Research That Is

© Noordhoff Uitgevers bv

Research:
this is it!
Guidelines for setting
up, doing and evaluating
quantitative and qualitative
research
Ben Baarda
First edition 2010
Noordhoff Uitgevers Groningen/Houten

Boek 79026.indb 1

24-06-10 10:40

© Noordhoff Uitgevers bv

Cover design: G2K Designers, Groningen/Amsterdam
Cover and chapter graphic work: Photodisc
Basic text design: Lava, Amsterdam
English translation: P. Gargano/F. Veldman

If you have any comments or queries about this or any other publication, please
contact: Noordhoff Uitgevers bv, Afdeling Hoger Onderwijs, Antwoordnummer 13,
9700 VB Groningen, e-mail: [email protected]
0 1 2 3 4 5 / 14 13 12 11 10
© 2010 D.B. Baarda, p/a Noordhoff Uitgevers bv Groningen/Houten, the Netherlands
Apart from the exceptions provided by or pursuant to the Copyright Act of 1912,
no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in an automated retrieval
system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written approval of the
publisher. Insofar as the making of reprographic copies from this publication is
permitted on the basis of Article 16h of the Copyright Act of 1912,
the compensation owed must be provided to the Stichting Reprorecht (postbus 3060,
2130 KB Hoofddorp, Netherlands, www.cedar.nl/reprorecht). To use specific sections
of this publication for anthologies, readers or other compilations (Article 16 of the
Copyright Act of 1912), contact the Stichting PRO (Stichting Publicatie- en
Reproductierechten Organisatie, postbus 3060, 2130 KB Hoofddorp, Netherlands,
www.cedar.nl/pro).
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior written permission of the
publisher.
ISBN 978-90-01-79026-4
NUR 916

Boek 79026.indb 2

24-06-10 10:40

© Noordhoff Uitgevers bv

Contents

Introduction 5

1

1.1

1.2

1.3

1.4

1.5

1.6

2

2.1
2.1
2.3

Boek 79026.indb 3

What does the researcher
want to find out? 11
What is the research problem and
the research question, and what are
the researcher’s objectives? 12
Is the research question an
open-ended or a fixed one? Does it
involve qualitative or quantitative
research? 15
What issues does the researcher
want to discuss? Research units
and constructs. 20
What is already known in relation to
the research topic? Deciding on
content. 22
Will the research involve descriptive
research, exploratory research or
testing of hypotheses? 28
Is the research feasible? 31

Is the researcher’s
research strategy suitable
for answering the research
question? 35
What is a research strategy? 36
What is the most suitable research
design? 38
Will the research include every unit
or will a sample be taken and if so,
how will that sample be
selected? 54

3

Is the researcher’s data
collection method
appropriate? 67

3.1

What is the best way of translating
constructs into concrete terms
(operationalizing constructs)? 68
What is the best way of setting up
interviews and questionnaires? 79
What is the best way of setting up
observational research? 95
What is the best way of setting up
research using existing sources of
information? 99

3.2
3.3
3.4

4

Has the researcher
analyzed the data properly
and reported on it
appropriately? 105

4.1

How is quantitative data
analyzed? 106
How is qualitative data
analyzed? 127
How is research data
reported? 140

4.2
4.3

Appendix I 154
References 155
Index 156

24-06-10 10:40

Boek 79026.indb 4

24-06-10 10:40

© Noordhoff Uitgevers bv

Introduction

A life without research is unimaginable.
‘Basic research is what I am doing when I don’t know what I am doing.’
Wernher von Braun (1912−1977)

People usually associate research with nerdish investigators in laboratories
getting excited about complicated matters. Few are aware that research is
something that we do on a daily basis. If I mislay my key I start an
investigation. I think back to where I might have left it, developing theories
such as that I might have put it on my desk when I was packing up my
things, and then I check whether the theory could be correct. Research is
an integral part of our lives. Before we buy things like a laptop, one of the
first things we usually do is look into what makes a laptop a good one,
price being one of our main concerns. When we open up our daily
newspaper we come face-to-face with research: look at the articles in this
part – the scientific section – of a newspaper.

Boek 79026.indb 5

24-06-10 10:40

6

INTRODUCTION

© Noordhoff Uitgevers bv

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/pages/science/index.html

The policies endorsed by government, the business sector and other
organizations are often based on research. As such, research is part and
parcel of our daily lives and is not limited to researchers. The difference
between the sort of research that you do when we lose our key and
research that we do for a government body is that the latter involves a
more systematic approach and must conform to various demands.
A government body will expect its researchers to deliver valid and reliable
results. But what does this actually mean? This is what Research: this is it!
is all about. What is good research? When can we consider research
results to be reliable and valid?

MKB-N eder l a N d , a pr il 13 2006

Entrepreneurs are not making full use of
ICT possibilities
As shown in research that MKB-Nederland
[The Dutch Association of Small Businesses]
commissioned TNS-NIPO to do, 75% of
entrepreneurs are largely unaware of what
ICT has to offer. Another finding is that 85%

Boek 79026.indb 6

of entrepreneurs are not making optimal use
of modern ICT solutions.
[…]

24-06-10 10:40

© Noordhoff Uitgevers bv

INTRODUCTION

7

Research is likely to form an ongoing part of your life both during your
training and in the course of your future career. It may be research that you
do personally or information that derives from somebody else’s research,
such as the research results in the above article that show that business
entrepreneurs know too little about the opportunities offered by information
technology.
Many of the textbooks you read will contain information that derives from
research. The decisions you make will often be based on research results:
they may, for example, relate to the best choice of treatment for your
patients, or the type of management strategy that is best for your situation.
Or you may decide to do your own research: for example, you might need to
determine the main causes of sick leave in a particular business, or
customer satisfaction.
This book is mainly concerned with simple applied research in practical
situations: that is, research that focuses on obtaining information that may
assist in resolving problems. Its focus is not on fundamental scientific
research whose purpose is primarily the advancement of scientific
knowledge. As such, this book is short and has a practical orientation. It
does not provide any background information of a scientific nature. It does
not deal with research traditions or with various scientific theories. It is first
and foremost an aid for students who need to do research in their chosen
career areas, either during their training or later. This book may be used to
learn how to evaluate research. What things should you focus on in order to
determine how good the research is? As well as this, the book can be used
to help you write a research plan (the website contains examples of
research estimates and planning schedules), and its checklists and
information sources will assist you as you carry out your research.

Table 1 The

four components of a research proposal

Chapter 1

What does the researcher want to find out and for what reason?

Chapter 2

Can the researcher’s proposal deliver appropriate answers to the research
question as it has been formulated, and has the research data been
collected from individuals, organizations and other subjects that are
representative of those individuals, organizations and other subjects that
the researcher wants to make decisive comments about?

Chapter 3

Has the researcher collected the research data in an appropriate way?
Is the researcher using the correct technique for collecting data and is
he/she applying it appropriately?

Chapter 4

Has the researcher processed and analyzed the research data
appropriately and has a valid conclusion been drawn and the research
reported correctly?

