RUNNING HEAD: STRENGTHS AND LIMITATIONS OF EACH OF THE RESEARCH DESIGNS 1

Strengths and Limitations of the Research Designs

Research design may be defined as the methodologies that are adopted by a researcher in

order to combine the various components of a study in a very coherent and logical manner.

These methodologies are helpful in addressing the problem of research by creating a route for the

collection of data, measurement of the data and the enabling proper analysis of the data. The

type of research design that is chosen by a researcher is dependent upon a particular research

problem. Following are the various type research designs which are illustrated along with their

advantages and disadvantages:

i) Descriptive Designs: The descriptive research design helps a researcher to employ both

the qualitative and the quantitative data in his research. The main strength of the descriptive

research design it provides multiple approaches to the researcher. There are various ways for the

inclusion of data like case studies, observations, surveys and provides different approach to a

data or information (Blanc, 2003). Case study data collection method is a major strength of the

research design. The case study may include data acquired from the individual accounts or from

various reports. This form of the data collection helps the researcher to get a proper insight into

the real life experience which is not possible in case of other data collection approaches. It can

help the researcher to gain other’s viewpoint for a particular research topic. One of the major

limitations of the descriptive research design is confidentiality. There is no reliability on the

truthfulness of the answers that are received by the researcher for the questions. Also during the

interviews the respondents may not agree to participate. There is also a problem of observer’s

paradox that is associated with the descriptive designs, for example if a respondent feels that
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someone is watching him then there is a possibility that he might change his answers.

Descriptive research design also faces the problems of subjectivity and errors.

ii) Co-relational Designs: Co-relational research design signifies the relation between two

variables. The relationship between the variables takes place in a natural environment. The main

strength of the co-relational research design is that it helps the researcher to gather more data and

information than the experiments. Co-relational research is based on the natural environment,

thus the results obtained on the basis of the research can be applied to everyday life. Further the

co-relational research helps the other researchers. It helps the researchers to evaluate the strength

and direction of the relations on which the future studies can be based. Co-relation research

design approach has a major disadvantage that it cannot provide a substantive reason for the

relation between two variables. In the co-relation design it is not possible to gauge the effect of

one variable over the other.

iii) Semi-Experimental Research Design: The semi-experimental or the quasi-

experimental research design helps the researchers to select the various groups upon which the

different variables can be tested (Luther & Pike, 2015). The main strength of this semi-

experimental research design is that it is easier to conduct a semi-experimental research than the

true experimental research design. The application of the semi-experimental setup reduces the

threat to the ecological validity. The semi-experimental research is a natural way of

experimenting thus the findings of such results can be implemented in other research topics.

Thus it can be said they are useful for generating outcomes for the general trend. Another major

advantage of the semi-experimental research design is that they reduce the time and the resources

that are required for carrying out the research. The major weakness of the semi-experimental

research is that the result of the semi-experimental research can get contaminated by the
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confounding variables. There are also threats to the internal validity in this type of research

design. Due to the lack of randomness the research design also provide weaker evidences.

iv) Experimental Research Design: The experimental research design allows the

researcher to test his hypothesis by getting a proper result regarding the relationships between the

dependent and the independent variables. This approach also provides the researchers significant

interpretational evidence. The major strength of the Experimental research design is that it allows

the researcher to control the variables which helps to eliminate the unwanted variables (Heddle,

2002). Another major strength of the experimental research design is that the independent

variables can be easily manipulated by the researcher which helps the determination of the

relationship and causes variations in the relationship. Since the experimental research design

follows a strict set of control standards thus it is possible to obtain better results. It is also

possible to verify the results through this approach which will help the researcher to gain more

confidence about the outcome of the result. There are certain limitations also for adopting the

experimental research design approach. The main limitation of the experimental design is that

the inability to manipulate the independent variables due to the ethical or practical reasons could

lead to researcher not able to do the experiment. The experimental research design also

sometimes leads to the development of the artificial variables. One of the most significant

limitations of the experimental research design is that the outcomes of the experimental research

are greatly affected by the human errors.

v) Review Research design: In this approach all the information and data is collected

from the different sources like the published and unpublished studies and then the findings are

summarized. The main strength of the review research design is that it helps to review the

existing literatures in an exhaustive manner. This methodology is less costly as compared to

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conducting a new study. Also the outcomes of this type of research can be used as a general

trend. It is considered these types of researches are more reliable and accurate as compared to the

new studies and is considered to be evidence based resource (Thorsteinsson, 1988). The

limitations of the review research design includes high consumption of time as compared to other

methods also sometimes it becomes very difficult to compile all the information also sometimes

as a student it is not possible to get the access to all the required information and data which are

essential for the research.

vi) Meta-Analytic research design: The meta-analytic research design is a subset of the

systematic review research design which includes the combination of the qualitative and the

quantitative research designs in order to come to a single conclusion which is backed by better

factual evidences. Thus the outcomes thus derived are statistically sounder. The major strength

of this type of research is that it is possible to extrapolate the result of the research in the general

population, further it has more statistical power and is also counted among the evidence based

research (Luther & Pike, 2015). There are certain limitations also that are associated with the

meta-analytic research design like it is time consuming to find out the relevant studies and it

requires very advanced statistical tools and heterogeneity is also found in this type of research.

