Description of the Triangulation - Essay Example

? Triangulation Triangulation refers to the employment of more than one different research approaches in a single study with the aim of confirming and verifying data in different ways. The diverse research approaches utilized produce corresponding data, which adds richness, rigour, and depth to the process of research design and the data collection (Mcmurray & Pace 2004, p.263). Researchers Campbell and Fiske were the first researchers to conceptualize triangulation to the research field. In triangulation, the phenomenon under qualitative research study relates to a ship at sea. The accurate description of the phenomenon is unclear. For researchers to gain clarity of a phenomenon, researchers study phenomenon from a given vantage point. From the vantage point, researchers obtain additional information about a phenomenon. However, the information at the first vantage point is not precise. This makes the researchers move to second vantage point to study a phenomenon. Information gathered from the second vantage point provides additional information about the phenomenon, which makes the phenomenon description clearer. In case a research pursues a third vantage point, the description of the phenomenon becomes even clearer than the earlier vantage points undertaken. The ultimate goal of adopting multiple-strategies is to overcome the bias that comes from a single approach. There are five types of triangulation that researchers employ in their studies. The methods include data triangulation, investigator triangulation, theoretical triangulation, method triangulation and multiple triangulations (Speziale & Carpenter 2011, p 81-82). Hypothesis A hypothesis denotes a statement that describes the assumption made by a researcher. Hypothesis may also explain or suggest a conclusion made by a researcher with respect to a phenomenon of interest. In addition to setting the stage for a research project, hypothesis dictates the appropriate research design a researcher should follow and provides a guide to research action. The hypothesis made in research influences the formation of an alternative hypothesis. Researchers write hypotheses in various ways and for different purposes. Hypothesis may be formed to address relationships between variables or differences between valuable. A researcher state hypotheses as facts or writes them as comparison or predictions (Mcnabb, 2004, p.157). There are two main hypotheses in research; research and the null hypothesis. The null hypothesis predicts equality or absence of relationship between the stated variables. Any scientific research is based on the premise that the null hypothesis exists until there is evidence that favors the research hypothesis or evidence to reject the null hypothesis. The research hypothesis states that a relationship or inequality exists between the dependent and independent variable (Sirakaya-Turk 2011, p. 25). Dependent variable The quantitative researchers in a study seek the cause of a phenomenon. For example, does a nursing intervention cause improved patients outcomes? The presumed cause is the independent variable, and the presumed effect is the dependent variable. The variation in the dependent variable depends entirely on the variations in the independent variables. For example, a researcher investigating the extent to which smoking (the independent variable) causes lung cancer (the dependent variable). The dependent variable is one researcher seeks to understand, explain or predict. In the lung cancer/smoking research, the researchers attempt to explain and predict cancer but not smoking. In research studies, researchers use the dependent and independent variable to designate the direction of influence between the variables and not cause or effect. For example, a researcher studying the mental health of caretakers that care for spouses with Alzheimer’s disease may find better mental health results for the wives and not for the husband caregivers. In this example, the researcher may be unwilling to conclude that the gender caused the caregiver’s mental health. Yet the direction of influence runs from gender to mental health (Loiselle 2011, p.29). It is common for a researcher to design research with many dependent and independent variables. However, a given variable may serve as a dependent variable in one study but may be an independent variable in another study. The dependent and independent variable to be used in research must be defined appropriately (Babbie 2013, p.230). Sampling frame A sampling framework is a list or devices used to define researchers’ population of interest. A sampling frame defines a set of elements that a researcher selects a sample from the target population. To represent the elements of the population of interest, a researcher relies on the sampling frame (Lewis-Beck & Bryman 2007, p. 992-993). It is crucial for a researcher to differentiate the target population from the study population (Gerrish, & Lacey 2010, p.144). Sampling frames are of two types; list and non-list. A good sampling frame is critical in research in order to achieve comprehensiveness and accuracy. Comprehensiveness refers the extent to which the sampling frame covers the target population as a whole. Accuracy denotes the degree to which a sampling frame includes the correct information about the elements of the target population the research covers. Sampling frameworks that are incomprehensive and inaccurate are a source of bias in any research study. Bias occurs when the sampling frame includes elements not members of the target population or excludes elements that are members of the target population (Lewis-Beck & Bryman 2007, p. 992-993). Deduction To deduce means to use the process of reasoning to draw logical conclusions. Thus, deduction is the process of drawing logical conclusions from a set of general premises. In methodological literature, data analysis, explanation and theory utilize deductive approach. Deduction approach views empirical social research as conducted on the basis of a hypothesis derived from the social theory. Researchers’ later test the hypothesis against empirical observation and subsequently used to refute or confirm the original theoretical proposition. Deduction relates with positivism and the natural science models of social research and is the opposite of induction. In the philosophy of science, Researchers term deduction approach as ‘hypothetico-deductive method’ as its main aim is to establish natural laws in social science. Researchers view deduction as an approach to explanation. Researchers refer the explanation to as’ nomological-deductive explanation’. Deduction as an approach to explanation takes data and applies a theory to the explanation in order to deduce from the theory an explanation for empirical findings (Miller 2003, p. 67-68). Deduction has several characteristics. First, it aims to explain the causal relationship between variables. Secondly, researchers are independent of phenomenon under observation and required to be objective. Lastly, it involves generalization of selected sample to represent the entire population (Collins 2010, p. 42). References List Babbie, E. R. (2013). The practice of social research. Belmont, Calif, Wadsworth Cengage Learning.P. 230 Collins, H. (2010). Creative research: the theory and practice of research for the creative industries. Lausanne, AVA Academia.P.42 Gerrish, K., & Lacey, A. (2010). The research process in nursing. Chichester, West Sussex, U.K., Wiley-Blackwell. P.144 Lewis-Beck, M. S., & Bryman, A. (2007). The Sage encyclopedia of social science research methods. Thousand Oaks, CA, Sage. Pp. 992-993 Loiselle, C. G. (2011). Canadian essentials of nursing research. Philadelphia, Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.P.29 Mcmurray, A., Scott, D., & Pace, R. W. (2004). Research: a commonsense approach. Southbank, Vic, Thomson/Social Science Press.P.263 Mcnabb, D. E. (2004). Research methods for political science quantitative and qualitative methods. Armonk, N.Y., M.E. Sharpe. P.157 Miller, R. L. (2003). The A - Z of social research: a dictionary of key social science research concepts. London [i.e.], SAGE. , Pp. 67-68 Sirakaya-Turk, E. (2011). Research methods for leisure, recreation, and tourism. Wallingford, Oxfordshire [England] P. 25 Speziale, H. S., & Carpenter, D. R. (2011). Qualitative research in nursing: advancing the humanistic imperative. Philadelphia, Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.Pp. 81-82 Read More