18 – RM Synthesis Table

At the beginning of the study…	Exploratory	Descriptive	Explanatory

Variables have been defined	Some but not all	Yes	In detail

Population has been defined	Not yet	Yes	In detail

Dependent variable has been defined	No	No	Yes

Independent variables have been defined	No	No	Yes

Operational definitions have been defined	No	Yes	Yes

A data collection instrument is tried and tested	No	Yes	Yes

Data is already available	No	Maybe	Yes

Empirical Verification supports hypothesis (Correlation)	No	No	Yes

A logical explanation (model) and group of hypotheses are established	No	Maybe	Yes
Repeatability is established	No	Maybe	Yes

Empirical Verification establishes causality	No	No	Yes

Type of logic	Inductive	Both	Deductive

Data type	Qualitative	Both	Quantitative

Research Methods	Field Work Unobtrusive	Survey Unobtrusive	Experiment Available Data
		Content Analysis

Method		Survey	Experiment	Field Research	Unobtrusive measurement	Content Analysis	Available Data	Case Study
	Participation	Direct			Indirect			Mix
Discipline (X)	Sociology	++				+
	Anthropology			++
	Psychology		++					+
	History					++
	Geography			+	+		++
	Political Science	+					++
	Economics						++
Data Collection Tool	Recorded Observation			++	++
	Laboratory		++
	Interview			+
	Questionnaire	++	+
	Documents				Artefacts	+	+
Study type	Exploratory			+
	Descriptive	++		+	++	++
	Explanatory		++				++
Generalization (XX)	To larger population
Generalization (XX)	To theory
Causal Analysis	Temporal Order			++
	Correlation	++					++
	Reduction		++
Process of Theory	Deductive						+
Process of Theory	Inductive	+	+	++
Data type	Qualitative	++				++
Data type	Quantitative						++
Scale	Nominal					++
	Ordinal			++	++
	Interval
	Ratio	++	+				++
Reporting (XXX)	Tables & Graphs		Psychology		Sociology	Political Science	Economics
	Social Linkages Maps	Sociology
	Spatial Maps						Geography
	Descriptive Text					History
	Synthesis Tables			Anthropology

NOTES * This table was produced for pedagogical reasons only and is not intended as a definitive design.
X - The highlighted areas indicate methods used very frequently by each discipline. Disciplinarians may also use other methods, albeit in a much less frequent way. For example, economists may use content analysis, but this occurs less frequently.
XX - The power to generalize a sample finding to a larger population depends on sampling technique. Methods require random sampling to benefit of full generalization power. Datasets including full populations are of no worry in this respect.
XXX - The discipline is named only as a prime example of this type of reporting, with a specific research method. Other disciplines may use this reporting technique in conjunction with this and other research methods, as well.