...Qualitative and Quantitative Research Introduction Researchers in social sciences conduct research to gain knowledge of society and its inhabitants and how they interact with each other. A researcher may see an area where a factory has closed with mass redundancies, or they wish to enquire why ethnic minorities are stopped and searched more often by the police. The researcher is seeking to broaden our knowledge or fill in gaps in our knowledge and explain the phenomena (Bryman, 2008). To conduct the research a question must be framed that needs answering, and a methodology for the research chosen. There are two methodologies that are used in social science research, quantitative and qualitative methodologies. The quantitative methodology is influenced by the positivist tradition, which seeks a single truth that can be discovered by scientific investigation (Gilbert, 2005). The second methodology is qualitative, which is influenced by the interpretivist position. This position holds that truth is not so easy to find and reality is subjective and cannot be found through scientific methods (Benton & Craib,2001). This essay will look at both methodologies and try to discover if the research method is influenced by the type of information one wishes to collect, or if a methodology has no bearing on social reality. It will also examine a research question chosen by the author and their preferred research methodology. Quantitive Research Quantitative research follow the positivist...
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...Introduction In this essay, it will firstly introduce a well-known paper in my research area, named The Balanced Scorecard-Measures That Drive Performance, then the underlying assumptions and paradigm of this research will be discussed and identified. After that, some criticize will be raised from the view of other paradigms, the difference of underlying assumptions will be explained in the end. Paper of Balanced Scorecard In 1992, Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton published the paper named The Balanced Scorecard - Measures That Drive Performance, this paper is based on a year-long research project with 12 companies at the leading edge of performance measurement. It changed the traditional performance measurement (which only concerns the financial performance of the company) by introducing four aspects of performance : financial perspective; customer perspective; internal process perspective and learning and innovation perspective. The paper argues that managers could have a better understanding and control of their companies by answering the basic questions related to these perspectives. For example: How do customers see us(customer perspective); What must we excel at(internal perspective); Can we continue to improve and create value(innoviation and learning perspective); How do we look to shareholders(financial perspective). The paper also demonstrated some examples of how to build the balanced scorecard for the company and developed the performance measurement system...
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...RESEARCH DESIGN Qualitative, Quantitative. and Mixed Methods Approaches SECOND EDITION John W. Creswell University of Nebraska, Lincoln SAGE Publications International Educational and Professional Publisher Thousand Oaks London New Delhi ~ 6 7 6 3Copyright O 2003 by Sage Publications, Inc. -3 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Cover image copyright O Sheldan CollinsICorbis; used by permission. For information: Sage Publications, Inc. 2455 Teller Road Thousand Oaks, California 91320 E-mail: order@sagepub.com Sage Publications Ltd. 6 Bonhill Street London EC2A 4PU United Kingdom Sage Publications India Pvt. Ltd. M-32 Market Greater Kailash I New Delhi 110 048 India Printed in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Creswell, John W. Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed method approaches I by John W. Creswel1.- 2nd ed. p. cm Includes bibliographical references and indexes. ISBN 0-7619-2441-8 (c) - ISBN 0-7619-2442-6 (pbk.) 1. Social sciences-Research-Methodology. 2. Social sciences-Statistical methods. I. Title. H62 .C6963 2002 30W.7'2-dc21 Acquiring Editor: Editorial Assistant: Production Editor: Copy Editor: Typesetter: Cover Designer: ...
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...Major Perspectives in Psychology Psychology is a discipline that asks and answers the fundamental question, why do we behave the way we do and think the way we think?. The best way to characterize the different approaches that are taken to answer the question of psychology is to identify them as major perspectives. The major perspectives represent fundamental assumptions that underlie the research questions and methods that are used in order to answer the questions of psychology. Most all perspectives define psychology as the discipline interested in studying human behavior and mental processes, but that covers a lot of ground and the causes of behavior and mental processes are not always clear. This outline will attempt to catalogue the major perspectives and give the reader a sense of the underlying assumptions, the philosophical foundations, the research methods, and the outcomes or practices that result from the efforts of researchers and practitioners. Let's just begin with a list of the perspectives and a short description. 1. Psychodynamic Perspective: Probably the approach that has been most popularly associated with the discipline of psychology for the past century is the psychodynamic, psychoanalytic perspective. Sigmund Freud, who was medically trained in neurology, developed a theory of personality that made the assumption that human motivation was propelled by conflicts between instinctual, mostly unconscious, psychological forces. He called...
