To carry out a scientific research work, the researcher must keep in mind what type of research he will carry out, first of all he has to have identified his problem, his hypothesis, the variable, the sources of information related to his topic, collect historical and contextual background, take methodologically the techniques implemented by other researchers regarding the topic to be investigated and from there start either the techniques and methods with it, or modify them, for which they have to know all the types of methods and techniques that can be carried out in your investigation.
Therefore this methodological research work will help the researcher to know and understand each one of them, our objective is that the researcher can identify the types of technique and methods that exist, and can implement it in their research.
The researcher must know that the method goes hand in hand with the technique, according to the purpose of the research, therefore, from the hypothesis raised, the scientist must already have an idea of the method to be implemented in his work.
The method is a process of steps to follow to achieve a goal, and the technique is the set of procedures of the resources that science uses to reach its end, the technique can be repeated as the researcher considers it so that his work is valid.
In science, method is understood as a set of processes that man must undertake in the investigation and demonstration of the truth.
In this investigation you will be introduced to the different methods and techniques that you did to conduct an investigation with real data.
I. Logical Methods
Definition of research methods: They are the procedures that are applied to achieve the objectives that the researchers propose in their approach to the problem, to achieve their desired goal. The independent method of the object to which it is applied, aims to solve problems.
According to the Dictionary of The Sciences of Education Method comes (from the gr. Méthos, from meta, along, and odós path). It literally means "path that is traveled". Acting with method is the same as ordering events to achieve a goal.
Research methods: according to the dictionary of The Science of Education, it is described as in that it focuses on discovering, justifying and explaining what and how any states of affairs, events and actions have been produced, are produced and / or should be produced.
Historically, it is said that the great methods of thought are: deductive, inductive, analytical (V. analysis), synthetic (V. Synthesis) methods. Lately they have reached great importance: the phenomenological method, historical method, structural method, semiotic method, dialectical method, etc. New modalities of diverse origin and that integrate quantitative and qualitative aspects in research have been successfully incorporated into the field of human and social sciences, semiotic methods, (content analysis).
In research the techniques are specific and have an instrumental character. For example: sampling techniques, questionnaires, interviews, observation, etc. An investigation chooses a method and can apply various techniques.
1.1 Research Methods
There are two broad classes of research methods: logical and empirical methods. The first are all those that are based on the use of thought in its functions of deduction, analysis and synthesis, while empirical methods approach the knowledge of the object through their direct knowledge and the use of experience, among them we find the observation and experimentation.
1.1.1 Deductive Logical Method
Through it, the principles discovered are applied to particular cases, from a link of trials. The role of deduction in research is twofold:
- First it consists of finding unknown principles, starting from the known ones. A law or principle can be reduced to a more general one that includes it. If a body falls we say that it weighs because it is a particular case of gravitation. It also serves to discover unknown consequences, of known principles. If we know that the formula for speed is v = e / t, we can calculate the speed of an airplane. Mathematics is the deductive science par excellence; part of axioms and definitions.
Direct deductive method - immediate inference or conclusion. The judgment of a single premise is obtained, that is, a direct conclusion is reached without intermediaries. Example:
"Books are culture"
"Consequently, some cultural manifestations are books"
Indirect deductive method - inference or mediate-formal conclusion. It needs logical syllogisms, where syllogism is an argument that consists of three propositions, that is, two extremes (premises or terms) are compared with a third to discover the relationship between them. The major premise contains the universal proposition, the minor premise contains the particular proposition, the conclusion results from their comparison. Example:
"The English are punctual"
"William is English"
"Therefore, William is punctual"
1.2 Hypothetical-Deductive Method
The hypothetical deductive method is a description of the scientific method.
Traditionally, from the advances of Roger Bacon, it was considered that science started from the observation of facts and that from this repeated observation of comparable phenomena, the general laws that govern those phenomena were extracted by induction.
Later Karl Popper rejected the possibility of elaborating general laws from induction and argued that in reality these general laws are hypotheses formulated by the scientist, and that the inductive method of interpolation is used to, from these hypotheses, of a general nature to make predictions of individual phenomena.
Central to this conception of the scientific method is the falsifiability of scientific theories, that is, the possibility of being refuted by experimentation. In the hypothetical deductive method, scientific theories can never be claimed to be true, but at most not disproved.