This book will deal in turn with each of the four key issues shown in the
table as requiring special attention. Good research depends on how well
these issues are addressed and we will look at them one by one. As we do
so, a sizable and detailed checklist will be generated. You will be able to
use this checklist both in setting up and carrying out your own research as
well as in evaluating research proposals and research reports. The checklist
can also be found on the website www.research.noordhoff.nl

Boek 79026.indb 7

24-06-10 10:40

8

INTRODUCTION

© Noordhoff Uitgevers bv

It is important to realize that in general terms, research falls into two main
types: quantitative and qualitative research. Quantitative research is based
on figures (the term says it all). An example of a quantitative research
finding would be that 70% of students occasionally download music from
the Internet. Qualitative research generally works with texts – typed-out
interview reports, for example – rather than figures. You might ask students
what they think of their studies and on the basis of this find out what
criteria students use to evaluate their courses. What things are regarded
as important when it comes to study? Qualitative research derives from a
different research tradition to that of quantitative research, and it
encompasses various different schools of thought. My choice of method
has necessarily been pragmatic, based on which particular research
questions are best approached quantitatively and which qualitatively.
In this book I have chosen not to deal with each type of research separately
but jointly. The reason is that they have some important elements in
common and both are characterized by more or less the same division into
stages, though for qualitative research the division is less rigid than it is for
quantitative research. Qualitative research is more exploratory in nature
and the path it takes is less pre-ordained. Qualitative researchers are sure
to accuse me of presenting qualitative research in much too simplistic a
light. They would be right, but I have had to make this concession in order
to bring both quantitative and qualitative research into the book. I have had
to impose limits on what I have included, focusing in particular on those
qualitative techniques that are in relatively frequent use but often only
dealing with them summarily. For more in-depth knowledge I often refer to
websites, particularly in relation to qualitative research but also for more
advanced types of quantitative research.
When I want to make it clear that qualitative research is being referred to,
the margin stripe will be green. When the form of research is specifically
quantitative, the margin stripe will be blue. Where there is no margin stripe,
the information given applies to both quantitative and qualitative research.
I have livened up the various aspects of the process of planning and
carrying out research by including some actual examples taken from
various fields, allowing myself to be inspired by practical research issues:
issues that I have encountered in the training sessions in research
techniques that I hold for various different professional groups. As such,
you may find some examples that are particularly pertinent to your
situation. If you would like to know more about the examples referred to, go
to the website that is linked to this book. You will usually find
comprehensive research reports relating to the examples in question,
including the websites they relate to. The examples have also been chosen
for their relevance to students: downloading music, for example. They have
the advantage that they can be adapted to other situations.
The reference list makes intentional use of information to be found on the
Internet, the idea being that where possible, you will go about planning and
carrying out your research from behind your computer, even if you are doing
an internship within a small company or organization that does not have
advanced programs at its disposal or are doing your internship outside the
country. It is for this reason that I have elected to use not only SPSS, an
advanced statistical program, but also Excel, which virtually every computer

Boek 79026.indb 8

24-06-10 10:40

© Noordhoff Uitgevers bv

INTRODUCTION

9

has on it. The SurveyMonkey program is used for carrying out web-based
surveys. It is an inexpensive program and is universally accessible.
For more in-depth information about certain subjects – specific forms of
research, for example – the reader is usually referred to websites, which
has the advantage that the information will remain accessible.
This book is so structured that it follows the progress of a piece of
research, starting with defining the research problem and finishing with the
reporting.
You will find some support material on the website www.research.
noordhoff.nl. Not only will it refer you to some useful websites, but it also
contains articles on the examples that are referred to in the book, forms for
research estimates and planning schedules, a model for a research
proposal and some examples of how to set up your research. You will also
find shortened versions of Excel and SPSS manuals, including the data
files that are used for the examples in this book. The number on the card
that accompanies this book will give you access to this site.
I would like to thank my colleagues Karel Mulderij, Henk van Goor and John
Schostak for reading the provisional text of this book and particularly for
the many useful suggestions they have made.
I wish you all the best as you go about setting up, carrying out and
evaluating your research, and I hope that the book appeals to you.
The Hague, spring 2010
Ben Baarda

Boek 79026.indb 9

24-06-10 10:40

10

Boek 79026.indb 10

© Noordhoff Uitgevers bv

24-06-10 10:40



© Noordhoff Uitgevers bv

1
What does the researcher
want to find out?

11

1

2 Is the researcher’s research strategy suitable for answering the
research question?
3 Is the researcher’s data collection method appropriate?
4 Has the researcher analyzed the data properly and reported on it
appropriately?

Chapter 1 will address the following:
1.1
What is the research problem and the research question, and what
are the researcher’s objectives?
1.2
Is the research question an open-ended or a fixed one? Does it
involve qualitative or quantitative research?
1.3
What issues does the researcher want to discuss? Research units
and constructs.
1.4
What is already known in relation to the research topic? Deciding
on content.
1.5
Will the research involve descriptive research, exploratory research
or testing of hypotheses?
1.6
Is the research feasible?

Research problem 12

Literature search 23

Research objective 13

Search term or keyword 24

Research question 14

Descriptive research 28

Research ethics 15

Exploratory research 29

Qualitative research 17

Hypothesis-testing research 30

Quantitative research 18

Theory 30

Verification 19

Hypothesis 30

Research units 20

Planning 31

Population 20
Constructs 20

Boek 79026.indb 11

24-06-10 10:40

12

1 WHAT DOES THE RESEARCHER WANT TO FIND OUT?

© Noordhoff Uitgevers bv

1

1.1 What is the research problem and the
research question, and what are the
researcher’s objectives?
1.2
1.3
1.4
1.5
1.6

research
problem

Boek 79026.indb 12

Is the research question an open-ended or a fixed one? Does it involve
qualitative or quantitative research?
What issues does the researcher want to discuss? Research units and
constructs.
What is already known in relation to the research topic? Deciding on
content.
Will the research involve descriptive research, exploratory research or
testing of hypotheses?
Is the research feasible?
We sometimes find ourselves confronted by problems that we cannot find a
way of resolving. They may be personal issues, issues affecting
organizations or maybe social issues. To resolve them requires information.
When you write a proposal outlining how a piece of research will be set up
and when you report on your completed research you will start by outlining
what is known as the research problem. In the following article from a
scientific journal, the problem is the increasing rate of obesity among
children: a social problem, therefore. But the problem might just as well be
that an organization is faced with falling sales figures, a head of a
government department has a high percentage of staff sick leave or a
residential area has rising criminality within its boundaries. In all of these

24-06-10 10:40

© Noordhoff Uitgevers bv

PROBLEM, QUESTION AND OBJECTIVE

situations, information is needed if the problem is to be resolved. In
situations like these, the researcher’s job is to collect the right information.
Others can then use that information to devise and implement a solution. If
the researcher in the example is indeed able to demonstrate that television
advertising leads to a greater rate of obesity among children, the
government can undertake steps to restrict such advertising.

