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    Scientific Research

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    Scientific Research

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    8 views23 pages

    Scientific Research

    Uploaded by

    HashifaGemellia

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    of 23

    Scientific Research

    Science and Scientific Knowledge


    Science

    A systematic and organized body of knowledge in any area of inquiry that is acquired using scientific
    method

    The purpose of science is to create scientific knowledge

    Basic/pure science: explain the most basic objects and forces, relationships between them, and laws
    governing them (e.g. physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics)

    Applied/practical science: apply scientific knowledge from basic science in a physical environment
    (e.g. engineering, medicine)
    Science and Scientific Knowledge
    Scientific Knowledge

    A generalized body of laws and theories to explain a phenomenon or behavior of interest that are
    acquired using scientific method

    Physics: Newton’s 3rd Law → what happens when two objects collide

    Psychology: Theory of Planned Behavior → how people make conscious reasoned choices in their lives

    Science
    Scientific knowledge
    Objective of Basic Knowledge

    4 aims of science (Merton 1973):

    1. Universalism → the quest for general laws


    2. Organization → the quest to organize and conceptualize a set of related facts or observations
    3. Scepticism → the norm of questioning and looking for counter explanations
    4. Communalism → the quest to develop a community that shares a set of norms or principles for
    doing science
    5 Errors Research Process Tries to Reduce

    1. Overgeneralization → when we have some believable evidence and assume that it applies to
    many other situations as well (e.g. all people who are blind are friendly)
    2. Selective Observation → when we take special notice of certain people or events and
    generalize from them (e.g. people who are overweight are more outgoing and friendly than
    thin people)
    3. Premature Closure → when we feel we have the answer and no longer need to listen, seek
    information, or raise questions (jumping to conclusions with small evidence)
    4. Halo effect → when we overgeneralize from what we believe to be highly positive or
    prestigious (e.g. pick up a report by someone from Harvard, assumes that the author is smart
    and the report is excellent)
    5. False Consensus → we are not good at distinguishing between what we personally think and
    what we think most other people believe (our views are “normal” or “ordinary” compared to
    others)
    Fundamental Principles that Guide the
    Scientific Enterprise

    ● Seeking conceptual/theoretical understanding


    ● Posing empirically testable and refutable hypothesis
    ● Designing studies that test and can rule out competing counter-hypothesis
    ● Using observational methods linked to theory that enable other scientists to verify their
    accuracy
    ● Recognizing the importance of both independent replication and generalization

    (Shavelson and Towne 2002)


    Product and Process Knowledge

    Knowledge can be classified into:

    ● Product knowledge → object-oriented and focus on a specific product. e.g. technology-related


    knowledge, operations-related knowledge, market-related knowledge
    ● Process knowledge → more collective and focus on a process. e.g. leadership skill, problem-
    solving skill, communication skill, learning skill
    Using Scientific Research to Find Out
    Knowledge

    Goal of scientific research: to discover laws and suggest theories that can explain natural or social
    phenomena, i.e. to build scientific knowledge

    Scientific research process transforms ideas, theories, guesses, questions (hypothesis) into a
    “finished product” with real value: new knowledge. This new knowledge can improve our
    understanding of the world and help solve problems

    Science progresses over time and theories improved through better observations, more accurate
    instruments, and more informed logical reasoning
    Elements to Create Scientific Research

    1. Theory (logic) → provide meaning and significance to what we observe


    2. Observations (evidence) → validate or refine existing theory, construct new theory

    Both are interrelated and cannot exist without each other. Relying on one and ignoring the other for
    making inferences is not acceptable.

    Scientific research operates at two levels

    ● Theoretical level : developing abstract concepts about a natural or social phenomenon


    ● Empirical level : testing the theoretical concepts to see how much they match reality
    Forms of Scientific Research
    ● Inductive research → infer theoretical concepts and patterns from observed data (theory-building)
    ● Deductive research → test concepts and patterns known from theory using new empirical data
    (theory-testing)

    Theory

    Generalize from Test


    induction deduction
    observations hypothesis

    Observations
    TYPES OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH

    EXPLORATORY DESCRIPTIVE EXPLANATORY


    RESEARCH RESEARCH RESEARCH
    ● New Area of Study ● Focus on What, When, ● Focus on How and Why
    ● to scope out the magnitude or Where, and Who Questions
    ● Based on Scientific Method
    extent of a particular problem,
    ● generate initial ideas that
    ● test the feasibility of undertaking
    a more extensive study
    Social Science

    the study of society and the manner in which people behave

    Unit of and influence the world around us.

