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Lesson 2: Doing Social Science

Research

Prepared by: Mieca Aguinaldo

Common sense and Science

How the differ from each other?

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Common sense Science

● “Everyone knows are true” ● the state of knowing : knowledge as

● Prone to overgeneralization distinguished from ignorance or
● Considered to be the bed-rock of science misunderstanding
● “Should I bring a gift?” “Duh, yes of course,
use your common sense”.

Research

n. the systematic investigation into and

study of materials and sources in order to
establish facts and reach new conclusions.

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Social Science
● Its focus is upon human behaviour (Henn, Weinstein, Foard 2005).
● Understanding how the social world works (Bryman 2007).

How to do a social science research?

1. Select a topic
2. Defining the problem
3. Review the literature
4. Formulate a hypothesis

Variable - I.V. - education (cause to change/cause)

- D.V. - income (changeable/effect)

Hypothesis - a statement of what you expect to find according to predictions that are based on a
theory

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5. Choosing a research method

6. Collect your data

7. Analyzing the result

8. Sharing the results

Why we research?

❏ Social science can contribute greatly to the elimination of

prejudices against certain groups of people such as racism,
sexism, and cultural ethnocentrism.
❏ Enable people to become open minded & welcoming of other
beliefs & practices no matter how foreign or alien.
❏ Helps predict future events that would allow people to mitigate
dangers, risk, and casualties
❏ Helps people to better understand other people’s way of life.

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More functions of research:

❏ “Educators, government officials, business managers, human service providers, and health care
professionals regularly use social research” (Bryman 2007).
❏ “People use social research to raise children, reduce crime, improve public health, sell products,
or just understand one’s life” (Bryman 2007).
❏ “..to extend our knowledge about some aspect of social life that we are interested in…or in
developing new insights” (Henn et al. 2005).

Two basic design in the

Social Science

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Quantitative Method Qualitative Method

❖ “Research involving the collection of data ❖ “Research that investigates aspects of

in numerical form for quantitative”
(Garwood 2006)
Numerical data: durations, scores, counts of
incidents, ratings or score
❖ Survey
❖ Quantitative data cannot capture the
richness of data in terms of meaning &
exceptionality of certain cases.
social life which are not amenable to
quantitative measurement”...”qualitative
research uses a range of methods to focus
on the meanings & interpretation of social
phenomena & social process in the
particular contexts in which they occur”
(Sumner 2006).

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Qualitative Method
❖ Aims to understand processes, experiences and meanings people assign to things.
❖ Interviews, participant observation, focused group discussion, textual & discourse analysis, oral
history, biographies, and other forms of humanistic techniques
❖ Its primary purpose is to understand the meanings attached by the actors to what they are doing.
❖ Most subject of qualitative research is how people construct their understanding of the social
world & how they make sense everyday life.

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