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Lecture 1 RESEARCH METHODS IN SOCIAL SCIENCES

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Eriya Musiimenta
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46 views11 pages

Lecture 1 RESEARCH METHODS IN SOCIAL SCIENCES

Uploaded by

Eriya Musiimenta
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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RESEARCH METHODS IN

SOCIAL SCIENCES

BY
Sunday Deo
What is Research?
 According to Mugenda and Mugenda (1999) the term
“research” means to look for, examine, investigate or
explore.
 Orodho and Kombo (2002:2) define research as the
process of arriving at dependable solutions through the
planned systematic collection, analysis and
interpretation of data.
 Kerlinger (1973:11) defines research as a systematic,
controlled, empirical and critical investigation of
hypothetical propositions about the presumed relations
among natural phenomena.

 Tuchman (1978:1) describes research as a systematic


attempt to provide answers to questions.

Sunday Deo 07/22/2024


Nature of Research
Keywords in these definitions include:
process, systematic, collection, analysis and
interpretation. Research can therefore be
defined as a systematic process of collecting,
examining and interpreting data.
 Research: (1) it contributes to the body of

science, and (2) it follows the scientific


method.

Sunday Deo 07/22/2024


Research as a Scientific Process

 The purpose of science is to create scientific


knowledge. Scientific knowledge refers to a
generalized body of laws and theories to
explain a phenomenon or behavior of interest
that are acquired using the scientific method.

Sunday Deo 07/22/2024


Research as a Scientific Process
 The goal of scientific research is to discover laws and
postulate theories that can explain natural or social
phenomena, or in other words, build scientific knowledge.

 Given that theories and observations are the two pillars of


science, scientific research operates at two levels: a
theoretical level and an empirical level.

 The theoretical level is concerned with developing abstract


concepts about a natural or social phenomenon and
relationships between those concepts (i.e., build “theories”),
while the empirical level is concerned with testing the
theoretical concepts and relationships to see how well they
reflect our observations of reality, with the goal of ultimately
building better theories.

Sunday Deo 07/22/2024


Inductive vs Deductive Research
 In inductive research, the goal of a researcher
is to infer theoretical concepts and patterns
from observed data.
 In deductive research, the goal of the
researcher is to test concepts and patterns
known from theory using new empirical data.
 Hence, inductive research is also called
theory-building research, and deductive
research is theory-testing research.

Sunday Deo 07/22/2024


Inductive vs Deductive Research
 Though both inductive and deductive
research are important for the advancement
of science, it appears that inductive (theory-
building) research is more valuable when
there are few prior theories or explanations,
while deductive (theory-testing) research is
more productive when there are many
competing theories of the same phenomenon
and researchers are interested in knowing
which theory works best and under what
circumstances.
Sunday Deo 07/22/2024
Skills for Research
 Conducting scientific research, therefore,
requires two sets of skills – theoretical and
methodological – needed to operate in the
theoretical and empirical levels respectively.
 Methodological skills ("know-how") are
relatively standard, invariant across
discipline.
 Theoretical skills ("know-what") is
considerably harder to master, requires years
of observation and reflection, and are tacit
skills that cannot be “taught” but rather
learned through experience. Sunday Deo 07/22/2024
Characteristics of Research
(a) It is systematic. It is systematic in that a
general system is followed. This involves the
identification of the problem, review of
related literature and data collection. The
process of data collection requires proper
organization and control so that the data will
enable valid decisions to be made about the
research problem at hand. This is followed by
data analysis, conclusions and
recommendations.
(b) It is objective. Research attempts to find an
objective, unbiased solution to the problem.
It attempts to find an objective unbiased
solution to the problem through gathering
new data from primary sources (first hand)
and secondary sources (using existing data).
Sunday Deo 07/22/2024
Characteristics of Research
(c) It is based on observable experience or
empirical evidence. It demands accurate
observation and description.
(d) It employs carefully designed procedures
and rigorous analysis.

Sunday Deo 07/22/2024


Purpose of Research
 The purpose of research is to discover
answers to questions through the application
of scientific procedures. The main aim of
research is to find out the truth which is
hidden and which has not been discovered
yet. It could also be to provide ‘proof’ on the
discovered truth.

Sunday Deo 07/22/2024

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