Foundations of Research Methods - pages 4-29

8 important questions on Foundations of Research Methods - pages 4-29

One of the most important early steps in a research project is the conducting of the literature review. What is the literature review?

The literature review is a systematic compilation and written summary of all of the literature published in scientific journals that is related to a research topic of interest. A literature review is typically included in the introduction of a research write-up.

The language of research
- Inferences and probabilities

A word that describes much contemporary social research is probabilistic, or based on probabilities. The inferences made in social research have probabilities associated with them; they are seldom if ever intended as covering laws that pertain to all cases with certainty.

The language of research
- Causal relationship

A cause effect relationship. For example, when you evaluate whether your treatment or program causes an outcome to occur, you are examining a causal relationship.
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The attributes of a variable should be both exhaustive and mutually exclusive

Exhaustive meaning that they should include all possible answerable responses.
Mutually exclusive: the property of a variable that ensures that the respondent is not able to assign two attributes simultaneously. For example, gender is a variable with mutually exclusive options if it is impossible for the respondents to simultaneously claim to be both male and female.

A distinction is often made between two broad methods of reasoning known as the deductive and inductive approaches

  • Deductive reasoning works from the more general to the more spcific.
  • Inductive reasoning works the other way, moving from specific observations to broader generalizations and theories.

What is the ' hourglass' structure of research?

·Begin with a broad question
·Narrow down focus in operationalization
·Observe and analyze data
·Reach conclusions
·Generalize back to question

A component of a research study is the research question

The research question is the central issue being addressed in the study, typically phrased in the language of theory.

What is a hypothesis?

A hypothesis is a specific statement of prediction. It describes in concrete (rather than theoretical) terms what you expect to happen in your study.

The question on the page originate from the summary of the following study material:

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