NATURE & SCOPE OF RESEARCH

Contents
Aim & Objectives of the Session
Introduction
What is Research?
What is the Scientific nature of research?
What are the philosophical orientation of
research?
What are the Importance of Research?
What is the research process?
What is Philosophy of Research?
What is the process of social and scientific
research?
 Aim & Objectives of the Session
Aim of the Session:
This session aims at examining the concept “
scientific and social research” and its application to
Land Economics
Objectives of the Session
By the end of this session you are expected to be able
to:
Explain the Meaning of Social Research/Scientific
Research and how it can be applied to Land
Economics
Explain Importance of Social and Scientific Research
in Land Economics
Explain Characteristics of Social Research
ExplainPhilosophies of Research
Explain the process of social research
 Introduction
• Social research is the scientific study of
society. More specifically, social research
examines a society’s attitudes, assumptions,
beliefs, trends, stratifications and rules.
• The scope of social research can be small or
large, ranging from the self or a single
individual to spanning an entire race or
country.
• Popular topics of social research include
poverty, racism, class issues, sexuality, voting
behavior, gender constructs, policing and
criminal behavior.
 Introduction Cont.
• Social research determines the relationship
between one or more variables. For example, sex
and income level are variables.
• Social scientists will look for underlying concepts
and cause-and-effect relationships of a social issue.
• Before even beginning research, scientists must
formulate a research question.
• For example, a researcher might ask if there is a
relationship between a person’s profession and his
or her income level.
• Why are there many unemployed graduates in
Uganda?
 What is Research?
Research can be defined as Critical &
Exhaustive investigation or experiment,
that has its aim as discovery of new facts,
there correct interpretation, revision of
accepted conclusions, and theories or
laws in the light of newly discovered
facts.
What is Research?
This definition put emphasis on
investigation or experimentation and
correct interpretation of newly
discovered facts.
This implies that in research
investigation must be thorough and
the result correctly interpreted
 What is Research?
Research is a slow and laborious process
of laying bare, the facts & truths of
nature and which the truths have to be
definite bearing on fundamental
principles involved in solving social
problems.
In this definition, Research is not a
rushed affair; it takes time, it is
painstaking & aim at solving social
problems
 What is Research? Cont.
Research can also be defined as the
manipulation of variables, concepts for the
purpose of generalizing, extending, correcting
or verifying knowledge, whether that
knowledge aids in the construction of theory
or the practice of an art.
Research is a formal, systematic application
of the scientific methods to study of problems.
For example we have educational research
strives to study educational problems so as
find solution to the problems.
 What is Research? Cont.
Research is systematic search for new knowledge.
It is an intellectual endeavor pursued at the
frontier of knowledge for the cardinal objective of
extending such knowledge for the enhancement of
knowledge and the improvement of society in
general.
A good research is systematic, well planned,
organized and has specific goals. It involves
observing, theorizing, experimenting, testing set of
theories and drawing conclusions and reporting
results,
Needs “CRITICAL THINKING”
Why do we do Research?
Deal with problems, attitudes and opinions
Attempt to seek answers to questions.
Draw conclusions from data
Become “research literate.”
Because we live in a society that’s driven by
research.
purpose of research is to reduce the level of
risk of a decision
Aids in forecasting and planning
What is the Scientific nature of Research?
The term “Science” may be thought of
as a field of study, a subject matter or an
approach to gathering of knowledge:
Development of theory
Testing of substantive hypotheses that
are deduced from theory.
In this way science is engage in the use
of modification and or creation of theory.
Cont’d
Improve our critical thinking skills.
 Learn how to critically evaluate
published
research.
 Learn how to conduct research in case
the need arises one day.
To understand human behaviour and
action.
Others class discussion
 Importance of Research
Research is usually used in decision making
(present facts, validate or invalidate
hypotheses),
It help you understand better processes,
causes, effects, etc.
Research helps us to promote certain work,
values, conducts, culture, etc.
Help us to conduct more inquiry on certain
issues.
Research create employment opportunities
Scientific nature of Research? Cont.
The scientific method of inquiry has four
characteristics:
Systematic & Controlled (ordered that
investigators can have some confidence in the
outcomes of inquiry).
It also means that there is possibility of repeating
the research and obtaining identical results.
It also means that other competing explanations
have been minimized through the control
extraneous variables either through the design of
the research or through statistical control during
analysis.
Characteristics of Research
Research is Systematic; it starts with a
question that needs an answer or a
problem to be solved.
Research is Logical; it needs a plan and a
specific procedure to follow.
Research is Empirical; its findings must
be based on or supported by carefully
collected and analyzed data.
Cont’d
Research is Reductive; i.e. main research problem
is broken down into more specific and manageable
sub-problems.
5. Research is Replicable; it can be done again or
repeated.
6. Research is Transmittable; study findings can be
applied in new settings.
7. Research is Cyclical; it does not end with
finding solutions to an identified problem
8. It should be ethical, that is, it should not involve
psychological damage of people to be investigated
 Scientific nature of Research? Cont.
The scientific nature of research holds that the
researcher can gather information with the
least possible subjectivism and bias by:
Cleary defining the research,
Defining the research procedure
Organizing the results in a convenient and
meaningful form
Making reference and general conclusion
Indicating confidence with which the
researcher makes generalization
 Scientific nature of Research? Cont.
The empirical nature of research is the
attainment of the facts, objectivity and
