Heuristic Inquiry

2019 ◽  
pp. 66-82
Keyword(s):  
Research Design ◽  
Social Science Research ◽  
Doctoral Degree ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Heuristic Inquiry ◽  
Individual Experience ◽  
Doctoral Level ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Psychology Doctoral ◽  
Selection Of

This chapter presents current research insights into the selection of heuristic inquiries for a doctoral-level inquiry. Heuristic inquiry within social science research allows for self-as-subject representations in search of the essential meaning of phenomena or constructs explored and through the analysis of the individual experience, results may inform larger sociocultural contexts. While receptivity of heuristic inquiry as rigorous doctoral-level research varies by discipline and institution, the research design in doctoral education remains widely accepted for doctoral-level inquiry as it often appeals to the doctoral scholar due to the deep introspection expected in the phases of analysis. While heuristic inquiry emerged within psychology, doctoral scholars use the introspective research design across fields of study, the doctoral degree program, and institution to meet all institutional requirements and ethical assurances. Like autoethnography, the relational aspects between doctoral scholar and research supervisor are vital to successful heuristic inquiry and the doctoral scholar's development as a new investigator.

Autoethnography

2019 ◽  
pp. 48-65
Keyword(s):  
Social Science ◽  
Doctoral Education ◽  
Social Science Research ◽  
Doctoral Degree ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Degree Program ◽  
Transformative Experience ◽  
Doctoral Level ◽  
Sociocultural Contexts ◽  
Selection Of

This chapter presents current research insights into the selection of autoethnography for doctoral-level inquiry. Autoethnography translates the personal to social science research with accessible self-as-subject representations, and autoethnography can reveal unheard voices of experiences to inform larger sociocultural contexts. The use of autoethnography in doctoral education remains widely accepted for doctoral-level inquiry as autoethnography often appeals to the doctoral scholar due to its fluidity, flexibility, and as both process and product. It is also essential for doctoral scholars to situate the autoethnography within the bounds of the scholarship, field of study, the doctoral degree program, and institution to meet all institutional requirements and ethical assurances as relational aspects between doctoral scholar and research supervisor are vital to successful autoethnography for the transformative experience of the doctoral scholar as new investigator.

Self-as-Subject for Doctoral Research

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-25
Keyword(s):  
The Self ◽  
Heuristic Inquiry ◽  
Doctoral Level ◽  
Doctoral Research ◽  
New Knowledge ◽  
Self Knowledge ◽  
Institutional Aspects ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Internal Experience ◽  
Selection Of

This chapter presents reflections on the use of self-as-subject research within doctoral education as a pathway to explore meaning of study phenomena to uncover new knowledge from the individual of the self. Knowledge is contextual and discoverable from within this rich internal experience of the researcher-participant and extant and contemporary perspectives are presented to illustrate the importance and appropriateness of the selection of self-as-subject research methods including autoethnography and heuristic inquiry for doctoral-level research. The importance of the relational aspects of the doctoral researcher and doctoral research supervisor is briefly considered as well as contextual and institutional aspects necessary to inform doctoral researchers who may choose these methods of inquiry.

Self-as-Subject for Doctoral Research

2022 ◽  
pp. 136-153
Author(s):  
Robin Throne
Keyword(s):  
The Self ◽  
Heuristic Inquiry ◽  
Doctoral Level ◽  
Doctoral Research ◽  
New Knowledge ◽  
Self Knowledge ◽  
Institutional Aspects ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Internal Experience ◽  
Selection Of

This chapter presents reflections on the use of self-as-subject research within doctoral education as a pathway to explore meaning of study phenomena to uncover new knowledge from the individual of the self. Knowledge is contextual and discoverable from within this rich internal experience of the researcher-participant and extant and contemporary perspectives are presented to illustrate the importance and appropriateness of the selection of self-as-subject research methods including autoethnography and heuristic inquiry for doctoral-level research. The importance of the relational aspects of the doctoral researcher and doctoral research supervisor is briefly considered as well as contextual and institutional aspects necessary to inform doctoral researchers who may choose these methods of inquiry.

