Week 5: Key principles of scientific research Flashcards
What are the four key components of the scientific method?
- verifiability
- predictability
- falsifiability
- fairness
Describe verifiability
- experiments must be replicable
- methods should be documented and experiment structure and results clearly explained
Describe predictability
- implies that the theory should enable us to make predictions about future events
Describe falsifiability
- whether a hypothesis can be disproved
- it must be logically possible to make an observation or do a physical experiment that would show there is no support for a hypothesis
Describe fairness
- all data must be soldiered when evaluating hypotheses
- researcher cannot pick and choose what data to keep and what to discard or focus specifically on
What is the key principle of the hypothetico-inductive model
- causes have effects
- cause effect relationship can be deduced by experimentation, observation and measurement
- the universe is governed by rules
- acquiring knowledge involves testing and refining hypotheses by falsification
What does reductionism say?
All phenomena can be broken down into smaller parts that can be subjected to hypothesis testing (reductionism)
Describe positivism
- absolute truths in nature can be discerned by careful observation and measurement
- the more accurately they can be described by maths the greater their positivity
Describe post-positivism
- important to be aware of factors that may have biased the outcome or interpretation of a set of observations
- it is impossible to prove something, as a single observation can undo a theory
- however it is possible to design experiments to disprove a hypothesis
List three important elements of critical thinking
- scepticism
- objectivity
- open mindedness
How is social constructivism different from post positivism?
Instead of starting with a hypothesis and then trying to falsify it, social constructivists go into situations with no opinion
What is the key principle of social constructivism?
Individuals seek to give meaning to their experiences and the researcher can only fully understand the situation by compiling the diversity of meanings/viewpoints
In their questioning, social constructivists…
- non directive
- objective
- open minded as possible
Rather than starting with a hypothesis, grounded theorists…
They start with no position and then gradually build up a hypothesis, that is inductively based on the multiple view points they have obtained
What does advocacy/participatory research argue?
- post positivism entrenches beliefs and view points of middle aged males
- minorities and other people need a voice
- social constructivism describes situations rather than addressing social inequities or assisting marginalised peoples
- we need to actively address inequities
- knowledge is power and should be used to address societal change
Principles of advocacy/participatory research
- research should be intertwined with politics and have a political agenda
- empowerment, inequality, oppression, domination, suppression
- helps participants become more aware of the injustice of their situation
What are the main three methods of data collection?
- quant
- qual
- mixed
Describe quantitative strategies
- turns observations into numbers
How are numbers useful in quant studies?
- universal language
- simple
- exact, precise
- objective - enable comparisons
What are the three broad categories of quantitative research
- experiments
- correlations
- surveys
Describe experiments
Determine the influence of an intervention on an outcome. Typically by comparing one group that received the intervention with one that did not
Describe correlations
Use population data to determine whether one subgroup differs from another and infer to the contribution of a particular variable to that outcome
Describe surveys
Uses questionnaires or structured interviews to obtain information about a sample population which is then generalised to a larger population
How does research methodology involve compromise?
High precision studies may give up some relevance to the real world, however observational work won’t be as accurate
