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Summary Research in the Social Sciences RSC2601
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Study notes made in preparation for the exam for Research in the Social Sciences RSC2601
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STUDY UNIT 1 STRATEGIES OF DISCOVERYScience is a process of enquiry. It uses logic, observation and theory.
Research means to look at again or to make a careful and planned study.
Scientific research means we systematically examine and think about a question.
Exponential reality – The result of direct personal experience.
Agreement reality – What we accept as real because we have been told its real and everyone agrees, mostly through
research and science.
SOURCES OF GENERAL KNOWLEDGE
TRADITION We accept what other people know and tell us. We do not fnd out how the knowledge was
obtained because something appears to be understood and obvious. Tradition can be positive or
negative.
AUTHORITY Authority is accepting something as true because of the status of the person who discovered the
truth. This may be reliable knowledge or we can overestimate the expertise of persons in authority.
MYSTICISM Knowledge is found in sacred texts or supernatural forces which are inaccessible to ordinary people.
AND Authority appeals to irrational feelings. One looks at faith instead of evidence.
RELIGION
COMMON Common sense is ordinary reasoning which is valuable in everyday life to reach decisions and solve
SENSE daily problems, and also helps communication. However, it contains illogical reasoning and does not
consider how ideas relate to each other.
MEDIA Following what the media says blindly although its main purpose is to entertain. Mistakes are made
MYTHS from ignorance. Selective emphasis leads to error.
ERRORS IN HUMAN INQUIRY AND HOW SCIENTISTS TRY TO AVOID THEM
INACCURATE We may not see things happening right before our eyes. Scientific observation is when
OBSERVATION we observe events deliberately. Simple and complex measurement devices prevent us
from making inaccurate observations.
OVERGENERALISATION Using a few similar events to draw a conclusion. Judging on the grounds of only some
aspects.
Halo Effect-looking at one good aspect of something and then overgeneralising. It
causes prejudgement and distorts enquiry.
Scientists use Replication- repeating a study to see if the same results are obtained.
SELECTIVE Overgeneralisation may lead to selective observation. Certain characteristics are
OBSERVATION emphasised and others over looked. Science uses a research design which specifies the
number and kind of observation we need before we can make a conclusion
EGO INVOLVEMENT We are personally and intellectually involved in our search for knowledge. We link our
understanding of how things are to the image of ourselves that we present to others.
Scientists test hypothesis in a systematic way. Information collected is considered
objectively and made public.
PREMATURE CLOSURE We ask questions for a short while, obtain some answers and stop inquiry too soon.
OF INQUIRY Trying to understand something before understanding is complete. Science gives a
thorough review of the topic being researched.
1.4 NORMS OF THE SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY
Universalism - Research is judged on scientific merit.
Organised scepticism – All ideas must be challenged and questioned.
Disinterestedness – Be neutral, impartial, receptive and open to new ideas.
Communalism – Scientific knowledge belongs to everyone and must be available for all to use.
Adapted from: A.H. Alpaslan, et al., (2010). Study Guide for RSC2601, Research in the Social Sciences, University of South Africa, Pretoria
,New knowledge is accepted when other researchers have reviewed it and it has been made publically available.
Honesty – Scientists demand honesty in all research; dishonesty or cheating in scientific research is a major taboo.
SCIENTISTS CHECK ON ONE ANOTHER TO ENSURE THAT NORMS ARE FOLLOWED BY:
Scrutinising other scientist’s research reports.
The community criticises reports, regardless of the author’s status.
Admitting that all knowledge is tentative.
Condemning dishonesty.
STAGES IN RESEARCH
STAGE 1: DEFINING THE PROBLEM
Research design
Research problem
Literature review
Theory
Assumptions
Hypothesis
Research questions
STAGE 2: OBTAINING INFORMATION
Sampling
Data collection
STAGE 3: ANALYSING AND INTERPRETING INFORMATION
Describing and interpreting quantitative and qualitative data.
STAGE 4: COMMUNICATING THE RESULTS
Writing the research report
KNOWLEDGE ABOUT THE WORLD
Ontology refers to what researchers think exists and is real. (Social reality)
Epistemology deals with how we can know and explain something. We must decide what qualifies as social scientific
knowledge.
Methodology is the rules and procedures of research work.
THREE DOMINANT APPROACHES TO RESEARCH
THE POSITIVIST POSITIVISM: A systematic way of doing research that emphasises observable facts.
APPROACH Positivists believe that social reality can be discovered. We can perceive social reality through
our senses because it exists “out there”, independent of the “knower”.
People react predictably to their environments because they are rational.
Social reality reflects certain patterns and behaviour.
Knowledge is based on facts and is cumulative.
Researchers must approach social reality in a neutral, value-free, detached and systematic
way.
Standardised procedures are followed to study particular events.
THE INTERPRETIVISM: Emphasising the importance of insiders’ vie points to understanding social
INTERPRETIVE realties.
APPROACH View of social reality
Social reality is meaningful. People can interpret a situation and decide how to respond to it
and attribute meaning to it. Meaning is created through people’s interaction with each other
Adapted from: A.H. Alpaslan, et al., (2010). Study Guide for RSC2601, Research in the Social Sciences, University of South Africa, Pretoria
, and defining a situation.
Meanings are shared intersubjectively. This means to be shared between subjects/individuals.
