Chapter 1 – Getting started: Possibilities and decisions
Research = a systematic process of asking and answering questions, in our case about human
communication.
- Posing questions
- Answering questions
- Demonstrating that your answers are valid
- Sharing your research results
Researchers specialize by
Interest area
Research method
Research methods reflect contestable assumptions about human communication
- Observations capture an underlying reality
- Theories about human behaviour can be generalized
- Researchers should distance themselves from research participants
- Research should be done for a specific purpose
Decisions
- Field of study
o Wide or narrow?
- Researcher
o Dispassionate or involved?
- Approach
o Objective or subjective?
Triangulation = researchers use multiple methods providing multiple
perspectives
- Priority
o Your questions or participants’ answers?
- Sample
o Large or small?
- Data
o Qualitative or quantitative?
- Reporting
o Objective or subjective?
Approaches
- Empirical
o Observe, measure from researcher’s perspective
- Interpretive
o Observe, interpret from participants’ perspectives
- Critical
o Ask whose interests are advanced
, Chapter 2 – First decisions
Researchers differ in:
- Basic assumptions about communication
- Views on how theory and research relate
- Reasons for doing research
- Research methods
Starting points for research
What? – Interest area
Why? – goals and reasons for research
How? – method decision
World View – basic assumptions
Work of others – literature
Research questions
Hypotheses
Linking theory and observation
- Induction
o Reasoning from observations to a theory that explains the observations
o What theory can explain this behaviour?
- Deduction
o Reasoning from a theory to observations that will test the theory
o Will the behaviour fit with my theory?
- Abduction
o Reasoning from an observation or effect to possible causes
o This is unusual; can I explain it?
Purposes of doing research
- Exploration broad questions
- Description informative but not explanatory
- Explanation why? More specific questions, possibly hypotheses
- Prediction using theory to relate two or more variables (deduction)
- Control manipulating physical processes (e.g. buying behaviour)
- Interpretation open-ended questions, leading to understanding
- Criticism power in groups, organizations, societies
Method
- Surveys
- Experiments
- Observations
- Interviews
- Focus groups
- Content analysis
Scientific methods combine empiricism (= the question of how we know what we know), rationalism
(= logical reasoning) and positivism (= the idea that phenomena can be explained by rules)
Research = a systematic process of asking and answering questions, in our case about human
communication.
- Posing questions
- Answering questions
- Demonstrating that your answers are valid
- Sharing your research results
Researchers specialize by
Interest area
Research method
Research methods reflect contestable assumptions about human communication
- Observations capture an underlying reality
- Theories about human behaviour can be generalized
- Researchers should distance themselves from research participants
- Research should be done for a specific purpose
Decisions
- Field of study
o Wide or narrow?
- Researcher
o Dispassionate or involved?
- Approach
o Objective or subjective?
Triangulation = researchers use multiple methods providing multiple
perspectives
- Priority
o Your questions or participants’ answers?
- Sample
o Large or small?
- Data
o Qualitative or quantitative?
- Reporting
o Objective or subjective?
Approaches
- Empirical
o Observe, measure from researcher’s perspective
- Interpretive
o Observe, interpret from participants’ perspectives
- Critical
o Ask whose interests are advanced
, Chapter 2 – First decisions
Researchers differ in:
- Basic assumptions about communication
- Views on how theory and research relate
- Reasons for doing research
- Research methods
Starting points for research
What? – Interest area
Why? – goals and reasons for research
How? – method decision
World View – basic assumptions
Work of others – literature
Research questions
Hypotheses
Linking theory and observation
- Induction
o Reasoning from observations to a theory that explains the observations
o What theory can explain this behaviour?
- Deduction
o Reasoning from a theory to observations that will test the theory
o Will the behaviour fit with my theory?
- Abduction
o Reasoning from an observation or effect to possible causes
o This is unusual; can I explain it?
Purposes of doing research
- Exploration broad questions
- Description informative but not explanatory
- Explanation why? More specific questions, possibly hypotheses
- Prediction using theory to relate two or more variables (deduction)
- Control manipulating physical processes (e.g. buying behaviour)
- Interpretation open-ended questions, leading to understanding
- Criticism power in groups, organizations, societies
Method
- Surveys
- Experiments
- Observations
- Interviews
- Focus groups
- Content analysis
Scientific methods combine empiricism (= the question of how we know what we know), rationalism
(= logical reasoning) and positivism (= the idea that phenomena can be explained by rules)
