The meaning of methodology

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The meaning of methodology

• How do researchers conduct research

2

• Where is science in social science?
• Research methodology makes social science
  scientific
• Social researches choose from alternative
  approaches to science
• Each approach has its own set of philosophical
  assumptions and principles and its own stance on
  how to do research
• It is rarely declared yet play an important role

3

• Until 1800s philosophers and religious scholars
  engaged in armchair speculation about human
  behaviour.
• They contended that rigorous, systematic
  observation of the social world combine with
  careful, logical thinking will provide new and
  valuable knowledge about human relation.
• In modern times science is accepted way to gain
  knowledge
• So some social researchers accepted the natural
  sciences approach.

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• However, there are certain difficulties
  scientific method is a loose set of abstract,
  vague principle and provide little guidanceso
  much so to do scientific research one has to use
  several methods human being is different from
  object of study in natural science (rock, plants,
  chemical etc.), human has awareness, motives and
  reasons.
• Thus researchers used techniques deviated from
  philosophers ideal model of good science.

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• These approaches begun in 1960s
• They are ideal types and simplified model of more
  complex arguments.
• In practice, few agree with all parts of
  approaches, often they mix elements from each,
  yet it represent fundamental differences in
  outlook about social science research.
• The approaches are different ways of looking at
  the worldways to observe, measure, and
  understand social reality.

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• The three approaches positivism, interpretive
  social science, and critical social science.
• Positivism is the oldest and commonly / widely
  use whilst critical social science and less seen
  in scholarly journal because it criticizes the
  other approaches and tries to move beyond them.

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• assumption and ideas of the approaches were
  organised such as below to simplify the
  discussion.
• Why should one conduct social scientific
  research?
• What is the fundamental nature of social reality?
• What is the basic nature of human beings?
• What is the relationship between science and
  common sense?

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• 5. What constitutes an explanation or theory of
  social reality?
• 6. How does one determine whether an explanation
  is true or false?
• 7. What does good evidence or factual information
  look like?
• 8. Where do sociopolitical values enter into
  science?

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Positivism

• Many varieties that go by names logical
  empiricism, accepted/conventional view,
  postpositivism, naturalism, behaviourism.
• Begin by 19th century by ComteFrenchmen who
  founded sociology and later modified by John
  Stuart Mill.
• Positivist researcher prefer quantitative data,
  often use experiments, surveys, and statistics.

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• They seek rigorous, exact measures and test
  hypothesis
• Used by administrators, criminologist, market
  researchers, policy analysts and planners.
• Critics reduce people to numbers and that its
  concern with abstract laws or formulas are not
  relevant to the actual life of real people.
• Positivism says science must conform. Social
  science as an organised method for combining
  deductive logic with precise empirical
  observation of individual behaviour in order to
  discover and confirm a set of probabilistic
  causal laws that can be used to predict general
  paterns of human activity.

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• Positivist on reason for research to discover
  and document universal laws of human behaviour
  and learn about how the world works so that
  people can control or predict eventsknowledge
  can be used as a tool to satisfy human wants and
  to control the physical and social environment.
• Eg. Positivist use theory of how we learn to
  identify key factors of an educational system
  (class size, student body habits, teacher
  education etc) that predict increased student
  learning.

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• Positivist conduct study to verify causal law
  then builds knowledge that used by the official
  to change school environment that will improve
  student learning.
• Engaged in never-ending quest for knowledgethe
  more you learn, new complexities are discovered
  and there still more to learn.
• Early version of positivism maintain that human
  can never know everything because only God
  possesses such knowledge. However, human have a
  duty to discover as much as they can.

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• Positivism on nature of social realityessentialis
  t viewreality is real it exist out there and
  waiting to be discovered.
• Human perception and intellect may be flawed but
  reality exist and it is not random it is
  patterned and has order (not chaotic). Thus
  possible to make prediction and logic.
• Social reality is stable, and laws discovered
  today will hold in the future. We can study many
  parts of reality one at a time and add to get a
  picture of the whole.

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• Positivist on nature of human beinghuman are
  assumed to be self-interested, pleasure seeking,
  rational individuals.
• People act on the basis of external causes and
  same causes have same effect on everyone. Thus we
  can learn about people by observing their
  behaviour.
• This external reality is more important than
  internal (subjective reality).
• Human behaviour do not just happen because of
  what the person wants. Rather like robots/puppets
  who always respond the same.