Example of a hypothetical-deductive method.
Spot a problem: Astronomers Adams and Le Verrier discovered in the last century that the planet Uranus did not follow the orbit predicted by Newton's laws.
Formulation of a hypothesis: they assumed that it would be explained because there would be another planet in an outer orbit that with its attraction would produce such irregularities.
Deduction of observable consequences: if such a planet existed it should have such a mass and during the day it should be at such a point in the sky and therefore it should be observed with a telescope.
Experiment: the astronomer Galle who had a powerful telescope actually found the supposed planet that they called Neptune, the hypothesis was confirmed by experience.
1.3 Inductive Logic Method
It is the reasoning that, starting from particular cases, rises to general knowledge. This method allows the formation of hypotheses, investigation of scientific laws, and demonstrations. The induction can be complete or incomplete.
Research techniques is more than anything the collection of data to verify the methods used in the investigation, to reach the truth of the event studied, having the tests and a series of steps that are carried out to verify the hypothesis raised.
Analysts use a methods variable to collect data on an existing situation, such as interviews, questionnaire, inspection of records, and observation. Generally, two or three are used to complement each other's work and help ensure a thorough investigation.
Every experiment must be reproducible, that is, it must be planned and described in such a way that it can be repeated by the experimenter who has the appropriate material.
The results of an experiment can be described using tables, graphs and equations so that they can be easily analyzed and allow finding relationships between them that confirm or not the hypotheses made.
3.1 The Interview
It is a technique to obtain data that consists of a dialogue between two people: The "investigating" interviewer and the interviewee; It is done in order to obtain information from her, who is, in general, a person knowledgeable in the matter of the investigation.
The interview is an ancient technique, as it has long been used in psychology and, since its remarkable development, in sociology and education. In fact, in these sciences, the interview is an indispensable technique because it allows obtaining data that would otherwise be very difficult to obtain.
Interview Employment
- When it is considered necessary that there be interaction and dialogue between the researcher and the person. When the population or universe is small and manageable. Conditions that the interviewer must meet. Must demonstrate self-confidence. Must be at the level of the interviewee; This can be achieved with a good previous preparation of the interviewee on the subject that is going to be discussed with the interviewee. You must be sensitive to capture the problems that may arise. Understand the interests of the interviewee.
When the interview is applied in the previous stages of the investigation where you want to know the object of investigation from an external point of view, without even requiring the deepening of the essence of the phenomenon, the questions to be asked by the interviewer are left at your discretion and experience.
If the interview pursues the objective of acquiring information about the study variables, the interviewer must be clear about the working hypothesis, the variables and relationships that are to be demonstrated; in such a way that an appropriate questionnaire can be elaborated with questions that have a specific purpose and that are essential to clarify the research task, as well as the support questions that help to develop the interview.
When preparing the interview and defining the properties or characteristics to be assessed (dependent or independent variables); It is necessary to establish qualifications, qualitative or quantitative gradations of these properties that allow the dependence between the studied magnitudes to be accurately measured, as well as to calculate the correlation between them by applying methods of mathematical statistics.
The success that is achieved in the interview depends to a great extent on the level of communication that the researcher reaches with the interviewee; the researcher's preparation for the questions to be asked; their structuring; the psychological conditions of the person under investigation; the fidelity at the time of transcribing the responses and the level of confidence that the interviewee has about the non-leakage of the information he is providing; as well as the non-influence of the researcher on the answers offered by the interviewee.
The interview is a technique that can be applied to all types of people, even when they have some type of limitation, such as illiterates, physical and organic limitations, children who have some difficulty that makes it impossible to give a written answer.
You must get rid of prejudices and, where possible, any empathic influence.
3.2 The Survey
The survey is a technique for acquiring information of sociological interest, through a previously prepared questionnaire, through which the opinion or assessment of the selected subject in a sample on a given subject can be known.
In the survey, unlike the interview, the respondent previously reads the questionnaire and answers it in writing, without the direct intervention of any person who collaborates in the research.
Once the questionnaire has been drawn up, the survey does not require qualified personnel when it comes to reaching the respondent.
Unlike the interview, the survey has a logical, rigid structure that remains unchanged throughout the entire investigative process. The answers are chosen in a special way and the possible variants of standard answers are determined in the same way, which facilitates the evaluation of the results by statistical methods.
