Social Research: Methods and Aims

• Social research is an academic discipline promoting the scientific method to gather social facts and conclude about social phenomena
• Social research involves systematic investigation of a subject (individuals or social institutions).
• Social research aims to uncover new information, confirm relationships, and interpret relationships.
• Social research finds answers to the questions: What, who, when, where, and why
• Social research provides reliable and verifiable knowledge to improve humanity's social conditions

Aims of Social Research

• Social research explores social reality and explains social life with documented information
• Social research evaluates the status of social issues and their societal effects.
• Social research develops and tests theories, understands behavior/human action, and suggests solutions to social problems and liberate individuals.

Types of Research

• Basic research creates knowledge for development or theory refinement
• Applied research demonstrates how theories and research improve lives
• Applied research includes evaluation and development.
• Action-Participatory Action Research improves practice through action, evaluation, and critical reflection, involving community members and experiential knowledge to tackle problems from unequal systems.

Research Defined

• Research is a collection of methods creating scientific knowledge about the natural/social world
• Research is a process involving the scientific method to answer questions
• Research systematically attempts to find out how the world works, supported by demonstrable facts and standards.
• Research facilitates the search for objective answers and solves problems

Ways of Knowing

• Knowledge of the world is discovering by personal observation/experience
• Knowledge of the world is discovering by Tradition, Authority, and Common sense

Personal Observation and Pitfalls

• Personal observation involves direct experience appealing to the senses
• Personal observation is Experiential reality
• Personal observation is casual, not always deliberate or systematic, making it prone to errors and affected by personal biases

Tradition and its Influence

• Tradition is the accepted way of thinking/doing things; a cumulative body of knowledge passed down, forming an "agreement reality"
• Agreement reality consists of things considered true because society accepts them.
• Traditional knowledge is tenacious but can be inaccurate and influenced by prejudice.

Authority and its draw backs

• Authority involves learning from parents, teachers, experts, media, and textbooks.
• Tradition can be a form of authority
• Authority is a common source, but accuracy isn't guaranteed; authorities may lack knowledge while media can project biases and stereotypes
• Over-reliance on authority may lead to dependence on others' opinions

Common Sense and its reasoning

• Common sense relies on ordinary, sometimes faulty, reasoning and 'street smart reasoning' without logic
• Common sense uses casual inductive and deductive approaches to understand and solve problems

Problems with Knowing Approaches

• Problems with knowing approaches include being causal, haphazard, inaccurate, overgeneralized, and based on inadequate/selective observation
• Problems with knowing approaches include illogical reasoning, premature closure, make-up information, halo effect, ego involvement, and ecological fallacy

Other problems with knowing approaches

• Methods of finding out about the world can be casual/haphazard rather than deliberate/systematic
• There are no mechanisms to ensure information accuracy.
• Casual methods often produce knowledge containing errors

Common Errors

• Inaccurate observation involves mistakes in what's observed and reported.
• Overgeneralization takes too few events as evidence of a general pattern
• Inadequate understanding limits interpretations/conclusions due to personal experiences.
• Selective observation narrows focus on specific individuals/events
• Illogical reasoning lacks relation between evidence and conclusion

More Errors

• Premature closure ends inquiry prematurely with the assumption that there are already enough answers
• Someone may Make up information through ex-post facto hypothesizing or explaining away contradictions without further inquiry
• Someone may show the Halo effect by valuing ideas from more reputable persons while disregarding less famous ideas
• When someone shows ego involvement, they protect their ego at the expense of work quality, and or use the Ecological fallacy which erroneously draws conclusions about an individual based on group observations.

The Scientific Method

• The scientific method is a cyclical process that researchers use to collect, analyze, and interpret data for new, useful, and accurate knowledge
• The body of knowledge from this method is referred to as science
• Persons who use this method are Scientists
• The scientific method is referred to as scientific research
• Methods of knowing include scientific research and non-scientific methods like tradition/authority

Avoiding Problems

• Problems are avoided through research designs; the science/art of planning procedures for conducting studies to get the most valuable findings
• Strengths of methods are taken and incorporated into a structured, deliberate technique
• Mechanisms and rules are included to prevent/minimize errors and protect parties involved in the process

Key Concepts

• The scientific method creates knowledge defined by aforementioned concepts
• The scientific method is process-oriented, systematic, and produces objective answers from demonstrable facts while adhering to standards
• Social researchers use the scientific method to ensure the accuracy of knowledge produced and the safety of persons involved

Key definitions

• Process consists of linked activities requiring order in execution
• Systematic means deliberate and methodical, following established procedures orderly
• Standards are principles of expected or required behavior (codes of conduct, ideals, norms)
• Demonstrable facts are verifiable data, empirical evidence and are logically verifiable
• Objective answers are based on verifiable evidence, free from the researcher's biases

The scientific method

• The scientific method is used to resolve problem definitions, which need to identify issues to be researched
• The scientific method involves literature reviews that define any new problems
• The scientific method involves a methodology, planning the design and sample
• The scientific method collects data, and then manages said data by processing & analyzing said data
• The scientific method formulates conclusions and uses report writing & presenting findings

Principles of Scientific Research

• Empiricism is an approach to research relying on observation and measurement
• Objectivity is a dispassionate, unbiased approach to analyzing the world and presenting information
• Systematic observation is a structured and organized way of investigating

Replication in research

• Replication is the process of repeatedly conducting studies to test and confirm a hypothesis.
• Direct replication duplicates the design
• Conceptual/indirect replication measures behavior in different ways, using different participants or designs for additional confirmation

Scientist's Attitude

• A scientist should be Open-minded, meaning any approach may be correct, and any answer may be true
• A scientist should be Uncertain, meaning no one has all the answers
• A scientist should be Skeptical, Meaning any approach may be wrong, and any answer may contain errors
• A scientist should be Cautious, meaning not all conclusions are 'facts'
• A scientist should be Ethical, meaning research should not harm others

Conclusions vs. Facts

• Research has shown degree holders in the 22-29 age group are employed four times as often as the same aged job seekers without a degree
• Research has shown degree holders with no experience in the 30-39 age group were employed 2 times as often as similar people with experience but no degree
• Research has shown that after 40, a lack of work experience cannot be supplemented by a degree
• A degree benefits finding career opportunities at most stages of life, but after 40, a degree does not benefit in discriminatory workplace practices

Norms of the Scientific Community

• Universalism: Research should be judged on scientific merit, regardless of who conducts it.
• Organised Skepticism: All evidence must be scrutinized, challenged, and methods must be reliable and valid.
• Disinterestedness: Scientists must be neutral, receptive, and impartial, accepting evidence countering their position.
• Communalism: Scientific knowledge is for the common good and and should be shared
• Honesty: Research requires no fabrication of data, no additions, no omissions, requires logical conclusions.

Climate & Stem Cell examples

• Climate scientists have cited fake data regarding the acceleration of global warming, which may end acceptance of man-made climate change theories
• NASA scientist Dr. James Hansen said last month was the hottest October on record, however, there were reports of unseasonal snow and plummeting temperatures worldwide
• The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration registered 63 local snowfall records and 115 lowest-ever temperatures for the month, and ranked it as only the 70th-warmest October in 114 years
• Data produced by NASA to make the claim, in particular temperature records covering large areas of Russia, was merely carried over from the previous month

Stem cell research retraction example

• In January 2014, Obokata, published papers claiming to have generated stem cells from developed cells, by stressing mouse cells with an acidic solution or force
• When other researchers could not replicate Obokata's results, the papers were retracted.
• Wakayama was only able to repeat the experiment with Obokata's help, but was not able to do so on his own.