13

1

p sychologie eN ge zoN dheid , 35 (2007), Moniek Buijzen, Joris Schuurman & Elise
Bomhof, p. 66–75

The link between television advertising of
foodstuffs and food consumption
tendencies among children
In recent years, the problem of obesity
among children has attracted increasing
public, political and scientific attention. In
the discussion surrounding the increasing
and disturbing rate of obesity, the finger of
blame is increasingly being pointed at
television advertising. Critics are holding
advertising responsible, with its copious
promotion of so-called high energy
products: foodstuffs that are relatively high
in fat, sugar and salt (Hastings et al., 2003;

Matthews, Cowburn, Rayner, Longfield &
Powell, 2004; Schor, 2005). As a
consequence, organizations such as the
World Health Organization, Consumer
Affairs and the Heart Foundation are
calling for limitations or even a ban on
foodstuff advertising directed at children
… despite the fact that that there is
uncertainty about whether advertising
really does lead to unhealthy eating
patterns.

In your research report and research plan it is important that you outline
the background to your research. Where did your idea come from? What is it
based on? The reader needs to know your reasons for doing the research.
The journal article makes it clear that research can play a role in resolving
a social problem, namely the problem of childhood obesity. Your desired
goal is termed the research objective. In our journal example on advertising
and childhood obesity, the research objective is only stated implicitly: it has
to be deduced. It is preferable to state it explicitly. In the article we are
using as our example, the research objective could be put as follows: to
contribute to our understanding of the causes of childhood obesity and so
contribute to a lessening of the problem.
Be very wary, though: those who have commissioned the research – be it a
government body or an organization – may want you, the researcher, to
come up with ready-made solutions. This is not your job. Take the example
of students dropping out of their courses. A government body may want you
to come up with a solution to the problem. As a researcher, it is not up to
you to provide that solution or to come up with one. What you can do is find
out the reasons for students dropping out. On the basis of your research
results the government body in question may be able to make better
decisions about how to limit students dropping out. As a researcher, your

Boek 79026.indb 13

research
objective

24-06-10 10:40

14

1 WHAT DOES THE RESEARCHER WANT TO FIND OUT?

© Noordhoff Uitgevers bv

job is to supply information that others can use to detect problems and
resolve them. The researchers who wrote the article may come to the
conclusion that advertising with a focus on children may lead to obesity
among children. Here, too, it is the task of policy makers rather than the
researcher to find a solution to the problem.

1

research
question

Applied
research

Scientific
research

Boek 79026.indb 14

The same applies to market research. If a manufacturer asks a researcher
to find out how he can increase his market share, this is a policy decision
issue, not a research question. A research question would be to what
extent consumers are familiar with that manufacturer’s product. The
researcher will be able to provide a definitive answer to that question. If the
research shows that the consumer hardly knows the product, it will then be
up to the marketing department to think up ways of giving that product
more prominence. Applied research, however, must always have the
objective of providing more than data and/or information. To return to the
example, it would be inadequate if the researchers merely indicated that
they wished to investigate the link between television advertising of
foodstuffs and children’s eating patterns. With applied research, it is
important to indicate what the purpose of collecting the information is.
What do you want to achieve by collecting it? The collection of data alone is
one of the characteristics of pure scientific research. We will treat this in
greater detail in Section 4.3., which deals with reporting.
A research plan and research report should always start with an
introduction. The introduction to a research proposal and a research report
should always conclude with at least one research question. After outlining
the nature and extent of the problem of childhood obesity and the possible
role of television advertising in it, the researchers will round off their
introduction with the research question: is there a relationship between
being exposed to advertising of unhealthy foodstuffs and the consumption
of these foodstuffs by children? Make sure that the research question
really is a question. The research must provide an answer or answers to
that question or those questions. To avoid disappointment and
misunderstanding, it is important to be precise in the way you formulate
the research question. As a rule, it is wise to start out by formulating the
question in broad terms, then refining it. This is how it is done in our
example: the researchers start out by defining the issue of childhood
obesity in broad terms and finish up much less broadly with the research
question of whether there is a link between exposure to advertising of
unhealthy products and consumption of those products by children. In your
introduction you should also proceed from broad to close terms, refining
them until you have the research question you want to find an answer to.
Formulating the research question is often a process of trial and error and
can involve a lot of work. You may find yourself making various versions
before you come up with a definitive research question. It is also important
to confer closely with those who have commissioned the research (if
applicable). After all, they will have to be in agreement with your definitive
research question or else you will have a problem. How awkward it would
be if your research came up with results that were completely unexpected,
that were not relevant or even worse, results that those who commissioned
the research would not want to hear. Let’s say your research suggested that
the sick leave among staff members was correlated to managerial style.
The department’s managers are unlikely to be happy with these findings.

24-06-10 10:40

© Noordhoff Uitgevers bv

QUALITATIVE OR QUANTITATIVE?

If the research has been commissioned, do make sure that there is clear
agreement about what exactly your research question is.
In the arrangement that you make with the commissioning party, make sure
you pay heed to research ethics. As a rule, you should only embark on
research if you can answer the following questions in the affirmative:
• Will the respondents be taking part in the research voluntarily?
• Will the respondents be fully informed in advance of the purpose of the
research and the method used?
• Will the data obtained from the respondents be confidential and
preferably anonymously processed?
• Can you ensure that the research will have no negative consequences
for the respondents?
• Will the research be conducted in an honest and objective fashion?

research
ethics

15

1

You can find more information about good research ethics on the websites
of professional organizations for researchers, such as the website for
market researchers (www.esomar.org).

Checklist 1.1 Formulating the research problem, research objectives
and research question
• What problem prompted the research?
• For what purpose is the research being carried out?
• What is the research question?
• Is the research ethical?

1.1

What is the research problem and the research question, and what are the
researcher’s objectives?

1.2 Is the research question an open-ended or a
fixed one? Does it involve qualitative or
quantitative research?
1.3
1.4
1.5
1.6

What issues does the researcher want to discuss? Research units and
constructs.
What is already known in relation to the research topic? Deciding on
content.
Will the research involve descriptive research, exploratory research or
testing of hypotheses?
Is the research feasible?

The following article deals with research into difficulties experienced by
people with physical disabilities when they use stairs.

Boek 79026.indb 15

24-06-10 10:40

16

1 WHAT DOES THE RESEARCHER WANT TO FIND OUT?

Tijdschr if T

1

voor

© Noordhoff Uitgevers bv

e rgoNomie , 30, number 3, june 2005

The Stairways Lab: (re)designing fixed
stairs in homes
A final assignment given to students doing
occupational therapy involves putting
together a set of requirements for fixed
stairs in homes. These stairs must conform
to accessibility, health, safety and comfort
standards as they apply to people with
physical limitations as well as to the
physically able. An ethnographic and
observational study was carried out in
order to gain insight into the way in which
people with physical disabilities cope with
stairs in their own homes. The data

obtained was analyzed with a view to
finding trouble spots. After consideration
of the relative importance of each factor, a
set of requirements and desirable changes
was formulated. The set of requirements
was checked against existing legislation.
The importance of walking up and down
stairs as a health-promoting activity and as
a positive contributing factor in the fight
against too little physical activity was
highlighted. The study concluded with
recommendations for follow-up research.