Research must make social reality intelligible (understandable) and reveal its meaningfulness.
There is no external social reality. It is created through the conscious actions of people.
Social reality differs from natural reality.
How to gain knowledge of social reality
Researchers must be sensitive to the social context where meaning is produced.
Pay attention to common sense as it provides insight into how people understand their
situation. This helps researchers see how people construct and understand these situations.
Values are an integral part of social reality.
Research must provide outsiders with understanding of a situation so they can communicate
with insiders.
THE CRITICAL CRITICAL APPROACH: Uncovering hidden processes and structures within a society.
APPROACH View of social reality
Social reality is multi-layered. There are more dimensions to social reality than appears.
Penetrate the layers of social reality and uncover the underlying relationships determining
society’s characteristics.
Our attention is diverted from problems in society towards entertainment.
A false consciousness is created when people accept a situation as natural therefore
unconsciously creating the social structures governing them.
Exposing false consciousness enables people to reflect on being products and creators of social
reality.
Social reality has more than one possibility.
People can change social reality through their actions but the structures of social reality
enables or constraints these actions.
How to gain knowledge of social reality
Observable surface structures often coincide with reality; therefore social scientists rely on
theory.
By using logic and reasoning of theories, researchers can work out the implications of the
hidden dynamics of social reality.
Empirically observed patterns (patterns we can see) points to the hidden mechanisms.
The truth of social reality goes beyond empirical (observable) facts.
Common-sense understanding is contaminated by false consciousness.
Common-sense ideas are partial and incomplete.
Science should examine the unexamined and taken-for-granted reality in which we live.
Researchers must engage with subject matter.
CONTEMPORARY METHODOLOGICAL CHALLENGES
FEMINIST FEMINIST RESEARCH: Advocating gender sensitivity in research, in particular, the role of the
RESEARCH woman.
Feminist research demonstrates how male-oriented research is.
Malestream research is when research is represented in a male perspective.
Key issue is power.
Research is said to be done by the powerful for their own benefit. Male perspectives
influence the way social reality is defined.
Feminists are critical of the positivist approach.
Gender is a key category of social analysis.
Research is inclusionary, collaborative and non-impositonal.
The researcher does not dictate what is studied.
There is a balance of power by acknowledging the subjects knowledge
POSTMODERN POST MODERN RESEARCH: Absolute truth. No particular theory or method is better than
RESEARCH another at determining the truth.
MODERNITY: A belief in rationality and progress associated with confidence in science and
technology.
Postmodernism challenges the belief in the rationality, certainty and progress associated with
science.
Adapted from: A.H. Alpaslan, et al., (2010). Study Guide for RSC2601, Research in the Social Sciences, University of South Africa, Pretoria
, All three dominant approaches to research believe it makes liatle sense to conduct research if
we cannot assume that there is some pattern we can make sense of.
There is an emphasis on difference (we should provide scope for everyone comparing their
views of the world).
It rejects reason as a foundation of knowledge.
Diversity and fragmentation of discourse on social reality has no objectivity or universal truth,
all discourses are seen to be culturally constituted within particular social and historical
contexts.
This leads to the danger of relativism (a belief that claims different viewpoints are all valid).
Postmodernism provides us with no alternatives.
Williams and May say it has had a positive impact because it has forced social scientists to
reflect on and be self-critical about their choices.
Postcolonialism Unequal relationship between colonist and colonised.
We see quite a few references to the “other” – previously colonised people.
Europeans (the colonisers of a previous age) see themselves and their culture as the norm,
against which all other cultures are defined.
Europeans justify this view with reference to the rise of the modern world in Europe in the
18th and 19th centuries.
Enlightenment – philosophical movement emphasising reason, as opposed to tradition and
religion.
Placed the individual person centre stage
The Enlightenment, democracy and the industrial revolution together created a complex of
changes that later became known as modernity.
Colonised groups are defined as lacking modernity, and therefore deficient. Postcolonial
theorists believe that this view is oversimplified and an unfair characterisation of the
previously colonised people.
It believes that much of the knowledge that has been created up to now in the social sciences
is biased because it represents the views of the colonisers about the colonised.
Postcolonial thinkers believe that this has to change so that those who have been
marginalised can become subjects (creators) of knowledge in their own right
STUDY UNIT 2 THE ROLE OF THEORY IN RESEARCH
THE THEORETICAL GROUNDING OF RESEARCH
DEFINING THEORY
Theory implies a possible explanation. It can also lead to speculation.
Theorizing occurs when an attempt is made to explain why the facts are as they are.
Theories enable us to organise generalisations about empirical (relying on experiment or experience and not on
theory) facts, therefore giving us a logical viewpoint of something.
Theories summarise facts and generate knowledge.
Theory is a conceptual framework that provides an explanation of certain occurrences or phenomena.
Theories consist of logically interconnected propositions. (Proposition is an abstract statement of the relationship
between phenomena.
Theory makes the evidence generated by research more manageable, therefore, keeping us from drowning in too
much information.
Theory organises evidence in a new and different way.
Theory makes things that were hidden visible and gives some meaning to observations.
THEORY AS A CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
Adapted from: A.H. Alpaslan, et al., (2010). Study Guide for RSC2601, Research in the Social Sciences, University of South Africa, Pretoria
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