Understanding Social Science Research: Research Methods

Summary

This video distinguishes between qualitative and quantitative social science research methods. Qualitative research, which is inductive and focuses on understanding people's experiences in depth, often involves small sample sizes and data collection through interviews, observations, and focus groups. Quantitative research, on the other hand, is deductive, aiming to test hypotheses with large sample sizes and using statistical methods for analysis. Tools like NVivo for qualitative and R for quantitative analysis are recommended for researchers.

Takeaways

• 🔍 Social science research involves gathering, analyzing, and interpreting information about human behavior across disciplines like education, anthropology, psychology, and economics.
• 📊 Research methods in social sciences are primarily divided into qualitative and quantitative approaches.
• 🌟 Qualitative research is inductive, focusing on understanding the meaning of people's experiences within specific cultures or settings, often with smaller sample sizes.
• 🔢 Quantitative research is deductive, starting with a hypothesis that is tested through data analysis, typically involving larger sample sizes for more generalizable results.
• 🎯 Qualitative data is descriptive, sourced from interviews, observations, and focus groups, and often requires the researcher to identify patterns manually.
• 📈 Quantitative data is numerical and analyzed using statistical methods, with findings presented in statistical reports.
• 💻 Tools like NVivo support qualitative researchers in organizing and analyzing textual data.
• 📊 For quantitative research, software such as Excel, Stata, SPSS, and R are used for data management and statistical analysis, with R being recommended for its free availability and programming capabilities.
• 🔧 Mixed methods research combines both qualitative and quantitative approaches to provide a more comprehensive understanding of the research topic.
• 📝 Qualitative research reports are often narrative, while quantitative research reports are presented in a more statistical format.

Q & A

What is social science research?

Social science research is the activity of gathering, analyzing, and interpreting information related to human behavior across various disciplines such as education, anthropology, psychology, and economics.

How are social science research methods classified?

Social science research methods are classified into two main categories: qualitative and quantitative.

What is the focus of qualitative research?

Qualitative research focuses on exploring the meaning of people's experiences in particular cultures or settings, emphasizing in-depth information on relatively few individuals or within a limited setting.

What is the methodological approach of qualitative research?

The methodological approach of qualitative research is inductive, starting with particular cases and arriving at a general conclusion.

How does quantitative research differ from qualitative research?

Quantitative research focuses on specific behaviors that can be quantified and uses a deductive method, starting with a hypothesis that is then tested through data analysis.

What is the typical sample size in quantitative research?

Quantitative research often includes very large samples to achieve more accurate results.

Can you provide an example of a mixed methods study in social science?

A mixed methods study combines both qualitative and quantitative research approaches to study issues related to human behavior.

What types of data does qualitative research typically collect?

Qualitative research collects descriptive data from interviews, observations, and focus groups, often taking the form of long written notes.

How does the data collection method change in qualitative research?

In qualitative research, the method may change during the same research as different kinds of data may be decided to be collected based on the evolving understanding of the research.

What is a popular tool for supporting qualitative data analysis?

NVivo is a popular computer software that allows researchers to store, organize, and categorize qualitative data.

How is data analyzed in quantitative research?

Data in quantitative research is analyzed using statistical methods, with findings usually presented in a statistical report.

What are some software tools recommended for quantitative data analysis?

Excel is great for data management and simple analysis, but for more complex analysis, specific statistical software like Stata, SPSS, and R are recommended, with R being a free option that allows saving data analysis programs.

Outlines

00:00

🔍 Introduction to Social Science Research

This paragraph introduces the concept of social science research, which involves the study of human behavior through various disciplines such as education, anthropology, psychology, and economics. It explains that there are two main categories of research methods: qualitative and quantitative. Qualitative research is inductive, focusing on understanding the meaning of people's experiences in specific cultural or environmental contexts, often with small sample sizes. It involves collecting in-depth information and may use data collection methods like interviews, observations, and focus groups. On the other hand, quantitative research is deductive, starting with a hypothesis that is tested through analysis of data, often requiring large samples for more accurate results. The paragraph also mentions that some studies use mixed methods, combining both qualitative and quantitative approaches.

Keywords

💡Social science research

Social science research refers to the systematic study of human society and social relationships. It is the activity of gathering, analyzing, and interpreting information related to human behavior. In the context of the video, this term sets the stage for discussing the two main types of research methodologies within the social sciences, which are qualitative and quantitative.

💡Qualitative research

Qualitative research is an approach that focuses on understanding the deeper meanings of people's experiences within specific cultural or social settings. It is characterized by its inductive method, starting with particular cases and moving towards general conclusions. The video emphasizes that qualitative research collects in-depth information from a small number of individuals or settings, often using interviews, observations, and focus groups to generate descriptive data.

💡Quantitative research

Quantitative research, on the other hand, is concerned with measurable behaviors and relies on statistical methods to analyze numerical data. It follows a deductive method, starting with a hypothesis derived from theory and testing it through data analysis. The video notes that this type of research often involves large samples to achieve more accurate results.

