Introduction
Empirical research is a set of various procedures within the framework of scientific activity aimed at obtaining reliable information about the subject of research: a process or phenomenon. The research technology answers the question of how to get the data; the data itself answers the question of what was obtained in the study. When choosing the type of research, it is worth being guided by the chosen goal and the tasks that need to be performed to achieve this goal.
Research process
Social Studies
The term refers to academic research on topics related to issues in the social sciences, such as sociology, human geography, social policy, politics, and criminology (Bryman, 2012:5). It reveals the diversity and essence of various social phenomena and problems to improve the effective functioning of society.
Inductive Approach
The inductive method characterizes the path of cognition from the fixation of experimental data and their analysis to their systematization, generalizations, and general conclusions drawn on this basis (Bryman, 2012:27). This method consists of transitioning from some ideas about certain phenomena and processes to others – more prevalent and often more profound.
Interpretive Paradigm
It is an approach to the social sciences that argues that understanding people’s beliefs, motives, and reasoning in a social situation is necessary to decipher the meaning of the data gathered around a phenomenon (Bryman, 2012:28). It is aimed at learning more about different cultures, studying their customs, religious beliefs, ways of behavior, politics, and economics.
Epistemology
Based on certain ideals of knowledge and types of rationality, naturalistic, humanitarian, and social directions have been formed in epistemology, in which there are different interpretations of the subject-object relationship, cognition, knowledge, and various aspects of cognition are considered. In a narrow sense, epistemology looks at knowledge and justified belief (Bryman, 2012:27).
Ontology
Questions of social ontology concern the nature of social entities. The ontological criteria of sociological understanding are knowledge about society, social interactions, and their manifestations and embodiments (Bryman, 2012:32). The question of the place and significance of human individuals in the structures of social existence grows as it begins to be interpreted more and more as a process.
Grounded theory
It is a systematic methodology for building theory based on data analysis. The theory is created, developed, and verified in different conditions through the systematic collection and analysis of data related to the phenomenon under study (Bryman, 2012: 567). That can alienate the researcher from the reality that is present in fact.
Why are ethical issues important in social research?
Many aspects of the professional activity of a sociologist require unique transactions between certain values and depend on specific situations. Ethical problems that arise in the course of research are always dilemmas and conflicts. Any researcher, including a social one, has several obligations towards their colleagues, clients, and respondents. First of all, one must adhere to ethical standards so as not to undermine one’s own prestige and not reduce the credibility of the information collected. Ethics allows readers to evaluate whether a particular action of the researcher is correct or not, whether it can be classified as ‘good’ or ‘bad.’
Qualitative research
Convenient Sampling
When forming a probabilistic sample, such a selection of observations is ensured that the included example is representative of the general population. Representativeness is the property by which a piece recreates all the essential characteristics of the people. One of the first tasks of sample research is the transition from the object of study to the sample population. When using possibility selection methods, all possible subjects in the population have some chance of being included in the sample. Researchers can even figure out the mathematical probability of choosing one of them. They can calculate sampling error, the degree to which the model may differ from the actual population.
Targeted Sampling
Purposeful sampling – a sample in which typical or otherwise especially characterized representatives are selected. In social research, purposeful sampling is used when the researcher has prior knowledge (expert knowledge) about the studied population. Units, in this case, are selected from it based on the researcher’s personal (but justified) belief that they will be the most informative and that their study will best meet the research task. Purposeful sampling is a selection in which specific conditions, people, or cases are specially selected to obtain important information that cannot be obtained otherwise.
Data Collection
Semi-Structured Interviews
This term includes a large volume of individual cases. It refers to a context where the interviewer has a series of questions that are the general form of the interview plan, but the sequence of the questions may vary. These questions, often repeated, are somewhat general within the subjects to which they relate rather than typically justified and built into a structured interview plan (Marshall & Rossman, 2015:73). In addition, usually, the interviewer has a particular zone of space when asking additional questions in response to replicas that are significant in his opinion. This method can provide more personalized and comprehensive answers.
