theories of research-i

8/19/2019 Theories of Research-I

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Theories of ResearchShiva P. Tiwari

MIRD- Tribhuvan University


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Overall Content of ‘The Theories of

Research’! Scientific Thinking

! Positivism and Scientific Realism

! Propositions, Variables and Hypothesis! Transformation of Theoretical Questions to Research

Design

!

Theoretical Triangulation! Sources of Knowledge

! Reliability and Validity


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Theories of Research-I : Scientific Thinking

.


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Contents of today’s class! Science and Scientific Method

! Scientific Method in natural and social sciences

! Scientific knowledge : Laws, Theories andObservation

! Scientific Inquiry : Inductive and Deductive Research

!

History of scientific thinking – Theological percepts,rationalism, empiricism, natural philosophy, Germanideology, Positivism, antipositivism, postpositivism,critical research.


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Science and Scientific Method! Etymologically, the word “science” is derived from

the Latin word scientia meaning knowledge.

! Science refers to a systematic and organized bodyof knowledge in any area of inquiry that is acquiredusing “the scientific method”.


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Science and Unity of Sciences! Natural Science : Physics , Chemistry , Geology,

Biology and Botany etc.

! Applied Science : Engineering , Medicine etc.

! Social Science : Psychology, Sociology, Anthropology,Political Science, Economics, International Relationsetc.

! Unity of Sciences ?

! Can same methods be used to study Natural andSocial Sciences ?


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Natural and Social Sciences : Some

Differences! The natural sciences are very precise, accurate,

deterministic, and independent of the person making

the scientific observations.! Social sciences, tend to be less accurate, deterministic,

or unambiguous.


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Precision and accuracy Social

Sciences! There is a high degree of measurement error in the social

sciences and there is considerable uncertainty and little

agreement on social science policy decisions.! For example one will not find many disagreements

among natural scientists on the speed of light or thespeed of the earth around the sun.


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Precision and accuracy in Social

Sciences! There can be found numerous disagreements among

social scientists on how to solve a social problem such

as reduce global terrorism or rescue an economy froma recession.

! A social science student must be cognizant of andcomfortable with handling higher levels of

ambiguity, uncertainty, and error that come with suchsciences, which merely reflects the high variability ofsocial objects.


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Scientific Knowledge! The purpose of science is to create scientific

knowledge.

!

Scientific knowledge refers to a generalized body oflaws and theories to explain a phenomenon or

behavior of interest that are acquired using thescientific method.


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Laws and Theories! Laws are observed patterns of phenomena or

behaviors.

!

Theories are systematic explanations of theunderlying phenomenon or behavior.

! Laws : Newton’s Laws of Motion

! Theory of Optics , Electromagnetic Theory ,

! Social Science Theories : Cognitive DissonanceTheory, General Deterrence Theory and Theory ofPlanned Behaviour


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Goal of Scientific Research! The goal of scientific research is to discover laws and

postulate theories that can explain natural or social

phenomena, and thus build scientific knowledge.

! However, it is important to understand that thisknowledge may be imperfect or even quite far fromthe truth. Sometimes, there may not be a single

universal truth, but rather an equilibrium of“multiple truths.”


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Pillars of Scientific Knowledge :

Theory and Observation! We arrive at scientific laws or theories through a

process of logic and evidence.

!

Logic (theory) and evidence (observations) are thetwo, and only two, pillars upon which scientificknowledge is based.

! Given that theories and observations are the two

pillars of science, scientific research operates at twolevels: a theoretical level and an empirical level.


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Pillars of Scientific Knowledge :

Theory and Observation! Both theory and observations are essential

components of scientific research. For instance,

relying solely on observations for making inferencesand ignoring theory is not considered valid scientificresearch.


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Two Forms of Scientific Inquiry :

Inductive and Deductive Research! Scientific inquiry may take one of two possible forms:

inductive or deductive.

!

In inductive research, the goal of a researcher is toinfer theoretical concepts and patterns from observeddata.