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• Laws permit accurate prediction but not specific
  behaviour of a specific person in each situaton.
• Eg. Under condition x,y,z, there is a 95
  probability that one-half of the people engage in
  specific behaviour

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• Positivism on role of common sense clear
  separation between science and nonscience.
• Scientific knowledge is better and will replace
  inferior ways of gaining knowledge (magic,
  religion, astrology, personal experience, and
  tradition).
• The truth can be produced by special norms,
  scientific attitude and technique whereas common
  sense does so only rarely and inconsistently

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• Positivism on what constitutes an
  explanation/theory of social realitylaw govern
  the social lifesocial life can be explained by
  discovering causal law. Y is caused by X because
  Y and X are specific instances of a causal law
• Positivist connect causal laws and the specific
  facts observed about social life with deductive
  logic, and can be explained in symbolic system
  such as postulates and theorem (natural sc. and
  soc. sc. alike).

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• Laws of human behaviour should be universally
  valid, holding in all historical eras and in all
  cultures.
• Eg. The rise in crime rate in Toronto in 1990s
  refer to factors (eg. Rising divorce rate,
  declining commitment to traditional moral values)
  that can be found anywhere at any time in Buenos
  Aires in 1890s, Chicago in 1940s, or in Singapore
  in 2010s.

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• Positivism on whether an explanation is true or
  falsetruth can be recognised and distinguish by
  applying reason.
• Human condition will improved through the use of
  reason and the pursuit of truth.
• Knowledge accumulates over time and it plays role
  to sort out true from false explanation.
• Positivism considered explanation must have no
  logical contradiction consistent with observed
  facts can be replicate

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• Positivism on good evidence look likepositivism
  is dualist. Observable facts are distinct from
  ideas, values or theories.
• Observation using sense organ (eyesight, smell)
  or gadget (telescope, microscope).
• If people disagree with facts it must be due to
  improper use of measurement instrument or sloppy
  observation.
• Knowledge of observable reality using senses is
  superior to other knowledge (intuition, emotion
  feelings), and it allows to separate true from
  false ideas about social life.

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• Good evidence for causal law involve piling up
  supporting facts looking for evidence that
  contradict the causal law.
• Eg. To test the claim that all swans are white,
  1,000/10,000 are white could not totally confirm
  a causal law or pattern. Must locate one black
  swan to refute the claimone piece of negative
  evidence. If you cannot find it the best you can
  say is thus far I have not been able to locate
  any, so the claim might be right

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• Positivism on sociopolitical valuespositivism
  argue for value-free science (objective).
• Objective refer to the observers agree on what
  they see science is not based on values,
  opinions, attitudes, or beliefs.
• Science is free from personal, political or
  religious values.
• Scientific community has an elaborate system of
  checks and balance to guard against value bias

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Interpretive social science (ISS)

• Can be traced to German sociologist Max Weber
  (1864-1920) and German philosopher Wilhem Dilthey
  (1833-1911).
• Dilthey argue that there are two types of
  science Naturwissenschaft and Geistewissenschaft.
  The former based on abstract explanation and the
  later based on empathetic understanding of the
  everyday lived experience of people in specific
  historical settings.

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• must learn the personal reasons/motives that
  shape a persons internal feelings and guide
  decisions to act in particular ways.
• ISS related to hermeneutics, a theory of meaning
  (literally means making the obscure plain) found
  in humanities (philosophy, linguistics, religious
  studies, literary criticism)emphasizes detail
  reading of text (conversation, written words or
  picture)

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• A reseacher read to discover meaning embedded
  within text, tries to absorb or get inside the
  view point it presents as a whole, and then
  develop a deep understanding of how its parts
  relate to the whole.
• In other words true meaning is not simple or
  obvious on the surface, can be reached only
  through detailed study of the text, contemplating
  its many messages and seeking connection among
  its parts.

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• Several varieties of ISS hermeneutics,
  constructionism, ethnomethodology, cognitive,
  idealist, phenomenological, subjectivist and
  qualitative sociology.
• ISS researchers often use participant observation
  and field work or analyse transcript of
  conversation or study videotapes looking for
  subtle nonverbal communication.

