Social Research Methods PDF

The Nature and Process of Social Research Chapter 1 What is social research? And why do people do it? To search for answers, to address a gap in the academic literature, to understand why aspects of social life are the way they are and to study development in a society.. Social research means acad...

The Nature and Process of Social Research Chapter 1 What is social research? And why do people do it? To search for answers, to address a gap in the academic literature, to understand why aspects of social life are the way they are and to study development in a society.. Social research means academic research conducted by social scientists from a broad range of disciplines such as sociology, anthropology, education, human geography, social policy, politics, and criminology. Social research is essential for generating new knowledge and expanding our understanding of contemporary social life. The social research can be motivated by developments and changes in society (such as the rise of social media use or attitudes towards migration) Research methods: that is, the tools and techniques that social scientists use to explore such topics. Another explanation that is written in the books is that a research method is a tool, such as a survey, an interview, or a focus group, that a researcher uses to explore an area of interest by gathering information (data) that they then analyze. Why do we do social research? The reason that we conduct social research is because social life is fascinating! A good example to understand this is to think of the complexity of society, or of how groups and individuals behave and how this is shaped by institutions, or how institutions are shaped by people. Conducting social research: is a way of searching for answers for any open gaps in the academic literature or an inconsistency between previous studies and have questions about why the gap or inconsistency exists, how the findings generated might apply to another group or in another setting, and/or whether the findings are representative. There are many different reasons why people conduct social research of the kind we discuss in this book, but these usually come back to the fact that there is an aspect of our understanding of what goes on in society that is unresolved. Methods courses equip you with the tools you will need in order to investigate the social world. Without these tools you are constrained by what others have found, but with them, you can contribute new findings and knowledge to important topics and debates. Learn from experience 1.1 Getting the most from a research methods module The modules were not just about rote learning of methodology; think critically–particularly in regards to research ethics. Go into research methods module prepared to think critically about each method, not just taking them at face value, but really thinking about the impact of carrying out research on the participants you intend to study, and to start thinking early about the kind of research you would like to carry out, even if this is inly a rough idea. Changing perspectives of the research methods module. These are instructions on how to do research and that’s it. The Methodology is here to help us clarify what we want to do in our research and how to do it in the best possible way. Use the research methods module as an opportunity to start thinking earlier about what YOU want to investigate. And then the methods that can be used. Instead of trying to fit a method around the subject of interest. The context of social research methods Social research and its associated methods do not take place in a vacuum. They are inseparable from a variety of contextual factors: Theory, and researchers’ viewpoints on its role in research; The existing research literature Epistemological and ontological questions; Values, ethics and politics Theory and its role in research Theory gives an explanation of observed regularities A theory is a group of ideas that aims to explain something, in this case the social world. Theories have a significant influence on the research topic being investigated, both in terms of what is studied and how findings are interpreted. An example: If a researcher were interested in the impact of the use of online social media on sociability, it is quite likely that they would take into account the dominant theories at that time regarding how technology is used and its impact. As well as influencing social research, theories can themselves be influenced by it, because the findings of a study add to the knowledge base to which the theory relates. Not only the theory itself but also a researcher’s views about the nature of the theory-research relationship can have implications for research. Theoretical reflections: a researcher might engage in some theoretical reflections, through which, if they are carrying out quantitative research, they formulate and then test a hypothesis. In qualitative research, it is more common to refer to exploring a research question rather than using the language of hypothesis and testing. The existing research literature The existing knowledge about the area in which a researcher is interested also forms an important part of the background against which social research takes place. -Be familiar with the literature on the topic you are investigating so that you can build on it and avoid repeating work that has already been done. Epistemological and ontological questions Epistemological views are about how knowledge should be produced. They raise questions about how the social world should be studied and whether the scientific approach advocated by some researchers (involving formulating a hypothesis and then testing it using precise measurement techniques) →the theory of knowledge, especially with regard to its methods, validity, and scope, and the distinction between justified belief and opinion. Ontological positions Our views about the nature of the social world, and social phenomena(meaning observed facts, events, or situations). Some writers believe that the social world should be viewed as external to social actors and something over which we have no control. It is simply there, acting upon and influencing behavior, beliefs, and values. They might view the culture of an organization as a set of values and behavioral expectations that exert a powerful influence over those who work in the organization and into which new recruits have to be socialized. →ontology seeks the classification and explanation of entities. However the alternative view is that the social world is in a constant process of reformulation and reassessment. Which means that it is continually shaped and reshaped by the practices and behaviors of members of the organization. →Social Phenomena: the interactions between and among individuals, and to the characteristics, structures, and functions of social groups and institutions Values, ethics and politics The values of the research community have significant implications for the research. Ethical issues have always been central in social research, but they have become even more important as new sources of data become available for studying the social world. The main elements of social research Literature review: Explore what has already been written about it in order to determine: What is already known about the topic What concepts and theories have been applied to the topic What research