    Analysis individuals, groups, organizations, countries,


    and such

    shopping behavior -> the individual

    neighborhoods have high crime rates ->


    The unit of analysis refers to
    neighborhood
    the person, collective, or
    object that is the target of the
    criminals engage in illegal activities -> the
    investigation.
    individual
    Scientific method must satisfy four characteristics:

    1. Replicability - → others should be able to


    replicate a scientific study and obtain similar results

    2. Precision - → theoretical concepts must be


    defined with such precision that others can use that definition
    to measure those concepts and test that theory

    Basic Requirements in 3. Falsifiability - → a theory must be stated in a way


    Scientific Research that it can be disproven

    4. Parsimony - → when there are multiple


    explanations of a phenomenon, scientists must accept the
    simplest or logically most economical explanation
    Levels of sources

    1. Primary
    ○ Unpublished or industrial sources
    2. Secondary
    ○ Public domain or textbooks
    3. Tertiary
    ○ Gateways to secondary sources
    ○ Example: Encyclopedias, citation indexes
    The Importance of Literature Review

    Any research study will always require a review of relevant literature.

    ● A review of existing literature can justify your own research, comparatively showing why your
    own research is valuable or that it has a unique novelty
    ● Literature reviews will demonstrate your expertise on the subject
    ● Academic writing is similar to an ongoing conversation, your current research can be
    considered a reply to the results or statement of a previous study
    Critical Analysis of Literature

    1. Identify significance, relevance and importance


    2. Evaluate both the strengths and weaknesses
    3. Identify the relative significance of details
    4. Argue (if required) against evidence, data or methodology
    5. Analyze the relationship between components
    Concepts, Constructs and Variables

    ● Concepts → defining an abstract property or characteristic

    ● Constructs → abstract concept(s) that are chosen or created for the purpose of explaining a

    phenomenon.

    ○ Example: a person’s communication skill (phenomenon) can be explained by their vocabulary (concept

    1) and grammatical syntax (concept 2)

    ● Variables → an empirically measurable construct on the empirical plane.


    Types of variables
    ● Independent variable → the variable that influences the dependent variable
    ● Mediating variable → the variable that partially explains for both independent and and the
    dependent variable
    ● Moderating variable → influences the relationship between the dependent and independent
    variable
    ● Dependent variable → the variable that is strictly influenced by the other variables

    Moderating

    Independent Dependent

    Mediating
    Hypothesis and Theories

    ● Theory → A set of systematically interrelated constructs to explain an isolated phenomenon


    ○ A theory is not the same as speculation, a good theory should be backed by observable facts
    ○ A strong theory should also specify both directionality and causality
    ■ Example: Daily exercise has a positive impact on life expectancy
    ● Model → a representation of a system that is constructed to study either a part of or the
    whole system
    Model Building

    1. Identify observable facts regarding the system being represented


    2. What theories and conclusions can be drawn regarding those observations?
    3. Develop premises and possible assumptions
    4. Analyse the relationship between variables
    5. Run tests for the outcomes
    6. Check for robustness of model
    7. Finalize model
    Data Collection Techniques

    Quantitative

    1. Experiment
    2. Survey
    3. Nonreactive (existing statistics)

    Qualitative

    1. Field study
    2. Historical-comparative
    Citation styles

    ● APA 7th edition


    ● APA 6th edition
    ● MLA 8th edition
    ● Chicago/Turabian
    Example of citations (APA 7th)
    A book Sapolsky, R. M. (2017). Behave: The biology of humans at our best and worst.
    Penguin Books.

    A chapter Dillard, J. P. (2020). Currents in the study of persuasion. In M. B. Oliver, A. A. Raney,


    & J. Bryant (Eds.), Media effects: Advances in theory and research (4th ed., pp. 115–
    129). Routledge.

    An article in a journal Weinstein, J. (2009). “The market in Plato’s Republic.” Classical Philology, 104(4),
    439-458.

    An article in an online journal Grady, J. S., Her, M., Moreno, G., Perez, C., & Yelinek, J. (2019). Emotions in
    storybooks: A comparison of storybooks that represent ethnic and racial groups in the
    United States. Psychology of Popular Media Culture, 8(3), 207–217.
    https://doi.org/10.1037/ppm0000185

    A website Bologna, C. (2019, October 31). Why some people with anxiety love watching
    horror movies. HuffPost. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/anxiety-love-watching-
    horror-movies_l_5d277587e4b02a5a5d57b59e

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