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• Positivism use instrumental orientation, ISS
  adopts practical orientationwhich concern with
  how ordinary people manage their practical
  affairs in everyday life or how they get things
  done.
• ISS on reason for researchto develop
  understanding of social life and discover how
  people construct meaning in natural settings. Eg.
  Summarizing the goal of 10 year study of Willie,
  a repair shop owner in a rural area ISS
  researcher, Harper (1987) said the goal of the
  research was to share Willies perspective.

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• ISS researcher study meaningful social action,
  not just external behaviour but the action to
  which people attach subject meaning. Eg. Eye
  blinking (due to dryness of the eye or a social
  action).
• Nonhuman lack culture and reasoning to plan out
  things and attach purpose to their behaviour.
  Thus to study human must consider social actors
  reasons and social contact of action.

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• Human action has little intrinsic meaning. To
  interpret the action must acquire meaning among
  people who share a meaning system.
• Eg. Raising one finger in a situation with other
  people can express social meaning (direction,
  expression of friendship, a vulgar sign) depend
  on cultural meaning system the social actors
  share.

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• ISS on nature of social realitysocial reality is
  not waiting to be discovered instead what people
  perceived it to be. It is fluid and fragile.
  People construct it by interacting with others in
  ongoing processes of communication and
  negotiation.

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• For ISS social reality is based on peoples
  definition of it and it is constantly shifting.
  Eg. my social reality is to kiss my mum and give
  her gifts and confide in her. I learned from
  culture and experience. But it is not fix. If the
  situation change the social reality would be
  shattered. Eg. If she became demented and no
  longer recognised me.
• Positivist says everyone shares the same meaning
  system and all experience the world the same way.

32

• ISS say people may or may not experience
  social/physical reality in the same way. Eg.
  Several people seen, heard and touch the same
  physical object, yet come away with different
  meaning or interpretation of it.
• ISS approach sees social reality as consisting of
  people who construct meaning and create
  interpretations through their daily social
  interaction.

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• ISS on the nature of human beingspeople engaged
  in process of creating flexible system of meaning
  through social interaction. They use the meanings
  to interpret their social world and make sense of
  their lives.
• Human behaviour may be pattern and regular but
  not due to preexisting law waiting to be
  discovered (positivism), rather it is created out
  of evolving meaning system that people generate
  as they socially interact.

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• ISS researchers want to discover what actions
  mean to the people who engage in them. People
  have their own reasons for their actions and
  researchers need to learn the reasons people use.
• ISS on the role of common sensepositivist sees
  common sense is inferior ISS say ordinary people
  use common sense to guide them in daily living.
  Thus important to understand common sense because
  it contains the meaning that people use when they
  engage in routine social interaction.

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• To ISS ordinary people could not function in
  daily life if they base their action on science
  alone. Eg. To boil an egg people use unsystematic
  experience, habits and guesswork. A strict
  application of natural science require one to
  know the laws of physic that determine heating
  the water and chemical laws that govern the
  changes in eggs internal composition.

36

• Common sense and positivists law are alternative
  ways to interpret the world neither is inferior
  or superior, each important in its own domain
  each created in a different way for different
  purpose.
• People do not know that common sense is true but
  they must assume that it is true in order to get
  anything accomplished.

37

• ISS on an explanation/theory of social
  realitydiffer from positivist who says that
  social theory should be similar to natural
  science with deductive axioms, theorem, and
  interconnected causal law. Rather it describes
  and interprets how people conduct their daily
  lives. It contains concepts and limited
  generalisation and does not differ from the
  experience and inner reality of the people being
  studied.

38

• ISS approach is ideographic (a symbolic
  representation or thick description of something)
  and inductive.
• Interpretive theory resembles a map that outlines
  a social world or a tourist guidebook describes
  local custom and informal norms.

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• Eg. A report on professional gamblers tells the
  reader about careers and daily concern of such
  peoplelocations and activities observed,
  strategies used to gamble, how professional
  gamblers speak, how they view others, their fears
  and ambition.
• Researcher will give few generalization, and
  organizing concept but bulk of it detailed
  description of gambling world.

40

• ISS on whether an explanation is true or
  falsepositivists deduce from theory, collect
  data and analyse facts in ways other scientist
  can replicate. An explanation is considered true
  when it stand up to replication.
• For ISS a theory/explanation is true if it makes
  sense to those being studied and if it allows
  others to understand deeply of those being
  studied.