Threats to the validity in case of the Quasi –experimental design

The various threats to the Quasi-experimental design can be divided into into internal and

the external threats to the validity. Internal validity refers to the extent up to which the findings

of the scientific study are correct (Schulte, 2011). The external validity may be defined as the

extent up to which the findings of the result can be generalized. The various threats to the

internal validity are as follows:

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i) Ambiguous Temporal Precedence: It refers to the lack of clarity which can lead to the

confusion.

ii) Confounding: This results in the changes in the variables which leads to the

development of the unwarranted relations among the variables.

iii) Selection Bias: It refers to the differences between the groups that exist before the

pre-test.

iv) History: It refers to those events which occurs repeatedly during the research but are

not part of the experiment.

v) Maturation: It refers to the threats that can be caused due to the passage of time.

vi) Repeated testing: This threat arises when the repeated measurement can lead to the

development of the bias.

vii) Instrument Change: It is the threats that are caused due to the changes in the view

point of the observers (Heddle, 2002).

viii) Statistical regression: It is the threats that arise when the groups are selected on the

basis of their extreme scores.

The various external threats to validity are as follows

i) Treatment interaction: This refers to the threats that are caused due to the interaction

with the independent variables which leads to the reduction in the generalization.

ii) Situation: This refers to the threats that are caused due to the specific situations that

lead to the reduction in the generalization.

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iii) Pre-test effects: It is the threats which are present when the pre-tests are carried out.

iv) Post-test effects: It is the threats that affect the relationships when the post-tests are

carried out.

v) Reactivity: The threats to that are caused due to the studying of the situations that leads

to the reduction in the generalization.

The validity of the experimental design

The validity comprises of all the concepts that are used in the experiment and describes

whether the outcomes of the experiment meet all the requirements that has to be followed for the

scientific research methodologies. The experimental research design validity is broadly classified

into two groups that are internal and the external validity (Clancy, 2002). The internal validity

refers to the ability of the research to determine the casual relationship that exists between the

independent and the dependent variables where as the external validity may be defined as the

generalizability of the research study. This show the results that are obtained from a sample

population can be extended to the entire population.

Recommended Quantitative research design and rationale

The recommended quantitative research design for the proposed study should be the co-

relational design that will include case study, naturalistic observations and findings obtained

from surveys. The rationale for selecting the co-relational method for conducting the research is

that it is the best way to determine the relationship between the different variables using the

statistical tools and information (Blanc, 2003). This type of research evaluates the relationship on

the basis of number of facts. It is also possible to recognize the different set of patterns in the
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data which will help the researcher to find out the result in this case to evaluate whether the gun

control laws reduce the crimes.

The main cause of not selecting the other research designs for this research is that it is not

possible to start with a hypothesis in the other research designs, Also there is possibility of

contamination of the variables in the other research designs which might affect the outcome of

the research.
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References

Blanc, J. (2003). Comparison of experimental designs for estimating quantitative genetic

parameters in fish. Aquaculture Research, 34(12), 1099-1105.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2109.2003.00919.x

Clancy, M. (2002). Overview of research designs. Emergency Medicine Journal, 19(6), 546-549.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/emj.19.6.546

Heddle, N. (2002). Clinical Research Designs: Quantitative Studies. Vox Sanguinis, 83, 247-250.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1423-0410.2002.tb05312.x

Luther, R., & Pike, D. (2015). Equitably Colored Balanced Incomplete Block Designs. Journal
Of Combinatorial Designs, n/a-n/a. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/jcd.21427

Schulte, S. (2011). Pioneering designs for recombinant coagulation factors. Thrombosis

Research, 128, S9-S12. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0049-3848(12)70003-8

Supplemental Material for Planned Missing Data Designs in Psychological Research. (2008).
Psychological Methods. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/1082-989x.11.4.323.supp

Thorsteinsson, G. (1988). Calculations for fishing gear designs. Fisheries Research, 6(3), 299-
301. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0165-7836(88)90021-5
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