minimizing biasness.
The empirical nature of research require
researchers to gather information with the
least possible subjectivity.
For example when you are studying human
behavior, you are therefore requested to
quantify the finding so as to avoid bias and
subjectivity.
Summary for scientific research
Research is said to be scientific because it
involves the following :
  Searching for new knowledge-something new
 Systematic-it follows procedures
 Empirical-evidence and truth about the
information you have
 Carefully designed-not speculation
  Based on expertise
 Objective –can be interpreted
 What is Philosophy?
The word philosophy is derived
from Greek words philia (love)
and sophia (wisdom) which
together means “the love for
wisdom.”
The word ‘philosophy’ also
refers to serious intellectual
inquiry
Philosophy is the logical
analysis of language and the
clarification of meaning of words
and concepts.
Philosophers usually use
methods of analysis that try to
seek clarification of meaning of
terms and usage of language.
Philosophers are reflective and
critical thinkers.
They usually carefully and
logically examine issues.
presented by common sense to get
deeper meaning out of them.
They attempt to think through a
problems by examining facts
about them impartially.
Philosophy with the systematic
body of principles and
assumptions underlying a
particular field of experience. For
example, there are philosophies
of science, education, art, music,
history, law, mathematics, and
religion.
Historically,philosophical
thinking was classified under
following broad categories:
Logic,
Metaphysics,
Epistemology,
Value
LOGIC
This is an aspect of philosophy which
endeavors to understand the nature of
correct thinking and to discover valid
reasoning.
In reasoning we use premises for or
against a position called the
conclusion or inference derived either
from general premises (deduction) or
from factual evidence (induction).
Logic is the systematic study of the
rules of reasoning.
The rules of reasoning are used to
distinguish good reasoning from bad
ones.
Most of the great philosophers from
Aristotle to the present have been
convinced that logic permeates all
other branches of philosophy.
Research deals with the ability
to test arguments for logical
consistency, understanding the
logical consequences of certain
assumptions, and distinguishing
evidences or facts of studies.
Deduction and induction are
both processes of reasoning that
we need to understand if we are to
avoid error in reasoning (fallacies).
Deduction and induction are
terms used to describe methods by
which we move from evidence to
conclusions based on the evidence.
Deduction is the process by which
we draw a conclusion from one or
more premises.
If our inference is correct and the
conclusion does follow, we say that
the deduction is valid. For example,
if we say, “All men are adulterous”
and “Kanyama is a man,” we may
conclude that “Kanyama is
adulterous.”
Induction reasoning, on the other
hand, is empirical, in that it deals
with matters of fact.
It attempts to draw conclusions
concerning all the members of a
class after examining only some
of them or concerning an
unexamined member of a class.
For example, after examining
some
crows, or even a large number of
them, is it valid for us to
conclude that all have four legs?
May we conclude that the next
crow we see will four legs?
METAPHYSICS
The term metaphysics meant
“first philosophy,” discussion of
the most universal principles;
later the term came to mean
“comprehensive thinking about
the nature of things.”
Metaphysics attempts to offer a
comprehensive view of all that
exists.
It is concerned with problems such
as the relation of the mind to matter,
the nature of change, the meaning of
“freedom,” the existence of God, and
the belief in personal immortality.
EPISTEMOLOGY
This is technical term for the theory
of knowledge. It comes from the
Greek word episteme, which mean
“knowledge.”
This is the branch of philosophy that
studies the sources, nature, and
validity of knowledge. It deals with
the question like “what is the human
mind capable of knowing?
There are three central questions in this
field:
What are the sources of knowledge? Where
does genuine knowledge come from or how
do we know?
What is the nature of knowledge? Is there a
real world outside the mind, and if so can we
know it? This is the question of appearance
versus reality.
Is our knowledge valid? How do we
distinguish truth from error? This is the
question of the tests of truth, of verification
Our conception of reality
depends on our understanding of
what can be known. Conversely,
Our theory of knowledge
depends on our understanding of
ourselves in relation to the whole
of reality.
Traditionally, most of those who have
offered
answers to above questions were placed in
one of two schools of thought—
rationalism or empiricism.
The rationalists hold that human reason
alone can discover the basic principles of
the universe.
The empiricists claim that all knowledge is
ultimately derived from sense experience
and, thus, that our knowledge is limited to
what can be experienced.
From what sources do we gain our
knowledge?
Do we have any genuine knowledge
on which we can depend, or must we
be satisfied with opinions and guesses?
Are we limited to knowing the bare
facts of sense experience, or are we
able to go beyond what the senses
reveal?
VALUE
Value theory is the branch of philosophy
that studies values. It can be subdivided
into ethics, aesthetics, and social and
political philosophy.
In broad terms ethics concerns itself with
the question of morality. What is right and
what is wrong in human relations? Within
morality and ethics there are three major
areas: descriptive ethics, normative ethics,
and metaethics.
Descriptive ethics seeks to identify
moral experience in a descriptive way.
We seek to identify, within
the range of human conduct, the
motives, desires, and intentions as well
as overt acts themselves.
We consider the conduct of individuals,
or personal morality; the conduct of
groups, or social morality; and the
culture patterns of national and racial
groups.
A second level of inquiry is
normative ethics (what ought to
be). Here philosophers try to
work out acceptable judgments
regarding what ought to be in
choice and value. “We ought to
keep our promises” and “you
ought to be honorable”
 Philosophy of Research
Positivism:
Positivists assume that reality is fixed,
directly measurable, and knowable and
that there is just one truth, one external
reality.
For the positivists, the goal of research is
to find a universal truth, a rule or
explanation that is always true so long as
specified conditions hold.