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• An interpretive researchers description of
  another persons meaning system is a secondary
  account. Like a traveler telling about a foreign
  land, the researcher is not a native.
• Secondary account never equals to primary
  account(those being studied).
• Thus one way to test truthfulness of an
  interpretive study of professional gambling is to
  have professional gamblers read it and verify its
  accuracy.

42

• ISS on good evidence/factual information look
  likein positivism good evidence is observable,
  precise, and independent of values.
• ISS see the unique features of specific context
  and meaning as essential to understand social
  meaningsocial action cannot be isolated from the
  context in which it occurs.

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• Interpretive researchers say social situation
  full of ambiguity, impossible to discover
  straightforward objective facts.
• Most behaviours/statements have several meaning
  and can be interpret in multiple ways. Pople
  constantly making sense by reassessing clues in
  the situation and assigning meaning untill they
  know whats gong on.

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• Eg. I see a women holding her hand out palm
  forward. I do not know the meaning without
  knowing the social situation warding off
  potential mugger, drying her nail polish, hailing
  a taxi, admiring a new ring, telling oncoming
  traffic to stop for her, or requesting five
  bagels at a deli counter.

45

• ISS on place for valuespositivist calls for
  eliminating values and operating within
  apolitical environment.
• ISS by contrast argue that researcher should
  reflect on, reexamine, and analyse personal point
  of view and feelings as part of process of
  studying others need to empathize (at least
  temporarily) with and share in the social and
  political commitments or values of those he
  studies

46

• Interpretive approach is the foundation of social
  research technique that are sensitive to context,
  that use various methods to get inside the ways
  others see the world and more concerned with
  achieving an empathic understanding than with
  testing laws of human behaviour.

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Critical social science (CSS)

• Version of this approach class analysis,
  dialectical materialism and structuralism.
• Disagree with positivism and ISS on some point.
• Practice by Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud
• Criticized positivist as being narrow,
  antidemocratic and nonhumanist

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• Books by Jurgen HabermasKnowledge and Human
  Interest (1971) and Pedagogy of the Oppressed
  (1970) used CSS approach.
• criticized ISS--too subjective and relativist,
  amoral and passive because ISS is so concerned
  with subjective reality, does not take strong
  value position or actively help people to see
  false illusion around them so that they can
  improve their lives.

49

• CSS on reason for researchis to change the
  world.
• Conduct research to critique and transform social
  relations by revealing the underlying sources of
  social relations and empowering people especially
  less powerful people.
• They uncover myths, reveal hidden truth and help
  people to change the world for themselves.
• CSS researcher is action oriented and seek
  dramatic improvements.

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• On the other hand positivist researcher tries to
  solve problems as they are defined by government
  without rocking the boat.
• CSS researcher create problem by intentionally
  raising and identifying more problems than the
  government/ruling elites are able to accommodate
  much less to solve.
• They ask embarrassing questions, expose
  hypocrisy, and investigate conditions in order to
  encourage dramatic grass-roots action

51

• Eg. CSS researcher conducts a study to
  discrimination in rental housing. White landlord
  refuse to rent to minority tenants. He would not
  just publish the report and wait for the
  government to act. He gives the report to
  newspaper and meet with grass-roots organisations
  to discuss the result of the study. He work with
  activists to mobilise the political action in the
  name of social justice. When the people picket,
  or organise march on city hall demanding action
  he predicts the landlord will be forced to rent
  to minorities.
• The goal of research is to empower.

52

• CSS on nature of social realitylike positivism
  adopt a realist position (social reality is out
  there to be discovered). But differ from
  positivism in that it is historical realism in
  which reality is seen as constantly shaped by
  social, political, cultural and similar factors.
• CSS assumed that social reality always changes
  and the change is rooted in the tensions,
  conflicts, or contradiction of social
  relations/institutions.

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• CSS focused on changed and conflict, especially
  paradoxes or inner conflicts. This paradoxes
  reveal the true nature of social reality.
  Biological analogy to illustrate paradox is death
  and birth. It appear to be opposite yet death
  begin with birth. We begin to die the day we are
  born. Our bodies begin to decay as we live. There
  is inner-tension between living and aging on all
  the time. In order to live our bodies must age or
  move toward death.

