Midterm #1 (Weeks 1-4) Flashcards
Why should we care about research?
Allows us to have a better understand an issue/problem
What qualifies as research?
Any honest attempt to systematically study a problem or to add to knowledge regarding an issue counts as research
Why is the topic of ‘research methods’ important?
“The method of research, as stodgy and grumpy as it may seem, is FAR MORE IMPORTANT than the FINDINGS of research.” — Carl Sagan
What does ‘philosophical worldviews’ mean
A researcher’s set of beliefs that is a foundation for all their actions in research.
Includes ontological and epistemological assumptions
Can change over time
What “counts” as knowledge will influence entire program of research
Ontology definition
One’s belief about truth and reality
Difference lies in what we believe can be known?
Epistemology
One’s belief about how we acquire knowledge about truth and reality
Difference lies in what the relationship is between researcher and participant/subject
5 Main philosophical worldviews
Post-positivism, constructivism, transformative, pragmatism, two-eyed seeing
Also critical theory, interpretivism, postmodernism, and feminism
Postpositivism definition and defining features
Single reality, objective truth (FIND the present)
Determinism: causes determine effects (why we have experiments)
Reductionism: ideas can be reduced to small, discrete, and testable set (i.e., variables that make up hypotheses and research questions)
Empirical observation and measurement: what knowledge is based on
Theory testing: theories are tested, confirmed, or refined
Truth vs Reality
Reality: actually exists (concrete)
Truth: assertions about reality (abstract)
Constructivism definition and defining features
Multiple realities, generate knowledge (wrap the present yourself), different based on who looks at it
Understanding: seek to understand
Multiple participant meanings: meanings of experience are subjective and socially constructed
Social and historical construction: Meanings are formed through interactions with others and through historical/cultural norms
Theory generation: inductive development of theory or pattern of meaning
Transformative definition and defining features
Research needs to be closely connected to politics, have an action agenda, advocate for marginalized peoples
Political: research is driven and interpreted within a political agenda to confront oppression
Power and justice-oriented: action agenda
Collaborative: researchers and participants work together in every step of research to avoid further marginalization
Change-oriented: change lives of participants, researchers, and institutions
Pragmatism definition and defining features
Researchers need to be concerned with solutions to problems, so no commitment to a specific notion of reality
Consequences of actions: knowledge arises out of actions, situations, and consequences
Problem-centered: research problem is most important, rather than methods and issues of knowledge
Pluralistic: many approaches are used to derive knowledge
Real-world practice-oriented: pragmatic
Two-eyed definition and defining features
Many ways of seeing the world, marriage of Indigenous knowledge systems and European/Western-derived sciences
Reflects bringing together knowledge: uses both Indigenous and Western ways of knowing
Equitable knowledge systems
Premised on respect, reflection, and co-learning
Types of research approaches
Quantitative, Qualitative, Mixed methods
Not rigid or opposites of each other
Quantitative approach - definition
For testing objective theories by examining relationships among variables
- Requires generating numerical data, must be quantifiable
- Large sample sizes
- Measurement of variables
