General Process of Social Research:

Owned by Darlene Edgar
Nov 25, 2023
2 min read

Research Topic Selection:

  1. Researchers are driven by personal interests, experiences, values, previous research, funding opportunities, or collaborations.

  2. Use a checklist to select a topic: general interest, feasibility, project worthiness, emotional connection, need for research.

  3. Conduct a literature review for a comprehensive overview and to narrow down the topic, establishing a research direction.

Creating a Research Space (CARS) Model:

4. Establish a territory, describe the gap, identify how your research will occupy the gap.

  1. Be cautious about framing research as filling a gap; instead, consider contributing to the gap.

Literature Review Process:

6. Use relevant databases and keywords for effective searches.

  1. Consider corollary literature to expand perspectives.

  2. Address undercitation of women and BIPOC scholars, citing with intention for diversity.

Literature Review Checklist:

9. Considerations for selecting literature include relevance, quality, recentness, diversity of scholarship.

  1. Stop collecting literature at the saturation point where new sources no longer contribute.

Reading and Annotating Sources:

11. Read, annotate, and summarize each source.

  1. Keep a record of citations for proper attribution.

Synthesizing and Writing the Literature Review:

13. Use visual tools like literature maps for synthesis.

  1. Demonstrate how your research contributes to the literature gap.

  2. Thematically present theoretical perspectives and provide a general overview.

Research Purpose Statement:

16. Develop a research purpose statement after refining the research topic.

  1. Examples for different research approaches: quantitative, qualitative, mixed methods, arts-based, community-based participatory.

Variables in Research:

18. Understand categorical and continuous variables.

  1. Define and control extraneous variables and covariates.

Hypotheses in Research:

20. Construct operational definitions and questions for variables.

  1. Null, directional, and nondirectional hypotheses are used.

Research Questions:

22. Research questions guide the project and must be researchable.

  1. Quantitative questions are deductive, while qualitative questions are inductive.

  2. Mixed methods questions combine quantitative and qualitative aspects.

Arts-Based and Community-Based Participatory Research Questions:

25. Arts-based questions are inductive and emphasize experiential knowledge.

  1. Community-based participatory research questions are inclusive, open-ended, and power-sensitive, accounting for various stakeholders.