Types of questions to ask
The researcher must select the most appropriate questions, according to the nature of the research and, above all, considering the level of education of the people who are going to answer the questionnaire.
Classification according to its shape:
- Open
questions Closed questions Dichotomous
questions Multiple-choice questions Fanned
Out Estimation
Classification according to the fund:
- Factual questions Action questions Intention questions Opinion questions Index questions or test questions
3.3 The Questionnaire
The questionnaire is a basic instrument of observation in the survey and in the interview. The questionnaire asks a series of questions that allow one or more variables to be measured.
The questionnaire makes it possible to observe the facts through the assessment that the respondent or interviewee makes of them, limiting the investigation to their subjective assessments.
Despite the fact that the questionnaire is limited to simple observation, by the interviewer or the respondent, it can be massively applied to national and even international communities, being able to obtain information on a wide range of aspects or defined problems.
The structure and character of the questionnaire is defined by the content and form of the questions that are asked of the respondents.
The question in the questionnaire for its content can be divided into two large groups: direct or indirect question.
The direct question: the content of the question coincides with the object of interest of the researcher.
The formulation of the indirect question constitutes one of the most difficult problems in the construction of the surveys.
Direct question example:
Do you like the teaching profession?
Indirect question example:
Would you like your child to choose the profession of teacher?
When constructing the questionnaire, together with the content of the questions, its form must be defined, using the open and closed questionnaire in sociology.
The open question in a survey is one that does not limit the way of answering it, nor are the expected response variants defined. This type of question does not allow the property to be accurately measured, it is only possible to obtain an opinion.
The closed question has its response delimited in advance for a certain number of variants provided by the survey maker.
The most widespread form of question is one whose answer is structured by schemes of comparisons of pairs of values, of sequential categories of values and others.
The pairwise comparison consists in that all the answer variants are made up of two possibilities of which the respondent selects one. This scheme is used when the number of questions is not large and when great precision and fidelity in the answer is required.
Another technique widely applied in the survey is selection, where the respondent chooses from a list of possible answers those that he prefers. Within this technique there are variants: limited selection, where you can choose a certain number of answers, and single selection where you can choose only one possible answer.
The statistical elaboration in this case is simple, where it is reduced to the count of the selection frequency of each response on which the gradation of the attitude shown by the respondents towards the responses is performed.
1. Like any other theory of empirical methods, it is necessary to start from the hypothesis formulated and specifically from the indicators of the variables defined in it, which will be translated into specific questions for the questionnaire.
2. Establish the respondent's need for cooperation; This will depend on whether the individuals participate or not, or whether or not they contribute favorably to the research. Said demand can be made in various ways; It can be done by the interviewer at the time of presenting the survey, it can accompany the questionnaire in writing, it can be requested by phone, by prior letter, etc.
The request for cooperation must contain:
- The value of the information that is requested. That there is no hidden or unconfessed motive in the purpose pursued. Confidential use of the information provided in the survey. How easy and fast the questionnaire can be answered.
3. Questions must be clear
- Each term must be understood. Two questions should not be asked in one. The question should be asked in a positive way. The construction of the response must not induce ambiguous expressions.
4. The questions should not be biased, that is, they should not be made in such a way that they lead the individual to answer in a certain way or that they predispose him in contradiction to his feeling before the question to be answered.
5. Questions should not require a lot of memory effort.
6. When addressing controversial or embarrassing aspects, the questions must be constructed in such a way that they do not constitute a conflict for the subject.
7. The order of the questions must be arranged according to the psychological characteristics of the same.
- In the first place, socio-demographic data such as sex, age, occupation should be asked; then simple general questions that lead you to more complex questions, from the impersonal to the personal.
8. The monotony effect must be counteracted in the response variant. This occurs mainly in closed questionnaires and when the respondent does not feel fully motivated to answer.
9. A final question must be induced that reflects the impression of the person being interviewed regarding the questionnaire.
3.4 The Test
It is a technique derived from the interview and the purpose of the survey is to obtain information on defined personality traits, behavior or certain individual or collective behaviors and characteristics of the person (intelligence, interest, attitudes, skills, performance, memory, manipulation, etc.). Through questions, activities, manipulations, etc., which are observed and evaluated by the researcher.
