Four Types of Experimental Designs Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

Four Types of Experimental Designs - Essay Example This report examines four fairly common research methodologies: survey research, case study research, ethnography, and mixed design. The pros and cons of each design are assessed, and examples are given. A survey or questionnaire is considered to be a relatively accessible, flexible research option. Generally, flexible designs offer benefits to research that is willing to change as new variables come up throughout the process, whereas fixed or quantitative designs such as will be mentioned later, offer benefits to research that is about stabilizing and controlling a certain state of variables or predictions. The quantitative or qualitative survey method is a popular choice among researchers. This methodology differs from explicit ethnography in that it is more rationalized and quantitative in nature, and primarily seeks to answer research questions through the proposition that scientific research cannot be proposed without substantive or grounded data to back it up. This makes the us e of statistical information very popular with other type theorists, but getting statistics on the future is difficult, and therefore this is another appropriate reason for the research subject to be covered in a quantitative survey manner, rather than grounded theory or ethnographic methods. When researchers use a survey, they often wind up finding out new research questions and directions, while measuring the opinions and attitudes of subjects. At the same time, they can present their data in a scientific way, through the use of ANOVA, SPSS software, and other methods.