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Summary SPS5034 rs-design-notes-class-21017
- Module
- SPS5034 Research Design
- Institution
- University Of Glasgow
SPS5034 rs-design-notes-class-21017
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lOMoARcPSD|6106013R.S Design Notes Class 2.10.17
Research Design (University of Glasgow)
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, lOMoARcPSD|6106013
Research Design: Social Theory and Epistemology.
Phillip Leifeld.
How social scientists view the world, and generate the knowledge that they are interested
in.
Ontology: refers to the nature of being; a branch of metaphysical philosophy. How does the
world work?
Epistemology: concerned with the theory of knowledge. How do we create knowledge? How
do we draw scientific conclusions? What is the level we should be focussing on to generate
knowledge?
Nomothetic or idiographic research? Should we apply principle of falsification to the social
sciences?
Individualism: It is ontological and epistemological approach which focuses on individuals,
rather on groups which they make up. Individuals treated as primary unit of behaviour.
There are no organisations which cannot be reduced to the individual actions of the
individuals of which those organisations are comprised. Organisations are nothing more
than the sum of its parts.
As social scientists, we should be formulating a perspective of the world using data drawn
from individuals.
Holism: society and organisations have a life of their own; they have behaviour, and social
scientists should study larger groups primarily. It is the collective which matters, because it
conditions and constrains social behaviours.
We should be interested in the different mechanisms and laws which govern these
organisations and collectives; its shape and behaviours.
Systemism: Unites both parts: takes elements from both. Systemism states that the social
world is composed of systems of systems. Organisations can have individual members, but
the individuals themselves are a system of other parts, and so on until the atomic level. A
national political system would be a supra-system, and the international system a greater
supra-system above that. It is a nested series of systems at all levels, the different units
within which act and interact with each other. Within an organisation individuals’ actions
will have implications for the other individuals in the system. Relationalism focuses more on
the relations between units: systemism looks more closely at the relations between the
levels.
Levels of Explanation:
Nano: individual properties
Micro: small level of organisation between a few individuals (family/football team/clique).
Meso: a school, church, small business, village (these three all nested within one another).
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