Social Research Methods. A Complete Guide

SOCIAL RESEARCH METHODS

A COMPLETE GUIDE

ISBN: 978-9966-1822-1-0

OTHER BOOKS BY MUTEA RUKWARU

(In order of years of publication)

Happy though married. (2003)

The Tie that Binds. (2005)

Successful Time Management, the Challenge for the Modern Manager. (2006)

What Happy Couples Know. (2006 a)

Fundamentals of Social Research. (2007)

Milestones of Life. (2007 a)

How to be a Better Counsellor. (2007 b)

Anatomy of Crime. (2008)

Winning Family. (2008 a)

Financial Success Every Family’s Dream. (2008 b)

Education at Cross roads. (2009)

Training at its Best. (2010)

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Copyright Mutea Rukwaru 2015

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

OTHER BOOKS BY MUTEA RUKWARU

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DEDICATION

AMAZING WORLD

INTRODUCTION

Aims and Goals of social research

Importance of studying research methods.

Need for social research in contemporary society

Motivations for conducting social research.

CHAPTER ONE

TYPES OF RESEARCH

Focus groups discussions

CHAPTER TWO

ETHICS IN RESEARCH AND ITS IMPORTANCE

Importance of ethics in research

Code of ethics expounded

CHAPTER THREE

BASIC TERMS IN RESEARCH

Types of hypotheses

Functions of Hypotheses

Characteristic of a good hypothesis.

Summary

Research problem

Purpose Statement

Types of validity

Threats to internal validity

Threats to external validity

Types of variables

Research design

Level of analysis

CHAPTER FOUR

LITERATURE REVIEW

Importance of literature review in research

Critical Analysis of Literature

Theoretical Framework

Purpose of the conceptual model

CHAPTER FIVE

RESEARCH METHODS, METHODOLOGY AND DESIGN

Design Versions Method

Classification of Research Design, Techniques and Instrument of Data Collection

Research Process

Historical background of qualitative research

Applications of content analysis

Qualitative content analysis

Theoretical Foundations of projective techniques

QUANTITATIVE TECHNIQUES

WEB SURVEYS

INTERVIEWS

Logistics of Interviewing

Interview steps

Situation analysis

Personal characteristics of a Moderator

CHAPTER SIX

DATA ANALYSIS AND PRESENTATION

Coding of data

Analyzing qualitative data

Analysis process

Report

REFERENCES

DEDICATION

I dedicate this book to Professor Katama Mkangi (God rest his soul)

AMAZING WORLD

"Wonders, wonders, great wonder,

Great thinkers, Great minds,

Gaze with misty eyes,

Mirage life seems to be,

To both natural and social world,

Academicians with their,

Academic laurels and clothed,

With academic regalia,

Frontier of knowledge beyond,

a puzzle remains to be solved.

Critics laughing at the visions of

Bold thinkers and remarkable

Visionaries, yet these hold a

Light to the unknown"

Rukwaru (January 2015)

INTRODUCTION

What is research?

The word research is composed of two syllables, re and search. Re is a prefix meaning again, a new or over again. Search is a verb meaning to examine closely and carefully, to test and try or to probe. Together they form a noun describing a careful systematic study and investigation in some field.

Research is a way of examining critically the various aspects of a phenomenon. It is a systematic examination of the observed information to find answers. Research can also be defined as a process of collecting, analyzing and interpreting information to answer questions. Research can also be seen as a structured enquiry that utilizes acceptable scientific methodology to solve problems and create new knowledge that is generally applicable. In a nutshell research can be defined as the search for knowledge or as any systematic investigation to establish facts or simply a search for knowledge, that is looking for information and specifically it is a scientific and systematic search for pertinent information on a specific topic.

All in all definition of research can be summarised this wise:

Redman and Mary (1923) defines research as a systematized effort to gain new knowledge.

Busha (1978) defines it as a systematic quest for knowledge.

According to Kerlinger (1973) research is a systematic controlled, empirical and critical investigation of hypothetical propositions about the presumed relations among research phenomena.

It simply means search for facts.

Search for knowledge.

Answer to questions.

Solution to problems.

Aims and Goals of social research

Aims of social research

Explore social reality for its own sake in order to make further research possible.

To explain social life by providing reliable, valid and well documented information.

To evaluate the status of social issues and their effects on society.

To understand human behaviour and action which keep on changing.

To offer a basis for a critique of social reality which will include the aim of emancipating people, suggesting possible solutions to social problems and empowering and liberating people.

