Summary of all lectures of social research methodology

Social Research Methodology

Lecture 1

Why conduct research?

 Questions occur to us
 Aspects of our understanding of what goes on in society that is unresolved

Why scientific research?

 Systematic deliberate planning, following clear research process
 Verifiable, controllable, transparent: clarification & reflection about how it was found
 Empirical evidence decides


Steps in research process

1. Research question
2. Literature review
3. Concept & theory
4. Selection of research units/ sample cases
5. Data collection
6. Data analysis
7. Writing up
8. Conclusion  leads to new research question



Social research is messy  steps are not always followed/in order  therefore you need to have
flexibility & perseverance



Research questions

 Motivation & relevance
 scientific puzzle or practical on society
 Type of questions
o Exploratory  Openminded
o Descriptive  Describing phenomenon
o Exploratory  Explaining, why?
o Evaluative  Evaluate intervention  “How effective?”How effective?”
 Questions influences all phases of research process
o Which literature?
o Design?
o Which analysis
o Conclusions
 Open minded research is tricky  always begin with research question

,Role of theory in research
1. Range of theory
o Grand  General and abstract
o Middle range
o Empirical generalization  Concrete & limited
2. Direction of research
o Deductive  Start with theory
o Inductive  Derive theory from findings
o Iterative  Circular process



Lecture 2
Philosophical assumptions  a lot of disagreement about ontological & epistemological positions 
this influences your research

Ontology (study of being)  what is reality?

 Objectivism  There are objective things external to social actors
 Constructivism  Social constructions are built up from perceptions & actions of social
actors

Epistemology (study of knowing)  what is the source of knowledge?

Positivist (Karl Popper)

 We can test theories against facts, there is a “How effective?”truth”
 Explaining
 Only knowledge through senses is real
 Possible to reach agreement about observation/facts  objectivism
 We want universal laws
 Empirical realism: There is a reality
 Falsification: We can not learn from just observation
 Science should be value free & it can be
 Quantitative research


Interpretative (Kuhn)

 One paradigm is not better than the other, there is no “How effective?”’one truth’’
 Understanding
 Social phenomena are accomplished by social actors  constructivism
 Ideographic: Everything we see is an unique event
 Goal: Understanding social action
 Hermeneutics: Interpretation of text
 Gain access to peoples common sense
 Constructivism second meaning  researchers present their version of reality
 Relativism: all moral values are equally valid
 Reflexivity: be aware of personal perspective & transparent
 Qualitative research

, Qualitative Quantitative
Induction Deduction
Constructivism Objectivism
Interpretivism Positivism
Data  words Data  numbers
A few case studies As many cases as possible
Understanding Explaining
Interpretation of words Statistics




Lecture 3

Research design  framework/outline of study

Research method  technique for collecting data



Evaluation criteria (mostly for quantitative research)

 Reliability  Are measures consistent and stable?
 Replication  Study repeatable?
 Validity  Are conclusions well-founded?
o Measurement validity  do we measure the right thing to represent the concept?
 Invalid measurement: e.g. lying in survey
 Unreliable measurement: inconsistent
 Measurement must be reliable (consistent and stable) and valid (capture
meaning of a concept)
o Internal validity  Causality, does y influence x?
o External validity  Generalizability (sample must be representative)
o Ecological validity  Are findings from artificial situations applicable in real life?
(Naturalism: style of research that seeks to minimize intrusion of artificial methods)


Alternative criteria for qualitative research

 Dependability
 Credibility
 Transferability
 Confirmability