My notes: Understanding Research Methods

Research Methods

Research methods are the systematic tools used to find, collect, analyse and interpret information

A. Key Concepts in Research

The primary ideas and techniques of research

1. Causation

A somewhat contested notion, causation refers to a mode of explanation in the social sciences which examines
the relationships between cause and effect in a set of variables. A relationship between independent and
dependent variables is deemed to be causal when, having ruled out other spurious factors, the variables
consistently covary in a time – ordered way.

Related Terms
 Experimental Design
 Hypothesis
 Positivism
 Critical Realism
 Correlation
 Induction
 Abduction
 Deduction
 Path Analysis

2. Classification

Broadly speaking an activity by which items of data are allocated in an exhaustive and mutually exclusive way to
a place within a wider systematically – organised schema.

Related Terms
 Bayes’ Theorem
 Census Data
3. Paradigms

A discipline’s general orientation or way of seeing its subject matter.

Transformative Paradigm – considers reality and knowledge from the perspective of marginalized groups.

4. Reflexivity

A term with many meanings but broadly speaking the notion of reflexivity refers to the researcher’s engaging in
processes of self-awareness and self-criticism as an intrinsic feature of the research process.

Narrower Terms
 Contemplative Inquiry
An introspective method that values first person perspectives and alternative ways of knowing.

 Introspection
In social science research the process of systematically recording and analysing one’s own
psychological and emotional reactions to people, objects and events in relation to a particular
situations or practices.

 Mindfulness
Refers to a state of mind where one intentionally turns one’s awareness onto the internal and
external experiences of the present moment.

Related Terms
 Participant Observation
 Visual Research
 Critical Theory
 Data Archives
 Validity

5. Reliability

The extent to which an instrument for measuring something gives consistent results.

Narrower Terms
 Cronbach’s alpha
A measure of the internal reliability or consistency of the items in an instrument or index.

 External reliability
Also known as test-retest reliability. The extent to which the results produced by a measuring
instrument are stable from one use to another.

 Intercoder reliability
The extent to which for a given coding scheme two or more codes independently agree on the coding
of some content.
  Internal reliability
Internal reliability can be thought of as the degree of consistency in the responces to a set or subset
of items on a particular measure.

 Split-half reliability
A method for checking the reliability of a measure by seeing how far the scores on half of the items
correlate with the scores on the other half.

Related Terms
 Correlation
 Measurement Error
 Validity
 Mean Scores
 Measurement
 Factor Analysis
 Confirmatory Factor Analysis

6. Replication

In research, replication is the re-analysis of a study. Replication is only possible when all information about data
gathering and data analysis is available.

7. Research Bias

A constant, systematic form or source of error in research arising either from the researcher’s conscious or
unconscious predilections or from features of the context within which the research is produced that tend to
predetermine research findings.

Narrower Terms
 Hawthorne Effect
A tendency for subjects of research to change their behavior simply because they are being studied.

 Investigator bias
A term used to refer to situations in which researchers convey to research participants in subtle or
unconscious ways the results or patterns the researcher would prefer to see.

 Sample bias
Sampling bias occurs when some elements in a population are over – or underrepresented in a
sample.

 Social desirability bias

The tendency to respond to questions in a socially acceptable manner.

Related Terms
 Empiricism
 Sampling
 Positivism
  Phenomenology
 Interpretivism

8. Teaching research methods

The act of demonstrating and explaining the research process with an emphasis on the tools and techniques
available to conduct research studies.

9. Validity

B. Philosophy of Research

C. Research Ethics

D. Planning Research

E. Research Design

F. Data Collection
G. Data Quality and Data management

H. Qualitative data analysis

I. Quantitative Data Analysis

J. Communicating and disseminating research

K. Research Development