In the article on the stairways lab, the researchers are interested in finding
out about stair use among those with physical limitations. For example,
how do those who cannot walk properly go up the stairs? The purpose of
this research will be apparent: collecting data relevant to designing
stairways that are suitable for use by those with physical limitations. The
researchers start out without any preconceptions. They get people with
physical limitations to go up and down stairs and they make observations.
They have no preconceived ideas about what they will find, and
consequently have no lists of points to check against.
In the following investigation into aggressive behaviour in schools, the
researchers do know what they can expect. They already know that
aggression takes various forms: physical and verbal aggression and
vandalism. They will have identified kicking, for example, as a form of
physical aggression. Unlike the staircase researchers, they can draw up
observational diagrams consisting of pre-identified categories.

Classifying aggression (Part 1)
[…]
Using a list of the most frequently
occurring forms of aggression among
children, teachers and class supervisors
noted the forms of aggressive behaviour
that occurred in their classes. Using this
approach, data was collected in respect of
876 children, representing 38% of all
children in the northern precinct of the
city of Groningen between the ages of 3
and 12.

Boek 79026.indb 16

Types of aggression according to gender
50%

Boys

40%

Girls

30%
20%
10%
0%
Physical Verbal

Vandalism

Total

Source: http://www.intraval.nl/

24-06-10 10:40

© Noordhoff Uitgevers bv

QUALITATIVE OR QUANTITATIVE?

In the first piece of research – into stairs and their usage – there was an
open-ended research question , while in the second piece of research, there
was a fixed research question : it could be paraphrased as ‘how frequently
does physical and verbal aggression as well as vandalism occur among
children, and what gender differences in relation to aggressive behaviour
are to be found?.’ It is important to make a distinction between both forms
of research question because they each require a different research
approach.
With an open research question, qualitative research is required. The
research question will usually be broad and there will be little prior
knowledge. As a consequence, you will rarely have set question or
observational lists on which to base your research. You will leave it up to
your respondent to provoke new ideas or provide new insights, which will
help you generate questions or draw your attention to matters that you
have not previously considered. Qualitative research is primarily concerned
with obtaining insights rather than hard data with a solid statistical basis.
Consequently, a qualitative research report will consist primarily of
description and will contain virtually no tables or diagrams.
With qualitative research, the basis of the analysis is a transcription of
conversations or observational reports. Photos and videos may also be
included. The following photo taken from the Stairway Lab research clearly
demonstrates the importance of a good stair rail. It is difficult to make
clear how important such a rail is in any way other than via a photo. You
can hardly describe it in the form of statistics.

17

open-ended
research
question
fixed research
question

1

qualitative
research

An example of a stair rail that is inadequate to its purpose (photo taken from the
Stairway Lab research)

Boek 79026.indb 17

24-06-10 10:40

18

1

1 WHAT DOES THE RESEARCHER WANT TO FIND OUT?

qualitative
research

quantitative
research

© Noordhoff Uitgevers bv

It is obvious that qualitative research will require different analysis
techniques to those used in quantitative research. There are various ways
of analysing qualitative data, and I will deal with these in greater detail in
section 4.2, also giving some examples of qualitative analyses. It needs to
be said that there is some difference of opinion about what constitutes
qualitative research. The QualPage website (http://qualitativeresearch.uga.
edu/QualPage/) will give you a useful overview of various types of
qualitative research. The approach that I use here is quite a narrow one in
the sense that it involves you as researcher being completely open to
whatever you encounter in your research field: you want to learn about
whatever it is you are researching. I do not regard researchers who go
around with structured observational lists and use them to observe how a
lady uses stairs as performing qualitative research. After all, such research
must already have had something in mind or else an observational list
would not be required. Having a list more or less presupposes that the
researcher wants to find out whether a certain idea is correct. As I see it,
the researcher needs to find out from the lady in the photo what difficulties
she encounters when she uses the stairs. The researcher needs to be as
open as possible and be prepared for the unexpected, though criticism of
this approach on the basis that one can never be completely free of
preconceptions does have some justification. After all, with qualitative
research you, the researcher, are the main research instrument, and by
virtue of being human you can never be completely free of preconceptions.
Section 4.2.3 will deal in greater detail with checking the validity of
qualitative research material.
In the example of research into aggression, the research question is
relatively closely defined and a lot of prior knowledge is available: there has
been a lot of research into aggressive behaviour among children. If the
research question is relatively narrow and you know you can expect when
you start interviewing or observing, your best choice is quantitative research
since if you are doing a survey (for example), this type of research involves
putting the same questions to all of your respondents and consequently you
must know in advance what questions you intend to put and often even the
answers that you can expect. As the term suggests, the research data will
consist of figures, usually in the form of a data matrix (see section 4.1.1)
that can often be analyzed with the aid of statistical software such as Excel
or SPSS. In the example of research into aggressive behaviour among
primary school children, as you will have seen, the data was presented in the
form of a bar chart.
You may well be wondering how relevant quantitative research is if you more
or less know beforehand what you are going to find. The point is that with
quantitative research, the crucial thing is not only whether there is a
relationship between (for example) RSI-related complaints and the amount
of work a person performs behind the computer but also the strength of
that connection. If 80% of RSI complaints can be attributed to the amount
of computer work performed, then it is obvious that here is a way of tackling
RSI-related complaints. However, if 30% of respondents attribute their RSI
complaints to the amount of computer work performed then you will need to
go in search of other factors that might explain the incidence of RSI.
The differences between qualitative and quantitative research are
summarized in Table 1.1.

Boek 79026.indb 18

24-06-10 10:40

© Noordhoff Uitgevers bv

QUALITATIVE OR QUANTITATIVE?

19

Table 1.1 Overview

of quantitative and qualitative research characteristics and
differences

The choice of whether to perform quantitative as against qualitative research is primarily
related to the research question
Quantitative

Qualitative

A fixed research question: e.g., how satisfied are
students with their course or parts of it?

An open-ended research question: e.g., what improvements to the course would the student like to see?

The research question is pre-established.

The research question may be adapted during the
course of the research.

The primary objective is outlining and testing ideas that
have already been proposed.

The primary objective is developing new hypotheses.

Data is collected in set ways (e.g., via a questionnaire).

There are no set ways of collecting data, though
participant studies and open interviews are common.

The data collected is in the form of statistics (a data
matrix).

The data collected may be in the form of reports on
observational studies and interviews, for example.

The data is evaluated using statistical analyses.

Reports on observational studies and interviews are
usually reduced to label form initially, after which the
researcher tries to find common patterns.

Whether quantitative or qualitative research is involved, it is important to
be able to establish how the researcher reached his or her conclusions.
The formal term for this is verification. It is somewhat easier to do in
relation to quantitative research than it is for qualitative research.
For quantitative research, whether the research can be replicated is the
crucial factor. You must be able to report on your research in such a way
that another person would be able to repeat the research. It must be clear
how you got in touch with your respondents, what research instruments you
employed and so on.
For qualitative research, this may be rather more difficult, particularly if the
research methods have been open observational studies and interviews,
since no single observational study or interview will have been the same.
Despite this, you, as qualitative researcher, must be able to demonstrate
how you reached your conclusions: those conclusions must be plausible
and your work methods must be transparent. Qualitative researchers often
supplement their research reports with their interview and observational
reports and in the main text they give examples of how they have analyzed
these reports.

