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Summary Fundamentals of Social Research Methods, ISBN: 9780702186837 Psychology 243 (psch243)
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- Psychology 243 (PSCH243)
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- Stellenbosch University (SUN)
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PSYCHOLOGY 242Chapter 1
Fundamentals of Social Research Methods
The different methods of acquiring knowledge
For society to progress new knowledge is developed.
Scientists create a set question that they intend to utilize to find answers to gain
knowledge and help understand ourselves and our environment.
They find these questions with systemic rational thought and observation.
Epistemology –the study of ways of knowing about the world.
Non-scientific methods.
Method of authority.
When using this method people trust the knowledge and experience of the
important people.
E.g., Trusting in the elderly, kings, political leaders& parents.
Critique: this method enables one to hide the power of their knowledge, its underlying ideologies
and their weakness in judgment.
Mystical method
People seek knowledge by referring to individuals who are socially or politically
defined as qualified producers of knowledge.
i.e., people in certain villages, including kings, depend on the traditional healers because of their
experience.
Intuitive method
People reason based on their gut about certain occasions.
Though they may struggle to express their gut, they believe that following them will
positively benefit them.
Critique: This method solely depends on one's individual experiences and beliefs as people may
reach different conclusions in the same situation.
Conventional wisdom
All general knowledge or beliefs are accepted
Critique of non-scientific methods-There is no way of telling which statement is accurate as they all
give reasoning and observation.
Contrasting methods
Rationalistic method
This method is based on human reasoning and logic
As they are believed to have the ability to think logically, that enables us to discover
laws through purely intellectual processes.
Also allows us to know what must be true by principles I.e., in pure math where laws
and principles are discovered without reality but axioms.
is used to create theories about the world .
Critique: Though this method has made a lot of progress in Natural science field it has made little
progress in the social science field.
Empirical method
Only facts that are observed in nature are the foundation of knowledge.
Opposite of the rationalistic method.
One can only ground their knowledge based on what they can see.
It is used to test theories about the world.
Scientific method and its properties.
A knowing process which is a combination of rationalistic and empirical methods.
which utilizes rationalism to develop theories and use empiricism to test them.
Two types of science knowledge's
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