Midterm Flashcards
Types of Questions
- Questions of fact
- Questions of value
Questions of fact
not looking for opinion or evaluation - looking for numbers or observation everyone can agree on.
Questions of value
asking for what’s beautiful, good, useful. subjective evaluations. looking for judgment.
Empiricism
thought of observing something in systematic way to test and prove things
Tenacity
believing something because you believe it. we’ve always believed it. way it is and way it will be.
Methods of Proof (intent to establish truth) (TAIS)
- tenacity
- authority (he said)
- intuition (common sense, your experience, self-evident truth)
- scientific method (empiricism)
Weaknesses or Criticism
- polemic
- ideosyncrasy
- random
- arbitrary
- made up as we go along
- hunch
- guess
Scientific Method - follow these tests: (SSPETH)
- systematic ( going to do it this way and every time. I’d get the same results)
- self-corrective (built into the system is a way of showing if it’s not working)
- problem oriented (questioned. research question. a good one is worthwhile, narrow and grounded. single, narrow, and clear)
- empirical (not relying on above weaknesses. tested and measured)
- theory-directed (once you test those hypotheses, should lead you to theory)
- hypothesis-guided ( prediction implies a relationship of what is and what will happen
Hypothesis
explanation/possible answer for research question
a good hypothesis must have these attributes: (SCOUU)
- structured (“if…then…”)
- relational (states a relationship between conditions or observations)
- based on previous knowledge
- objective verification (by direct empirical measurement
- uses conceptual definitions (find in dictionary/standard def)
- uses operational definitions (how to find it tested/testable “on a scale of 1-10)
What is Comm theory?
- the attempt to explain or represent a phenomenon
- intent is to guide people in making decisions and taking action (not just observation)
- representation of the state of affairs at any given time (shows the status)
- possibilities: trying to develop new theory, checking out a theory, remember theory and research must be integrated
Meanings of Theory
1) Theory as abstract Ideas
2) Theory as predictable findings
3) Concept explication (combining the two/looking to explain concepts
weaknesses of everyday knowing (ACOF)
- accuracy (problems with concept of truth: don’t say what is true, “believe”, “feel” - but what she said she feels, “thinks”
- cognitive conservatism (learning/teaching. bad thing. we tend to believe before we see it - draw conclusions without having facts)
- over-generalization (nobody passed the Q…rather, I talked to 5 people and none of them passed)
- form (EBSAHRA)
forms of weaknesses of every day knowing (EBSAHRA)
- ethnocentrism (I come from BR - we’re better than everyone else. LSU > SLU)
- begging the question (skip over info, assumes you know the answer)
- slippery slope (snowball effect, this then that then, question after question without source)
- ad ignorantiam (based on ignorance, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it, driving a broken car)
- hasty generalization (don’t have the evidence to say that, insufficient evidence, “this class sucks”)
- red herring (trying to cover up something by focussing on something else)
- appeal to tradition (we’ve always done it this way, watch out for in 3-legged stool)
metatheoretical considerations are:
what’s at the basis of theory. three primary components.
Three primary components of metatheory: (OEA)
1) Ontology (the nature/study of reality)
2) Epistemology (study of knowledge)
3) Axiology (study of values)
Three stances on ontology
- realist stance
- nominalist stance
- social constructionist stance
Three research perspectives and paradigms: (PIC)
- Postivism
- Interpretivism
- Critical Perspective
Positivism
- quantitative research perspective
- evidence gathered by sci. method supersedes all other methods
- relatively recent adoption
- basic idea: you’ve got to investigate it/ trying to study and understand info
Interpretivism
- qualitative perspective
- must investigate but not understand. dependent on interpretation - not write/wrong, it’s their culture.
- phenomenology (a qualitative method) first hand method. you want this thing run properly? do it yourself.
Critical Perspective
- instead of explaining something or understanding something, goal is to challenge things/comm practices that are clearly unjust or is/isn’t efficient
- boss want’s it changed because he wants to. will you go with it or not?
Types of research ***KNOW THE DIF
- proprietary research (done by industry/business, funded well, purpose to sell/conduct business)
- scholarly research (what we do, contributing to knowledge and passing it on)
Inductive Model/ Qualitative Research
- gen to spec. - known as grounded theory
- starts with gathering data, then observing patterns then developing theory
- emphasizes a naturalistic interpretation of the world
Inductive method best suited to these situations:
- when not too much is previously known about the topic
- when topic tends to be more personal
- when it is desired to generate a lot of detail about small or isolated item
Prominent qualitative operations:
- Observation
- Participation
- Interviews
- Focus groups
- Reviewing documents
- Gathering life histories
- Exploring one’s own life
- Field notes
- Transcripts
- Narratives
Deductive Model/ Quantitative Research
- spec. to gen; known as theory-driven model
- begins with theory, then to gathering evidence to evaluate that theory
- assumes the world is objective and can be measured
- quantitative often associated with deductive way of explaining
Prominent quantitative operations:
- experiments
- questionnaires
- surveys
- interviews with statistical method
- secondary data analysis
- numerical coding
epistemological assumption
assumptions about what constitutes knowledge. foundation in the development of criteria for assessing the value or worth of data generated by research. (basic of a theory)
unscientific sources of knowledge (CRIPT)
- Common Sense (what appears to be obvious answers to comm questions)
- Rationalism (deriving answers through deduction, self-fulfilling prophecies)
- Intuition (vague feelings, gut reactions)
- Personal Experience
- Tenacity (unquestioned beliefs)
Steps of Scientific Method
1) observe a phenomenon that needs to be explained
2) construct provisional explanations or pose hypotheses
3) design as adequate a test of the hypotheses as possible (quant or qual)
4) execute the test and analyze
5) accept, reject, or modify our hypotheses based on outcome of test
charateristics of sci. method (SSPETH)
1) emperical
2) problem-oriented
3) hypothesis-guided
4) theory directed
5) systematic
6) self-corrective
Research Question standards
1) worthwhile
2) narrow
3) grounded in theory
Quantitative logic
1) Variance
2) Statistical significance