! In deductive research, the goal of the researcher is to

test concepts and patterns known from theory usingnew empirical data.

! Hence, inductive research is also called theory-buildingresearch, and deductive research is theory-testing research.


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InductionObservation

Pattern

Tentative

Hypothesis

Theory


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DeductionTheory

Hypothesis

Observation

Confirmation


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Problems of theory building and

theory testing in social sciences! Theory building and theory testing are particularly

difficult in the social sciences, given the imprecise natureof the theoretical concepts, inadequate tools to measure

them, and the presence of many unaccounted factorsthat can also influence the phenomenon of interest.

! For instance, Karl Marx’s theory of communism as aneffective means of economic production withstood for

decades, before it was finally discredited as beinginferior to capitalism in promoting economic growthand social welfare.


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Necessity for Scientific Research :

Theory and Method! Conducting scientific research, therefore, requires

two sets of skills – theoretical and methodological –

needed to operate in the theoretical and empiricallevels respectively.

! Methodological skills are needed to be an ordinaryresearcher, but theoretical skills are needed to be an

extraordinary researcher!


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Scientific Method! Scientific method refers to a standardized set of

techniques for building scientific knowledge, such as

how to make valid observations, how to interpretresults, and how to generalize those results.

! The scientific method allows researchers toindependently and impartially test preexisting

theories and prior findings, and subject them to opendebate, modifications, or enhancements.


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Characteristics of Scientific Method! Replicability

! Precision

! Falsifiability

! Parsimony


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Science and Non Science &

Scientific and Non-Scientific Method! Any branch of inquiry that does not allow the scientific

method to test its basic laws or theories cannot be called

“science.”

! Theology , arts, music, literature, humanities, and law

are also not considered science, even though they are

creative and worthwhile endeavors in their own right.

! Freudian Psychoanalysis also can not be called a sciencethough it helps in treatments of various ailments

because of lack of scientific methods to corroborate it.


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Scientific Method in Social Science! The scientific method, as applied to social sciences, includes

a variety of research approaches, tools, and techniques, suchas qualitative and quantitative data, statistical analysis,

experiments, field surveys, case research, and so forth.! It is important to note that the scientific method operates

primarily at the empirical level of research, i.e., how tomake observations and analyze and interpret theseobservations.

! Very little of this method is directly pertinent to thetheoretical level, which is really the more challenging partof scientific research.


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Types of Scientific Research! Exploratory Research

! Descriptive Research

! Explanatory Research


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History of Scientific Thought! Though scientific progress have been documented

over many centuries, the terms “science,”

“scientists,” and the “scientific method” were coinedonly in the 19th century.

! Prior to this time, science was viewed as a part ofphilosophy, and coexisted with other branches of

philosophy such as logic, metaphysics, ethics, andaesthetics, although the boundaries between some ofthese branches were blurred.


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History of scientific thought! Thought process guided by theological percept

! Rationalism

!

Empiricism! Natural Philosophy

! German Idealism

! Positivism

! Antipositivism

! Postpositivism

! Critical Research


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History of Scientific Thought :

Theological Percept! In the earliest days of human inquiry, knowledge was

usually recognized in terms of theological precepts

based on faith.


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History of Scientific Thought :

Rationalism! Thinking guided by theological explanations was

challenged by Greek philosophers such as Plato,

Aristotle, and Socrates during the 3rd century BC,who suggested that the fundamental nature of beingand the world can be understood more accuratelythrough a process of systematic logical reasoning

called rationalism.


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History of Scientific Thought:

Empiricism! The next major shift in scientific thought occurred

during the 16th century, when British philosopherFrancis Bacon (1561-1626) suggested that knowledge canonly be derived from observations in the real world. Itwas originally called the “Baconian method” and“Scientific Method” as well.

!

Empiricism emphasizes systematic observation,measurement, and experimentation, and may have evensowed the seeds of atheism or the rejection oftheological precepts as “unobservable.”