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• CSS noted social change and conflict are not
  always apparent. The social world is full of
  illusion, myth, and distortion. This illusion
  allow some group in society to hold power and
  exploit others.
• CSS approach argue that social reality has
  multiple layers. Behind the observable surface
  reality lie deep structures or unobservable
  mechanism.
• Such structure can be uncovered with effort
  intense and directed questioning, a good theory
  about where to look, a clear value position, and
  a historical orientation.

55

• CSS agree with ISS that social reality is
  changing and subject to socially created meaning.
  Disagree with ISS emphasize on micro-level
  interpersonal interactions and its acceptance of
  any meaning system.
• CSS says although subjective meaning is
  important, there are real, objective relations
  that shape social relations
• CSS researcher question social situations and
  place them in a larger macro-level historical
  context.

56

• Eg. ISS researcher study the interaction male
  boss and female secretaryprovides a colourful
  account of their rules of behaviour, interpretive
  mechanisms, and system of meaning.
• By contrast CSS researcher begins with point of
  view (eg. feminist) and notes issues ignored by
  ISS why are bosses male and secretaries female?
  Why do the roles of boss and secretary have
  unequal power? Why are such roles created in lare
  organisations throughout our societies? How did
  the unequal power come about historically? Why
  can the boss make off-colour jokes that humiliate
  the secretary? etc.

57

• CSS on nature of human beingspositivism views
  social forces have power over and operate on
  people. CSS reject this idea as
  reificationgiving the creation of your own
  activity a separate alien existence. That is
  separating yourself from what you have created
  until you no longer recognise it as part of you.
  Once you no longer see your contribution and
  treat what you have helped create as an outside
  force, you lose control over your destiny.

58

• Eg. Two people meet, fall in love, marry and set
  up a household. After two years the male feels
  trapped by unseen forces. He fights with his wife
  over childcare and house chores. The mans social
  values say it is wrong for him to change diapers
  or wash dishes. His agreement to marry and adopt
  a particular life-style are creation of his
  socialization and personal decision. Thus, the
  unseen forces acting on him that make him feel
  trapped is his own social creation (although he
  forget this). If he aware of the forces that trap
  him (societal values, social roles, and his own
  decision) and take action to change them (modify
  his life-style) he may be able to find solution
  and to feel less trapped.

59

• CSS researcher says people have a great deal of
  unrealized potential, creative, changeable and
  adaptive. However people can also be mislead,
  mistreated and exploited by others. They trapped
  in social meanings, obligations and relationship.
  They fail to see how change is possible and thus
  lose their independence, freedom and control over
  their lives.
• The potential of people can be realized if they
  dispel their illusion and join collectively to
  change society, but delusion, isolation and
  oppressive condition prevent people from
  realizing their dreams.

60

• Eg. For generations, Americans believed the myth
  that women were inferior to men, that men
  inherent right to make major decisions, and women
  were incapable of professional responsibilities.
  By 1980s only minority hold such a belief. It is
  resulted from new consciousness and organised
  political action to destroy a myth that existed
  in laws, customs, and official policies and
  importantly in the everyday belief of most
  people.

61

• CSS on role of common senseis based on the idea
  of false consciousnessthat people are mistaken
  act against their own true best interest as
  defined in objective reality.
• ISS says false consciousness is meaningless
  because it implies that social actor uses a
  meaning system that is false or out of touch with
  objective reality. People create and use such
  system and researchers can only describe such
  system, not judge their value.

62

• CSS says social researcher should studies
  subjective ideas and common sense because these
  shape human behaviour. Yet they full of myth and
  illusion that mask and objective world.
• Thus researcher cannot use observation (although
  very careful because it is not enough and
  observing an illusion does not dispel it).
  Researcher must use theory to dig beneath surface
  relations, to observe periods of crisis and
  intense conflict, to probe interconnections, to
  look at the past, and to consider future
  possibilities.
• Uncovering the deeper level of reality is
  difficult, but it is important because surface
  reality is full of ideology, myth, distortion and
  false appearance.

63

• CSS on an explanation of social
  realitypositivism based on the determinism
  (human behaviour is determined by causal laws
  that human have little control) ISS based on
  voluntarism (people have large amount of free
  will to create social meanings) CSS falls in
  between (people are constrained by the material
  conditions, cultural context and historical
  conditionthe world people live in limits their
  options and shapes their beliefs and behaviour
  yet people are not locked into an inevitable set
  of social structures, relationships or laws. They
  can develop new understanding s or ways of seeing
  that enable them to change these structures,
  relationships or laws.

