Introduction to Research Methods Soc 3306a Lecture 1 Introduction to Research Methods

The Research Question Formal expression of an intellectual puzzle Gives research focus and direction Delimits boundaries Makes research project manageable Anticipates successful outcome Three main types: What = description Why = understanding, explanation How = intervention, problem solving

Four Research Strategies Underlying logic of the research inquiry Based on particular style of reasoning The first two are the traditional strategies (most common): A. Inductive: linear, bottom up process moves from particular to general B. Deductive: also linear but top down goes from general to particular

Research Strategies (cont.) The last two are less common but more complex, non-linear processes Spiral-like processes with many iterations C. Retroductive (Peirce, Bhaskar) Use reason and imagination to create an explanatory model and then test its existence in the real world D. Abductive (Schütz) Develop concepts and theories from actors’ everyday life and understandings

Research Paradigms Overarching philosophical and theoretical traditions within which attempts to understand the social world are made. Sociology is a ‘multi-paradigmic science’ Classical Positivism, Critical Rationalism (Popper), Interpretivism, Classical Hermeneutics Contemporary Critical Theory (Habermas), Ethnomethodology, Social Realism (Bhaskar), Contemporary Hermeneutics (Gadamar), Structuration Theory (Giddens), Feminism (Harding, Keller)

Ontological Assumptions What is the nature of social reality? Continuum from idealism to realism Idealist (relativist) External world has no independent existence from our thoughts Realist Natural and social phenomena exist independent of the observer “social facts”

Epistemological Assumptions Theories of knowledge: how do we know what we know? Empiricism: knowledge is produced through the senses Rationalism: we construct reality through our minds and thought processes Falsificationism: hypothetico-deductive method to search for tentative truths Neo-realism: search for underlying causal structures Constructionism: reality socially constructed Conventionalism: reality a human creation

Blaikie’s Research Manifesto What is research? What are the differences between ‘why,’ ‘how’ and ‘what’ questions? Can you think of examples of each type? Blaikie says that research results “are limited in time and space.” What does he mean by this? How does this make the social science different from the natural sciences?