DQM Common Units
Research Techniques cheat sheet
Every chapter's key points, formulas and definitions on one page, for the last week before the exam. Each heading links to the chapter that explains it.
The research concept
- Research comes in four types: descriptive, correlational, quasi-experimental and experimental.
- The deciding questions are whether a variable was manipulated or only observed, and whether assignment to groups was random; only experimental research, with random assignment, establishes cause and effect.
- A well-formulated research objective is clear enough to guide data collection, specific and measurable, realistic for the time and resources available, and directly linked to the problem.
- The scope sets the study's boundaries (processes, time period, population, location) and what it deliberately excludes, so the research stays achievable and its conclusions are not overstated.
Key terms
- Descriptive research
- Describes characteristics of a population or phenomenon as it currently is, without manipulating anything.
- Correlational research
- Examines whether and how strongly two variables are related, without establishing that one causes the other.
- Quasi-experimental research
- Tests the effect of a change on an outcome without full random assignment of subjects to groups.
- Experimental research
- Manipulates a variable under controlled conditions, with random assignment, to establish cause and effect.
The rest of the sheet covers
- The research proposal
- Research instruments
- Fieldwork and analysis
- The research report
- Exam technique and revision
- Glossary