Short-answer questions
Answer each question carefully. Consult your Social Research text when
your memory fails you or when you are in doubt about the accuracy of your
responses.
1
What is positivism and in which ways did it influence the course of social
research?
2
What were the main reasons that motivated researchers to opt for positivism?
3
What were the main reasons that motivated researchers to turn away from
positivism?
4
In what ways were previous research models different from the positivistic
model?
5
What are the major types of social research?
6
How can research be used or misused in modern societies?
7
In what ways and to what extent has ideology influenced the form, type and
outcomes of social research?
8
What are the main aims of social research?
9
What are the limitations of social research?
10 What
is the essence of the debate about ethics in social research?
11 In
which areas of research is ethics relevant?
12 What
are the areas in which research can violate the code of ethics?
13 How
can politics affect research, the choice of research topic and research
outcomes?
14 Why is research evidence considered to be more
credible than authority? Isn't the opinion of people in authority based on
research evidence?
15 How much of the 'truth' is reason and logic? Is
conventional research free of reason and logic?
16 What is the use of 'empirical' evidence if it is
outside what ordinary people believe in and which guides their behaviour?
17 Ethical
standards require that social researchers maintain objectivity in the conduct of
social inquiry. How binding is this ethical requirement within research
paradigms (for example, qualitative and feminist research) which in principle
reject objectivity?