SSCI 2920U Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Participatory Action Research, Labeling Theory, Impression Management
Document Summary
When conducting research, the way we ask questions determines what kinds of answers (and subsequently, data) we will get. We depend on research participants to answer our questions and provide insight into why they have particular opinions or act in certain ways. Quantitative and qualitative researchers ask different types of questions based on different assumptions about the nature of reality. Quantitative approaches were first developed for the social sciences by auguste. Comte (1798 1857), who argued that researchers should adapt quantitative methods of science for use in the social sciences. They were developed in accordance with positivism. A realist perspective assumes that reality is out there, waiting to be discovered (one objective reality) All interactions involve objective cause and effect. Hard, information in the form of number/statistics. Positivist researchers often rely on statistical methods. To uncover general laws of human behavior via nomothetic explanations. Identify a few causal factors that influence a class of conditions or events.
