Module 8.

3: Fundamental of Research

Fundamentals of research
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 Module 8.3: Fundamental of Research

LEARNING GOAL

This lesson is intended to provide the participants with

knowledge on ways/modes of discovery or information
through research and to discuss the basic steps of
research.

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 Module 8.3: Fundamental of Research

LEARNING OBJECTIVES
➢ Define what research is;
➢ Discuss the different classification of research;
and
➢ Explain the basic steps of research.

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 Module 8.3: Fundamental of Research

Why do we research?
• Discovery of knowledge or information
• Better than alternative ways to acquire knowledge
and make decisions
• Personal experience and common sense
• Experts and authorities
• Popular and media messages
• Ideological beliefs and values

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 Module 8.3: Fundamental of Research

Personal experience and common sense

• “Seeing is believing”

• Everyday reasoning and perceptions are imperfect

and subject to error.

• Example: Eye witness accounts of a crime is ideal

but studies have shown that they are highly
inaccurate.

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 Module 8.3: Fundamental of Research

Personal experience and common sense

• Five Errors in Everyday Decisions

• Overgeneralization
• Selective observation
• Premature closure
• Halo effect
• False consensus

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 Module 8.3: Fundamental of Research

Personal experience and common sense

• Overgeneralization

• Occurs when we have some believable evidence

and then assume that it applies to many other
situations as well.

• Selective observation
• Taking special notice of certain people or event then
generalize from them

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 Module 8.3: Fundamental of Research

Personal experience and common sense

• Premature closure
• Occurs when we feel we have the answer and no
longer need to listen, seek information, or raise
questions
• Halo effect
• We overgeneralize from what we believe to be
highly positive or prestigious (e.g. “prestigious
universities”)

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 Module 8.3: Fundamental of Research

Personal experience and common sense

• False consensus

• A tendency to project one’s way of thinking onto

other people; assuming everyone else thinks like
we do

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 Module 8.3: Fundamental of Research

Knowledge from experts and authorities

• Accepting something as true because someone with
expertise or in a position of authority says so; it
appears authoritative, trusted source.

• Expertise in one area may extend authority over an

unrelated area.

• “PhD”, “adjunct scholar”, “senior fellow”, “think tank”

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 Module 8.3: Fundamental of Research

Knowledge based on popular media

and media messages

• “Follow the herd” mentality

• Reliance on mass opinion

• Media perpetuate cultural myths or create hype

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 Module 8.3: Fundamental of Research

Ideological beliefs and values

• Decision-makers often promote and defend

actions based on their ideological, political, or
religious beliefs.

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 Module 8.3: Fundamental of Research

What research involves

• “re” + “search”: it entails answering questions about

the world by raising new questions

• Science: system of producing knowledge and the

knowledge that results from that system

• Data: forms of empirical evidence or information

carefully collected according to the rules procedures
of science

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 Module 8.3: Fundamental of Research

What research involves

• Empirical: refers to evidence or observations

grounded in human sensory experience: touch, sight,
hearing, smell, and taste.

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 Module 8.3: Fundamental of Research

Scientific community
• Social institution of people, organization, and roles
as well as a set of norms, behaviors, attitudes,
that all operate together.

• Not a geographic community; loose collection of

professionals who share training, ethical
principles, values, techniques, career paths.

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 Module 8.3: Fundamental of Research

Norms and values of the scientific

community
• Universalism: researches are judged based on merit
regardless of who or where it was conducted

• Organized skepticism: scientists should not accept

new ideas or evidence in a carefree, uncritical
manner

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 Module 8.3: Fundamental of Research

Norms and values of the scientific

community
• Disinterestedness: scientists should be neutral,
impartial, receptive, and open to unexpected
observations and new ideas

• Communalism: scientific knowledge should be

shared with others; it belongs to everyone.

• Honesty

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 Module 8.3: Fundamental of Research

VARIETIES OF SOCIAL RESEARCH

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 Module 8.3: Fundamental of Research

Table 2 Quantitative versus Qualitative Approaches

QUANTITATIVE APPROACH QUALITATIVE APPROACH

Measure Objective facts Construct social reality, Cultural

meaning
Focus on variables Focus on interactive process
events
Reliability the key factors Authenticity the key factor

Value Free Values present and explicit

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Separate theory and data Theory and data fused

Independent of context Situationally constrained
Many cases subjects Few cases subjects
Statistical analysis Thematic analysis
Researcher detached Researcher involved

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STEPS IN THE RESEARCH PROCESS

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 Module 8.3: Fundamental of Research

Quantitative Approach to Social research

1. Select a topic
2. Focus the question
3. Design the study
4. Collect data
5. Analyses data
6. Interpret the data
7. Inform others

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 Module 8.3: Fundamental of Research

Example
• Select a topic. Social inequality and voting

• Focus the question. Did occupational segregation

by gender and race influence how people voted in
the 2004 US presidential elections?

• Design the study. The authors identified specific

factors for which the government collects data at the
county level: choice of presidential

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 Module 8.3: Fundamental of Research

Example
candidates and occupational segregation by age and
gender. They also consider features of labor market
in the county (e.g. racial mix, educational credentials
of women and non-whites, degree of social mobility)
that might weaken the degree of occupational
segregation.

