STAGE	FIELD RESEARCH	DOCUMENTARY / CONTENT ANALYSIS	SURVEY RESEARCH	EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH
DEFINITION	Systematic observation of a group of individuals within their own setting for the purpose of understanding another way of life from the native point of view.	Technique for gathering and analyzing the content of communication.	Method for collecting responses to a set of standardized questions from a relatively large number of people.	Method used for investigating cause-and-effect relationships using the the features of manipulation, comparison and control.
PURPOSE	Description, Exploration. (1) Describe social action and social processes of a group (2) Describe meanings, practices,. relationships, experiences, episodes, behavior of a group (3) Exploration of a new topic	Description, Exploration. (1) Identify ideas, themes, topics trends in communication	Description, Exploration, Explanation. (1) Describe characteristics of a population. (2) Describe or explore attitudes, opinions, beliefs, experiences, behavior, or knowledge of a group of people.	Explanation. (1) Test specific hypotheses regarding possible causal relationships.
PROCESS	(1) Select a research topic (2) Choose site and gain access (3) Establish relations with members; may involve adopting a social role within the group (4) Find reliable and resourceful informants (5) collect data through observation, participation, interviews with informants, analysis of documents, etc.	(1) Select medium of communication (i.e. verbal, visual, auditory) (2) Determine unit of observation (i.e. article) and sampling unit (i.e. newspaper) (3) Develop a systematic coding scheme (4) Code content of communication; manifest and latent coding (5) Analyze and interpret data (7) Prepare a report	(1) Determine information needs and prepare project proposal. (2) Select sample design and sampling procedure. (3) Compose the measurement instrument including draft documents, the questionnaire, and ancillary materials (cover letter, follow -up letter) (4) Train interviewers, supervisors, quality control engineers (if necessary) (4) Collect data via mail or interview (5) Edit returned questionnaires and enter data (6) Analyze and interpret data (7) Generate report: should include narrative text as well as tables and graphs	(1) Select research topic and develop a clear causal hypothesis focused on a few key variables. (2) Develop valid and reliable measures for dependent variable. (3) Select the appropriate experimental design (classical, pre, quasi) (4) Select the subjects and assign them to experimental and control groups using random assignment or matching (5) consider issues of internal and external validity and minimize any threats (6) Perform the experiment according to the design (i.e. classical experiment would involve pretest-treatment-posttest) (7) Debrief the participants (8) Analyze and interpret the data, and prepare a report.
QUANDIMENSION	Noting frequency of behavior or events. Observational studies often have strong quantitative aspect.	Noting how often words, phrases or images occur and how much time and space is devoted of them; frequency, intensity and direction	Data generated by closed-ended questions are transformed into numbers for analysis	Measurement of dependent variable before and after the introduction of the treatment variable.
QUALDIMENSION	Written description of behavior and events. Narrative storytelling.	Content analysis/coding of open-ended questions; qualitative data generated by focus groups	Content analysis/coding of open-ended questions; qualitative data generated by focus groups	Description of participants' feeling during and after the experiment revealed during debriefing

• objectivity of consideration (not examples, not divergences, not analogies, but the thing-in-itself).
• category, comparison of characteristics that differentiate the entire totality of the relations of this thing to others.
• birth, growth, emergence, development of this thing, (phenomenon, respectively), its own movement, its own life.
• internally contradictory tendencies (and sides) in this thing, its internal engine, its source of motion, its driving force, its combustion chamber of opposites.
• classification of the actual thing (phenomenon, the reality, the thing-in-of-itself) as the sum and unity of opposites.
• following the battles, the back and forth of elements internal to the object, the struggle, respectively unfolding, of these opposites, and contradictory strivings..
• union of analysis and synthesis - the breakdown of the separate parts and the totality, the summation of these parts.
• relations of each thing (phenomenon, etc.) are not only manifold, but general, universal. Each thing (phenomenon, etc.) is connected with every other.
• not only the unity of opposites, but the transitions of every determination, quality, feature, side, property into every other [into its opposite?].
• from co-existence to causality and from one form of connection and reciprocal dependence to another, deeper, more general form.
• the spiral, the circle of higher repetition of certain features, properties, etc., of the lower
• in sum, the birth, development, unity and struggle of opposites, transition of quantity into quality and vice versa, regression before the leap, and kephera-the transformation.

Solving Research Problems[i]
Problem	Approach(s)	Research Techniques
Test data and evidence under controlled conditions	Lab test, controlled social/natural environment	Experimental simulation
Study public behavior	Participant observation/observational participation, field research	Natural observation/field research
Study private behavior	Journals, diaries, notes, computer files, photos, etc.	Archival/Historical/Personal documents
Study feeling, thoughts, attitudes, beliefs, thoughts, prejudices	Question people involved	Interview, questionnaire, attitude scale
Study places, actions, motion, movement	Monitor movements	Data Mapping
Study psychology, drives, personality traits, urges	Standardized tests	Psychological test
Study, isolate, and identify trends in written/verbal material	Qualitative analysis of written responses	Content Analysis/synthesis
Study social processes, societal events, social movements	Systematic study over time	Case Study/Process O

Research Matrix
Level	1	2	3	4
Research Type	Descriptive	Explanatory (Internal Validity)	Generalization (External Validity)	Essential (Theoretical)
Major Questions	What is occurring? What occurred in the past?	What is causing it to occur? Why did it occur?	Will the same thing occur under different objective conditions?	Is there some underlying principle at work?

Types of Information Provided by Descriptive Statistics

Measures of Frequency

Frequency: frequency of occurrence for each variable value proportion.

Percent:     relative frequency of occurrence for each variable value.

Measures of Central Tendency

Mode:  most commonly occurring value.

Mean: an indicator of central tendency sensitive to the exact position of each score in the distribution.

Median: middle score in a distribution.

Measures of Variability

Range: difference between the lowest and highest scores.

Variance:  average squared deviation from the mean.

Standard deviation: indicator of average deviation from mean in the same units of measure as the original scores.

Measures of Basic Linear Relationship

Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient:

Strength and direction of the relationship between two variables.

Phi coefficient:

A branch, element of the Pearson statistic for two dichotomous variables.

Point-biserial correlation coefficient:

A branch, element of the Pearson statistic where one variable is dichotomous.

Spearman rank-order correlation coefficient:

A branch, element of the Pearson statistic for two rank-ordered variables.

Simple regression:

Indicates the best estimate of one variable from the values of another.