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Free download from www.hsrcpress.ac.zaThe meaning of the term research design as we use it in this book is, however,a broadening of the accepted usage. Too much emphasis is placed upon the factthat design and planning are directly related to the degree of structure andcontrol in a research project. Clearly, such a relationship does exist, and it isfor this reason that research design will always be more important, and alsomore effective, in studies in which systematic control and manipulation arepossible.Nonetheless, a further important dimension of the meaning of research designis disregarded in the process. The need for design and planning is most evidentwhen errors and inaccuracies have to be eliminated. Even when it is impossibleto structure a project fully and to consider each step in detail, it is frequentlypossible to eliminate certain typical threats to validity at the beginning and alsoduring the course of the project. This is the meaning which we wish to conveyby the terms design and research design in this book. It is now possible to linkup to the previous section, and the aim of research design may be formulated inthe following manner.The aim of a research design is to plan and structure a given research project insuch a manner that the eventual validity of the research findings is maximized.Research design is, therefore, synonymous with rational decision makingduring the research process. Irrespective of how structured or unstructured aresearch project is likely to be, it is the duty of the researcher to ascertainwhich general nuisance variables may render the results invalid, and to takeevery possible step to ensure that these factors are either minimized oreliminated.Using the accepted decision-making steps in the research process as a frame ofreference, we present, in chapters 2 to 5 an explanation of the factors whichmay threaten the overall validity of a project. We must, however, emphasizethat we shall deal with a broad range of nuisance variables which may occuracross a broad spectrum of research in the social sciences. It should be clearthat it is highly unlikely that all the factors which we shall discuss will everoccur in a single research project. For this reason, it is the task of the reader todecide which of the factors discussed are likely to affect the validity of theresearch findings.VIEWING RESEARCH DESIGN AS MAXIMIZING VALIDITYAs indicated in the previous section, the model of research decisions constitutesthe frame of reference of this chapter and the subsequent ones. In thismodel we distinguish between the following five typical research decisions:(1) Choice of a research topic.(2) Problem formulation.33