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Summary Research Methodology 1 Radboud University IBC
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A complete summary of all lectures and book chapters of Research Methodology 1. I got a 9,7 using this summary.
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Possibilities and decisions- Chapter 1Key points
Research= A systematic process of asking and answering questions, in our case
about human communication (face-to-face, online communication).
Regardless of the topic you’re studying, there are things you always need to think
about when researching.
Researchers specialize by interest area and research method
The research methods reflect researchers’ interest areas and assumptions about
human communication.
All interrelated.
Research process consists of:
- Posing questions
- Answering questions
- Demonstrating that your answers are valid
- Sharing your research results
The method a researcher chooses to use depends on debatable assumptions about human
communication research. These assumptions can all be debated:
Observations capture an underlying reality.
Theories about human behaviour can be generalized.
Researchers should distance themselves from research participants.
Research should be done for a specific purpose (motivation, curiosity).
There is one best position from which to observe human behaviour (view from
source, message itself, channel or sender).
When we read about research, all these assumptions about human communication are not
explicitly mentioned, but this doesn’t mean that the researchers don’t have them.
These assumptions influence major research decisions with theoretical, ethical and practical
aspects:
Field of study
Should the topic be wide or narrow?
Influenced by time, money, people
Researcher
Are you as researcher dispassionate (objective) or involved (subjective) with the
participants?
Is it possible for you as researcher to be objective?
Approach
Objective or subjective?
Perspective
Should you focus on your questions (quantitative approach) or on participants’
answers (qualitative approach)?
Sample
Large or smaller sample?
Do you believe your results can be generalized?
Reporting
Objective or subjective reporting about your research
Objective= You distance yourself from your participants and own view
, Subjective= You involve yourself in the research community and in the way you
describe your research (often done with qualitative research).
Data
Qualitative or quantitative?
Major approaches to communication
Empirical
Observe and measure from researcher’s perspective. Often quantitative.
Interpretive
Observe and interpret from participants’ perspectives. Often qualitative.
Critical theory
Ask whose interests are advanced by communication. Assumption that
communication maintains and promotes power structures in society.
Examples
Persuasive/rhetorical communication
“Kamala Harris in debate”
- Empiricism/quantitative method as starting point.
Question: Is the politician persuasive?
Method (with empirical): Survey of questions, measure voting behaviour.
Do these things as ways to answer the question whether men and women differ in
seeing Kamala as persuasive.
We are simply counting things.
- Interpretive/qualitative methods.
Question: How do people react to the politician?
Method (with interpretive): Focus group or interview people to understand voting
behaviour.
We are analysing words, not counting things.
- Critical theory method
Question: How does the politician’s rhetoric promote certain interests?
Method: Analyse speech to understand how it promotes certain societal interests.
We are analysing again.
“Health and safety communication. Ad saying ‘you don’t want them responding to your text’
with an ambulance. “
- Empiricism/quantitative method.
Question: Is the ad effective?
Method: Survey of opinions, measure texting behaviour, measure of texting accidents.
We are counting answers.
- Interpretive/qualitative method.
Question: How do people respond to the ad?
Method: Focus group, interview to explore people’s opinions
, - Critical theory
Question: How does the ad promote certain societal interests?
Method: Analyse the ad to see whether it promotes certain implicit societal interests?
(or if you were to analyse a women’s beauty ad, you can
Focus in this course on:
Empirical studies
Narrow field of study
Dispassionate researcher
Objective approach
Your questions
Large sample
Quantitative data
Objective reporting
Practice exam questions
1. Advantage: You get information about the why of something, whereas in quantitative
you don’t really get an insight into the reasoning of these numbers. It is not
necessariy more specific, but different.
Disadvantage: Takes more time to conduct.
2. False.
First decisions- Chapter 2
, Starting points for research
Potential starting points you can have for research:
World view- Basic assumptions
Interest area- What
Goals and reasons for research – Why
Method decision- How
The work of others- The literature
Research questions you want to answer
Hypotheses you want to test
A researcher can have only one of them but also more or one after another. If a researcher
has a goal for doing research, this goal may result in using a particular research method. Or
because the researcher has a particular worldview (numbers allow us to generalize), this can
result in using a particular research method (I use numbers because then I can generalize).
Starting with a worldview
World view, two extremes:
World view I
Human communication is predictable, objectively measurable, generalizable and
can be summarized in rules. Experiments. You collect numbers and statistics.
World view II
Human communication is subjective, individualistic, unpredictable and must be
described as such. Focus groups. You collect words and language.
Worldviews that are in between:
Constructivist,
Rhetorical, semiotic, phenomenological, cybernetic, socio-psychological, socio-cultural,
critical.
People all have a worldview and because of this worldview they are more likely to use a
specific sort of research method, because this research method allows them to collect the
data that their worldview tells them is useful.
Linking theory and observation
Depending on the starting point you as a researcher have, you can have different types of
reasoning:
Induction
Specific to general. Reasoning from observations to a theory that explains the
observations. When you see Trump moving his hands all the time when speaking,
what causes this behaviour?
Deduction
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