Intro to Research

Question 1

What is research?

Answer 1

• research is the systemic process of collecting and analyzing information or data in order to increase our understanding of a phenomenon that we are interested in

Question 2

research involves three main stages:

Answer 2

• planning
• data collection
• analysis

Question 3

what is social research?

Answer 3

• social science research involves social scientific methods, concepts, and theories that can help us understand a social phenomenon or a group of individuals

Question 4

2 forms of social research

Answer 4

• basic or pure research, applied research

Question 5

applied research

Answer 5

• provides research that can be used to influence social policy

Question 6

basic/pure research

Answer 6

• constructing, testing, and refining theory

- coming to understand human social behaviour by empirical means and application of theoretical concepts

Question 7

epistemology

Answer 7

• concerned with hat is or is not considered knowledge

Question 8

3 main epistemological perspectives

Answer 8

• positivism
• phenomenology
• critical

Question 9

positivism

Answer 9

• the belief that science can uncover the truth or the ‘what’ of social questions that we might have about the events and things we observe. Often associated with the natural sciences

Question 10

phenomenology

Answer 10

• to know the social world we must understand the social processes. Phenomenologists want to know how people interpret their world and what to uncover the ‘how’ of a social phenomenon

Question 11

critical

Answer 11

• a desire to understand the structural relationships and contexts of a social phenomenon

Question 12

qualitative research

Answer 12

• based on induction

- efforts are made to avoid assumptions about what the data may reveal

Question 13

model

Answer 13

• an overall framework for how we look at reality, telling us what reality is like and the basic elements it contains

Question 14

functionalism

Answer 14

• looks at the functions of social institutions

Question 15

behaviourism

Answer 15

• defines all behaviour in terms of stimulus and response

Question 16

symbolic interactionism

Answer 16

• focuses on how we attach symbolic meanings to interpersonal relations

Question 17

ethnomethodology/constructivism

Answer 17

• looking at people’s everyday ways of producing orderly social interaction

Question 18

concept

Answer 18

• clearly specified ideas deriving from a particular model and way of looking at the world which are essential to defining a research problem

Question 19

social function

Answer 19

• related to functionalism

Question 20

stimulus/response

Answer 20

-related to behaviourism

Question 21

theories

Answer 21

• arranged sets of concepts to define and explain some phenomena

Question 22

hypothesis

Answer 22

• statements or claim that can be tested and verified by research

Question 23

methodology

Answer 23

• a general approach to studying a research topic

Question 24

quantitative

Answer 24

• uses numbers to test a hypothesis

Question 25

qualitative

Answer 25

• uses first hand familiarity with different settings to induce a hypothesis

Question 26

methods

Answer 26

• specific research techniques that are used to collect data

Question 27

What is a social problem?

Answer 27

• social problems are the general factors that affect and damage society

Question 28

What is a research problem?

Answer 28

• a research problem is a definite or clear expression (statement) about an area of concern, a condition to be improved upon, a difficulty to be eliminated, or a troubling question that exists in scholarly literature, in theory, or within existing practices that points to a need for meaningful understanding and deliberate investigation