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...PhD Thesis 1998 Social, environmental and ethical factors in engineering design theory: a post-positivist approach Terence Love Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering University of Western Australia Social, environmental and ethical factors in engineering design theory: a post-positivist approach Terence Love B.A. (Hons) Engineering This thesis is presented for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy of The University of Western Australia. Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering 1998 Abstract This research investigated how social, environmental and ethical factors can be better included in theories of engineering design. The research focused on designing as an essentially human activity via consideration of the epistemological and ontological issues involved in constructing coherent design theory. The research investigations led to a clearer understanding of the roles of ontology, epistemology and methodology in design research and this clarification enabled the construction of a post-positivist approach to engineering design theory that better includes social, environmental and ethical factors alongside the existing products of scientific engineering design research. Other contributions to knowledge that emerged from the research process and which underpin the conclusions include; clarification of the terminology and basic...
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...Sociology is and should be a science Karl Popper- If academic subjects want to be called a science they must undergo falsification. This means sociology would have to come up with a hypothesis; such as suicide is caused by insufficient integration and regulation. He rejects Marxism as a pseudo-science because its concepts are too abstract to be seen or measured (false class consciousness) Destructive method- Theory has loads of challenges to the hypothesis. Inductive method- Finds loads of evidence to prove self. Research process- If it should be a science it must adopt body of metholgical principles common in natural sciences: Empiricism- Must be able to prove or disprove theories with direct experience. Religion can never be proved so isn’t science. Objectivity- Conclusions should be based on available evidence and not opinions or beliefs of researcher. Controlled Experimentation- Systematic and controlled experiments where any other influence isn’t involved. Cumulative progression- Science is a march of progress, where new discoveries improve previous knowledge. Sociologists can adopt research methods that are faithful to the natural sciences, quantitative data used to reveal patterns of human behaviour, and then conclusions can be made which gives laws. Durkheim- believes sociology is the study of social acts that are external to the individuals, didn’t directly observe the social cause of suicide but did observe its effects. Not science: Interperatives Weber- Sociology...
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...1 Feminist Theory and Survey Research “The idea that there is only ‘one road’ to the feminist revolution, and only one type of ‘truly feminist’ research, is as limiting and as offensive as male-biased accounts of research that have gone before.” ~Liz Stanley and Sue Wise, 1983, p. 26. Introduction Over the past three decades, feminist methodologists have hammered home one point with surprising regularity: Feminist research takes a variety of legitimate forms; there is no “distinctive feminist method of research” (Harding, 1987; see also Chafetz, 2004a, 2004b; Fonow & Cook, 2005; Hawkesworth, 2006; Hesse-Biber, 2007; Risman, Sprague, & Howard, 1993; and Sprague, 2005). And yet, to this day, the relationship between feminist theory and quantitative social science research remains uneasy. Among feminist scholars, quantitative research is often seen as suspect for its association with positivism and its pretense of objectivity (among other things). At the same time, among quantitative researchers, feminist-identified work is often dismissed as “biased,” “activist,” or “substantively marginal.” While a number of scholars have recently published works outlining a “feminist” approach to social science research, these books have generally steered clear of quantitative survey research. Some authors of feminist 1 2— Feminist Measures in Survey Research methods texts limit their discussion of feminist survey research to a small section (e.g., Hesse-Biber, 2007; Reinharz, 1992;...