The positivist position is derived from
that of natural science and is
characterized by the testing of hypothesis
developed from existing theory (hence
deductive or theory testing) through
measurement of observable social
realities.
This position presumes the social world
exists objectively and externally, that
knowledge is valid only if it is based on
observations of this external reality and
that universal or general laws exist or
that theoretical models can be developed
that are generalizable, can explain cause
and effect relationships, and which lend
themselves to predicting outcomes.
Positivism is based upon values of
reason, truth and validity and there is a
focus purely on facts, gathered through
direct observation and experience and
measured empirically using quantitative
methods surveys and experiments - and
statistical analysis.
Positivists seek to develop standardized
instruments that they believe precisely tap a
single reality.
They seek to imitate the sciences that have
developed quantitative ways of measuring
physical, biological, or chemical
phenomena in replicable ways
Positivists judge research in terms of its
validity—that is, the extent to which their
research tools actually do measure the
underlying concept that they are supposed
to measure.
Positivists aim to work out theories that
apply to people or societies broadly.
Positivists design their work to test their
informed guesses, which they call
hypotheses, about what the findings will be.
They usually take their hypotheses from
prior studies.
Positivist researchers believe that if they
are sufficiently careful, use standardized
off-the-shelf instruments, and take a neutral
role, they can avoid influencing those
whom they are studying.
Interpretivism/Constructionism:
This philosophers contends that there is a
fundamental difference between the subject
matters of natural and social sciences.
In the social world it is argued that
individuals and groups make sense of
situations based upon their individual
experience, memories and expectations.
Meaning therefore is constructed and (over
time) constantly re-constructed through
experience resulting in many differing
interpretations.
Intepretivists consider that there are
multiple realities. It is these multiple
interpretations that create a social reality
in which people act. Under
This paradigm, therefore, it is seen as
important to discover and understand
these meanings and the contextual
factors that influence, determine and
affect the interpretations reached by
different individuals.
Since ‘all knowledge is relative to the
knower’ interpretivists aim to work
alongside others as they make sense of,
draw meaning from and create their
realities in order to understand their
points of view, and to interpret these
experiences in the context of the
researchers academic experience and
hence is inductive or theory building.
The focus of the researcher is on understanding
the meanings and interpretations of ‘social actors’
and to understand their world from their point of
view, is highly contextual and hence is not widely
generalisable.
Understanding what people are thinking and
feeling, as well as how they communicate,
verbally and non-verbally are considered
important (Easter by-Smith, Thorpe and Jackson,
2008), and given the subjective nature of this
paradigm, and the emphasis on language, it is
associated with qualitative approaches to data
gathering (Eriksson and Kovalainen, 2008).
Realism:
Itholds that real structures exist independent of
human consciousness, but that knowledge is
socially created, with Saunders, Lewis and
Thornhill (2007) contending that our knowledge
of reality is a result of social conditioning.
According to Blaikie (1993), whilst realism is
concerned with what kinds of things there are,
and how these things behave, it accepts that
reality may exist in spite of science or
observation, and so there is validity in
recognising realities that are simply claimed to
exist or act, whether proven or not.
In common with intepretivist positions,
realism recognises that natural and social
sciences are different, and that social
reality is pre-interpreted, however
realists, in line with the positivist
position also hold that science must be
empirically-based, rational and objective
and so it argues that social objects may
be studied ‘scientifically’ as social
objects, not simply through language
and discourse.
Whereas positivists hold that direct causal
relationships exist, that these relationships
apply universally (leading to prediction) and
that the underlying mechanisms can be
understood through observation, realists take
the view that the underlying mechanisms are
simply the powers or tendencies that things
have to act in a certain way, and that other
factors may moderate these tendencies
depending upon circumstances, and hence the
focus is more on understanding and
explanation than prediction.
 What are the types of research?
Basic Research:
This is pure research, fundamental or theory
based research, because of its emphasis on the
use of theory
Basic research deals with questions which are
challenging to the researcher and may not
have empirical or practical application at the
time of research.
In basic research, the applicability of research
result is not a primary concern of the
researcher.
 Types of research? Cont.
Basic research focuses on fundamental
structure and processes of a problem
with the aim of understanding the
structure and process of the problem.
It is based mainly on theory, production
of new knowledge which include
discovery of relationship and having
capacity to predict outcomes under
various conditions.
 Types of research? Cont.
Applied research:
This sometimes referred as action research,
operational research.
The researcher is interested in using the result
of the research
It is useful in policy formulation,
It research is usually conducted for the
purpose of testing theory and evaluating its
usefulness in solving social problem
Types of research? Cont.
Evaluation Research:
This refer to the systematic process of
collecting & analyzing data in order to
make decisions based on identified impact
of an intervention.
It is sometimes called assessment,
accountability or appraisal
Evaluation research aim at improving
certain practice
 Summary
Note: These categorizations are made
depending on the following;
1. The nature of the problem to be
investigation
2. The goal or aims of the research
3. The use of theory
4. The techniques to be used.
Details: Read Amin (2005) pg 16-22.
Approaches to Research
Research can either be quantitative or
qualitative
1. Quantitative research
 A type of research that describes phenomena

