Proposed Research Design and Rationale
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Proposed Research Design and Rationale
Research works are conducted to provide solutions to identified problems. To be considered efficient and comprehensive, they have to address the identified problem exhaustively. A research design plays a critical role in guaranteeing this. It is a master plan that integrates the different elements of the study in a logical manner. It does not only outline the data collection details but also the measurement and analysis of the data.
The research designs used to address research problems can be classified as pre-experimental, quasi-experimental, and experimental designs. Pre-experimental designs precede the actual experiments. Researchers seek to determine the effects of their interventions on a target group. Quasi-experimental designs, on the other hand, seek to initiate a cause-effect relationship between independent and dependent variables (Rogers &Revesz, 2019). However, experimental results are conducted with the sole aim of arriving at valid conclusions.
Several research designs fall under the three broad categories. The choice of a design depends on the research question. In finding out if the low-income young adults with mental health diagnoses who attend weekly psychotherapies use illegal substances compared to those who do not attend therapy, the pretest-posttest design would be the most appropriate. Using the design, an assessment is conducted on the participants before and after an experiment to determine its viability (Little et al., 2020). In this case, it was psychotherapy. The number of illegal substances consumed by young adults with mental health conditions before and after the treatment will therefore be determined. Similarly, the level of intake of the mental health patients who have not received the treatment will also be determined. From the tests, a suitable conclusion will be obtained.
Since research works are aimed at developing solutions to problems, they need to be conducted exhaustively. Therefore, there should be a plan that ensures no key component is left out. However, there are different types of research works. In establishing the plan, the suitability of the different research designs to the research should be guaranteed.
References
Little, T. D., Chang, R., Gorrall, B. K., Waggenspack, L., Fukuda, E., Allen, P. J., & Noam, G. G. (2020). The retrospective pretest-posttest design redux: On its validity as an alternative to traditional pretest-posttest measurement. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 44(2), 175-183.
Rogers, J., &Revesz, A. (2019). Experimental and quasi-experimental designs. In The Routledge handbook of research methods in applied linguistics (pp. 133-143). Routledge.