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...identify them as major perspectives. The major perspectives represent fundamental assumptions that underlie the research questions and methods that are used in order to answer the questions of psychology. Most all perspectives define psychology as the discipline interested in studying human behavior and mental processes, but that covers a lot of ground and the causes of behavior and mental processes are not always clear. This outline will attempt to catalogue the major perspectives and give the reader a sense of the underlying assumptions, the philosophical foundations, the research methods, and the outcomes or practices that result from the efforts of researchers and practitioners. Let's just begin with a list of the perspectives and a short description. 1. Psychodynamic Perspective: Probably the approach that has been most popularly associated with the discipline of psychology for the past century is the psychodynamic, psychoanalytic perspective. Sigmund Freud, who was medically trained in neurology, developed a theory of personality that made the assumption that human motivation was propelled by conflicts between instinctual, mostly unconscious, psychological forces. He called these intrapsychic elements the id, ego and superego. (You know the drill) This psychodynamic theory caught on like wild fire and due to its explanatory power for human behavior, became very popular over the following century. Freud's therapeutic method, called psychoanalysis,...
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...materials, evaluating them critically, organizing them into an organic whole and explaining the significance and relevance of the organized data in a narrative format. There are distinctions between the method and methodology as method is common to all sciences, independent, underived and definite, whereas methodology is not as it is a view or perspective to look through. Historical method is useful for theoretical and practical purpose as it provide useful and important information towards the solutions of the problem that makes possible to study the development of a particular idea, concept, philosophy or theory. 1.2.2. Methods of Inquiry The historical research has been heavily influenced by the social science research methods of...
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...Introduction to Social Research Name Institution Date Introduction The module, introduction to social research is crucial as it introduces a student to the process of understanding what is entailed in social research. The module is grouped into ten lectures, and eight of them are concerned with introducing a student to theoretical and practical issues involved in conducting an empirical social research. The remaining two lectures are concerned with the workshops that help a student to understand the discourse of academic writing and reading. This paper seeks to highlight the basic information of each lecture a student should expect while undertaking this module. Additionally, this paper will note some key points from each seminar and try to define some concepts pertained therefof. Lecture 1 This lecture is aimed at helping a student to understand the significance of social research and why it matters. A learner will understand that a research method is a technical subject that encompasses its own language and this language ought to be utilized in precise way. In this course, the precise meaning of technical terms ought to be learned and then applied carefully, more so in undertaking examinations. A student of social science, a learner will be familiar with the idea of sociology as multi-paradigm discipline. Debates and controversies aside, the main divide in social research has been about the philosophical basis of sociological research and the right...
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...PhD Thesis 1998 Social, environmental and ethical factors in engineering design theory: a post-positivist approach Terence Love Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering University of Western Australia Social, environmental and ethical factors in engineering design theory: a post-positivist approach Terence Love B.A. (Hons) Engineering This thesis is presented for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy of The University of Western Australia. Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering 1998 Abstract This research investigated how social, environmental and ethical factors can be better included in theories of engineering design. The research focused on designing as an essentially human activity via consideration of the epistemological and ontological issues involved in constructing coherent design theory. The research investigations led to a clearer understanding of the roles of ontology, epistemology and methodology in design research and this clarification enabled the construction of a post-positivist approach to engineering design theory that better includes social, environmental and ethical factors alongside the existing products of scientific engineering design research. Other contributions to knowledge that emerged from the research process and which underpin the conclusions include; clarification of the terminology and basic...
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...New perspectives on Web search engine research Dirk Lewandowski Hamburg University of Applied Sciences, Germany This is a preprint of a book chapter to be published in Lewandowski, Dirk (ed.): Web Search Engine Research. Bingley: Emerald Group Publishing, 2012 http://books.emeraldinsight.com/display.asp?K=9781780526362 Abstract Purpose – The purpose of this chapter is to give an overview of the context of Web search and search engine-‐related research, as well as to introduce the reader to the sections and chapters of the book. Methodology/approach – We review literature dealing with various aspects of search engines, with special emphasis on emerging areas of Web searching, search engine evaluation going beyond traditional methods, and new perspectives on Web searching. Findings – The approaches to studying Web search engines are manifold. Given the importance of Web search engines for knowledge acquisition, research...
