STA630 SCIENTIFIC METHOD OF RESEARCH & ITS SPECIAL FEATURES

 STA630 Research Method

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SCIENTIFIC METHOD OF RESEARCH & ITS SPECIAL FEATURES

 

Research produces knowledge which could be used for the solution of problems as well as for the generation of universal theories, principles and laws. But all knowledge is not science. The critical factor that separates scientific knowledge from other ways of acquiring knowledge is that it uses scientific approach.

Sciences involve the study of people – their beliefs, behavior, interactions, attitudes, institutions, and so forth. They are sometimes called soft sciences.

Science is a way to produce knowledge, which is based on truth and attempts to be universal. In other words science is a method, a procedure to produce knowledge i.e. discovering universalities/principles, laws, and theories through the process of observation and re-observation.

By repeating the observation, the researchers want to be definite and positive about their findings. Those who want to be definite and positive are often referred to as positivists. The researchers do not leave their findings into scattered bits and pieces.

Rather the results are organized, systematized, and made part of the existing body of knowledge; and this is how the knowledge grows. All this procedure for the creation of knowledge is called a scientific method, whereby the consequent knowledge may be referred to as scientific knowledge

Important Characteristics of Scientific Method

1. Empirical

Scientific method is concerned with the realities that are observable through “sensory experiences.” It generates knowledge which is verifiable by experience or observation.

Some of the realities could be directly observed, like the number of students present in the class and how many of them are male and how many female. The same students have attitudes, values, motivations, aspirations, and commitments. These are also realities which cannot be observed directly, but the researchers have designed ways to observe these indirectly. Any reality that cannot be put to “sensory experience” directly or indirectly (existence of heaven, the Day of Judgment, life hereafter, God‟s rewards for good deeds) does not fall within the domain of scientific method.

2. Verifiable

Observations made through scientific method are to be verified again by using the senses to confirm or refute the previous findings. Such confirmations may have to be made by the same researcher or others. We will place more faith and credence in those findings and conclusions if similar findings emerge on the basis of data collected by other researchers using the same methods. To the extent that it does happen (i.e. the results are replicated or repeated) we will gain confidence in the scientific nature of our research. Replicability, in this way, is an important characteristic of scientific method.

Hence revelations and intuitions are out of the domain of scientific method.

3. Cumulative

Prior to the start of any study the researchers try to scan through the literature and see that their study is not a repetition in ignorance. Instead of reinventing the wheel the researchers take stock of the existing body of knowledge and try to build on it. Also the researchers do not leave their research findings into scattered bits and pieces. Facts and figures are to be provided with language and thereby inferences drawn. The results are to be organized and systematized. Nevertheless, we don‟t want to leave our studies as stand alone. A linkage between the present and the previous body of knowledge has to be established, and that is how the knowledge accumulates. Every new crop of babies does not have to start from a scratch; the existing body of knowledge provides a huge foundation on which the researchers build on and hence the knowledge keeps on growing.

4. Deterministic

Science is based on the assumption that all events have antecedent causes that are subject to identification and logical understanding. For the scientist, nothing “just happens” – it happens for a reason. The scientific researchers try to explain the emerging phenomenon by identifying its causes.

5. Ethical and Ideological Neutrality

The conclusions drawn through interpretation of the results of data analysis should be objective; that is, they should be based on the facts of the findings derived from actual data, and not on our own subjective or emotional values.

Researchers are human beings, having individual ideologies, religious affiliations, cultural differences which can influence the research findings. Any interference of their personal likings and dis-likings in their research can contaminate the purity of the data, which ultimately can affect the predictions made by the researcher. Therefore, one of the important characteristics of scientific method is to follow the principle of objectivity, uphold neutrality, and present the results in an unbiased manner.

6. Statistical Generalization

Generalizability refers to the scope of the research findings in one organizational setting to other settings. Obviously, the wider the range of applicability of the solutions generated by research, the more useful the research is to users.

For wider generalizability, the research sampling design has to be logically developed and a number of other details in the data collection methods need to be exactly followed. Here the use of statistics is very helpful. Statistics is device for comparing what is observed and what is logically expected. The use of statistics becomes helpful in making generalizations, which is one of the goals of scientific method.

7. Rationalism

Science is fundamentally a rational activity, and the scientific explanation must make sense. Religion may rest on revelations, custom, or traditions, gambling on faith, but science must rest on logical reason.

There are two distinct logical systems important to the scientific quest, referred to as deductive logic and inductive logic. Beveridge describes them as follows:

In induction one starts from observed data and develops a generalization which explains the relationships between the objects observed.

In deductive reasoning one starts from some general law and applies it to a particular instance.

Deductive logic is the familiar syllogism: “All men are mortal; Mahmood is man; therefore Mahmood is mortal.” A researcher might then follow up this deductive exercise with an empirical test of Mahmood‟s mortality.

Using inductive logic, the researcher might begin by noting that Mahmood is mortal and observing a number of other mortals as well. He might then note that all the observed mortals were men, thereby arriving at the tentative conclusion that all men are mortal.

In practice, scientific research involves both inductive and deductive reasoning as the scientist shifts endlessly back and forth between theory and empirical observations.

There could be some other aspects of scientific method (e.g. self-correcting) but what is important is that all features are interrelated. Scientists may not adhere to all these characteristics. For example,

objectivity is often violated especially in the study of human behavior, particularly when human beings are studied by the human beings. Personal biases of the researchers do contaminate the findings.

Looking at the important features of scientific method one might say that there are two power bases of scientific knowledge:

(1) Empiricism i.e. sensory experiences or observation,

(2) Rationalism i.e. the logical explanations for regularity and then consequential argumentation for making generalizations (theory).