Research Process in Social Science Research

Research Process in
SOCIAL SCIENCE RESEARCH
R.VASANTHAGOPAL PhD
University of Kerala

26 April 2020 R.Vasanthagopal PhD 2
Research
 Research-
 organized set of activities
 to find practical solution
 for a realistic problem
 supported by data

Research Process
 The research process
 ongoing planning
 searching
 discovery
 reflection
 synthesis
 revision and
 Learning
Cont’d

Research Process
Formulating the
Hypotheses
Asking the research
Question
Examine a social relationship,
study the relevant literature
Collecting DataEvaluating the
Hypotheses
Analyzing Data
Develop
a
research
design
Contribute
new evidence
to literature
and begin
again
THEORY

Research Question, Hypothesis and
Specific Aim
 A Research Question is a statement that identifies the phenomenon to be
studied
Eg: Are the researchers who utilize an online grant writing tutorial get higher priority
scores on their next grant application than those who do not?
 A well-thought-out and focused research question leads directly into your
hypothesis
Eg: Those researchers who utilize an online grant writing tutorial will have higher
priority scores on their next grant application than those who do not.
 If you have good hypotheses, they will lead into your specific aims
 Specific aims are the steps you are going to take to test your hypotheses
Eg: Conduct a rigorous empirical evaluation of the online grant writing tutorial,
comparing outcome and process measures from two groups—those with exposure to
the tutorial and those without cont’d

Research Question, Hypothesis and
Specific Aim

The Role of Theory in Research
 Theory is a model or framework for observation and understanding
 Theory is a generalised statement that asserts a connection between two or
more types of phenomena – any generalised explanatory principle.
 Theory is a system of interconnected abstractions or ideas that condenses
and organises knowledge about the world.
 Theory explains and predicts the relationship between variables.

The Role of Theory in Research
REEARCH QUESTION
What am I going to study?
EVIDENCE
What data do I need to
answer my question?
EMPIRICAL EVIDENCES
Who has done research in this
area before
METHODS
How am I going to generate
and analyse this data?
Problem / concept definition
Findings / conclusions
Areas for further research
THEORY
What existing ideas are there
about my research problem?
Frameworks for understanding
/ explaining patterns and
relationships
Problem / concept definitions
Data generated and relevance
to research question
Methods / techniques used
Problems experienced

Relationship between Theory and Research
 Theory -
 provides basic concepts and directs us to the important questions.
 suggests ways for us to make sense of research data.
 enables us to connect a single study to the immense base of knowledge
to which other researchers contribute.
 helps a researcher see the forest instead of just a single tree.
 increases a researcher’s awareness of interconnections and of the broader
significance of data.

The Role of Hypothesis in Research
 A proposition is a statement about observable phenomena (concepts) that
may be judged as true or false.
 When a proposition is formulated for empirical testing, we call it a hypothesis.
 Hypotheses are tentative answers to research questions
 The hypothesis that the experimental treatment has no effect is called the
null hypothesis (Denoted as Ho); The one that has effect is called the
alternate hypothesis (Denoted as H1)
 It guides the direction of the study.
 It identifies facts that are relevant and those that are not.
 It suggests which form of research design is likely to be most appropriate.
 It provides a framework for organizing the conclusions that result

Research Design
 The blueprint/roadmap that will guide the research.
 The test for the quality of a study’s research design is the study’s conclusion
validity.
 Internal-Whether the research findings accurately reflect the research
variables.
 External Validity – Generalizability of the findings to the
intended/appropriate population/setting
cont’d

Research Design
• Experimental Designs:
– True Experimental Studies
– Pre-experimental Studies
– Quasi-Experimental Studies
• Non-Experimental Designs:
– Expost Facto/Correlational/differential Studies
• The design of choice in social sciences since the phenomenon under study is usually
not reproducible in a laboratory setting
• Researcher has little or no control over study’s indep., dep. and the numerous
potential confounding variables
• Generally, higher external validity, lower internal validity
cont’d

Research Design
 How do you achieve internal and external validity?
 By effectively controlling 3 types of variances:
 Variance of the INDEPENDENT & DEPENDENT variables (Systematic
Variance)
 Variability of potential NUISANCE/EXTRANEOUS/ CONFOUNDING variables
(Confounding Variance)
 Variance attributable to ERROR IN MEASUREMENT-instrument/response
error (Error Variance)
cont’d

Research Design
 Guiding principle for effective control of variances (or effective research
design) is:
 The MAXMINCON Principle
– MAXimize Systematic Variance
– MINimize Error Variance (Conduct validity and reliability tests)
– CONtrol Variance of Nuisance/Extraneous/ Exogenous/Confounding
variables
cont’d

Research Design
 Effective research Design-
 Adequate (full range of) variability in values of research variables,
 Precise and accurate measurement,
 Identifying and controlling the effects of confounding variables, and
 Appropriate subject selection

Data and Data Collection
 Fundamentally--2 types of data
 Quantitative – Numbers, tests, counting, measuring
 Qualitative – Words, images, observations, conversations, photographs
 Data Collection Techniques
 Observations
 Tests
 Surveys
 Document analysis(the research literature)

Analysis of Data
 Descriptive statistics
Used to describe what's going on in our data
Central Tendency(Mean, Median,Mode)
Dispersion (Range, Standard Deviation)
 Inferential statistics
Used to make inferences from our data to more general conditions
t-test, ANOVA, MANOVA, ANACOVA, Regression analysis, Correlation, etc

Evaluating the Hypotheses
 State hypotheses
 H0: Reading to young children will decrease or not change IQ scores.
 H1: Reading to young children will increase IQ scores.
 Set criterion for rejecting H0
 a = .05, level of significance (zCV = +1.645)
 critical value for area = .05
 Compute statistics(p value)
 Interpret Results
 Is p value in the critical region?
 yes
 reject H0, accept H1
 These data suggest that reading to young children does increase IQ.

Research Process in Social Science Research

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Research Process in Social Science Research