COMM 2301 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Human Behavior, Content Analysis
6 Jul 2017
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Document Summary
Social science: uses ideas from the physical sciences to study human interaction. Comm is an ex of a social science discipline. Researchers must make their work available to the larger scientific community so it can be assessed and critiqued. A scientist"s personal beliefs should not influence his or her work. Science can only study phenomena that can be observed and measured. Science can"t address questions involving moral, philosophical, or historical issues. Scientists must follow established rules and procedures when they conduct their work. Scientists study the work of previous researchers so they can build on it. Scientists design their studies so their results can be applied in other situations. Personal and cultural beliefs can influence perceptions and interpretations of data. This method minimizes the influence of researcher bias. Enables researchers, collectively and over time, to construct a reliable, consistent, and non-arbitrary representation of the world. Hypotheses (h) and research questions (rq) are derived from theories, existing literature, or extensive observation.