That the information and knowledge gathered after research is further used to achieve more specific goals of social interest.

Goals of social research

Broadly speaking, science is interested in answering questions and acquiring knowledge concerning the observable universe. Many researchers agree that the goals of scientific research are description, prediction and explanation/understanding.

Understanding the social world for its own sake (heuristic).

Pragmatic goals – meaning that the information and knowledge will provide solution to social problems.

Description – refers to the procedures used to define, classify and categorize subjects and their relationships. Descriptions allows us to establish generalizations and universals. By gathering information on a large group of people, for instance a researcher can describe the average member or the average performance of a member of the specific group being studied. In science, descriptions are systematic and precise. Researchers are interested in describing observations that are relevant to the study. They have no interest in describing observations that are irrelevant to the investigation.

Prediction – In addition to developing descriptions, researchers make predictions. Descriptions of events often provide a basis for prediction. Predictions are sometimes made in the form of hypothesis, which are tentative, testable predictions concerning the relationships between or among variables. Hypotheses are frequently derived from theories or interrelated sets of concepts that explains a body of data and make predictions correlation coefficients. Correlation coefficients state the degree of relationship between variables in terms of both strength and direction of the relationship. In other words, correlation coefficients determine how well measures co-vary

Explanation – The most important goal of scientific research is explanation. Explanation is achieved when the cause or causes of the phenomenon are identified. In order to determine cause and effect three pre-requisites are essential: Covariation of events, that is the variables must correlate, there should be proper time-order sequence, that is time precedence. For 1 to cause 2, 1 must precede 2. The cause must precede the effect and there should be elimination of plausible alternative causes. The relationship should not be spurious, that is other plausible causes should be eliminated.

Political goals – Creation of social policy-evaluation of programmes, practices, social change, reconstruction, empowering and liberation.

Theoretical goals – verification, modification or discovery of social theories.

Knowledge gaps – to fill the gaps in the world of knowledge.

Importance of studying research methods.

To many students, there does not seem a great deal of studying research methods. They might take the view that if they have to conduct an investigation, why not adopt a need to know approach? In other words, why not just look into how to do your research when you are on the verge of carrying out your investigation? Apart from the fact that this is an extremely risky approach to take, it neglects the opportunities that a training in research methods offers. Training in social research methods is very important because of the following;

A training in research methods sensitizes you to the choices that are available to researchers. In other words, it makes you aware of the range of research methods that can be employed to collect data and the variety of approaches to the analysis of data. Such an awareness will help you to make the most appropriate choices for your project, thesis or dissertation, since you need to be aware of when it is appropriate or inappropriate to employ particular techniques of data collection and analysis.

A training in research methods provides you with an awareness of the dos and don’ts when employing a particular approach to collecting or analysing data. Thus, once you have made your choice of research method for instance a questionnaire, you need to be aware of the practices you need to follow in order to implement that method properly. You also need to be aware of the many pitfalls to be avoided.

A training in research methods provides you with insights into the overall research process. It provides a general vantage point for understanding how research is done. As such, it illuminates the various stages of research, so that you can plan your research and think about such issues as how your research methods will connect with your research questions.

A training in research methods provides you with an awareness of what constitutes good and poor research. It therefore provides a platform for developing a critical awareness of the limits and limitations of research that you read. This can be helpful in providing a critical appraisal of research.

The skills that a training in research methods imparts are transferable ones. Knowing about how to sample, how to design a questionnaire, how to conduct semi- structured interviewing or focus groups and so on are skills that are relevant to research in many other spheres.

Need for social research in contemporary society

Research is very critical in any society. The following are some of the reasons and needs for research:

Analyze interrelationships between variables and to derive causal explanations.

Find solutions to problems.

Develop new tools, concepts and theories.

Aid in planning and contributes to national development.

Extension of knowledge.

Bringing to light information that might never be discovered during the ordinary course of life.

Establish generalization and general laws which contributes to theory building.

Verify and attest the existing facts and theories.

Initiate and formulate strategies and policies.

Promotes progress of the society.

Assist in evaluating options.

Assist in predicting outcomes.

Internationally research has an impact on society. Research can help provide information needed to make informed decisions in the public and private sectors. Research can uncover circumstances worthy of criticism, and can help clarify alternative choices of action and their potential consequences. It can also provide correctives, for example by shedding light on the situation of the vulnerable groups. Research into our own and other cultures can help us explore values and standards that characterise today’s way of thinking and can disclose underlying power structures. Research on cultural heritage can help substantiate, disprove and review values, standards and institutions that we trust and want to pass on to posterity.

