I d MRC Social Research Methods Autumn Lecture-Workshop Series

1. IdMRC Social Research MethodsAutumn Lecture-Workshop Series

2. Science • Aim? • When is knowledge scientific knowledge? • Criteria? • Knowledge sources? • When is research scientific research? Henri Christiaans

3. Science • Realism What we observe is real • Instrumentalism What we observe doesn’t need to be real • Social constructivism Theories only get meaning through social and political context

4. What is Knowledge? • Justified true belief (Plato’s Theaetetus) • The Greeks classify knowledge into 2 types: • Doxa (believed to be true) • Episteme (known to be true) • Doxa  Epistime • Through Scientific process of inquiry • How do we know what we know? • Define knowledge alternatively • Supported by evidence (usually empirical) • Conceive knowledge claims in a probabilistic sense • Knowledge is a matter of societal acceptance

5. How is Knowledge Acquired? • Role of science, where science is a convention, related to societal norms, expectations, values, etc. • Thus, is science equals any scholarly attempt at acquiring knowledge • Science requires conventions to be followed

6. How is Knowledge Acquired? • Role of science, where science is a convention, related to societal norms, expectations, values, etc. • Thus, is science equals any scholarly attempt at acquiring knowledge • Science requires conventions to be followed

7. Knowledge in design • Implicit prioritisation of the (language-based mode of) propositional knowledge (justified true beliefs) seems to exclude certain kinds or formats of knowledge associated with practice, which are often called practical, experiential, personal, or tacit knowledge and which evade verbal articulation.

8. Knowledge sources • Observation • Experiments/measurements • The Reason • Mathematics/logical reasoning • Intuition • Authority • (Divine) Revelation

9. Science based on empirism Empirism: Knowledge derived from how the world is experienced. Scientific statements are controlled by and derived from our experiences and observations. en Scientific theoriesdeveloped and tested by experiments and observations through empirical methods

10. Questions to be asked • Which methods do we plan to use? • Which methodology defines the use of methods? • Which theoretical perspective do we start from in order to apply the right methodology? • Which epistemology feeds this theoretical perspective?

11. Ontology 1. A systematic account of Existence. Nature of the world around us. 2. (From philosophy) An explicit formal specification of how to represent the objects, concepts and other entities that are assumed to exist in some area of interest and the relationships that hold among them. 3. The hierarchical structuring of knowledge about things by subcategorising them according to their essential (or at least relevant and/or cognitive) qualities.

12. Epistemology and ontology The way of understanding and interpreting how we know what we know. Particular methodologies tend to entail (subscribe to) particular epistemologies and, in their turn, particular forms of ontology

13. Ontology in Computing Terms • For AI systems, what "exists" is that which can be represented. • We can describe the ontology of a program by defining a set of representational terms. Definitions associate the names of entities in the universe of discourse (e.g. classes, relations, functions or other objects) with human-readable text describing what the names mean, and formal axioms that constrain the interpretation and well-formed use of these terms. Formally, an ontology is the statement of a logical theory. • A set of agents that share the same ontology will be able to communicate about a domain of discourse without necessarily operating on a globally shared theory. The idea of ontological commitment is based on the Knowledge-Level perspective.

14. Epistemology • From the Greek words episteme (knowledge) and logos (word/speech) is the branch of philosophy that deals with the nature, origin and scope of knowledge. • Refers to our theory of knowledge, in particular, how we acquire knowledge (Hirschheim, 1992).

15. Research background Crotty, 1998

16. Research background

17. Theoretical perspective Philosophical point of view which feeds the methodology and offers a context for the process and the logics, and gives our criteria a basis. Cultural differences play a role

18. Research background Crotty, 1998

19. Three Main Epistemologies Positivist Interpretivist Critical

20. Interpretivism • Interpretivism rests upon idealism: • the world is interpreted through the mind; e.g., classificatory schemes of species; • the social world cannot be described without investigating how people use language and symbols to construct what social practices; i.e., understand their experience; • the social world becomes the creation of the purposeful actions of conscious agents; and • no social explanation was complete unless it could adequately describe the role of meanings in human actions • Actions are not governed by discrete patterns of cause and effect (as in positivism), but by rules that social actors use to interpret the world

21. Positivist Science • 5 Pillars • Unity of scientific method • Causal Relationships • Empiricism • Science and its process is Value-Free • Foundation of science is based on logic and maths

22. Ontology of Positivism • Realism • Universe comprised of objectively given, immutable objects and structures, existing as empirical entities, on their own, independent of the observer’s appreciation of them. • Contrasts with relativism or instrumentalism, where reality is a subjective construction of the mind, thus varying with different languages and cultures. • While hugely successful in physical sciences, it is not as successful for social science.