Millions of theses have been created and developed that fit the researcher's needs or objectives. They are widely used in Psychology (especially Experimental Psychology) in Social Sciences, in education; Currently they are popular for their application in new branches of the Social Sciences, such as "Human Relations" and the Psychology of daily consumption that uses magazines and newspapers to apply them. The Tests constitute an own resource of the scientific evaluation.
Test Features
- There is no perfect Test; It has not been created yet and probably never will be. It must be valid, that is, to investigate what it intends and not something else. "If it is a test designed to investigate the IQ of a group of people". It must be reliable, that is, offer consistency in its results; These must be the same as long as they are applied under identical conditions whoever does it.
The reliability index is what gives the researcher more or less confidence about the use of a certain test. There are universally accepted tables on these indices and she makes us know that no test reaches a 100% reliability index.
- It must be objective, avoiding any risk of subjective interpretation by the researcher. Objectivity is a prerequisite for reliability. It must be simple and clear, written in language easily understood by researchers. It must be economical, both in time and money and effort. It must be interesting, to motivate the interest of researchers.
3.5 Experimental
(By Dr. C. Carlos Álvarez de Zayas.)
The experiment within the empirical methods is the most complex and efficient; This arises as a result of the development of technique and human knowledge, as a consequence of the effort made by man to penetrate the unknown through his transforming activity.
The experiment is the empirical method of studying an object, in which the researcher creates the necessary or adequate conditions for the existing ones, to clarify the properties and relationships of the object, which are useful in research.
The experiment is the activity carried out by the researcher where:
- Isolates the object and the properties under study from the influence of other non-essential factors that may mask its essence in the opinion of the researcher Reproduces the object of study under controlled conditions Modifies the conditions under which the process or phenomenon takes place in a planned way.
The objective of the experiment can be: to clarify certain laws, relationships or detect a certain property in the object; to verify a hypothesis, a theory, a model. The same experiment can be carried out for various purposes.
Experiment is always inextricably linked to theory. In theory the problem is essentially formulated as a theoretical problem, a problem that refers to the idealized object of the theory and that is experienced in order to verify on a dialectical plane, the theoretical concepts belonging to the theory.
The conditions surrounding the object are those natural or artificial conditions created by the researcher under which the experiment is carried out with the appropriate means and instruments for it.
The fact that in the experiment the researcher causes the process or phenomenon that he wishes to address, makes the experimental method present a whole series of advantages over the other empirical methods, these are:
- Separation and isolation of the properties in which it pays attention for its study, from the environment that may influence them. Possibility of studying the process or phenomenon under varied conditions. Reproduce the experiment.
Experimentation in the Scientific Research Process creates the possibility of exhaustively studying the links or relationships between certain aspects of it, and highlighting the conditioning causes of the need for said phenomenon.
conclusion
To conclude with this methodological research work, we emphasize that the methods and technique are part of the research process whatever its problem.
Therefore, for a scientific investigation to be valid, verification is required, this means that there is a foundation, with proof of the investigated facts.
For this, it is necessary to implement methods that go with the problem to be developed and successively the technique to implement and collect more information about the investigation, in order to present the possible solution to the case investigated through the hypotheses raised.
It is important to mention that the researcher can implement three information gathering techniques to make his work more efficient, and can apply as many times as necessary to check.
For which the experiment is required, therefore it has as its aim: to clarify certain laws, relationships or detect a certain property in the object; to verify a hypothesis, a theory, a model.
The same experiment can be carried out for various purposes.
As we can realize, the researcher to carry out his work, will have to follow a procedure, following a series of steps to gather more information and thus his investigation is more real since he will be able to verify his hypothesis raised in his problem by means of the applied techniques.
Bibliography
Asti Vera, (1968) Research Methodology. Kepelusz, Buenos Aires.
López Cano José Luis, (1984) Scientific methods and hypotheses, Mexico.
Marisa Radrigan R. (2005) Research Methodology.
Mayntz, Renate, Holm, Kurt, and Hubner, Peter, (1988) Introduction to the Methods of Empirical Sociology, Madrid, Alianza Universidad.
Roberto Hernández Sampieri, Carlos Fernández Collado, Pilar Baptista Lucio, (1996) Research methodology, Mc Graw Hill, Colombia
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