S W 313 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Antipositivism
Document Summary
Description: trying to describe and understand what is happening. Explanation: taking the description purpose a little farther and asking why something is happening. Explaining and predicting: sometimes people expect that you can predict based on your findings, often times, predicting is not possible. Cross-sectional: snapshot in time, example: a poll. Study same group of people over time. Different paradigms influence how research is conducted. Contemporary positivism: emphasis on objectivity, precision, and generalizability in research. Critical social science: feminist when applied to women. 2/9/17: focus on oppression and uses research methods in a way to empower groups of oppressed people. Theory systematic set of interrelated statements to explain aspects of life or how people conduct and find meaning in their life. Helps to make sense of patterns in diverse observations. Helps to direct inquiry into areas that are more likely to show patters that are useful and explanations. Helps to develop useful implications from findings for practice, policy, and research.
