the research process Wk1 & 2 Flashcards
(42 cards)
Science is not
a thing, it is a process; a method of inquiring about, and understanding, nature
There are two types of knowledge:
(i) agreement (i.e. second-hand, e.g. tradition and authority; social) and (ii) experiential (i.e. first-hand; personal)
The two benefits of agreement knowledge are:
(i) it’s practical and (ii) socially reinforcing
Some of the characteristics of science are:
(i) that it is conscious, deliberate, and rigorous; (ii) that is searches for what reality is and how we know what reality is; and (iii) that it requires logic and testing to help us decide what reality is when agreement and experiential knowledge contradict each other
The nature of reality is a philosophical problem with three approaches:
(i) pre-modern, (ii) modern, and (iii) post-modern
What is the difference between the approaches to reality for pre-modernism and modernism
they both hold that reality exists and that humans see that reality, but that modernism does not make judgments in accuracy about differences in what is seen;
Social scientists are humans and so they can make cognitive errors, but
that they can use science to help guard against these errors
Four of the more common cognitive errors that can occur when trying to find reality (and how science guards against them) are:
(i) inaccurate observation (deliberate observation), (ii) overgeneralisation (large and representative sampling and replication), (iii) selective observation (involve other researchers), and (iv) illogical reasoning (involve other researchers)
The meaning of epistemology is that
it refers to the science of knowing
There are two main characteristics of science:
logic and observation
There are three activities involved in science:
theory, data collection, and data analysis
Logic is used to
design and develop scientific theory; that observations are made when collecting data; and that data analysis compares what is actually observed or collected with what would logically be expected (as outlined in the theory)
Scientific theory is not based on
philosophy or belief and therefore cannot answer debates about ethics/morality/values
Scientific theory in the social sciences focuses
not on individuals (in the way psychology does) but on groups of people. As a result, it is also concerned with the system that influences groups of people
The three main functions of scientific theory are to
(i) explore, (ii) describe, and (iii) explain patterns in social life
Even though there is less regularity in social life
than in physical life, there are still patterns (both formally prescribed and less informally socially normative) that can be investigated in the social sciences
Exceptions to the rule, people’s choice to behave inconsistently, and the charge of triviality do not make the patterns investigated in social science
null or insignificant
There are four different theoretical approaches to social research; each of which represent an opposing view, but are best used as complementary rather than competing approaches:
(i) idiographic and nomothetic, (ii) inductive and deductive, (iii) qualitative and quantitative, and (iv) pure and applied
Idiographic explanations seek only to fully explain
one specific event,
but that nomothetic explanations seek to partially explain
many similar events
Inductive reasoning uses
a specific event to make general inferences,
deductive reasoning uses
general patterns to make an inference about a specific event
Qualitative data is
non-numeric and captures the reasons why a pattern may be occurring
quantitative data is
numeric and captures the extent to which the pattern is occurring