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Natural Philosophy! Other scientists, such as Galileo Galilei and Sir Issac

Newton, attempted to fuse the two ideas (rationalismand empiricism) into natural philosophy (thephilosophy of nature), to focus specifically onunderstanding nature and the physical universe, whichis considered to be the precursor of the natural sciences.

! Galileo (1564-1642) was perhaps the first to state thatthe laws of nature are mathematical, and contributed tothe field of astronomy through an innovativecombination of experimentation and mathematics.


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German Idealism! In the 18th century, German philosopher Immanuel

Kant sought to resolve the dispute between empiricismand rationalism in his book Critique of Pure Reason, by

arguing that experience is purely subjective andprocessing them using pure reason without first delvinginto the subjective nature of experiences will lead totheoretical illusions.

! Kant’s ideas led to the development of Germanidealism, which inspired later development ofinterpretive techniques such as phenomenology,hermeneutics, and critical social theory.


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Positivism! French philosopher Auguste Comte (1798–1857),

founder of the discipline of sociology, attempted to

blend rationalism and empiricism in a new doctrinecalled positivism.

! He suggested that theory and observations have

circular dependence on each other. While theories

may be created via reasoning, they are only authenticif they can be verified through observations.


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Positivism! The emphasis on verification started the separation of

modern science from philosophy and metaphysics

and further development of the “scientific method”as the primary means of validating scientific claims.

! Comte’s ideas were expanded by Emile Durkheimand Ludwig Wittgenstein in logical positivism.


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Antipositivism! In the early 20th century, strong accounts of positivism were

rejected by interpretive sociologists (antipositivists) belonging to the German idealism school of thought.

!

Positivism was typically equated with quantitative researchmethods such as experiments and surveys and without anyexplicit philosophical commitments, while antipositivismemployed qualitative methods such as unstructuredinterviews and participant observation.

!

Even practitioners of positivism, such as Americansociologist Paul Lazarsfield who pioneered large-scalesurvey research and statistical techniques for analyzingsurvey data, acknowledged potential problems of observer bias and structural limitations in positivist inquiry.


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Postpositivism! In the mid-to-late 20th century, both positivist and

antipositivist schools of thought were subjected tocriticisms and modifications.

! British philosopher Sir Karl Popper suggested thathuman knowledge is based not on unchallengeable,rock solid foundations, but rather on a set of tentative

conjectures that can never be proven conclusively, butonly disproven. Empirical evidence is the basis fordisproving these conjectures or “theories.”


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Postpositivism! This metatheoretical stance, called postpositivism (or

postempiricism), amends positivism by suggestingthat it is impossible to verify the truth although it ispossible to reject false beliefs, though it retains thepositivist notion of an objective truth and itsemphasis on the scientific method.


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History of Scientific Thought: Critical

Theories (Critical Research)! Karl Marx said that philosophers have analyzed the world

but they have to be a part of changing it .! Antipositivists have been criticized for trying only to

understand society but not critiquing and changing societyfor the better.! The roots of this thought lie in Das Capital, written by

German philosophers Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, whichcritiqued capitalistic societies as being social inequitable and

inefficient, and recommended resolving this inequitythrough class conflict and proletarian revolutions.

! Marxism inspired social revolutions in countries such asGermany, Italy, Russia, and China, but generally failed toaccomplish the social equality that it aspired.


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History of Scientific Thought: Critical

Theories! Critical research (also called critical theory)

propounded by Max Horkheimer and JurgenHabermas in the 20th century, retains similar ideas ofcritiquing and resolving social inequality, and addsthat people can and should consciously act to changetheir social and economic circumstances, although

their ability to do so is constrained by various formsof social, cultural and political domination.


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Summary! History of Scientific Thinking

! Science , Scientific Knowledge , Scientific Method

! Scientific Method in Natural and Social Sciences! Factors to be taken care of in application of scientific

method and scientific thinking in social sciences


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Class Discussion


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Thank You !

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