1

verification

Checklist 1.2 Open-ended or closed question: qualitative or
quantitative research?
• Is the research question an open-ended or a fixed one?
• Is the research strategy you have elected to use, be it a quantitative
or a qualitative strategy, suitable for the research question?

Boek 79026.indb 19

24-06-10 10:40

20

1 WHAT DOES THE RESEARCHER WANT TO FIND OUT?

1.1
1.2

© Noordhoff Uitgevers bv

What is the research problem and the research question, and what are the
researcher’s objectives?
Is the research question an open-ended or a fixed one? Does it involve
qualitative or quantitative research?

1.3 What issues does the researcher want to
discuss? Research units and constructs.

1

1.4

1.5
1.6

research units

generalization

population

quality
construct

Boek 79026.indb 20

What is already known in relation to the research topic? Deciding on
content.
Will the research involve descriptive research, exploratory research or
testing of hypotheses?
Is the research feasible?

Your research is always likely to be about topics that involve discussing
individuals, situations, organizations, schools and so on. If your research
question is ‘How frequent are complaints associated with fatigue among
students?’ you will be discussing a student population. If your research
question is ‘Is the amount of sick leave higher in government departments
than it is in non-government departments?’ then you will be discussing
organizations. The individuals, organizations, situations and so on that you
want to discuss are termed your research units. It is important that you
consider the issue of what you want to discuss, or in other words, what
your research unit is going to be. In doing so you will be establishing what it
is that you are presuming to make a generalization about. To whom or what
will your research results apply when you present them? Researchers are
inclined to be somewhat imprecise about describing their research units
and consequently, it may not be clear to whom or what the research results
apply. Referring back to the example of symptoms of fatigue among
students, Dutch students are presumably being referred to. But what
particular student population? Is it inclusive of senior secondary vocational
students and those following advanced professional courses as well as
university students? Does it include part-time as well as full-time students?
Are only students under a certain age included or are mature-age students
– say, those over 30 – also included? As I hope this example makes clear,
despite its importance, defining your population – the sum of your units –
can be a complex matter. To take an example, if you were to include
part-time students in your research, the symptoms of fatigue might well be
caused by other factors unrelated to study: they may be job-related rather
than study related.
With the research question of whether boys are more aggressive than girls,
the research unit is not immediately obvious. Sometimes the research unit
is concealed within the research question. In this example, the units are not
confined to either boys or girls but include all children or young people,
depending on the age of the group that you want to discuss. That group’s
gender is a quality of the unit: the girls and boys that that make up the
units. As this example shows, as well as research units, we can also have
a quality or a construct. In the research into fatigue among students,
complaints about fatigue constitute the quality. In the research into
differences in sick leave rates among government employees as against
those in non-government companies, the companies that form the research
units are presumably Dutch companies. The quality that the researcher
intends to measure is sick leave and whether there is a higher rate of it
within government than non-government organizations.

24-06-10 10:40

UNITS AND CONSTRUCTS

© Noordhoff Uitgevers bv

21

TIP!!! CReaTe a DaTa MaTRIx befoRe you sTaRT youR QuanTITaTIve ReseaRCH.

To make sure you know what your research units are, it is a good idea to
start out by doing a preliminary design of your data matrix. If your research
is into symptoms of fatigue among students, your data matrix may look like
the following:
Mental fatigue
complaints

Physical fatigue
complaints

age

Gender

Student 1

Yes

Yes

20

Male

Student 2

No

No

19

Female

Student 3

…

1

…

The rows (i.e., the horizontal lines) should show the research units: in this
case, students. The constructs: in this case, mental and physical fatigue,
age and gender, should be shown in the columns.

The problem sometimes occurs of constructs not being relevant to
particular research units. Take the example of research into the issue of
sick leave within organizations. In this case, the research unit is
organizations and the constructs include whether the organization is a
government one or not, and sick leave. However, sick leave is, in fact, an
employee construct. By taking the average sick leave within the
organization it becomes an organizational construct and the problem is
resolved. You will often only realize this when you draw up a data matrix,
hence the suggestion to draw up a data matrix before you start your
research.
With qualitative research, constructs are often less apparent than with
quantitative research. Sometimes research itself is needed to isolate
important constructs. Nevertheless, you will never have to start completely
from scratch. With the research into the problems that people with physical
limitations experience in walking up and down stairs, you know that it is
about stairs. The researcher probably has a particular type of staircase
already in mind. Indeed, the research confirms this: the researcher is
focussing on staircases in private homes. But even in this instance, you
may very well question whether you should focus solely on internal
staircases or include staircases that provide entry to apartment buildings.
With qualitative research too, it is important that you, the researcher, make
it clear who or what you are presuming to discuss. One difference with
quantitative research is, of course, that that presumption can be changed.
You might, for example, decide that it is wiser to focus particularly on
staircases in houses that were built within the last fifty years and accept
that as a limitation.

Boek 79026.indb 21

24-06-10 10:40

22

1 WHAT DOES THE RESEARCHER WANT TO FIND OUT?

© Noordhoff Uitgevers bv

TIP!!! TRy noT To sTaRT ouT Too bRoaDly WHen you aRe DoInG QualITaTIve
ReseaRCH

If you want to find out what it means to an adult to have been abused or
maltreated as a child, even with qualitative research it is wise to restrict your
research question. For example, you could start with sexual abuse and base
it on women who are now between 20 and 30 years of age. As soon as you
have a clear picture of how this has affected these women, you could
consider including women who are somewhat older and are likely to be going
through a different stage of life. You could then investigate whether your
findings in relation to the younger group – those between 20 and 30 – also
applies to women who are older. As soon as you have the feeling that you
understand what it means for adults to have been sexually abused you could
extend your investigation to include maltreatment in general and its effect on
people when they reach adulthood. By taking such an approach you will not
run the risk of ending up with a mountain of data with no clear line to it
because the problem that you are investigating is too complex and/or the
group that you are investigating is not homogenous enough.

1

Checklist 1.3 What does the researcher want to discuss? Research
units and constructs
• What are the research units? That is, who or what is your target
group?
• What are the units’ constructs? That is, what topics do you want to
discuss?

1.1
1.2
1.3

What is the research problem and the research question, and what are the
researcher’s objectives?
Is the research question an open-ended or a fixed one? Does it involve
qualitative or quantitative research?
What issues does the researcher want to discuss? Units and properties.

1.4 What is already known in relation to the
research topic? Deciding on content.
1.5
1.6

Will the research involve descriptive research, exploratory research or
testing of hypotheses?
Is the research feasible?
The process of formulating useful research questions is usually preceded
by a long period of deliberation. Initially, you will usually find that you have a
vague and global idea that you progressively make more specific and more
detailed. The idea becomes more concrete, and with this, more able to be
investigated. When you are asked to do some research into a particular
issue, your first move should be to get a general overview of the issue. You
should confer with colleagues and with the person commissioning the
research and see what you can find on the Internet and in the literature on
the subject before you move towards a more or less definitive formulation
of the research question. You will often find yourself making a number of

Boek 79026.indb 22

24-06-10 10:40

© Noordhoff Uitgevers bv

WHAT IS ALREADY KNOWN?