64

• In order to do this they must develop vision of
  the future and work together for change.
• In a nutshell, people do shape their destiny, but
  not under conditions of their own choosing.

65

• CSS on whether an explanation/theory is true or
  falsepositivism test theory by deducing
  hypothesis, testing hypothesis with replicated
  observation, and combine results to support laws.
  ISS support theories by seeing whether the
  meaning system and rules of behaviour make sense
  to those being studied. CSS theory seeks to
  provide people with a resource that will help
  them understand and change their world.

66

• CSS researcher test critical theory by describing
  conditions generated by underlying structures,
  then by applying that knowledge to change social
  relationthe theory teach people about their own
  experiences, help them understand their
  historical role and use the theory to improve
  condition.
• CSS puts theory into practice and use the outcome
  of applications to reformulate theory.

67

• Eg. Researcher develop an explanation/ theory for
  housing discrimination. He tests the theory by
  using it to try to change condition. If the
  theory says that underlying economic relations
  cause discrimination and that landlord refuse to
  rent to minorities because not profitable, then
  political actions that make it profitable to rent
  to minorities should change the landlords
  behaviour. But if the theory says that the
  underlying racial hatred causes landlords to
  discriminate, then action based on profit will be
  unsuccessful. The researcher will then examine
  race hatred as the basis of landlord behaviour
  through new studies combined with new political
  action.

68

• CSS on good evidence look likepositivism says
  there are incontestable neutral facts on which
  all rational people agree. Social facts are like
  objectsthey existed separate from values or
  theories. ISS says social worlds is made up of
  created meaning, with people creating and
  negotiating meanings. CSS bridge the
  object-subject gap. It says that the facts of
  material conditions exist independent of
  subjective perceptions, but the facts are not
  theory neutral, instead facts require
  interpretation from within the framework of
  values, theory and meaning.

69

• Eg. It is a fact that the US spend a lot of
  its GNP on health care compared to any advanced
  countries, and yet it ranks 29th lowest infant
  death rate. CSS researcher interpret that the US
  has many people without health care and no system
  to cover everyone. The fact includes the way the
  health care is delivered to some through a
  complex system of for-profit insurance companies,
  pharmaceutical firms, hospitals and others who
  benefit greatly from current arrangement. Some
  powerful group get rich while weaker getting low
  quality or no health care. CSS researchers look
  at the facts and ask who benefits and who loses?

70

• Eg. Nafziger on inequality of Africa, criticized
  facts on income inequality because they
  measured only money income in societies where
  money is not widely used criticized facts on
  land distribution and infant mortality rates
  because this facts ignored the number of people
  living on a farm and ignored one group (South
  African Whites) that has lower infant mortality.
  Instead Nafziger looked for wide variety of facts
  (eg. Birth rates, urban-rural gaps, ethnic
  divisions, international trade, political power)
  and went behind the surface facts to connect them
  to one another. He asked why is Africa the only
  region in the world to become more impoverished
  since WW2.

71

• His theory helped him identify a number of social
  groups (gov. leaders) and classes (peasants).
• All theories are not equally useful for
  understanding key facts. Theories based on
  assumptions about the world is like and on a set
  of moral-politics values. CSS says some values
  are better than others. Thus to interpret facts,
  one must understand history, adopt a set of
  values, and know where to look for underlying
  structures.

72

• CSS on when do sociopolitical values enter into
  scienceFirst of all social research is a
  moral-political activity that requires the
  researcher to commit to a value position. CSS
  reject positivist value freedom as myth reject
  ISS approach of relativism (everything is
  relative and nothing is absolutereality of the
  genius and reality of the idiot are equally valid
  and important).
• CSS says there is only one or very few correct
  points of view. Other viewpoints are wrong and
  misleading. All social research must begins with
  a value or moral point of view.

73

• For CSS being objective is not being value free.
  Objectivity means a nondistorted, true picture of
  reality. To deny that a researcher has a point of
  view is itself a point of view. Eg. A
  technicians point if viewconduct research and
  ignore the moral questions satisfy sponsor and
  follow orders. Such view says that science is a
  tool anyone can use. It was criticized when Nazi
  scientists use inhumane experiments and claimed
  that they are blameless because they just follow
  orders.

