Types of research methods for master thesis examples

You may not be fond of statistics, but the potential relevance of a quantitative best essays for upsc should be considered and similarly, the idea of qualitative analysis and conducting examples own research may yield valuable data.

The possibilities of using quantitative and types data are also discussed.

Watch video on approaching methodologies. What approach should I take - qualitative or quantitative? This video clip contains comments from the following academics:. Your approach, research design, and research question are all connected.

Guide to undergraduate dissertations in the social sciences

Dissertations can be based on either quantitative or qualitative data, or on a combination of both. How you choose this may depend on your preferences and abilities, and the suitability of particular approaches to your topic. You need to be able to justify why you have chosen to use such data.

Quantitative data is particularly useful when you wish to discover how common particular forms of behaviour such as illegal drug use are for a particular age group.

Go here data is particularly useful when you wish to types out types of research methods for master thesis examples people engage in such behaviour. Think about the Research Methods master thesis examples you have research methods for so far.

Think about the different kinds of studies types of research methods for types of research methods for master thesis examples thesis examples have read for other modules. There is plenty of scope to use the approaches and methods that you are most comfortable with. You need to justify your approach and essay example and to cite appropriate literature to help you do this. You will probably want to use large datasets and undertake quantitative data analysis, and you will be adopting a realist approach to the topic studied.

Quantitative dissertations are likely to be nearer to the lower end of the range of approved lengths for the dissertation e. They will types of research methods for master thesis examples include tables and figures giving your important findings. Remember that all tables must be carefully titled and labelled and that types of research methods for master thesis examples of your data must be acknowledged.

Research methodologies

You will probably want to use in-depth qualitative data, and you may wish to adopt a realist, a phenomenologist, or a constructionist approach to the topic.

Qualitative dissertations will include descriptive material, usually extracts from interviews, conversations, documents or field notes, and are therefore likely to be nearer to the upper limit of your types of research methods for master thesis examples range e.

The types of method suitable for a dissertation could include content analysis, a types of research methods for master thesis examples scale ethnographic study, small scale in-depth qualitative interviewing. There are many ways in which qualitative and quantitative data and analysis can be combined.

Here are two examples. Your supervisor or research methods tutor may be able to give you detailed examples of these or other ways to combine methods. If you decide to do a primarily theoretical dissertation, it is almost certain that your dissertation will be entirely literature-based.

This is likely to be the methodology of theoretical analysis: You might ask how useful certain concepts or theories are for understanding particular patterns of behaviour.

How useful is the concept of institutional racism? Is objectivity in the media possible? How useful is subcultural theory for understanding virtual communities?

Here, the focus of attention is not so much to discover something about the social world, for example virtual communities, as to reach a judgement about the value of key concepts or theories in understanding that types of research methods for master thesis examples.

How the study is approached and how contrasting approaches are go here upon needs to be stated very clearly. A library-based or theoretical study is not necessarily 'easier' than an empirical study, indeed, it may well be harder. Remember that theoretical studies, like data-based studies, need to have their research design spelled out from the start.

But even if your dissertation is more empirically focused, it could still be entirely literature-based.

You might choose to conduct a review of a field of work. What does the research literature in this field tell us about x? While all dissertations will include a literature review, it is possible to produce a dissertation that is entirely based on a review types of research methods for master thesis examples the literature.

If you do this, it is important to review the literature from an explicit angle click here identify some themes to make the review distinctive. You might, for example, explore empirical debates in your chosen field across different countries or time periods.

Whilst it is possible for dissertations types of research methods for master thesis examples be entirely literature-based, the most common form of dissertation takes the form of a case study. Here the focus of attention is on a particular community, organisation or set of documents.