The ride-along: a journey in qualitative research

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 121-131 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marc C.A. Wegerif
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Research Design ◽  
Food Systems ◽  
Social Science Research ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Research Experience ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Qualitative Research Methodology ◽  
Design And Practice

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to show why and how the “ride-along” can add great value to qualitative research. Design/methodology/approach The paper is primarily based on ethnographic research into food systems that the author carried out in Tanzania and draws on other research experience and existing literature on the “go-along” and “walk-along”. Findings Transport choices are made in all social science research and therefore deserve greater attention in research design. Transport will influence how the researcher is perceived and what they will experience and find. The ride-along, when done well, minimises the risks and adds value to qualitative research. Practical implications Researchers need to be reflexive about transport choices and give them greater consideration in research design and practice. The examples from field experience and the considerations identified in this paper will assist researchers and their supervisors in this process. Originality/value Despite the ubiquity of mobility in social science research, there is surprisingly little literature on the subject, especially related to the use of different modes of transport. The originality is in elaborating the importance of the ride-along and the value is in the clearly identified lessons for qualitative research methodology teaching and practice.

Divining Nuclear Intentions: A Review Essay

2008 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 139-169 ◽  
Author(s):  
William C. Potter ◽  
Gaukhar Mukhatzhanova
Keyword(s):  
Nuclear Proliferation ◽  
Social Science Research ◽  
Science Research ◽  
The Political ◽  
Common Features ◽  
Great Relevance ◽  
State Of Affairs ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Political Economic ◽  
Level Of Analysis

Although projections of nuclear proliferation abound, they rarely are founded on empirical research or guided by theory. Even fewer studies are informed by a comparative perspective. The two books under review—The Psychology of Nuclear Proliferation: Identity, Emotions, and Foreign Policy, by Jacques Hymans, and Nuclear Logics: Alternative Paths in East Asia and the Middle East, by Etel Solingen, are welcome exceptions to this general state of affairs, and represent the cutting edge of nonproliferation research. Both works challenge conventional conceptions of the sources of nuclear weapons decisions and offer new insights into why past predictions of rapid proliferation failed to materialize and why current prognoses about rampant proliferation are similarly flawed. While sharing a number of common features, including a focus on subsystemic determinants of national behavior, the books differ in their methodology, level of analysis, receptivity to multicausal explanations, and assumptions about decisionmaker rationality and the revolutionary nature of the decision. Where one author emphasizes the importance of the individual leader's national identity conception in determining a state's nuclear path, the other explains nuclear decisions primarily with regard to the political-economic orientation of the ruling coalition. Notwithstanding a tendency to overinterpret evidence, the books represent the best of contemporary social science research and provide compelling interpretations of nuclear proliferation dynamics of great relevance to scholars and policymakers alike.

Managing Conflict in the Literature: Meta-analysis as a Research Method

2005 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alice Stuhlmacher ◽  
Treena Gillespie
Keyword(s):  
Social Science ◽  
Research Design ◽  
Research Method ◽  
Social Conflict ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Social Science Research ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Meta Analyses

AbstractNo longer on the fringes of research design, meta-analysis has established a methodological foothold in social science research. The use of meta-analysis as a research method to study social conflict, however, remains limited. This article is designed to increase the accessibility of meta-analyses, while identifying issues and controversies. To this end, we offer examples from our own experiences in an overview of the development, choices, and challenges of a meta-analysis, as well as more technical references for further instruction.

Recovering Meaning by Reforming Academic Identities and Practices

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mats Alvesson ◽  
Yiannis Gabriel ◽  
Roland Paulsen
Keyword(s):  
Social Science ◽  
Social Science Research ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Policy Issues ◽  
Academic Identities ◽  
Group Research ◽  
Practice Teaching ◽  
Academic Citizenship ◽  
The Individual

Part II offers a number of proposals and suggestions for recovering meaning in social science research at the individual, institutional, and policy levels. These measures offer the prospect of many small ‘wins’ through which the system can be reformed, rather than one sweeping programme for change. This chapter addresses the identities of individual researchers and the research methodologies they use in their work, and encourages a different approach at the level of individual and group research practices and its outcomes. It argues for new scholarly identities and many different ways of fashioning them, in which research is one, but not the only, important practice. Teaching, outreach activities, and academic citizenship, it is argued, are also important aspects of scholarship. So too are thinking and reading in depth and breadth, writing textbooks and book reviews, journalistic pieces and blogs. Chapters 7 and 8 will address institutional and policy issues.

