MIT 144F: Week11
Research Styles: Study notes prompted by the Hult (1995) Article 

---

General Process of Research:

Preparation:

• growing awareness that a problem exists
• defining the problem in many different ways to frame the problem
• intuitions and prior experience can play an important role

Incubation:

• indistinct, subconscious "mulling over" of the problem
• found to be very important
• having enough time for process to occur can be crucial

Illumination:

• having an imaginative breakthrough
• formulating formal hypotheses
• clarifying one's understanding of the problem

Verification (see disclaimer):

• testing the hypotheses
• formal laboratory experiment(s)
•  rigorous criteria
• informal check(s) against prior experience
• field work, statistical explorations (social sciences)
• examination of primary and secondary texts (humanities)
• not matter the discipline, hypotheses will be criticized by members of the discipline
• revising hypotheses in light of contradictions crucial

 Downie's Disclaimer:

I do not agree with this author that the role of research is to "verify" one's hypotheses. One can never truly "verify" a theory. All research findings and the theories we generate to explain them are best thought of as being tentative. The idea of "falsifiability" is important here. Simply put, one creates hypotheses that can be proven wrong (not correct) based upon some prediction. In general, if the prediction is shown to be wrong then theory is discarded or revised; if it shown to be correct, the theory is retained but not considered "proven." New predictions are made and then tested again until such time as the theory fails. Overall, the purpose of experimentation is to "disprove" not "prove."
 

Important Features of Scientific Enquiry:

Primary question:

Primary research style:

• formal hypotheses are formulated then tested

Two important issues:

validity

• does the experiment measure what it claims to measure?

reliabilty

• can the experiment be replicated by others and similar results found?

Important features of Social Science Enquiry:

Primary goal:

Research styles:

• some fields adopt a strongly scientific approach (e.g. psychology)
• some fields adopt a more humanistic approach in combination with observation of subjects (e.g.. sociology)
• observation is combined with personal insight and experience, tends to be more descriptive

Important Issues:

Subjectivity/Objectivity

• difficult for social scientist to remove personal experiences, biases from their interpretations of human behaviour

Ethical Considerations

• ties in with above: use of human subjects without consent is an ethical mine-field. However, gaining informed consent can induce the Hawthorne Effect.

Important features of Enquiry in the Humanities:

Primary goal:

Research styles:

• strong reliance on text (broadly defined)
• creative writing (literature, poetry, and drama, etc.)
• interpretative writing (literary and art criticism, etc.)
• theoretical writing (historical and social theories of literature and art, etc.)

Acceptable Evidence:

• rarely any absolute proof
• informed personal insights, imagination and experience considered valid
• "theories" valid if found to be consistent and helpful (rarely formally tested).
• in general, research is validated in a more "holistic" manner than science and social science research