecedent variables in our theories helps to clarify the causal chains at work in creating the phenomena we want to explain. It gives us more of a basis for deriving hypotheses through which we can test the utility of our theories, because hypotheses are essentially statements of relationships between variables. Hypotheses provide a basis for collecting evidence about the empirical utility of our theoretical structure. The more numerous and the more detailed the relationships we postulate, the more predictions we can make about the world and therefore the more potential tests we have of our theory.
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Formulating Hypotheses We arrive at hypothses by either inductive or deductive reasoning. If we are still using trial and error to construct a theory, we might develop hypotheses by a process of inductive generalization. Hypotheses arrived at inductively can be important in exploratory research, which helps us construct theories, but they do not help us explain phenomena. Once we have stated a theory relating to our variables in a logically coherent system, we can derive hypotheses from that theory by deductive reasoning. The important point here is that evidence about the accuracy of hypotheses represents evidence about the accuracy of a theory, only when the hypotheses are linked to the theory by deductive logic. alternative rival hypothsesis states that the relationship between any two variables is spurious and that changes in both are in fact due to some third factor. This type of alternative rival hypothesis is especially useful in theory testing because it suggests a research finding that gives us a solid basis for judging which of the two hypotheses in question is more accurate. Social scientists do not spend much time groping in thin air hoping to find the shape of social status. Instead they devise concrete representations, which they can measure more directly. The abstract concepts are called constructs, the concrete representations are called variables, and the procedures for measuring variables are called operational definitions. A. Constructs Constructs are the abstractions that social and behavioral scientists discuss in their theories. For instance, power could be represented by the amount of influence a person has at work, at home, in the neighborhood, or in the mass media. Each of these gives some indication of a persons power; no one alone contains the whole truth. Each of these representations is a different variable, but they are all related to the construct. Taken together (along with some other things), they are what we mean when we speak of power. Variables are representations of constructs. They cannot be synonymous with a construct because any single construct has many different variables. Therefore, variables are partial representations of constructs, and we work with them because they are measurable. Being more concrete than the construct, the variable suggests some steps we can take to measure it. These steps are called operational definitions. An operational definition specifies how to measure a variable so that you can assign someone a score such as high, medium, or low social power. That is, an operational definition is the sequence of steps or procedures a researcher follows to obtain a measurement. experimental strategy of inquiry, and pre-and posttest measures of attitudes. In this scenario, the researcher tests a theory by specifying narrow hypotheses and the collection of data to support or refute the hypotheses. An experimental design is used in which attitudes are assessed both before and after an experimental treatment. The data are collected on an instrument that measures attitudes, and the information collected is analyzed using statistical procedures and hypothesis testing. ethnographic design, and observation of behavior. In this situation the researcher seeks to establish the meaning of a phenomenon from the view of participants. This means identifying a culture-sharing group and studying how it developed shared patterns of behavior over time (i.e., ethnography). One of the key elements of collecting data is to observe participants behaviors by participating in their activities. design, and open-ended interviewing. For this study, the inquirer seeks to examine an issue related to oppression of
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individuals. To study this, the approach is taken of collecting stories of individuals oppression using a narrative approach. Individuals are interviewed at some length to determine how they have personally experienced oppression. of both quantitative and qualitative data sequentially. The researcher bases the inquiry on the assumption that collecting diverse types of data best provides on understanding of a research problem. The study begins with a broad survey in order to generalize results to a population and then focuses, in a second phase, on detailed qualitative, open-ended interviews to collect detailed views from participants. CRITERIA FOR SELECTING AN APPROACH Given these three approaches, what factors affect a choice of one approach over another for the design of a proposal? Thee considerations play into this decision: the research problem the personal experiences of the researcher, an the audience (s) for whom the report will be written. if the problem is identifying factors that influence an outcome, the utility of an intervention, or understanding the best predictors in outcomes, then a quantitative approach is best. It is also the best approach to sue o test a theory or explanation. On the other hand, if a concept or phenomenon needs to be understood because little research has been done on it, then it merits a qualitative approach. Qualitative research is exploratory and is useful when the researcher does not know the important variable to examine. This type of approach may be needed because the topic is new,