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 Module 8.3: Fundamental of Research

Example
• Collect data. Data came from the US census on
occupation, demographics, and voting

• Analyze data. The researchers analyse numerous

correlations, charts, and statistical tests

• Interpret the data. Authors found out that both

occupational and sex segregation in country level
labor markets to be related to

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 Module 8.3: Fundamental of Research

Example
election output. In counties that had equal or
integrated labor markets, the Democratic Party
candidate received more votes. In counties with
highly segregated labor markets, the Republican
candidate received more votes.

• Inform other. The study was published in the

American Journal of Sociology

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Qualitative approach to social research

1. Acknowledge the self and context

2. Adopt a perspective

3. - 6. Design a study an collect, analyse and interpret

data

7. Inform others

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 Module 8.3: Fundamental of Research

Example: Gang leader for a day

• Acknowledge self and context. The author

describes his personal interest and background
and explains how an interest in inner-city poverty
shifted to gangs in an urban housing project

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 Module 8.3: Fundamental of Research

Example: Gang leader for a day

• Socio-cultural context. The physical-social
Setting was an urban housing project in South
Chicago located near the University of Chicago
where the author was a graduate student. Drug
dealing gangs operated in the projects that had very
high poverty rates and that were overwhelmingly
occupied by African-Americans.

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 Module 8.3: Fundamental of Research

Example: Gang leader for a day

• Design, collect, and interpret. The author initially
tried to conduct quantitative survey but dropped
this technique. Instead, he observed and talked
with gang members and people in the housing
project several days a week over eight years
between 990-1998 and took very detailed notes
every day on what he saw, heard, participated in,
and thought.

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Example: Gang leader for a day

• Inform others. The research appeared in a semi

academic books “Gang Leader for a Day”

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DIMENSIONS AND MAJOR TYPES OF

SOCIAL RESEARCH

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Use and audience research

• Basic research
• academic or pure research
• Advances fundamental knowledge of the social
world

• Use to support or refute theories about how the

social world operates and changes, what makes
things happen, and why social events and
relations are in a certain way

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 Module 8.3: Fundamental of Research

Use and audience research

• Applied research
• Offer practical solutions to a concrete problem or
address the immediate concern of clinicians or
practitioners
• Types: evaluation research (formative,
summative), action research (participatory),
social impact assessment
• Tools: needs assessment, cost-benefit analysis

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PURPOSE OF RESEARCH

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SUMMARY REVIEW BOX 2

Purposes of Research Types

EXPLORATORY
▪ Become familiar with the basic facts, setting, and
concerns
▪ Create a general mental picture of conditions
▪ Formulate and focus questions for future research

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SUMMARY REVIEW BOX 2

Purposes of Research Types

EXPLORATORY
▪ Generate new ideas, conjectures or hypotheses
▪ Determine the feasibility of conducting research
▪ Develop techniques for measuring and locating
future data

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DESCRIPTIVE
▪ Provide a detailed, highly accurate picture
▪ Locate new data that contradict past data
▪ Create a set of categories or classify types
▪ Clarify a sequence of steps or stages
▪ Documents a causal process or mechanism
▪ Report on the background or context of a situation

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EXPLANATORY

▪ Test a theory’s predictions or principle

▪ Elaborate and enrich a theory’s explanation
▪ Extend a theory to new issues or topics
▪ Support or refute an explanation or prediction
▪ Link issues or topics to a general principle
▪ Determine which of several explanations is best

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Within or across cases

• Case study research

• Examines the many features of a few cases e.g.

individuals , groups, movements, events, or
geographic units.

• Examines the details of each cases internal features

as well as the surrounding situation.

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Within or across cases

• Across-case research

• Gather information from large number of cases

(30-3,000) and focus on the features of the case

• Compares select features across numerous

cases

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Single or multiple points in time

• Cross sectional research: examines info on many
cases at one point in time
• Longitudinal research: examines info about
different cases across more than one point in time
• Time-series research
• Panel study
• Cohort study

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Data collection techniques

• Quantitative
• Experiment
• Surveys
• Content analysis
• Existing statistics

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Data collection techniques

• Qualitative data

• Field research

• Historical comparative research

• Content analysis

• Existing statistics

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THE RESEARCH PROPOSAL

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OUTLINE
• Introduction

• Review of Related Literature

• Problem Statement

• Research design

• Data collection methods

• Selection of subjects

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OUTLINE
• Ethical issues

• Data Analysis

• Bibliography

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Introduction

• Background of the Study

• Significance of the Study

• Scope and Limitations

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Review of related literature

• Local literature/studies

• Foreign literature/studies

• Synthesis

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Problem statement
• General questions

• Specific questions

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Research methods
• Ethics issues: risks, conflict of interest

• Sampling techniques

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Data Analysis
• Summary of Findings

• Conclusions

• Recommendations

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Bibliography

• Books

• Journals

• Other publications

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 Module 8.3: Fundamental of Research

SUMMARY
➢ Define what research is;
➢ Discuss the different classification of research;
and
➢ Explain the basic steps of research.

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 Module 8.3: Fundamental of Research

THANK YOU

SPC