Kerlinger (1986,p.10), defines research as the systematic, controlled and critical investigation of natural phenomena guided by theory and hypothesis about the presumed relations among phenomena. Simply, it is the application of the scientific method to seek solutions to problems.
With this definition, you are brought face-to-face with theory which is a set of interrelated propositions and constructs (concepts) that present a systematic view of phenomena by specifying relations among variables with the purpose of explaining and predicting the phenomena (Kidder, Selltiz, Wrightman and Cook, 1981,p.9).
An example of theory is one that points out the positive relation between leadership and management behavior and formal training in management. This relation, however, does not always hold true. The author's doctoral dissertation (Fonollera, 1990, p.138) and other studies she cited revealed that formal training in management has no significant influence on the leadership and management effectiveness of a person. (Pambid, 1989, p.98).
A hypothesis is also introduced here and defined as a conjectural statement, a tentative proposition about the relation between two or more phenomena or variables (Kerlinger, 1986,p.11).
Selltiz and Jahoda et al (1959,p.479) opined that research bridges the gap between the theoretical (what one thinks) and the experiential (what actually happens) domains. The theoretical pole consists of the researcher's speculations about reality; the empirical pole contains the basic elemensts of what is actually happening in reality, in social groups and the individual.
In order to be answerable by research, the questions must have one characteristic in common. They must be such that observation or experimentation in the natural world can provide the needed information. The scientific approach has a characteristic that no other method of attaining knowledge has: self-correction.
There are built-in checks all along the way to scientific knowledge. These checks are so considered and used that they control and verify scientific activities and conclusions to the end of attaining dependable knowledge... Scientists do not accept statements as true, even though the evidence at first looks promising. They insist upon testing them. They also insist that the testing procedure be open to public inspection (Kerlinger,p.264).
When you are doing research, you should not be contented with the initial findings. Go deeper using other methods and research designs, increasing samples or changing research instruments. This is why you have to make and intensive and extensive review of literature to be able to discern vacuums in the field in which one is interested to spend time, money and effort to investigate on.
Research is the manner in which we attempt to solve problems in a systematic effort to push back the frontiers of human ignorance or to confirm reality of the solutions to problems which other have presumably resolved (Leedy, 1986,p.9). Ultimately, research is a way of thinking; a way of looking at accumulated facts so that these data become meaningful in the total process of discovering new insights and revealing new meanings.
The checks used in scientific research are anchored as much as possible in reality lying outside the scientist's personal beliefs, biases, values, attitudes and emotions. The best single word is objectivity... which is the agreement among "expert" judges on what is observed or what is to be done or has been done in research (Buchler, 1955, p.1). But the scientific approach involves more than this. More dependable knowledge is attained because science ultimately appeals to evidence. Theory helps the scientists to attain greater objectivity.
Scientists systematically and consciously use the self corrective aspect of the scientific approach (Polanyi, 1958, p.5).
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