23

preliminary formulations before you settle on a definite research question.
Even then, you may very well change it.
Formulating an apparently simple question will usually turn out to be more
complicated than you originally expected. The question ‘How frequent are
RSI complaints within our organization?’ is a good example of this. What
are RSI-related complaints and how do you establish whether people have
them? If you did a survey and asked the employees whether they
sometimes experienced pain when they used a computer mouse or had
difficulty manipulating it, quite a lot of employees would be likely to
remember having had such experiences. If you used people calling in sick
as your basis you are likely to get too low a figure, since RSI-related
complaints are not always registered. Nor can you actually see RSI-related
complaints, and this in itself can cause a problem. You will have to probe
your respondents, but then you will be bringing in a subjective element
again: everybody reacts differently to pain.
One obvious approach is to do an extensive preliminary study: in this case,
into RSI-related complaints and in particular, how you gauge them. Using
the results of such a study, you could give the person commissioning the
research a preliminary formulation of the research question. Sometimes it
is also wise to do a qualitative preliminary investigation first. Imagine that
you are asked to investigate the fact that in some departments of a
department store sales are much lower than in other departments, while in
another comparable department store there are no such differences. The
question is why some departments have sales figures that are much lower
than would be expected. With a research question of this nature, it would
be sensible to firstly take a look at the departments in question, or perhaps
even to spend some time working in those departments. If you happen to
notice that employees in departments that are performing well are much
more positive about those in charge, you may find that performance level is
related to managerial style. You could then set up a quantitative
investigation to test whether there is indeed a connection between
managerial style and staff performance.
There will often be no need to do a preliminary investigation, though it is
wise to do a literature search before you start drawing up your research
proposal, not least because the research that you intend doing may already
have been done by others. Nothing could be more painful than to discover
that others have already done the same research as yours. But even if you
cannot find evidence of comparable research, it is wise to firstly do a
search of the literature and to look at the Internet to check that there has
not been research that is allied to your research. There are three reasons
for this:
1 To define your constructs and gauge them. Prior research can show you
how others have defined the constructs that you want to research and in
particular, what measuring techniques have been used. Those researching
symptoms of fatigue among students would find it useful to know that
there has been recent research into fatigue among secondary school
students. In it, the construct of symptoms of fatigue was clearly defined.
In the research they also used an instrument for measuring fatigue that
has been used in a lot of other research. They also indicated what the
characteristics of chronic fatigue are. If you want to set up and perform

Boek 79026.indb 23

1

qualitative
preliminary
investigation

literature
search

24-06-10 10:40

24

1 WHAT DOES THE RESEARCHER WANT TO FIND OUT?

© Noordhoff Uitgevers bv

some research into symptoms of fatigue among students, information of
this sort is, of course, highly relevant.
2 Methodological aspects. It is also useful to read about how other
researchers have set up and performed research of a similar type, and
in particular, what their experiences have been. There is even a
dedicated site where you can find information relating to the
methodological aspects of previously performed sociological research
(www.srm-online.nl).

1

3 Theory. If you are looking for a theory to explain the phenomena you
intend to research, do make sure that you also research your sources.
To go back to the research into symptoms of fatigue among secondary
students, it would seem that they have much less to do with lifestyle
than previously thought and much more to do with personality factors
such as anxiety and depression. This is, naturally, a point that the
researchers into symptoms of fatigue among students should include in
their research.

Search terms
or keywords

thesaurus

Search engines

Boek 79026.indb 24

When you start investigating your sources it is crucial that you use the right
search terms or keywords. Avoid limiting yourself to a single construct: try
out a number of different ones. If you are doing research into fatiguerelated complaints, try the terms ‘tiredness’ and ‘exhaustion’ as well. You
could try looking at similar terms in a dictionary or thesaurus (you will find
many online). A thesaurus is a type of dictionary in which you can look up
various concepts and find more or less comparable ones. In the Thesaurus.
com, for example, you will also find the concept of ‘burnout.’ You can also
consult online specialized dictionaries: use the search term ‘a web of
on-line dictionaries.’
You should also find good translations for your keyword. If you type in
‘fatigue’ in Hyperdictionary it will come up as an acceptable keyword, and
as well, some similar terms are given, including ‘burnout’ and ‘exhaustion.’
If you think that you have found the right keywords or search term, the
obvious next step is to do an Internet search. But you should not restrict
yourself to the Internet: take a look at specialized libraries and bookshops.
Books and magazines are often arranged according to subject, and you may
find some unexpected ones that are also relevant to your research.
If you do an Internet search, you will obviously start with big general search
engines such as Google and Yahoo. Typing in the search term ‘fatigue’ is
likely to bring up a lot of irrelevant references: for example, to a site where
peppermint oil is recommended as a remedy against fatigue. It is
preferable to refer to sites that contain primarily scientific literature: for
example, the Scholar versions of Google, Scirus and Pubmed.

24-06-10 10:40

© Noordhoff Uitgevers bv

WHAT IS ALREADY KNOWN?

25

1

Search results for ‘fatigue’ using Google Scholar

The good thing about Google Scholar is that it not only shows articles and
references, but if you have found a relevant article, it will also refer you to
similar articles. It also indicates who has quoted the article, and thus can
prompt further searches. You can even search forward and find the most
recent articles. It would appear, for example, that the scale used to
determine fatigue that Krupp et al refer to in a 1989 publication also
appears in a 2005 publication by MacAllister et al. Google Scholar was
able to discover that Krupp was referred to in the literature list of the
MacAllister et al article.

TIP!!! Make aDDITIonal use of THe seaRCH TeRMs ‘ReseaRCH’ anD ‘RevIeW’

If you only use ‘fatigue’ as a search term you will get a lot references that
are not relevant to your research. If you add the search term ‘research’, you
stand a greater chance of obtaining references to research, and by also
including the search term ‘review’ you will find mainly overview articles
which discuss various bits of research.
‘Fatigue’ alone as a search term produced nearly 45,000,000 hits. The
addition of ‘research’ brought that figure down to 4,500,000, and after
adding ‘review’, it was further reduced to 2,000,000. By using Google’s
‘advanced search’ option and limiting the search to those sites which had
been looked at within the past six months, the figure could be brought
down to 1,000,000 references, including a lot of relevant ones.

Boek 79026.indb 25

24-06-10 10:40

26

theses

1

1 WHAT DOES THE RESEARCHER WANT TO FIND OUT?

© Noordhoff Uitgevers bv

As previously mentioned, books and in particular, theses, can provide
interesting material. Theses usually provide useful literature lists on the
topic dealt with in the thesis. Dutch theses can be found on DAREnet.
Make sure you use English search terms in addition to Dutch ones. Many
theses are currently written in English. You can often download theses from
DAREnet and so you can read them directly. Moreover, DAREnet forms part
of NARCIS, which will refer you to many more Dutch scientific publications.
An international theses website is www.dissertation.com.