methods have been applied to the topic What controversies exist about the topic and how it is studied What contradictions of evidence (if any) exist Who the key contributors are to research on the topic What the implications of the literature are for our own research The crucial thing is that you read the key books and articles relating to your topic and familiarize yourself with the views and work of the main figures who have written in this area. It is crucial that YOU are aware of what is already known about the topic, so that you cannot be accused of not having thought carefully about how your research relates to the work of others. The key thing to note about your Literature review of this element of the research process. It is not simply a summary of the literature it must be critical rather than simply descriptive. Concepts and theories. Concepts: are the way that we make sense of the social world. They are labels that we give to aspects of the social world that seem to have common features that strike us as significant. One of the reasons it is so important to be familiar with the existing literature is that it reveals the main concepts that past researchers have used and how useful or limited those concepts have been in helping to answer the main questions about the topic. Purpose of concepts: 1. They are important to how we organize our research interests and signal them to intended audiences 2. They help us to reflect on and bee more disciplined about what we want to investigate, as well as helping us organize our research 3. The relationship between theory and research can be seen as involving a choice between theories driving the research process in all its phases, and theories as a product of the research process. These two perspectives on the roles of theory in research are known as deductive and inductive approaches. Concepts: Concepts can be seen as something we start out with, representing key areas around which data is collected. In other words, we might collect data in order to explore a concept, or more likely several concepts and how they are connected. The alternative view is that concepts are outcomes of research. Learn from experience 1.2 Identifying concepts Identifying all the concepts that would be addressed and explain their role in answering the research question. It is very important to refer back to these concepts continuously. Try to link at least one of the concepts to the analysis in each subsection. This kept the accountability by making sure the arguments were relevant and situated within the current literature. The usage of concept as a signposting tool to organize my arguments. List all of the relevant concepts, introduction, which linked my arguments to concepts throughout the dissertation, made clear the relevance of the arguments to the thesis and the research question. Research Questions Research questions: Research questions are explicit statements of what you intend to find out about. Most people start with a general idea of what they are interested in researching, and the exercise of developing research questions forces us to narrow down our broad area of interest to the things that we really want to find out and to express this much more precisely and rigorously. Exploratory research does not start with a research question. (the researcher is working inductively to understand a particular phenomenon) Having no research questions or badly formulated research questions can lead to low-quality research. The advantages of research questions are that they will: Guide your literature search; Guide your decisions about the kind of research design to use Guide your decisions about what data to collect and from whom; Guide the analysis of your data; Stop you from going off in unnecessary directions; and Provide your readers with a clear sense of what your research is about. There is a big note that although research questions will help to guide you in your search for literature review, it is also possible, indeed likely, that reading the literature will prompt you to revise your research questions and come up with some new ones. Learn from experience 1.3 generating and changing research questions Formulating research questions can be one of the most difficult stages of the research questions, and it’s normal for questions to change over time as you read around the topic and narrow down the focus of your project. Formulating research questions can be one of the most difficult stages of the research process, and they can change over time. You may begin with a set of research questions developed from your own research interests, which shift and are remodeled as you develop your literature review and analyze your findings Experiment: this is if you are looking at the impact of an intervention, then you might consider conducting an experiment. Longitudinal: If you are interested in social change over time. Case study: Research questions that are concerned with a particular community, organization, or group might use the case study. Cross-sectional design: Describing current attitudes or behaviors at a single point in time. Comparative: help examine the difference between two or more groups based on one or more dependable variables. Sampling It is mostly associated with quantitative research such as survey methods, and with the research for representative samples. This is the approach behind the opinion polls we often see in the news, where researchers cannot survey everyone and so they aim to secure a sample that represents a wider population by effectively replicating it in miniature. Data Collection To many people, data collection is the key point of any research project, so it is not surprising that we probably spend more words and pages discussing this stage in the research process than any other. Some methods involve quite a structured approach to data collection—that is, the researcher establishes roughly what they want to find out about in advance and designs the research collection tool accordingly. Data Analysis Data analysis involves applying statistical techniques to data that have been collected. However, many types of data are not suitable for statistical analysis, and even when they are, researchers may want to take alternative approaches. Writing up Research is done so that it can be shared with others. Allowing them to read what is done. Depending on the type of research and the methods use the research paper should be written and should have the following for sure in them: Introduction Literature review Research methods Results Discussion Conclusion Stages in the research process: Literature review Concepts and theories Research questions Sampling cases Data collection Data analysis Writing up The messiness of social research When writing up your own social research you should reflect on any challenges you faced and any limitations of your study. By setting out what you want to plan to do, what actually happened, and any limitations arising from the change in plan, you are demonstrating to the reader that you understand the implications of changes of directions of your own work. 1.4? Inductive reasoning: I don't know why, I am going to find out why Deductive reasoning: I think I know via theory, I am to find out how accurate it is. QNR = statistical /numeric/ structured (Julissa) QLR= depth research experiences photo newspaper poem literature.archival meaning/less structured (Yolanda)