Available Research Designs Based on Example Research Questions – PSL

Does cognitive therapy plus antidepressant medication result in lower depression scores in randomly selected depressed adult females after 20 weeks of treatment compared with either cognitive therapy or antidepressant medication alone?

The question implies a cause-effect relationship. The use of random selection, coupled with random assignment to conditions, and the use of two control conditions, implies a true experiment.

Does exposure to violent videos or television programs reduce the prosocial behaviors of 3 year-olds in an urban daycare program compared with those of 3-year-olds not exposed to the violent programming?

An effect of an independent variable (exposure) on a dependent variable (prosocial behaviors) and the use of a comparison or control group imply a cause-effect design.  But the use of convenience sampling (non-random selection from an urban daycare program) reduces it to quasi-experimental design. The participant children should be randomly assigned to either the experimental group (exposed to the programming) or to a control group (not exposed).

Is there a statistically significant difference in the productivity rates of a convenience sample of hourly employees compared with a matched sample of salaried employees in a manufacturing company in the Pacific northwest?

Similar to the previous example.  Two non-equivalent groups (non-random assignment) are compared on a dependent variable. A significant difference would suggest that the IV (hourly vs. salary employment) may be a causal variable.

For adult undergraduate learners for whom English is a second language, is the Johnson Program as successful for those with lower scores on the TOEFL iBT as for those with higher TOEFL iBT scores?

Here, two groups will be compared, but instead of random assignment to either the control or the experimental condition, assignment will be based on a pre-program screening cut-off score on a screening instrument (the TOEFL). This design is well-suited when it is desirable to see whether a treatment is beneficial to those with the most serious problem.

Does exposure to violent videos or television programs reduce the prosocial behaviors of 3-year-olds in an urban daycare program?

The use of convenience sampling reduces this to quasi-experimental status, and the absence of a control or comparison group implies either a repeated measures or  time series design.

Is there a statistically significant difference in depression scores between female spouses of non-combat-deployed service personnel compared with female spouses of combat-deployed service personnel?

There are two groups being compared on one variable, depression.

Is there a statistically significant positive correlation between education levels and income levels in European professional women between the ages of 30 and 60?

Two variables are to be measured in a single population.

What are the failure rates of fourth grade readers in a special education remedial reading program in the rural upper Midwest?

One variable, one measure.  Purely describes the situation and nothing more.

How do teenaged girls diagnosed with anorexia nervosa and treated in XYZ program describe their experience of treatment.

The specific diagnosis and the clearly delineated treatment program create a "bounded system" (other programs or other forms of eating disorder would not qualify for inclusion as a case).

What are the lessons learned from the descriptions of the psychological demands of being a first responder to a major catastrophe in an urban university teaching hospital?

If the "large urban teaching hospital" could be any such institution, this would not be a case study. If the "major catastrophe" could be any kind of catastrophe, this would not be case study. But if the actual catastrophe can be clearly identified (if necessary) and the hospital could be named (if possible), it would qualify as a case study question. The words "descriptions of the psychological demands" makes this a qualitative case study. If that phrase were omitted, this would more likely be a mixed methods case study.

How do residents and staff of a large countercultural religious cult describe and carry out their customs, norms, beliefs, and relationships?

Asking for the customs, beliefs, and relationships of a group that is a kind of society within the larger society ("large countercultural cult") indicates ethnographic interest.  Asking for both their descriptions and how they carry out their customs, etc., implies both direct verbal communication and field observation, perhaps participant observation, which is integral to ethnographic inquiry.

How do attorneys and psychologists who practice divorce mediation describe their experience of doing so?

"Describe their experience" implies many designs within qualitative methodology.  In this case, the experience is of a certain professional practice. The research interest can include both their own personal feelings and reflections on doing that work, and the practices, pitfalls, rewards, and challenges.  Their descriptions, to be thorough, should include details of everyday life in that practice—how the meetings are organized, frequency, and so on.  All these things are not appropriate for phenomenology, which focuses on the ‘lived experience,’ the internal cognitive/affective experiencing of something as it happens in the moment.  Nor is the question quite appropriate for grounded theory, which asks for descriptions of the experience of some kind of process.

How do teachers in special education classrooms describe their disciplinary practices and their beliefs about discipline?

This may sound similar to the ethnographic question, but there is no clearly identified "culture" here, only a category of teachers, who would no doubt share some but not all cultural values, norms, customs, and beliefs. And like the previous question, the phenomenon to be described is an external one, involving non-psychological aspects (such as their methods of organizing the classroom) as well as psychological aspects. This is ideally suited to generic qualitative inquiry.

How do first generation adult Southeast Asian immigrants to large urban areas in the United States describe the process of becoming assimilated in the new culture?

The key word or idea is "process."  Grounded theory describes and explains a process—how the participants accomplished a certain outcome—and thus is a description of a longitudinal phenomenon rather than a cross-sectional one.

How do middle-level managers in large corporate organizations describe the transition from employee to manager?

Although lacking the word "process," the "transition" idea substitutes for it, and the question suggests grounded theory.

How do young adults who come from divorced families describe the lived experience of deciding to become married?

Here the key word is "lived experience," which is not mere "experience," but everyday, non-reflective experiencing of some cognitive/affective phenomenon.  It is a purely interior phenomenon of consciousness, different from "experiences" such as "life experiences" (such as having a car accident or missing one’s airline connection).  The other key is the type of experience:  A phenomenological experience is an experience as it appears in one’s consciousness.  It is not observable to outsiders.  Thus, the experience of deciding something is one that outsiders cannot perceive and observe, but must be told about. These two keys suggest phenomenology.  Note that the phenomenon is not "becoming married," which would call perhaps for generic qualitative inquiry. The phenomenon to be investigated is "deciding," which is interior, private, and cannot be directly observed by others.

What is the lived experience of anger?

This is the classic kind of phenomenological question.  First, "lived experience" identifies the everyday, non-reflective, as-it-happens kind of consciousness.  Second, "anger" is a classic interior phenomenon, the experience of which is private, occurs in one’s consciousness, and cannot be directly observed by others.