Research Methodology Summary
Book from Treadwell & Davis
Chapter 1: Getting Started
Research: a systematic process of asking and answering questions, demonstrating that your
answers are valid, sharing your research results (in our case it’s about human communication).
There are several basic assumptions which underpin all communication research, which researchers
bring to their research when choosing a research method.
All of these assumptions could be debated. Several major assumptions are:
• Observations capture an underlying reality
That what we chose to look at (dress, language, etc.) tells us something about an underlying
reality we cannot see but assume exists.
—> e.g. ‘power’ or ‘attitude’ is an abstract thing that you can’t literally see.
• Theories about human behavior can be generalized
Are people similar in the way they behave or are they all unique individuals? We assume that
people are similar; so, results of a study will apply to all people who are similar to the study
participants.
• Researchers should distance themselves from their research participants
Distance comes with a more neutral or dispassionate view towards the group; moving closer to
the group comes with more insight, but you could be influencing the group dynamics /
communication of the group, or you could only see the group’s view of the world.
• Research should be done for a specific purpose
Personal motivations for research and a preferred direction for the research can or cannot take
second place relative to the needs and motivations of the funding agency.
• There is one best position from which to observe human behavior
Another assumption is that some aspects of a question are more important to look at than others
and, related, that there is one best standpoint from which to observe human communication;
actually, if you take human interaction as an example, you see that observing only the receiver is
not enough to draw conclusions from.
Rhetoricians are essentially interested in the appeals or persuasive tactics used to persuade an
audience to adopt the behavior. Rhetorical (which means the same as persuasive) approaches to
researching advertising content for example are essentially qualitative; they analyze the use of
language.
Content analysis, by contrast, is primarily a quantitative method for assessing media content.
A content analyst looks for what is explicit and observable; the researcher may look as much for
what is implicit or unsaid.
In addition to their theoretical priorities, all researchers face the reality of limited time, limited
resources, and an inability to be in more than one place at a time.
Here are some choices that are almost inevitable for all types of researchers, based on their
theoretical predispositions and resources. Also, the assumptions stated above are related to these
major research decisions, which are theoretical, ethical and practical:
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,• The field of study - wide or narrow?
A communication researcher typically focuses on one of the many specific interest areas.
• The researcher - dispassionate or involved?
The scientific tradition is to be objective and dispassionate in an observation, while the action
research tradition is to be closely involved with people in order to better their lives.
• The approach - objective or subjective?
Social scientists often bring the assumption of an external ‘real’ world that can be observed,
understood and agreed on to the study of human interaction (intelligence, for example, is
universal); other scientists try to understand people’s subjective worlds (intelligence vary).
• The perspective - your questions or the participants’ answers?
All researchers have a fundamental perspective that frames their research.
• The sample - large or small?
How many people do you need to talk to in order to know that you have ‘an accurate picture’ of a
communication phenomenon?
• The data - quantitative or qualitative?
Numbers and counting are an important component of scientific methods; however, researchers
with interests in human subjectivity say that the complexities and subtleties of the topic cannot be
captured in mere numbers —> you have to listen to the participants.
Triangulation: an approach in which researchers use multiple methods providing multiple
perspectives to ensure that they have a good ‘fix’ on a problem.
Q methodology: an approach which assumes that it’s respondents’ subjective views of the world
that are of interest but combine that research focus with quantitative, computational approaches to
recording and assessing these views.
• The reporting - subjective or objective?
Social science researchers typically use statistics to report and interpret the data they have
collected. Describing the findings of a study can be done in different ways; for example, a
dispassionate (objective) researcher will use neutral language like ‘subjects were…’, while
subjectives researchers use ‘I’ and therefore involve themselves.
Some of the major approaches to communication research:
• Empirical: observe, measure from researcher’s perspective: often quantitative.
—> e.g. survey numbers, counting.
• Interpretive: observe, interpret from participants’ perspectives: often qualitative.
—> e.g. focus group, interviews.
• Critical theory: ask whose interests are advanced by communication: assumption that
communication maintains and promotes power structures in society.
—> e.g. analyze an ad to see whether it promotes certain (implicit) societal interests.
Practice exam questions:
1. Name one advantage and one disadvantage of using words and language instead of numbers and
statistics to record and describe human behavior —> e.g. context.
2. In communication research, a large sample is always better than a small sample: false.
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,Chapter 2: First Decisions
There are four important aspects of getting to the research starting line, namely: the basic
assumptions that underpin communication research, deciding on a focus, deciding on the purpose
of your research and lastly, the question of a research topic itself.
