A QUESTION FOR

YOU

CURIOSITY

8 April 2015 1

Are you Ready

for a new

Research

Methodology? 8 April 2015 2

13 QUESTIONS IN HISTORICAL

RESEARCH

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Question 1

What is historical research?

Historical research is a process of critical

inquiry into past events, in order to produce

an accurate description and interpretation of

those events (Wiersma, 1986)

It involves systematic objective data

collection and its analysis.

!!!There is No History but Histories. Histories

change in response to the dominant values

and new data 8 April 2015 4

Question 2

Why do we do historical research?

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Question 3

What are features of historical

research?

With new information

With new theories & values

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Question 4How did historical research develop?

Greeks 5th C. BC

Herodotus -Father of History –

Thucydides –military history- cause and

effect

Romans

3rd BC Cato the Elder in Latin biographies

1rd C. BC Strabo combined history &

geography

Livy alternative history8 April 2015 8

Middle Ages

Christianity, Cannons, annals, narration.

Renaissance

History of states & nations

Enlightenment

Voltaire: Social history, global history, agesDavid Hume: History of culture, scientists Thomas Carlyle: History of French Revolution with un-neutral dramatic tone.

IslamLife of prophet, science of hadithBiruni: world history, history of pre-IslamIbn Khaldun: Philosophy and methodology of history

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Question 5

What are current trends in historical

research?

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Question 6What are approaches in historical research?

• Cultural approach

• Gender / feminist

• Marxist / socialist

• Postcolonial …

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Question 7What are steps in doing historical

research?

Narrate

Synthesize,

explain

Organization of data

Evaluation of data

Locating data

Extensive Literature review

Identifying research questions8 April 2015 12

Question 8What are sources in historical research?

• Primary Sources: First hand access to the

events

– Documents: personal records, letters, diaries,

newspaper articles, pamphlets, essays, memos,

reports, handbooks, wills …

– Oral data: interviews, songs …

– Relics: sculpture, remains, art pieces, furniture,

clothes, archeological fragments

• Secondary Sources - one level removed

from the object of inquiry8 April 2015 13

Question 9

How do we evaluate the data ?

Process of criticismExternal criticism:

validity of the document.

Is it authentic or fake?

Internal criticism:

Can we trust the data.

Bias? Competency?

Inaccuracy

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Question 10

What is oral history?Oral history is a field of study and a method of gathering, preserving and interpreting the voices and memories of people, communities, and participants in past events. Both process and a product.

Interviews are the method of choice in oral history.

!!! life histories covers usually longer time, oral history are episodic.

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Oral History

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Question 11Why I should choose oral history?

• Democratic & all-inclusive

• Narrating is therapeutic & self discovering

• Doable with few resources

• Sometimes only possibility resource– People tend to remember significant events.

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Question 12What makes historical research difficult?

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Question 13What are historical research in psychotherapy?

Archives of

Psychotherapist

s

Biographies

Development of

Methods

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Globalization of

psychotherapy

Archives of

Psychotherapi

sts

Biographies

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This presentation is prepared by

Fatma Tuba Aydin

For further info visit

http://www.psikoterapi.info.tr/en/

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