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RSC2601 Study Notes (Summary)

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Course
RSC2601 - Research In Social Sciences (RSC2601)

Institution
University Of South Africa (Unisa)

This is a comprehensive summary of the RSC2601 study guide. Neatly typed and colour coded to make memorisation easier. All definitions are coloured in Green to make them stand out. Good to study for the exams as it is a shorter version of the study guide.

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Uploaded on November 29, 2022
Number of pages 150
Written in 2022/2023
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Institution
University of South Africa (Unisa)
Course
RSC2601 - Research In Social Sciences (RSC2601)

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RSC2601
Study Unit 1: Strategies of Discovery
● Science = process of inquiry
● Inquiry = process whereby we gain knowledge by observing how things are + using minds
to think logically about what we observe (using our reason).
● What is meant by Social world?
○ Crowd of people shouting + running in panic - something bad happened (eg.
bomb blast)
○ Someone smiles while talk to us, we assume means message is happy
○ Watch TV and see Barack Obama warmly welcomed by other world leaders = he is
liked + respected
● Social world = the part of our existence dealing with how people interact with one
another
● Observation = conclusion
● Discover reality through personal experience
● Personal experience dominated by our curiosity
● Science: way of learning + knowing things about world around us using logic,
observation + theory
● Scientiﬁc thinking makes sense (is logical), has reference (observed evidence) + gives
explanation (theory) for what we observe
● Research: to look at again
● Scientiﬁc research: systematically examine + think about a question

2. Sources of general knowledge

● Tradition
● Authority
● Mysticism + religion
● Common sense
● Media myths

2.1 Tradition

● We all inherit culture which contains accepted knowledge of ways of world
● We accept what other people know + tell us

1

,RSC2601
Study Unit 1: Strategies of Discovery
● Science = process of inquiry
● Inquiry = process whereby we gain knowledge by observing how things are + using minds
to think logically about what we observe (using our reason).
● What is meant by Social world?
○ Crowd of people shouting + running in panic - something bad happened (eg.
bomb blast)
○ Someone smiles while talk to us, we assume means message is happy
○ Watch TV and see Barack Obama warmly welcomed by other world leaders = he is
liked + respected
● Social world = the part of our existence dealing with how people interact with one
another
● Observation = conclusion
● Discover reality through personal experience
● Personal experience dominated by our curiosity
● Science: way of learning + knowing things about world around us using logic,
observation + theory
● Scientiﬁc thinking makes sense (is logical), has reference (observed evidence) + gives
explanation (theory) for what we observe
● Research: to look at again
● Scientiﬁc research: systematically examine + think about a question

2. Sources of general knowledge

● Tradition
● Authority
● Mysticism + religion
● Common sense
● Media myths

2.1 Tradition

● We all inherit culture which contains accepted knowledge of ways of world
● We accept what other people know + tell us

1

, ● Knowledge is cumulative - builds on itself
● Inherited info helps us obtain more info
● Learn from previous generations
● Can be harmful to human inquiry
● If accept something because others believe it - lead into falsehood
● Thinking traditionally = we don’t ﬁnd out how knowledge was obtained
○ Source of learning not questioned
● Scientiﬁc thinking has ambiguous relationship to tradition

2.2 Authority

● Accept info as true because of status of person who discovered it
● Person of authority likely earned position due to experience = offer reliable knowledge
● Can overestimate expertise of person in authority
○ Experts can be wrong
● Don’t know how got info - careful in accepting their conclusions

2.3 Mysticism + Religion

● Offers type of knowledge based upon authority of sacred texts / supernatural source
● Not reliable guide to knowledge about actual state of world
● Science vs religion (conﬂict with another)
● Conﬂict case - Galileo in 1633 - forced, under threat of torture by Roman Inquisition, to
retract his statement that earth revolved around sun + not sun around earth
● Church - Old Testament - Joshua commanded sun to stand still so daylight could last
longer while he was defeating his enemies

2.4 Common sense

● Neuman (1997) - common sense: ordinary reasoning
● Reasoning that relates to what people know intuitively (instinct)
● Know true or false without analysing
● Helps people reach decisions + solve daily problems
● Helps communication between people in general - covers topics everyone knows
● Contains illogical reasoning
● Doesn’t systematically consider how ideas related to each other
● Doesn’t collect info systematically in reaching conclusions
● Often originates from tradition

2

, 2.5 Media myths

● Mass media (TV, ﬁlms, newspapers, magazines, internet) inﬂuence knowledge
● Most people learn about world + develop concept of social reality according to what see,
hear + read in media
● Neuman (1997) - purpose of media = to entertain, not present actual reality
● Mistakes made from ignorance
● Public thinking changed by selective emphasis - lead people to error

3. Errors in human inquiry + how scientists try to avoid them

3.1 Inaccurate Observation

● Before know way things work, have to understand something
○ Need to know what before we can explain why
● Not really see things happening / incorrectly see
● Scientiﬁc observation is conscious activity
● Observe event deliberately
● Simple + complex measurement devices to help prevent making inaccurate observations

3.2 Overgeneralization

● Have general conclusion about certain thing when only observed few cases of that thing
● Using few, similar events to arrive at conclusion = unwarranted - we ignore possibility of
observing additional case (may disprove earlier observations)
● Overgeneralise when under pressure to arrive at conclusion
● Even in absence of pressure
● Halo effect: look at 1 very good aspect of something + then overgeneralise
● Distort process of inquiry
● Guard against it by involving sufﬁciently large sample of observations
● Replication of inquiry provides safeguard
● Replication: repeating study, checking to see if same results obtained.

3.3 Selective observation

● Overgeneralisation lead to selective observation

3

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