Search results for ‘fatigue’ using DAREnet

Another site you could refer to is Google Books and is specifically for
books. The site allows you to view parts of books and so it allows you to
see whether a particular book is relevant to your research.

TIP!!! keeP a loGbook

When you are looking for information, keep a logbook. For example, you
could create a Word file and every time you find something that is relevant
you make a note of both the content (including the topic or part that is of
particular relevance to your research) as well as the exact details for
reference purposes. Failure to do this may mean that you may soon not be
able to see the wood for the trees.

Boek 79026.indb 26

24-06-10 10:40

© Noordhoff Uitgevers bv

WHAT IS ALREADY KNOWN?

27

1

Search results in Google Books

Do make sure that when you refer to the literature in your research report,
you adhere to the rules that apply to your particular discipline. Your
particular literature can be consulted with this purpose in mind.

Checklist 1.4 What is already known in relation to the research topic?
Deciding on content
• Is a preliminary investigation necessary?
• Have you referred to relevant recent literature? You need to have
found answers to the following:
– Has this research already been performed by others?
– How have other researchers set up research of a similar kind?
– How have other researchers defined and measured comparable
constructs?
– How have other researchers made use of theories to elucidate
comparable phenomena?
• Have you used appropriate search terms?
• Have you consulted appropriate sources and documents (and not
only the Oxford Dictionary or Wikipedia)?
• Have you consulted books, reports and journals in addition to
websites?
• Have you referenced your sources correctly?

Boek 79026.indb 27

24-06-10 10:40

28

1 WHAT DOES THE RESEARCHER WANT TO FIND OUT?

1.1
1.2
1.3
1.4

1

© Noordhoff Uitgevers bv

What is the research problem and the research question, and what are the
researcher’s objectives?
Is the research question an open-ended or a fixed one? Does it involve
qualitative or quantitative research?
What issues does the researcher want to discuss? Units and properties.
What is already known in relation to the research topic? Deciding on content.

1.5 Will the research involve descriptive
research, exploratory research or testing of
hypotheses?
1.6

Is the research feasible?

From the examples that have been used, you will have deduced that
research questions can vary considerably in nature. In general, research
can take one of the following forms:
• Descriptive research
• Exploratory research
• Hypothesis-testing research

descriptive
research

Descriptive research
Quantitative descriptive research is usually about frequency issues. For
example, you may want to find out how many students have RSI-related
problems. You could approach this by ringing, writing to or emailing a
number of students in tertiary colleges and universities and asking them if
they sometimes experience physical complaints or pain when they type on
a computer keyboard, and if so, when was this, how serious was it and so
on. You could then add up how many students compared to the total
number are (or have been) affected to at least some degree. Your research
result will most likely take the form of a table, a pie chart or a histogram
(see Table 1.2, Fig. 1.1 and section 4.1.2).

Table 1.2 Number

of students claiming to have (or have had) physical problems as a
result of computer use (n = 200)

number

Percentage

Yes

144

72

No

56

28

FIGURE 1.1

Pie chart diagram (left) and bar chart (right) showing number of students
who have had RSI-related complaints at some stage

RSI-related
complaints
56

Yes

Number
150
100

No
144

50
0
yes

Boek 79026.indb 28

no
RSI-related complaints

24-06-10 10:40

© Noordhoff Uitgevers bv

DESCRIPTIONS, ExPLORATIONS OR TEST?

The fact that approximately 70% of students have had RSI-related
complaints at some stage, including about 15% with serious complaints,
says something about the seriousness and the extent of the problem,
though not very much about the nature and relevancy of the problem.
Significance is best investigated by means of a qualitative case study. You
could go about this by doing a number of in-depths interviews with a couple
of students who are suffering from serious RSI. These interviews should
aim to illustrate what consequences the complaints have had (and in
particular, how the students have experienced these problems personally)
and how they are coping with them. For example, how are they resolving the
problem of not being able to do any assignments and how are they
managing the pain? These students’ stories ought to provide a good picture
of the nature and the significance of the problem: something that is difficult
to reproduce in the form of a table.
exploratory research
To discover what the cause of RSI-related complaints is you will need to do
some exploratory research.
If you have absolutely no idea what might be causing RSI-related
complaints, it is wise to start with qualitative exploratory research. You
could begin by sitting in on a computer class. This may bring up some
ideas. For example, you might notice that students rarely sit up straight
behind their computer, especially because they are inclined to sit in groups
of two or three. Additionally, you could hold open interviews with students.
This might provide you with the information that students rarely have
breaks when they are sitting behind a computer, sometimes working for
hours on end on an assignment. You may also observe that students often
work on laptops, whose keyboards are relatively unsuitable. Out of a
qualitative exploratory investigation of this sort might emerge a theory that
may explain why students suffer from RSI. You might get an idea from the
material that you have gathered. You then test the validity of that idea by
using a control of another situation with different students. You will have to
persist until you have the feeling that you have found a suitable explanation
or theory. Such a research approach is a matter of trial and error and
adaptation (see also section 4.2.1).
With quantitative exploratory research you must naturally already have some
idea about what factors are likely to play a role. After all, your questions will
have to have a focus. Unlike open interviews, a structured survey of
RSI-related problems will require the questions to have been formulated in
advance, and as such, you will have to know what sort of questions you
intend asking. With a structured observation, you will need to know what
types of behaviour and behavioural factors you intend to concentrate on.
Consequently, you will need to have some idea of the factors that play a
role in RSI-related problems and their occurrence. Some relevant factors
have already been mentioned in this regard: the time that is spent behind a
computer without a break, whether or not the student’s computer is a
laptop, sitting posture in relation to the keyboard and so on. The only thing
you do not know is whether they do actually have an effect, the extent to
which they have an effect and whether other factors are also involved. This
is what you want to find out with your quantitative exploratory research.
Bear in mind that you do have to create a questionnaire or observational
list setting things out in advance. It is not possible to change your

Boek 79026.indb 29

case study

29

1

qualitative
exploratory
research

quantitative
exploratory
research

24-06-10 10:40

30

1 WHAT DOES THE RESEARCHER WANT TO FIND OUT?

© Noordhoff Uitgevers bv

questions halfway through your research, which is something that you
certainly can do with qualitative research. As soon as you have gathered all
your data you will use statistical techniques to investigate whether you can
see any connections and/or differences within it, and in particular, how
strong those connections are and how great the differences. To take an
example: how many of the various RSI-related complaints can be attributed
to the average number of hours spent behind the computer by the student?

1

Hypothesistesting
research

theory

Hypothesis-testing research
Hypothesis-testing research can be defined as what you do when you have a
theory and you set about finding out whether it is correct. Imagine that on the
basis of the preliminary qualitative research that you did in the department
store you have come to the conclusion that in departments where sales are
relatively low, complaints about that department’s managers are frequent.
You, the researcher, have the impression that the managerial style in such
departments is authoritarian and staff members are not often involved in
decision-making processes. Consequently, the staff members do not feel as
much a part of the department: their sense of personal involvement in the
business is less than it is among members of other departments. In fact, the
researcher’s theory can be expressed as follows (Table 1.3).