23. Anti-Positivism • Latter part of 19th century • Man as an actor could not be studied through the methods of natural sciences that focus on establishing general laws. In the cultural sphere man is free (Burrell and Morgan, 1979)

24. Post-Positivism • Based on the concept of critical realism, that there is a real world out there independent of our perception of it and that the objective of science is to try and understand it, • combined with triangulation, i.e., the recognition that observations and measurements are inherently imperfect and hence the need to measure phenomena in many ways. • The post-positivist epistemology regards the acquisition of knowledge as a process that is more than mere deduction. Knowledge is acquired through both deduction and induction.

25. Simon versus Schon Designer Designer subjective Interpretation objective Analysis Objective Analysis design Problem design Solution Design Task (= problem + situation+ teime) design Solution Rational Solving Problem Paradigm Reflection in Action Paradigm Rationalist Root Constructivist Root POSITIVISM PHENOMENOLOGY

26. Methodology Our strategy and action plans, the design process which defines what specific methods we will choose

27. Research background Crotty, 1998

28. Types of Research Analytical Historical Philosophical Literature study Meta-analysis ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Descriptive Survey(questionnaire, interview) Case study Task analysis Document analysis Correlation anal. Observation Etnographics ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Explorative Survey Correlational Case study Experimental ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Experimental Pre-experimental True-experimental Quasi-experimental -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

29. Ethnographics

30. Types of research methods empirical participatory quantitative prescriptive inductive idiographic nomothetic descriptive deductive unbiased qualitative rational

31. induction hypotheses describing/ interpreting generalising modelling Explaining/ interpreting theory modelling specifying evaluation deduction prediction evaluating testing testing Fundamental Research: the Empirical cycle knowledge problem ‘t Hart c.s.

32. diagnosis describing/ interpreting generalising modelling designing problem from practice plan (problem solving) deciding evaluating intervention evaluation action-process supporting observing process evaluation Practice oriented Research: The regulative cycle ‘t Hart c.s.

33. Method The technique to gather data, related to the research question.

34. Research background Crotty, 1998

35. Qualitative Positivist Research versus Non-Qualitative Positivist Research

36. Type of Research, General Research Approaches, Data Collection Techniques, & Data Analysis Techniques

37. Design-Led Design-Led Critical Design generativetools Probes Design and Emotion User-centered Design Participatory Design Participatory mindset Expert mindset contextual enquiry Lead-user inovation Dutch/Scandinavian design Usability testing applied ethnography Human factors and ergonomics Sanders, 2002 Research-Led Research-Led

38. Design-Led Design-Led Critical Design generativetools Probes Design and Emotion User-centered Design Participatory Design Participatory mindset Expert mindset contextual enquiry Lead-user inovation Dutch/Scandinavian design Usability testing applied ethnography Human factors and ergonomics Sanders, 2002 Research-Led Research-Led

39. Research background Crotty, 1998

40. Definitions • ‘Research’ = the systematic inquiry to the end of gaining new knowledge • a ‘researcher’ = a person who pursues research (e.g., in design). • Practice’ = professional practice (e.g., in design) or to processes usually used in professional practice to produce professional work for any purpose other than the (deliberate) acquisition of knowledge. • ‘Practitioner’ = anyone who works in professional practice.

41. Design Knowledge Process (design methodology) product people designers

42. Design knowledge • Design knowledge resides firstly in people: in designers especially. Therefore, we study human ability - of how people design. This suggests, for example, empirical studies of design behaviour, but it also includes theoretical deliberation and reflection on the nature of design ability. It also relates strongly to considerations of how people learn to design

43. Design knowledge • Design knowledge resides firstly in people: in designers especially. Therefore, we study of human ability - of how people design. This suggests, for example, empirical studies of design behaviour, but it also includes theoretical deliberation and reflection on the nature of design ability. It also relates strongly to considerations of how people learn to design. • Design knowledge resides secondly in processes: in the tactics and strategies of designing. A major area of design research is methodology: the study of the processes of design, and the development and application of techniques which aid the designer.

44. Design knowledge • Design knowledge resides firstly in people: in designers especially. Therefore, we study of human ability - of how people design. This suggests, for example, empirical studies of design behaviour, but it also includes theoretical deliberation and reflection on the nature of design ability. It also relates strongly to considerations of how people learn to design • Design knowledge resides secondly in processes: in the tactics and strategies of designing. A major area of design research is methodology: the study of the processes of design, and the development and application of techniques which aid the designer. • The product dimension asks for forms and materials, and finishes with the embodiment of design attributes: both the intentional world (teleological and functional –wishes and needs–) in relation with the principal, partial and elementary function and the man’s connection with the systemic formal and material part (structure, organization, parts and connections).

45. Design Research

46. Design Research

47. Design Research