UNIVERSITY OF NIGERIA NSUKKA SCHOOL OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES

UNIVERSITY OF NIGERIA, NSUKKA SCHOOL OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES Researching in the social sciences and humanities P-J EZEH Department of Sociology & Anthropology peter-jazzy. ezeh@unn. edu. ng +234 803 470 8963

OUTLINE • • • • GOALS AND OBJECTTIVES INTRODUCTION TYPES OF RESEASRCH COMMONALITIES AND DISPARITIES AMONG RESEARCH OPTIONS Conceptualisation Problem Literature Hypotheses Types of Hypotheses Designs Population Sampling INSTRUMENTS CONCLUSION

GOALS AND OBJECTIVES • At the end of the workshop participants will be able to understand options available to them in planning and executing methodologically credible researches in the diverse fields of the social sciences and humanities, which in the University of Nigeria are found in the Faculties of Arts, the Social Sciences, Institute of African Studies, and Education. • They will be able to determine which research options are appropriate to concerns of researchers in humanities and those that are appropriate to the concerns of those researching in the social sciences. • They will also be able describe the basic components of a well designed research and the interconnection among those components in execution of a successful research in their disciplines.

1. INTRODUCTION We may regard all those specializations that are not part of the liberal arts or the natural sciences and which are concerned with the study of the interactions of humans as members of society in some structured observations, experiments, and surveys that are acceptable to members of the discipline as social sciences. These will therefore include, for example, such areas as psychology, economics, mass communication and also many of the subfields of education as a cluster of specializations focusing on production and dissemination of knowledge to learners at all levels of organized learning. Humanities refer to all fields of the liberal arts such as history, philosophy, language studies, and so on. As will become clear afterwards in this discourse, interests in these fields frequently coincide; in which case they become distinguished by the methods that are used in the research. Depending on the demands of particular researches, mixing of these methods may sometimes become necessary. In such a circumstance one of the methods is usually central and the other(s) complementary.

2. TYPES OF RESEARCH • The distinction that is probably most familiar to everybody in this room is that between qualitative and quantitative researches. • We can extend the binaries and in each case finding qualitative on one side and quantitative on the other: idiographic research versus nomothetic research; or hermeneutic research versus positivistic research. • Idiographic research aims at treating each as a self-contained case. A nomothetic research aims at discovering a general or universal law or principle that applies to all cases. • Hermeneutic research aims at interpreting either written texts as such or as ordered social acts as texts. • Positivism is based on the principle that only concrete or directly observable phenomena are fit for intellectual enquiry. It excludes, for example, theological or metaphysical topics.

3. COMMONALITIES AND DISPARITIES AMONG RESEARCH OPTIONS 3. 1 Conceptualisation Without adequate conceptualisation it may not be possible to research a subject in a methodologically credible manner. We may merely enslave the process to the commonsense of the individual. To conceptualise is to choose a term and state in what sense it has been used or intended to be used in a research.

3. 2 Problem • Problem in the methodological context refers to the issue which the research in question proposes to address or has addressed. • Without a clearly identified problem no methodologically valid research may be conducted. If a researcher states his/her problem correctly, s/he is likely to get all other things in the process right. The converse is also true.

3. 3 Literature • Research in all fields in the humanities and the social sciences usually begin by all publications that are available on the topic (cf 4. 7 below). • This serves the purpose of exposing an area of interest that is yet to be addressed, or to use the familiar jargon, a gap in knowledge. • It is this gap in knowledge that the current research usually seems to address. • It may also be the case that the researcher needs instead to replicate the earlier study so as to find out whether the conclusions made there can stand.

3. 4 Hypotheses A hypothesis (plural, hypotheses) is an assumption that is constructed according to methodological rules for purposes of an empirical research.

3. 4. 1 Types of Hypotheses • A hypothesis may be declarative or directional. A declarative hypothesis simply states that relationship exists between the variables that are to be studied. • A directional hypothesis goes beyond mere assertion of a relationship to state in what form such a relationship exists.

3. 5 Designs Design identifies the data-collection strategy a researcher intends to employ or has employed in his/her study.

3. 6 Population The usual definition of a population is an aggregate of units that are being studied. This is also called universe. Such units in characteristic studies in social sciences and humanities are human beings. In pure statistical terms it refers to any elements; things or persons. Usually the population is too large to be studied directly in its entirety. In such a case sampling becomes imperative.

3. 7 Sampling Sample is a representation of a population that is selected for purposes of an empirical study. Sampling is the method for such selection. There are several types of this but broadly two types exist: probabilistic (or random) sampling, and judgmental (or nonprobabilistic, or purposive) sampling.

4. INSTRUMENTS Instruments are the methods that the researcher employs to collect data from the subjects of his/her study. For survey research the commonest is the questionnaire. Interviews, FGDs, observations, and experiments are also used. An instrument is chosen to suit the type of research.

4. 1 Questionnaires A questionnaire is a list of written homogeneous questions designed to be answered by members of a population of a research.

4. 2 Interviews There are varieties of interview of which the following are the commonest: structured interview, unstructured interview, in-depth interview (also called depth interview), short interview, individual interview, and group interview.

4. 5 FGD • The problem here is that some researchers mistake FGD (focus-group discussion) for a group interview. • In an interview, the researcher asks oral questions to the person(s) that is/are being interviewed; in a focusgroup discussion, participants debate points that are proposed by the researcher who also moderates such a discussion making sure that he/she provides the levelplaying ground that is needed for an equitable competition of views among the participants.

4. 6 Observations • Observations are also of several types. Apart from participant observation that are used in anthropology, there are variants that are used in such fields as geography, psychology, and various fields in education and humanities.

4. 7 Documents/Publications Documents can be used in some selfcontained form as a free-standing study on its own. This is what happens in numerous studies in the various subfields of linguistics and in literary studies.

5. CONCLUSION I hope that I have been able to offer adequate prodding to spur students to read more on the topics that have been raised. This seems the most practical option in a workshop as short as our own. In any event, research methodology is a vast dynamic field anyone who takes research seriously should also make following up on the developments in this field a lifelong pursuit.

Exercise 1. Give an example of research problem using your own field? 2. Why may the rest of a research plan fail if a statement of problem is wrong?