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...CAUTHE 2007 Conference Tourism: Past Achievements, Future Challenges HOSPITALITY: A SOCIAL LENS: CHALLENGING THE EXISTING ORDER Paul Lynch University of Strathclyde, United Kingdom paul.lynch@strath.ac.uk Alison Morrison University of Strathclyde, United Kingdom ABSTRACT This paper locates developments in hospitality research, notably relating to hospitality studies, in the context of Kuhn’s (1962) evolution of scientific theory. The paper highlights the development of the ‘hospitality lens’ by Lashley, Lynch and Morrison (2007) and suggests it can facilitate the study of hospitality in any social situation from a strengthened social scientific perspective. It is argued that the study of hospitality should be not just for understanding hospitality but also society itself. Such an approach is suggested as both logical and healthy for the subject development with adoption of more critical perspectives on hospitality. The considerable implications of adopting a ‘new’ hospitality research agenda are described with reference to the conceptualization of hospitality, the nature of research and the research community, subject implications including journal publication outlets, and the higher education context. Keywords: Hospitality lens; ‘new’ hospitality; subject development. INTRODUCTION This paper moves beyond any pre-occupation with the vocational roots of hospitality higher education debate as it is considered that that debate has had its day. Rather, the content is framed within...
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...Social Science & Medicine 66 (2008) 2520e2531 www.elsevier.com/locate/socscimed Biomedical scientists’ perception of the social sciences in health research* Mathieu Albert a,*, Suzanne Laberge b, Brian D. Hodges a, Glenn Regehr a, Lorelei Lingard a a b University of Toronto Toronto, Ontario, Canada Universite de Montreal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada ´ ´ ´ Available online 11 March 2008 Abstract The growing interest in interdisciplinary research within the Canadian health sciences sector has been manifested by initiatives aimed at increasing the involvement of the social sciences in this sector. Drawing on Bourdieu’s concept of field and Knorr-Cetina’s concept of epistemic culture, this study explores the extent to which it is possible for the social sciences to integrate into, and thrive in, a field in which the experimental paradigm occupies a hegemonic position. Thirty-one semi-structured interviews were conducted to explore biomedical scientists’ receptiveness toward the social sciences in general and to qualitative research in particular. We found that these respondents exhibited a predominantly negative posture toward the social sciences; however, we also found considerable variation in their judgments and explanations. Eight biomedical scientists tended to be receptive to the social sciences, 7 ambivalent, and 16 unreceptive. The main rationale expressed by receptive respondents is that the legitimacy of a method depends on its capacity to adequately...
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...Wollongong Research Online Faculty of Business - Accounting & Finance Working Papers 2006 Faculty of Business The Critique of Accounting Theory M. Gaffikin University of Wollongong, gaffikin@uow.edu.au Publication Details This working paper was originally published as Gaffikin, M, The Critique of Accounting Theory, Accounting & Finance Working Paper 06/25, School of Accounting & Finance, University of Wollongong, 2006. Research Online is the open access institutional repository for the University of Wollongong. For further information contact the UOW Library: research-pubs@uow.edu.au 06/25 University of Wollongong School of Accounting & Finance The Critique of Accounting Theory Working Papers Series Michael Gaffikin School of Accounting & Finance University of Wollongong Wollongong NSW 2522 Australia Tel +61 (2) 4221 3718 Fax +61 (2) 4221 4297 eMail george@uow.edu.au www.uow.edu.au/commerce/accy/ The Critique of Accounting Theory Michael Gaffikin* School of Accounting and Finance, University of Wollongong, NSW 2522 In previous papers (Gaffikin 2005a, 2005b, 2005c, 2006) the discussion has examined accounting as a science, with attempts to employ a scientific methodology; as a purely technical expression of economic theory, heavily dominated by research in finance; and as part of “law”, albeit law (regulation) heavily influenced by dominant economic and political ideology. That discussion revealed that all these perspectives have suffered...
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