1. The basic assumptions that underpin communication research:
—> Here, we have to take a look at the basic beliefs and perspectives that shape our thinking
about human behavior.
—> We deal with questions like: are people all alike or fundamentally different (individuals)?
—> Basic assumptions about human behavior coalesce into broad worldviews or basic sets of
beliefs that underpin our perspectives on communication research.
—> Worldview I: human communication is predictable, objectively measurable,
generalizable, and can be summarized in rules.
It is also called the nomothetic approach. This view privileges the researcher’s perspectives.
—> Worldview II: human communication is subjective, individualistic, unpredictable, and
must be described as such.
This is also called the idiographic approach, which privileges participants’ perspectives.
—> The two worldviews described above are quite broad. Four more nuanced worldviews:
- Postpositive: the worldview that the world is governed by laws or theories that can be tested
or verified, but recognizing that observations are fallible and that theories and findings are
always subject to revision.
- Constructivist: the worldview that individuals construct their own views of the world in
which they live, primarily through interaction with others.
- Transformative: the worldview that argues for mixing research with politics to address social
oppression and change lives for the better.
- Pragmatism: the worldview that focuses on solutions to problems and allows a variety of
approaches to understand a problem.
—> To further fine-tune your ideas, consider the following communication metatheory: a
family of concepts embracing several different traditions of communication research.
- Rhetorical: emphasizes the use and power of words.
- Semiotic: emphasizes the study of how meanings are constructed and the relationship between
words and symbols, and thought.
- Phenomenological: emphasizes the study of objects and events as they are perceived.
- Cybernetic: emphasizes communication as a system of information processing and feedback.
- Sociopsychological: emphasizes attitudes and perceptions and individuals influencing each
other or working toward collective outcomes.
- Sociocultural: emphasizes the ways in which shared meanings and social structures are
produced and reproduced through communication.
- Critical: challenges common assumptions.
—> After you decide what your basic assumptions about human communication are, you decide
whether you will use a qualitative or quantitative method for your research.
—> Foundational beliefs and arguments about human behavior are issues ultimately of
ontology: the study of the nature of existence and what it is that language actually refers to.
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, ! Three thought processes that link observations with theories are induction, deduction, and
abduction.
1. Induction: reasoning from observations to a theory that might explain your observations; it
moves from specific to the general.
2. Deduction: moves from a theory to defining the observations you will make to test the
theory; it moves from general to the specific.
—> Here, you have to look out that you do not overgeneralize a group based upon a small
group you observed.
—> Still, deduction is more efficient than induction, because it leads to a specific observation
that will test your hypothesis: the statement about the relationships you expect to find.
3. Abduction: refers to reasoning from an effect or observation to possible causes.
2. Deciding on a focus:
—> One way to focus more precisely on a topic is to pose research questions.
- Open-ended research questions (also called non-directional): ask whether there is a
relationship between variables.
For example, ‘to what extent is there a relationship between X and Y?’
- Closed-ended research questions (also called directional): focus on a direction of the
relationship.
For example, ‘to what extent does Y decline as X increases?’
—> A researcher can also start with a hypothesis (or in combination with a research question).
Hypotheses are statements about the relationship that we expect to find between variables.
Preferring a hypothesis over a research question gives you the advantage of focusing your study
because you already said with some level of confidence that you know what is going on. A
research question is more speculative. Types of hypotheses:
- Two-tailed hypotheses (also called non-directional): state that there is a relationship between
variables but do not specify the direction of the relationship.
—> For example, ‘there is a relationship between A and B’.
- One-tailed hypotheses (also called directional): require extra confidence because you commit
to predicting the direction of the relationship between the variables.
—> For example, ‘as A increases, B decreases’.
- Null hypotheses (also called H0): specify that there is no relationship between variables. This
makes the notion explicit that we are always working with two hypotheses.
—> For example, ‘there is no relationship between A and B’ (and an alternative hypothesis
which is either one-tailed or two-tailed, like ‘there is a relationship between A and B’).
If you are concerned with measurement and precision in your observations, getting started
requires that you identify key constructs and operationalize them.
Constructs: ideas or concepts.
! Operationalizing constructs: to define the constructs in such a way that they can be measured
and that your study can be replicated by other researchers.
—> For example, going from the construct ‘involvement in gaming’ to the operationalized
construct ‘time spent on gaming’ or ‘money spent on gaming’.
So the constructs will have been operationalized into variables.
! Variables: an aspect of a construct that can be measured or can take on a a value; i.e., they can
vary.
—> For example, the number of customers or the amount of money someone owns.
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