Table 1.3 Example

of a theory as developed by a researcher

Theory

Authoritative managerial style > less sense of personal
involvement among staff
less sense of personal involvement among staff > less
motivation
less motivation > less dedication to the job
less dedication to the job > lower turnover

expectation (hypothesis)

Hypothesis

Boek 79026.indb 30

Authoritative managerial style > low turnover

You could also make use of existing theories. There are a lot of theories
about the effects of managerial style that are similar to researcher’s theory
shown above. There is no need for the researcher to reinvent the wheel.
Such theories have the advantage of often having been based on prior
research and as such have been more or less tested. The researcher can
then test whether the theory also applies to the situation that he or she is
investigating (in this case, the case of the department store). A theory
always becomes an expectation, and that expectation is termed the
hypothesis. It is this hypothesis that you will test when you do your
research. If you find evidence to support your hypothesis, you can assume
that your hypothesis is correct. Not every hypothesis has to be connected
to a theory. If you have created a digital mouse pen and you think that it
will lead to a lowering of the rate of RSI-related complaints, you will want to
demonstrate in your research that that pen does indeed have the desired
positive effect. As such your hypothesis is that the pen will reduce RSIrelated complaints. A lot of advertising research is also about whether your
publicity is likely to have the desired effect, and this too is hypothesistesting research. Such research can be termed evaluation research. It is

24-06-10 10:40

© Noordhoff Uitgevers bv

DESCRIPTIONS, ExPLORATIONS OR TEST?

used to ascertain whether the product you have developed – be it a mouse
pen or a training course (one, for example, that focuses on making
managers less authoritarian) or information about posture in relation to
computer use – is likely to have the desired effect.
Qualitative hypothesis-testing research hardly ever occurs. If you want to
establish the effect of your digital mouse pen on RSI complaints you could
ask your respondents if they have the feeling that the pen works, but this
would not constitute sufficient evidence. After all, it could be seen as
suggesting an effect. The only hypothesis-testing research that sometimes
occurs in qualitative research is the template approach. For example, if there
is an existing theory about the people’s motives in filling out a donor codicil
(or not doing so) developed in the United States on the basis of interviews
with Americans, you could investigate whether that theory can also be
applied to the Dutch situation. We will return to this in section 4.2.2.

31

1

template
approach

Checklist 1.5 The nature of the research question and whether it
involves descriptive research, exploration or testing
• What is the nature of the research: descriptive, explorative or
testing?
• If testing research, what is the theory behind the research and
what is/are the hypothesis/hypotheses?

1.1
1.2
1.3
1.4
1.5

What is the research problem and the research question, and what are the
researcher’s objectives?
Is the research question an open-ended or a fixed one? Does it involve
qualitative or quantitative research?
What issues does the researcher want to discuss? Units and properties.
What is already known in relation to the research topic? Deciding on
content.
Will the research involve descriptive research, exploratory research or
testing of hypotheses?

1.6 Is the research feasible?
Even before your research gets underway, it is important to consider
whether the research is actually feasible. Four factors will determine this:
1 Time
2 Money
3 Respondent willingness
4 Respondent availability (or accessibility of existing data)
Time
If you have to do some research (including that for a thesis, paper or
assignment), it is wise to first plan your time. A handy way of going about
this is to begin with the deadline –your final exam, for example – and then
work backwards. As soon as you have drawn up a time schedule, you should
check whether it is realistic. This is important, and will help you avoid
running short of time and not being able to complete your research, a
situation which would cause you frustration as well as the person who has
commissioned it.

Boek 79026.indb 31

plan your time
time schedule

24-06-10 10:40

32

1 WHAT DOES THE RESEARCHER WANT TO FIND OUT?

© Noordhoff Uitgevers bv

Money
To check whether your goals are realistic, firstly do a global estimate of
what data, personnel and time is needed. If the research does not look
feasible before you even get underway with it, then it would be a waste of
energy to go ahead. While you will usually have a global idea of your
research needs before you start on which you can base your preliminary
estimate, as soon as you have drawn up your definitive research plan your
preliminary estimate will obviously have to be adjusted.

1

willingness of
respondents

Respondent willingness
Time and money are not the only factors that have the potential to hamper
your research. Whether your research can go ahead at all will depend on
the willingness of respondents to participate in it or for the material you
want to be made available to you.

Incentive

How willing people are to participate in an investigation will depend on a
number of factors:
• The organization doing the research (is it a commercial organization or is
it being carried out by a university or a college of advanced education?)
• How you approach people
• How much time it will cost
• How interesting the subject is
• How useful the research is likely to be
• Whether there is an incentive (material or otherwise)

refusal

non-response

respondent
availability

Boek 79026.indb 32

Use the above list of points to estimate how difficult it will be to obtain
respondents for the research that you have in mind. You will need to ask
yourself whether you are likely to find enough people to take part in it. Too
many people giving you a refusal will render the research relatively
pointless. If you are doing research into customer satisfaction for a travel
agency and only 10% of the clients you have listed respond, this could
constitute quite a selective group: probably clients who are either highly
dissatisfied or highly satisfied. You will be lacking those clients who form
the middle group: satisfied with some things and not satisfied with others.
As such, your research results will not be representative of all of the clients
of the travel agency. To be able to make generalizations on the basis of
your research results, it is important that you have a representative
research group at your disposal. It is better to have a small but
representative group than a very large group with a high non-response rate
(see also section 2.3.1).
Respondent availability/accessibility of existing data
It is not only willingness on the part of respondents but also respondent
availability that can cause problems. A lot of target groups are not listed
anywhere and so obtaining a sample poses a problem: where, for example,
would you find people who have bought a PC in the past year, or
unemployed fathers with children between the ages of six and twelve, or
even more difficult to find, migrants who are working illegally? Assuming
that you want a representative sample, you may well underestimate the
time needed to find people like this. In the absence of lists of names and
addresses, you will firstly need to estimate how much time and trouble it
will cost to find enough people to have a representative sample.

24-06-10 10:40

© Noordhoff Uitgevers bv

DESCRIPTIONS, ExPLORATIONS OR TEST?

Even if you are making use of existing data – for example, data relating to
sick leave among company employees, or student results – make sure right
from the start that you have access to this data. Companies as well as
government organizations are particularly cautious about making data
accessible. Take into account that some government organizations
(including municipal offices) may charge you for looking for data and making
it available to you.

33

1

After taking all these four points (time, money, willingness and availability)
into account, you will have to decide whether to go ahead with your
research.
The website www.research.noordhoff.nl contains examples of estimates as
well as forms that you can fill in to make your own estimates and plan your
time.

Checklist 1.6 The feasibility of the research
• Is there enough time available to do the research?
• Is there enough money available to do the research?
• Can you find enough people who are willing to participate in your
research?
• Is your non-response rate likely to be high?
• Are you able to access any existing data you might need?

Boek 79026.indb 33

24-06-10 10:40