Blending practice development methods with social science research: an example of pushing new practice research boundaries

2010 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 117-134 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ken Walsh ◽  
Cheryle Moss
Keyword(s):  
Older People ◽  
Research Design ◽  
Social Science Research ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Collaborative Action Research ◽  
Practice Research ◽  
Health Board ◽  
Research Activities ◽  
Development Methods ◽  
Practice Development

Innovating research methods to better suit clinical contexts and practice puzzles is key to the advancement of practice. To illustrate a mechanism by which this development can be achieved the authors offer a research narrative which is revealing of their thinking, methodological positioning and research activities as they sought to innovate a research design to suit the clinical issues, puzzle and research context. The trigger for this innovative research design was the opportunity provided by a short timeframe and small amount of research funding to work with a health board clinical puzzle to explore presentations of older people to emergency departments in relation to those could be avoided, and by implication consider how better ways of caring for older people could be devised. In the example provided, the authors reveal how they blended practice development methods with collaborative action research to develop a reconnaissance study. The findings and outcomes of the study are affirming of the approach, methodological strategy and use of practice development methods to support engagement and puzzling as methods which support reconnaissance in relation to a complex clinical scenario such as ‘avoidable’/‘inappropriate’ presentation of older persons in the emergency department.

Looking Beyond Demographics: Panel Attrition in the ANES and GSS

2014 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 336-353 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Lazarus Frankel ◽  
D. Sunshine Hillygus
Keyword(s):  
Social Science Research ◽  
General Social Survey ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Drop Out ◽  
Panel Surveys ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Demographic Predictors ◽  
Panel Attrition ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Data Collections

Longitudinal or panel surveys offer unique benefits for social science research, but they typically suffer from attrition, which reduces sample size and can result in biased inferences. Previous research tends to focus on the demographic predictors of attrition, conceptualizing attrition propensity as a stable, individual-level characteristic—some individuals (e.g., young, poor, residentially mobile) are more likely to drop out of a study than others. We argue that panel attrition reflects both the characteristics of the individual respondent as well as her survey experience, a factor shaped by the design and implementation features of the study. In this article, we examine and compare the predictors of panel attrition in the 2008–2009 American National Election Study, an online panel, and the 2006–2010 General Social Survey, a face-to-face panel. In both cases, survey experience variables are predictive of panel attrition above and beyond the standard demographic predictors, but the particular measures of relevance differ across the two surveys. The findings inform statistical corrections for panel attrition bias and provide study design insights for future panel data collections.

scholarly journals Epistemological Values and Limitations of Ethnography as an Interpretive Research Approach

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 83-90
Author(s):  
Youba Raj Luintel
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Research Design ◽  
Social Science Research ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Multiple Perspectives ◽  
Interpretive Approach ◽  
Theoretical Frame ◽  
Humanities And Social Sciences

The research method in humanities and social sciences shares a certain theoretical frame and research design with the interpretive approach. The “interpretive approach” of ethnographic research brings humanities and social sciences together in the realms of naturalistic inquiry as well as knowledge production. This article discusses how ethnographers would tend to address these epistemological fronts in scholarship and research design in humanities and social sciences. It also raises some of the pragmatics and methodological utilities of the ethnographic approach, followed by a short description of ethical and practical issues involved in the research process. Both the humanities and social science research adopt the interpretive approach to explore the subject of investigation in the specific theoretical frame and from multiple perspectives. The article concludes that the strengths that it offers, particularly concerning unravelling complexities of people’s daily lives in their “meaning perspectives,” are unique and appealing even though ethnography never remains immune to some of the limitations of qualitative research.

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