Motivations for conducting social research.

Research as an undertaking is driven by inner forces (motivations) and below are some of them:

Policy motivations – many government agencies, elected officials and private organizations seek better descriptions of social ties in the modern world in order to identify unmet needs in communities, deficits in organizations, or marketing opportunities.

Public officials may need information for planning and zoning restrictions in residential neighbourhoods. Information will be useful to a wide variety of policy makers and service providers.

Academic motivations – Questions about changing social relations have stimulated academic social science. The desire to understand better how the social world works is motivation enough for many social scientists. It is the time to move from speculation to evidence.

Personal motivation – Some social scientists who conduct research on social ties feel that by doing so they can help improve the quality of life in the communities, the effectiveness of organizations and the physical or mental health of many social groups.

Other personal motivations are:

Desire to get a research degree along with its consequential benefits.

Desire to get intellectual joy of doing some creative work.

Desire to be of service to society.

Desire to get respectability.

Curiosity about new things.

Desire to understand causal relationships.

Social thinking and awakening.

CHAPTER ONE

TYPES OF RESEARCH

Research can be classified based on the intent and this may lead to the following:

Fundamental, pure, basic or theoretical.

Applied research.

Descriptive research.

Evaluative research.

Research can also be classified based on the methods involved and this may lead to the following:

Experimental research.

Analytical research.

Historical research.

Survey research.

Research can also be classified based on the environment.

Field research

Laboratory research

Fundamental Research

Fundamental research is also known as pure or basic or theoretical research and is undertaken solely for the sake of knowledge without any intent to apply it in practice. It is undertaken out of intellectual curiosity or inquisitiveness and aims at extension of knowledge, either leading to discovery of a new theory or refinement of an existing theory.

Applied Research

Applied research is also called action research. Applied research aims at finding a solution for an immediate and real life problem facing a society, an industry or business organization. The aim is to find a solution to a pressing practical problem or problems. Marketing research or evaluation research are examples of applied research.

Descriptive research

Descriptive research includes surveys and fact finding enquiries of different kinds. The major purpose of descriptive research is describing the state of affairs as they exist at present.

Conceptual research

Conceptual research is that related to some abstract ideas or theory. It is generally used by philosophers and thinkers to develop new concepts or to reinterpret existing ones.

Participatory research

In participatory research, the actors in the research situation are not merely objects of an outsider’s study but are actively influencing the process of knowledge generation. An example of participatory research is the Participating Poverty Assessment (PPA). PPA is a participatory research method whose aim is to gain insight into the poor people’s living experience – their understanding of wealth, poverty and well being. Participatory poverty assessment uses the following methods:

Focus groups discussions

In which members discuss their perception of poverty, vulnerability and explore the most effective actions for communities, individuals or families, government agencies and other institutions for poverty eradication. Examples of focus groups discussions are:

Trend analysis – In which the community is involved in discussing and recording changes over time in welfare indicators, terms of trade etc.

Mapping – Where the community are involved in drawing maps on poverty, vulnerability and powerlessness (social mapping) on community based support mechanisms for the poor (institutional mapping)

Comparative seasonal calendars – where seasonal stresses are studied. Food security are studied by comparing good years, bad years with average years.

Livelihood analysis – Where assets of poor households are analyzed.

In – depth Interviews – If you want to know how people feel and what their fears are why not ask them (G.W. Allport)

Panel studies

In panel studies, data is collected from the same sample respondents either by mail or by personal interview. This is used for longitudinal studies. There are two types of panels. The panel may be static or dynamic. A static or continuous panel is one in which the membership remains the same throughout the life of the panel, except for members who drop out. The main drawbacks of the static panel are: due to dropouts. It ceases to be representative of the original universe after a time and secondly the size of the panel may become too small for satisfactory results.

In dynamic panel the replacement for those who dropout are identified to keep panel representative of the current population. A dynamic panel may also be a rotating one, in which members are systematically replaced at specific time intervals. The main problem connected with its use is the cost and difficulty of recruiting new members to replace the dropouts.

Exploratory or formulative research

It is a preliminary study on an unfamiliar problem about which the researcher has little or no knowledge. It is similar to a doctor’s initial investigation of a patient suffering from an unfamiliar malady for getting some cue for identifying it. It usually takes the form of a pilot study. Example of an exploratory research is why do Kenyan ethnic groups who have co-existed in