SOC 2390 Lecture Notes - Operational Definition, Falsifiability
29 Jan 2013
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Document Summary
Science refers to the application of systematic methods of observation to obtain knowledge and the knowledge obtained by those methods. Science possesses the following four elements: objective procedures, precise measurement, full disclosure and replication, empirically falsifiable propositions. Non-scientific ways of knowing: authority, media myths, tradition, common sense, personal experience, faith. The research process: selecting a topic, defining the problem, reviewing the literature, formulating a hypothesis, choosing a research method, collecting the data, analyzing the data, reporting the results. Research questions (or propositions): statements that inter-relate two or more variables. Hypothesis: a testable formulation of a research question. Theory: a set of logically inter-related propositions that explain some process or set of phenomenon in a testable fashion. Validity: the extent to which an operational definition measures what it was intended to measure. Reliability: the extent to which research produces consistent results: it is possible to have reliability without validity, but not validity without reliability.
