Summary Notes lectures & readings, Introduction to research methods - Security Studies Year 1
14 views 0 purchase
Course
Introduction to Research Methods
Institution
Universiteit Leiden (UL)
This document contains a complete summary of the notes of all the lectures and readings required to study for Introduction to Research methods, given in Block 4 of security studies year 1. Good luck!
Lecture 1
- Social science and social scientists are interconnected with society
→ What is social science research?
- to search for an answer to a question
- to extend knowledge, unravel mysteries, build theories
- verify facts
→ based on a scientific method
science= collecting systemic knowledge that is capable of resulting in a correct prediction or
reliable outcome
scientific method = seek to explain events of nature in a reproducible way and is reliable
(repeatability) and valid (are we measuring what we were supposed to measure?)
1. The goal is inference → generating new knowledge about something we don’t know on
the basis of something we can observe/we know
2. The procedures are public / transmissible / cumulative
3. Conclusions are uncertain / Falsifiable
4. The method!
Pseudo = false
The importance of research methods:
Generally:
• Being able to conduct good scientific research to understand various (safety and security)
issues/problems and find solutions
• Developing a critical eye And
On a practical note:
• Developing skills to understand the (empirical) literature in other classes
• Developing skills for your bachelor/master thesis, but also beyond…
Doing research:
1. Research topic
2. Literature review
3. Research design
4. Data collection
5. Data analysis
6. reporting
Research design
1. Research philosophy. 4 worldviews:
- Positivism: believe that there is a single reality which can be measured and known. A
theory/observation is always true. Use quantitative methods Eg. if u drop a pen it will
fall
- Interpretivism: believe there is no single reality/truth. It needs to be interpreted. Use
qualitative methods to find multiple realities.
, - Pragmatism: believe reality is constantly renegotiated/debated and interpreted and
therefore the best method to use is the one that solves the problem. Combi of two
above
- Critical: paradigm situates research in social justice issues to address political, social
and economic issues. Hte seek to be the voice of the marginalised ones.
● ontology= what constitutes reality and how can we understand its existence ?
● epistemology= what constitutes valid knowledge and how can we obtain it?
● methodology= how do we go about finding it out? {insert table from powerpoint slide}
2. Research approach
Deduction → from theory to confirmation of the theory
Induction → from observations to theory
5. Data collections
How to collect data? And how to analyse? → Eg. surveys, case study, ethnography
Lecture 2
Methods
Interviews & focus groups: strengths and challenges
Interviewing = a conversation that has a structure… the purpose is to obtain knowledge
- to obtain knowledge: align your topic with the right respondents, the right questions
and the right responses!
→ gain trust first, not too heavy questions
→ strive to gain knowledge of their conditions and believes → could explain certain
actions
Types of interviews:
- the structured interview → close to survey
- the semi-structured interview → open-ended questions and no predefined options for
the respondent
- in-depth interviews → no predefined structure & provide insight on topics that need to
be investigated in a more structured manner & discover new points of view
,Interviews vs focus groups
→ identifying group norms & discovering variety within a group, observe group interaction
→ snowballing of ideas = enables students to initially think about their own response to a
question, then converse with just one other person, and then join together with other pairs to
enable a wider discussion
→ group think & dominant persons
→ more difficult to address sensitive topics
→ difficult to guarantee confidentiality & to organize & to generalize
Case study and comparative method: strengths and challenges
What is a case study & what is it good for?
- Case = a spatially delimited phenomenon observed at a single point in time or over
some period of time
- Case study = intensive study of a single case (for the purpose of understanding a
larger class of similar cases, i.e. a population)
- can be either inductive or deductive
Comparative study = the study of a larger number of cases
→ why do we compare?
- to explain an outcome identify broad patterns/regularities or relationships among
variables, test/refine theory and make predictions
Process tracing method
→ single case research method that can be used to make within case inferences about
presence/absence of causal mechanisms
→ enables strong inferences about causal relationship between X and Y
→ links dependent and independent variable
- one part will lead to action in the second one, which will lead to outcome
- connects causes and consequences
→ focus is on studying causal mechanisms using in-depth single case study
Process tracing tests for causal
inference
→ Straw-in-the-Wind = unusual piece of
evidence
→ Hoop = about the area and place of
the crime
→ Smoking-Gun =
→ Doubly Decisive =
Method of elimination = used by sherlock
holmes → eliminating possible variables
, Experiments
● Module: Sampling
→ a deliberate test of a causal proposition, typically with random assignment to conditions
→ investigators design experiments to evaluate the causal impacts of potentially informative
explanatory variables
What is a cause?
→ something is a cause if changing it - eliminating it, adding it, or varying its level - would
affect the outcome (keeping the rest of the system constant
→ causes are difference makers. A change in the causal factor (independent variable) leads
to a change in the dependent variable (see slide)
Causality and the logic of experiments
→ causality is inferred by comparing two scenarios in which only the
suspected/hypothesized cause changes while everything else remains the same
→ since we have no access to parallel realities, how can we get to scenarios in which (only)
the hypothesized cause changes?
→ in other words, how to have access to factual and counterfactual versions of the world?
What is a treatment/manipulation?
→ manipulations are deliberate interventions developed to create variation in a putative
causal variable
→ in experiments we manipulate the independent variable
How are experiments different from other research designs?
→ experiments work because random assignment to treatment and control conditions tends
to produce groups that are comparable in all respects but one - the variable manipulated by
the researcher
The logic of experiments
- importance of theory and deriving of hypotheses
- addressing the issue of causality: does change in X cause a change in Y
- standardization: the same intervention (X) applied to everybody in a treatment group
- randomization: random assignment to treatment and control condition
(between-subjects or within-subject design)
- replicability
Survey experiments (Sniderman 2011)
- basic idea: the method combines experiments and survey
- involves experimental intervention in the course of a survey
- this intervention is a measure of the influence of an independent variable of interest:
manipulated experimentally
- participants are assigned randomly to treatment condition(s) and control condition
→ typically involve the creation of experimental scenarios by verbal and/or graphic
narrations in which experimental stimuli are embedded and systematically manipulated
The benefits of buying summaries with Stuvia:
Guaranteed quality through customer reviews
Stuvia customers have reviewed more than 700,000 summaries. This how you know that you are buying the best documents.
Quick and easy check-out
You can quickly pay through credit card or Stuvia-credit for the summaries. There is no membership needed.
Focus on what matters
Your fellow students write the study notes themselves, which is why the documents are always reliable and up-to-date. This ensures you quickly get to the core!
Frequently asked questions
What do I get when I buy this document?
You get a PDF, available immediately after your purchase. The purchased document is accessible anytime, anywhere and indefinitely through your profile.
Satisfaction guarantee: how does it work?
Our satisfaction guarantee ensures that you always find a study document that suits you well. You fill out a form, and our customer service team takes care of the rest.
Who am I buying these notes from?
Stuvia is a marketplace, so you are not buying this document from us, but from seller jhbos. Stuvia facilitates payment to the seller.
Will I be stuck with a subscription?
No, you only buy these notes for $9.20. You're not tied to anything after your purchase.