in numbers and measures instead of using

words.
 Quantitative research relies on the principle

of verifiability. i.e. knowledge emerges from

what can be proven by direct observation.
Quantitative approaches are applicable
when;
◦ data is expressed in numbers
◦ analyzed data using statistical methods.
◦ Frequencies are sought to explain meanings
◦ Scenario is artificial e.g. in a laboratory
◦ Generalization is needed/ to achieve
representativeness
◦ There is need to control as many variables as
possible
Cont’d
Quantitative research is positivism in approach
Key elements of positivism
An objective truth exits
Truth revealed through use of scientific
method
Quantification
Researcher is independent from what is
researched
Deductive
Quantitative methodology
Qualitative Research
 It is a type of research in which phenomena are
described in words instead of numbers.
 It seeks to describe and analyze behavior from the
point of view of those being studied.
 Its purpose is to promote greater understanding of a
phenomena
 It relies on strategy that is flexible and interactive
 It uses natural setting
 The methods of data collection are; extensive
observations, interviews and focus group
discussions .
Cont’d
Qualitative approaches are applicable when;
◦ The subject matter is unfamiliar
◦ Dealing with hard to reach respondents
◦ The researcher seeks meanings rather than frequencies.
◦ There is need for in-depth analysis
◦ Flexibility is needed to allow discovery of unexpected
information
◦ in a situation were the data to be collected may not be
represented numerically.
◦ rigorous inquiry is needed.
◦ there is scanty literature on the subject
Qualitative research is Interpretive in nature
Elements of Interpretivisim
• Individuals construct own version of reality-no
objective reality
• Aim of research is to understand and interpret
how individuals make sense of that constructed
reality
• Researcher has influence on the context in
which they study
• Inductive
• Qualitative methodologies
Qualitative versus Quantitative

GROUP DISCUSSION AND

PRESENTATION
Question:
With clear examples, compare and contrast
the qualitative and quantitative research
approaches.
 SUMMARY

RESEARCH FORM OF REQUIRES FOCUS ON

STARTEGY RESEARCH CONTROL OVER CONTEMPORARY
QUESTION BEHAVIOUR EVENTS
EVENTS
Experiment How, why Yes yes
Survey Who,what,where,how No Yes
many, how much
Archival analysis Who, what,where,how no Yes/no
many,how much
History How, why No no
Case study How, why No yes
 What is the research Process?
Identification of the research Problem
Review of Literature
Developing research Questions/
Hypotheses
Developing research design
Data collection
Data Analysis, presentation,
interpretation & conclusion
Writing research Report