💡Inductive method

The inductive method is a research approach where the researcher starts with specific observations and then derives general principles or theories. In the video, it is mentioned that qualitative researchers use this method to explore the meaning of people's experiences without starting with a clear theory, allowing for a general conclusion to emerge from the data.

💡Deductive method

The deductive method is a research approach where a researcher starts with a general theory or hypothesis and then tests it through specific observations or experiments. The video explains that quantitative research uses this method, developing hypotheses that are then either confirmed or refuted through data analysis.

💡Hypothesis

A hypothesis is a proposed explanation for a phenomenon, which can be tested through research. In the context of the video, it is mentioned that quantitative researchers develop hypotheses based on theory, which are then tested through the analysis of data to see if they hold true.

💡Data analysis

Data analysis is the process of examining, cleaning, transforming, and modeling data to extract useful information, draw conclusions, or support decision-making. The video discusses how qualitative data is analyzed by looking for patterns and themes in descriptive data, while quantitative data is analyzed using statistical methods.

💡NVivo

NVivo is a qualitative data analysis software that helps researchers organize, store, and categorize their data. The video mentions NVivo as a tool that can support qualitative researchers in managing their descriptive data and identifying patterns or topics within it.

💡Statistical methods

Statistical methods are mathematical techniques used to analyze numerical data and draw inferences from it. The video explains that quantitative research relies on these methods to analyze data, with findings often presented in a statistical report.

💡R (programming language)

R is a programming language and environment commonly used for statistical computing and graphics. The video recommends R for its free availability and its capabilities for data analysis, suggesting that it is an essential tool for researchers, especially for more complex statistical analyses.

💡Mixed methods

Mixed methods research is an approach that combines both qualitative and quantitative research methods. The video briefly mentions that some studies use mixed methods to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the research problem by leveraging the strengths of both approaches.

Highlights

Social science research involves gathering, analyzing, and interpreting information related to human behavior.

Disciplines within social sciences include education, anthropology, psychology, and economics.

Social science research methods are classified into qualitative and quantitative categories.

Qualitative research focuses on the meaning of people's experiences in specific cultures or settings.

Qualitative research uses an inductive method, starting with particular cases to arrive at general conclusions.

Qualitative researchers collect in-depth information on relatively few individuals or within limited settings.

Quantitative research focuses on specific, quantifiable behaviors based on theory and hypotheses.

Quantitative research uses a deductive method, starting with a general idea and confirming or refuting it with data analysis.

Quantitative research often includes large samples for more accurate results.

Mixed methods research combines both qualitative and quantitative approaches.

Data in qualitative research is descriptive, coming from interviews, observations, and focus groups.

Qualitative research methods may change during the research, and data collection can be flexible.

Qualitative data is often presented in narrative form, with tools like NVivo aiding in analysis.

Quantitative data is expressed in numerical form and analyzed using statistical methods.

Statistical software like Excel, Stata, SPSS, and R are used for managing and analyzing quantitative data.

R is recommended for statistical analysis due to its free availability and capability to save analysis programs.

The next video will continue the discussion on social science research methods.

Transcripts

In this short video, I'm going to describe the main difference between two

broad types of social science research. Social science research is the activity

of gathering analyzing and interpreting information related to human behavior.

There are several disciplines that are part of social sciences such as

education, anthropology, psychology and also economics. There are a variety of

methods to study issues related to human behavior. These methods can be classified

into two main categories--qualitative and quantitative. Qualitative research

explores the meaning of people's experiences in particular cultures or

settings so it focuses on how people behave in their natural environment.

These researchers don't start with a clear theory from particular cases. They

arrive to a general conclusion so we can say that its method is inductive.

Qualitative researchers emphasize collecting in-depth information on

relatively few individuals or within a limited setting so for these samples tend

to be small. Quantitative research tends to focus on specific behaviors that can

be quantified. Based on theory, researchers develop an hypotheses

which then is accepted or refuted through the analysis of the data so we

can say that the method is deductive because it starts from a general idea

and then it is confirmed or not. To be able to get more accurate results,

quantitative research frequently includes very large samples. Some studies

also use mixed methods combining both types

of research. In qualitative research, data is descriptive and comes from interviews

of resources, focus groups and/or observations. In qualitative

research, method may change during the same research and different kind of data

may be decided to be collected. The data usually takes the form of long written

notes. In this case, the same researcher needs to organize the data and look for

patterns and identify specific things or topics. Reports from qualitative research

are usually narrative although it is not essential. There are some tools that can

support researchers in the analysis of these kind of data for example. NVivo

is a popular computer software that allows you to store organize and

categorize your data in quantitative research. Data are measurable and are

expressed in numerical form. To analyze this data statistical methods are used.

The findings from this type of research are usually presented in a statistical

report to compute these calculations. There are different softwares that can

facilitate this process Excel for example is great for data management and

also to run some simple analysis but it is better to learn to use a specific

statistical software as soon as you can since it will be essential for more

complex analysis. There are a number of easy-to-use statistical software such as

Stata SPSS and R. We recommend you use R since it is free and allows you to

save data analysis programs. In our next video,