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Our discussion of problem formulation culminates in the question of what thecriteria of internal and external validity are. The most important threats tointernal and external validity, namely invalid constructs, inaccuratemeasurements, unreliable data, invalid conclusions (internal validity), and nonrepresentativesamples (external validity) are discussed in chapters 3 to 5. Themost important point made in this chapter, has been that the conscious andcritical choice of a specific unit of analysis, research strategy, and researchgoal hold obvious implications for the relative importance of the internal andexternal validity of a research project. Concerning the choice of the unit ofanalysis, we demonstrated the dangers inherent in the ecological fallacy and inreductionism. Neither of these threats to the eventual validity of a researchproject are, however, insuperable, and may be dealt with fairly readily by acritical and systematic researcher. A far bigger threat to the general validity ofthe research would be if the researchers, at this stage of the project, had not yetdetermined whether or not they would wish to generalize to a defined universe.The answer to this question is directly related to their choice of a specificresearch goal.Methodological requirements for validity are obviously a good deal more strictfor explanatory research than they would be in the case of exploratory research.This problem will, however, be discussed again towards the end of chapter 5where a summary of the most important characteristics of the most typicalresearch designs is presented.Free download from www.hsrcpress.ac.zaRESUMÉOur primary aim in this chapter has been to introduce an important theme inthe area of research design. In this chapter, as well in the three that follow, wefocus on design considerations in social sciences research. Bearing in mind ouroriginal definition of research design, that it ought to be employed to maximizethe ultimate validity of research findings, the following chapters are devoted toa discussion of considerations of validity in the research process. Our aim isnot to discuss specific methods and techniques in the research process, butrather to review such methods and techniques from the vantage point ofconsiderations of validity. In the present chapter our primary focus has been onthe most important decisions which have to be taken to enable a researcher toarrive at a valid problem formulation.In our discussion of considerations that influence the choice of a researchdesign, we emphasized that, especially in the case of contract research, thechoice of a research design is frequently beyond the control of the researcher.This situation does not necessarily pose an insuperable threat to the validity ofthe project. In our discussion of the difficulties surrounding problemformulation, we paid attention to the choice of the unit of analysis, researchgoal, and research strategy. The most important issue which emerged from thisdiscussion is the distinction which may be drawn between internal and exter-52