PowerPoint presentation on the meaning of Research

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KEY CONCEPTS IN SOCIAL
RESEARCH

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METHODS OF ACQUIRING KNOWLEDGE
 Tenacity
-An idea is accepted as a valid knowledge because it has
been accepted for a long period of time without question.
-An idea which is firmly accepted and believed universally.
-It is based on very weak and unscientific grounds.
 Authority
-An idea is accepted as a valid knowledge because it is
claimed as valid by respectable source or authority.
-It is considered as a better means of acquiring knowledge
than the method of tenacity.

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METHODS OF ACQUIRING KNOWLEDGE
 A priori
-This method rests its case for superiority on the assumption
that the propositions accepted are self-evident.
-A priori propositions ‘agree with reason’ and not necessarily
with experience.
-The method of intuition.
 Science
-It is acquiring knowledge through the method of science.
-This is superior than the other methods because it is self-
correcting.
-One does not have to accept the statement to be true without
first testing it.

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OTHER METHODS OF ACQUIRING KNOWLEDGE
 Rationalism
-Acquiring knowledge thru the process of reasoning.
-Logical rules are followed in order to arrive at an acceptable
conclusion.
-Example: All Filipinos are macho; He is a Filipino; Therefore,
he is macho.
 Empiricism
-Gaining knowledge thru observation of real events.
-This is knowing by experience through the senses.
-It is not enough that we at knowledge thru reasoning (or
tenacity, or a priori, or authority) alone but we must experience
these events through our senses.

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PARADIGMS FOR DOING SOCIAL RESEARCH
 What is a paradigm?
 A paradigm defines the world view of the researcher; it consists a set
of beliefs that guide decisions and actions in the research process.
 These beliefs address the following:
(a) Ontology- issues on nature of reality and the nature of human
being in the world.
(b) Epistemology- study of how and what we can know.
(c) Methodology- means for gaining knowledge about the world.

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POSITIVISM AS A RESEARCH PARADIGM
 It is the most widely used approach to social research.
 Its varieties include logical empiricism, realism, naturalism.
 It claims that there is only one logic of science; any intellectual
activity aspiring to the title of “science” must conform to this logic.
 It requires that the social sciences and the natural sciences use the
same scientific method.
 It aims to discover and confirm causal laws to predict patterns of
human activity.

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INTERPRETIVISM AS A RESEARCH PARADIGM
 It is concerned with socially meaningful or purposeful social action.
 It is concerned with how people create meaning.
 Its varieties include hermeneutics, ethnomethodology, and
ethnography.
 It uses rigorous and detailed methods to gather qualitative data.
 It is concerned with how people interact and get along with each
other.
 It is concerned with how ordinary people manage their practical
affairs in everyday life.
 It aims at understanding and interpreting how people create and
maintain their social worlds.

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CRITICAL APPROACH TO RESEARCH
 It mixes selected features of the positivist and interpretivist approaches.
 Its varieties include participatory action research, gender analysis, and
liberatory approach.
 It criticizes positivism for not dealing with the meanings of real people
and their capacity to think and feel.
 It criticizes interpretivism for being too subjective and relativist in seeing
all points of view as equal.
 It takes a value position and helps people to see illusions around them
so they can improve their lives.

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WHAT IS SCIENCE?
 There are two general themes used in defining science. On one hand,
science is seen as basically a method of inquiry, while on the other,
science refers to the results of the inquiry.
 DEFINITION: Science is an objective, accurate, systematic analysis of a
determinate body of empirical data, in order to discover recurring
relationships among phenomena (Manheim, 1977).
Objective means unbiased, detached, and impersonal.
Accurate means that you strive to be definite and precise.
Systematic means that science is methodical.
Analysis means studying component parts or elements.
Determinate means agreed upon defined traits or scope.

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THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD
(a) Identifying and defining the problem.
-Identify & state clearly the problem.
-Study the literature, existing knowledge, & existing theories
related to the problem.
-Analysis of the researcher’s own & others experiences.
(b) Developing/formulating a hypothesis.
-Hypothesis are formulated based on the problem.
-They are tentative answers to the problem.

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THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD
(c) Reasoning deductively.
-After formulating the hypothesis, its empirical implications or
consequences are deduced. Deductive reasoning may
change the problem.
-This can lead to wider, more basic and thus, more significant
problems, and provide operational (testable) implications of
the original hypothesis.
(d) Testing the hypothesis.
-Experiments or observations are made to determine whether
or not the supposed consequences do, in fact, happen under
appropriate circumstances.
-Hypothesis is accepted/rejected based on research evidence.

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BASIC POSTULATES OF THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD
(a) There exists a definite order of recurrence of events.
-Making predictions and generalizations depends on the existence
of order in the physical or social world under study.
-You have to analyze the pattern of events before making
generalizations or predictions.
(b) Knowledge is superior to ignorance .
-This underscores that the chief goal of science is the search for
knowledge.
-Science always assume that its findings are tentative; that new
evidences may change or even reverse existing theoretical
formulations.

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BASIC POSTULATES OF THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD
(c) A communication tie based upon sense impression exists
between the scientist and external reality.
-Knowledge is a product of one’s experiences. This refutes the
notion that is instinctive and inborn.
-Before we can say anything on something, we must have gone
out and learn something about it.
-We must have proof for our pronouncements. Thus, data
gathering is part and parcel of scientific work.
-Subject reality versus external (objective) reality.
(d) Some events occur before or concurrently with others and that the
former has an impact upon the latter, thereby causing specific
reactions.

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AIMS OF SCIENCE
 According to Manheim (1977), there are three aims of science:
description, explanation, and prediction.
 Description must come first before you can make intelligent
statements about anything. You must first know what you are talking
about.
 Explanations tell you how things and events come about, what
causes them, what are the laws which determine their occurrence. It
brings meaning to the description.
 Prediction means that you make inferences from facts or laws. You
say that “such and such will happen” or “if these conditions prevail,”
then “so and so will occur.”

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AIMS OF SCIENCE
 Kerlinger (1973), on the other hand, identified four aims of science,
namely: explanation, understanding, prediction, and control.
 He considers, however, these four aims as only sub-aims, which are
subsumed under a basic aim of science which is the formulation of
theory.

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IN SUMMARY, SCIENCE DEALS WITH. . . .
 Generalizations that can be verified through actual observation in the
real world.
 Controlled investigation or inquiry, to demonstrate the relation
between theory and reality.
 Prediction, to demonstrate conditional relationship that consistently
holds within stated limits, and that the propositions take the “if . .
.then” form.
 Naturalism and determinism, where naturalism refers to the view that
phenomena are aspects of nature and therefore are ordered
according to the order of nature; and determinism refers to the
condition that phenomena can be determined and all orders can be
accounted for.