第四章 研究设计(英文)

Nature of Social Research
• Theoretical Research/ Basic Research • Applied Research
Theoretical Research/ Basic Research
• Basic research advances fundamental knowledge about the social world. It focuses on refuting or supporting theories that explain how the social world operates, what makes things happen, why social relations are a certain way, and why society changes. Basic research is the sources of most new scientific ideas and ways of thinking about the world.
• Example: Identifying variables that explain why some cities have higher crime rates than others involves explanation.
• Although it’s useful to distinguish the three purposes of research, it bears repeating that most studies will have themselves of all three. • At first, you may have exploratory research, and then you may describe and interpret what you’ve observed which are needed in descriptive studies and explanatory studies.
• Rarely do applied researchers build, test, or connect to a larger theory, develop a long-term general understanding, or carry out a largescale investigation that might span years. Applied researchers rely on a quick, small-scale study that provides practical results that people can use in the short term.
• Example: the study on migrant children’s higher education in China 我国农民工高层次教育研究） （我国农民工高层次教育研究） (compared with compulsory education 义务教育】 【义务教育】)
• Exploratory studies are quite valuable in social scientific research. They are essential whenever a researcher is breaking new ground, and they almost always yield new insights into a topic for research. Exploratory studies are also a source of grounded theory【扎根 【 理论】 理论】.
• Example: Reporting the crime rates of different cities is a case of description.
Explanatory research
• Descriptive studies answer questions of what, where, when, and how; explanatory studies answer questions of why.
Exploratory research
• Exploratory studies are most typically done for three purposes: (1) To satisfy the researcher’s curiosity and desire for better understanding; (2) To test the feasibility of undertaking a more extensive study; (3) To develop the methods to be employed in any subsequent study.
• The chief shortcoming of exploratory studies is that they seldom provide satisfactory answers to research questions, though they can hint at the answers and can suggest which research methods could provide definitive answers.
• The reason exploratory studies are seldom definitive in themselves has to do with representativeness【代表性】, 【代表性】 that is, the people you study in your exploratory research may not be typical of the larger population that interests you. (small sample without probability sampling【概率抽样】)
• Example: professional training of the new generation migrant workers（新生 （ 代农民工职业培训） 代农民工职业培训）
• Both basic research and applied research are very valuable. Basic research could provide new ideas to applied research. And applied research could promote basic research through new practice.
Descriptive research
• A major purpose of many social scientific studies is to describe situations and events. The researcher observes and then describes what was observed.
Purpose of Social Research
EXPLORATORY DESCRIPTIVE
Become familiar with the basic facts, setting and concerns. Create a general mental picture of conditions. Formulate and focus questions for future research. Generate new ideas, conjectures or hypotheses. Determine the feasibility of conducting researching. Develop techniques for measuring and locating future data. Provide a detailed, highly accurate picture. Locate new data that contradict paes or classify types. Clarify a sequence of steps or stages. Document a causal process or mechanism. Report on background or context of a situation.
• • • • •
Purpose of Social Research Nature of Social Research Style of Social Research Units of Analysis Time Dimension
Purpose of Social Research
• Exploratory Research • Descriptive Research • Explanatory Research
Chapter 4 Research Design
• Ultimately, scientific inquiry comes down to making observations and interpreting what you’ve observed. Before you can observe and analyze, however, you need a plan. You need to determine what you’re going to observe and analyze, why and how. That’s what research design is all about.
• Example: the theory of social stratification (stratum)社会分层理论 社会分层理论 • People is not equal. They belong to different stratum because of their social characteristics such as wealth, power, and status.