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• Positivism adopt such approach and produces
  technocratic knowledgea form of knowledge best
  suited for use by the people in power to control
  other people.
• CSS reject positivism and ISS as being concerned
  with studying the world instead of acting on it.
• CSS holds that knowledge is power. Social science
  knowledge can be used to control people, hidden
  in ivory tower for intellectual to play games
  with, or it can be given to people to help them
  to take charge of or improve their lives.

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• There are two additional approaches that are less
  well known Feminist research and postmodern
  research.
• Feminist is conducted mostly by women who hold a
  feminist self-identity and consciously use
  feminist perspective.
• Use multiple research techniques
• Attempts to give a voice to women and to correct
  male-oriented perspective that has predominated
  in the development of social science.

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• Feminist researcher see positivism as being a
  male point of viewit is objective, logical, task
  oriented, and instrumental. It reflect a male
  emphasis on individual competition, dominating
  and controlling the environment. In contrast
  women emphasis accommodation and gradually
  developing human bondssocial world as a web of
  interconnected human relations, people link
  together by feelings of trust and mutual
  obligation emphasis the subjective, empathetic,
  process-oriented, and inclusive sides of social
  life.

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• Nonfeminist research is blamed as sexist ignore
  gender as fundamental social division, focuses on
  mens problems, overgeneralise from the
  experience of men to all people, use men as point
  of reference, and assumes traditional gender
  roles. Eg. Traditional researcher will say a
  family has a problem if the adult men in it
  cannot find stable work, but it is not considered
  an equal family problem if the a women in it
  cannot find a stable work.

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• Feminist researchers are not objective they
  interact and collaborate with the people they
  study fuse their personal and professional life
  eg. They attempt to comprehend interviewees
  sharing their own feelings and experiences. These
  process may create personal relationship between
  researcher and interviewee that might mature
  overtime.

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• Postmodern researchis part of larger movement of
  the contemporary world (including art, music,
  literature, and cultural criticism).
• Began in humanities, has roots in the
  philosophies of existentialism, nihilism, and
  anarchism and in the ideas Heidegger, Nietsche,
  Sartre, and Wittgenstein
• Reject modernism which refers to basic
  assumptions, beliefs, and values that arose in
  the Enlightenment era.

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• Modernism relies on logical reasoning optimistic
  about the future and believe in progress
  confidence in technology and science embrace
  humanist values (judging ideas based on the
  effect on human welfare).
• Modernism holds that there are standards of
  beauty, truth, and morality which most people can
  agree.
• Postmodernism research sees no separation between
  arts and social science.

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• It seeks to deconstruct/tear apart surface
  appearance to reveal the internal hidden
  structure (like CSS)
• Distrust abstract explanation and holds that
  research can never do more than describe, with
  all descriptions equally valida researchers
  description is neither superior nor inferior to
  anyone else and only describe the researchers
  experiences.
• Going beyond ISS and CSS it attempts to dismantle
  social science

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• Reject possibilities of a science of the social
  world, distrust all systematic empirical
  observation, and doubt that knowledge is
  generalizable or accumulates over time
• They see knowledge taking numerous forms and
  unique to particular people or specific locales
• Reject truth as a goal because it is the epitome
  of modernity. Truth makes reference to order,
  rules and values depends on logic, rationality
  and reason (all of which the postmodernists
  question)

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• Postmodernist object to presenting research
  results in a detached and neutral way.
• Researcher should not hide when someone read the
  reporthe must be presentthus they report the
  research results is similar to a work of art
  (theatrical, expressive, or dramatic style of
  presentation, or in the form of work of fiction,
  movie or play).
• The purpose is to stimulate others, to give
  pleasure, to evoke response, or to arouse
  curiosity

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• To postmodernist, knowledge about social life
  created by researcher may be better communicated
  by skit or musical piece than by scholarly
  journal article.
• The value lies in telling story that may
  stimulate experiences within the people who read
  or encounter it.
• Reject use of science to predict and to make
  policy decisions oppose positivist science to
  reinforce power relations and bureaucratic forms
  of control over people.

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• Conclusion there are competing approaches to
  social research based on different philosophical
  assumption about the purpose of science and the
  nature of social reality.
• Most researchers operate primarily within one
  approach but many combine elements from others.
• You can study the same topic from any of above
  approaches