Understanding Scientific Methods and Research Types
What is Knowledge?
Knowledge is the act or effect of having an abstract idea or notion of something. Examples include knowledge of law, facts (sensory, intellectual, popular, scientific, philosophical, intuitive).
What is Science?
Science (goal + function + objects: material + formal) is the clear and evident knowledge of something, whether founded on clear principles and demonstrations, experimental reasoning, or the analysis of societies and human facts.
What is Scientific Research?
Scientific research is built through investigation.
What is Pseudoscience?
A pseudoscience is any information that is said to be based on scientific facts, or even presented as having a high standard of knowledge, but that does not result from the application of scientific methods. Pseudoscience has no review, no standards, no pre-publication verification, and no demand for accuracy. One cannot verify the results of pseudo-scientific studies, and if any are described, they are done so vaguely that it becomes impossible to discover what was done or how it was done. Graphology and numerology are examples of pseudoscience.
What is a Method?
A method is a set of basic rules used to develop an experiment, produce new knowledge, and correct and integrate pre-existing knowledge. It is important because it optimizes the time it takes to solve a problem and facilitates interpretation and resolution.
Three Conceptions of Science
- Rationality: Proof of the truth of statements, leaving no doubt (mathematics).
- Empirical: Based on observation and experiments.
- Constructivist: Science as a builder of explanatory models of the world.
What is a Survey?
A survey is a tool for obtaining new knowledge.
What is Development?
Development is the application of this knowledge to produce artifacts.
Types of Research by Nature
- Basic Research: Aims to understand or discover new phenomena, generating basic knowledge that is not immediately used. Requires the dissemination of knowledge through scientific articles.
- Technological Research: Aims to apply basic knowledge. It may or may not be used immediately. It produces products, processes, patents, new technologies, and knowledge.
Types of Research by Objective
- Exploratory Research: Aims to find theories and practices that modify existing ones, creating greater familiarity with the phenomena and obtaining technological innovations. Usually requires experimentation and literature review.
- Descriptive Research: Follows exploratory research. Aims to observe, record, and analyze phenomena (how frequently they happen, what their structures are, how they work). Involves the implementation of systematic and non-participant observation.
- Explanatory Research: Aims to expand generalizations, define laws, structure, and develop models to relate existing hypotheses and generate new ones through deduction. Involves increased investment in the short term, theorizing, and reflection on the object.
Types of Research by Procedure
- Experimental Science: Focuses on new discoveries (materials, components, methods, new knowledge, and techniques), obtaining prototypes, manipulating and collecting unbiased data. It is a means to formulate and develop new elements, test materials and components, simulate events, infer introduced variables, and perform modeling.
- Operating Science: Investigates systematic production processes. Uses statistical tools and mathematical methods. Aims to select the means for production, comparing costs, efficiency, and values. Some applications include inventory control and production, design and product development, management, and sales.
- Case Study: Explains a system in its environment. A case can be a decision or a program. Case studies can be transverse (short-term) or longitudinal (long-term).
What is the Scientific Method?
The scientific method is a set of basic rules used to develop an experiment, produce new knowledge, and integrate and correct pre-existing knowledge.
Steps of the Scientific Method
- Observation: Presentation of the fact or phenomenon being studied.
- Problematization: Identification of the problem to be solved.
- Formulation of Hypothesis: Development of a possible solution to the problem.
- Experimentation: Testing whether the hypothesis is valid. If it fails, return to the hypothesis formulation stage. If it succeeds, proceed to the next step.
- Validation: Establishing that the hypothesis is true.
The Inductive Method
The inductive method has three phases:
- Observation of the phenomenon.
- Discovery of the relationship between hypotheses.
- Generalization of the relationship.
Types of Induction
- Formal Induction: The law expresses all the observed phenomena.
- Scientific Induction: From the facts, it “jumps” to all others in the future.
Inductive vs. Deductive Methods
- Inductive:
- If all the premises are true, the conclusion is probably true.
- The conclusion contains information that was not in the premises.
- Deductive:
- If all the premises are true, the conclusion must be true.
- All the information in the conclusion is (at least implicitly) in the premises.
Comparison
- Different methods for different purposes.
- Deductive methods explain assumptions.
- Inductive methods expand knowledge.
- Results obtained by deductive methods are either correct or not.
- Results achieved under inductive methods admit varying degrees of strength.