Social Science Research Methods
Research Question -
A question about one or more topics or concepts that can be answered through
research.
Unit of Analysis -
A unit about which information is collected.
Authorities -
Socially defined sources of knowledge.
Personal Inquiry -
Inquiry that employs the senses' evidence.
Scientific Method -
A way of conducting empirical research following rules that specify objectivity,
logic, and communication among a community of knowledge seekers and the connection
between research and theory.
Positivist View of Science -
A view that human knowledge must be based on what can be perceived.
Post-Positivist View of Science -
A view that knowledge is not based on irrefutable observable grounds, that is always
somewhat speculative, but that science can provide relatively solid grounds for that
speculation.
Objectivity -
The ability to see the world as it really is.
Intersubjectivity -
Agreements about reality that result from comparing the observations of more than
one observer.
Theory -
An explanation about how and why something is as it is.
Basic Research -
Research designed to add to our fundamental understanding and knowledge of the
social world regardless of practical or immediate implications.
Applied Research -
Research intended to be useful in the immediate future and to suggest action or
increase effectiveness in some area.
Exploratory Research -
1 | P a g e