Critical Reflection
Any research involves analyzing a specific problem and developing measures to solve it. To determine how effective the method chosen by the author is, they resort to Critical Reflection of the material to emphasize its specifics. This technique helps to identify the strengths and weaknesses of scientific work, determine the author’s precise sequence of actions, and clarify the effectiveness of the proposed measures (Denzin & Lincoln, 2018:25). This requires critical thinking in order to recognize, analyze, and act on the ethically important points of research (Denzin & Lincoln, 2018:279). Thus, it is a theoretical position that favors practice and method over reflection and deliberate action.
Case Study
A case study is a qualitative research method used to study contemporary real-life situations and apply the findings to the problem. Case studies involve comprehensive contextual analysis of a restricted number of events or conditions and their relationships. That provides a basis for applying ideas and extending methods. It helps the researcher understand a complex problem or object and strengthens what is already known from previous research.
Historical case studies involve the reconstruction and consideration of an individual case as integral and unique in other historical conditions. The history of library practice appears to be a multi-event one. At the same time, it is assumed that all connections between events are folded in each individual case and can be realized at any other time (Thomas, 2021:37). It includes both implemented in past years and not implemented for several historical reasons.
The case study has been mainly used in the social sciences, psychology, anthropology, and ecology. This research method is especially useful for testing theoretical models and using them in real situations. Case studies are used in design studies to analyze a phenomenon, generate hypotheses, and test a method (Denzin et al., 2011:302). While they are widely used, there does not seem to be a universally accepted systematic case study method used by design researchers. Given its nature and purpose, the case study method may be an appropriate method for conducting design studies (Ebneyamini and Sadeghi Moghadam, 2018:2). Design researchers often have faced questions about the validity of using case studies and their results.
According to many authors, the single-case method allows one to generate new hypotheses and empirically study theoretical constructs. It even tests for the presence of causal relationships between variables (Hancock, 2021:44). An essential advantage of the method is its ability to more closely correlate research and practical techniques to detect the effectiveness of one or another effect that is exerted on a person.
Despite the effectiveness of the discussed method, in relation to the identically named plan of empirical research – the technique of analyzing a single case – it was assigned to the group of pre-experimental programs, which, due to the decrease in experimental control, are characterized by a low level of validity of the study. However, normative indicators are often used to study a single case, which can be not only one person but a special group of people as well (Tomasello, 2018:11). For example, when conducting a pathopsychological experiment – indicators of mentally healthy people. The case study is probably one of the most criticized social research methods. Despite being stereotyped as a weak, inaccurate, objective, and less rigorous method, it is widely used in a wide variety of areas, including design research. A case study can be defined as an empirical research method used to study a contemporary phenomenon, focusing on the dynamics of a case in the context of its real life.
The essence of the case method used in various fields of science is that it gives an idea of a decision or a set of decisions and describes why these conclusions were made, how they were executed, and what result they led to. The research model allows one to decide what questions to study, what data to collect, and how to analyze the results (Roberts et al., 2019:2). To do this, one needs to define:
- purpose of the study;
- a period of time;
- object of study (organization/department, individual/group, one event/process);
- geographical position;
- case type;
- methods of collecting, processing, analyzing, and interpreting data.
Despite the long tradition of conducting research using this method in the United States, a relatively large number of American scientists are still not inclined to consider it an independent research method. Thus, they argue that the regulation of the process of cognition carried out by this method is practically no different from the regulation provided by other methods of participant observation and examination (Dobber et al., 2017:51). Other experts deny the originality of the process consider it a kind of quasi-experiment. The point of view has also become widespread, according to which the case study method is not scientific, since when using it, the researcher does not have the ability to measure the events studied in cases multidimensionally but is based mainly on a subjective assessment of the information collected.
The process of conducting a case study includes the stages that are traditional for any scientific research: defining the goal and objectives, collecting, analyzing, and interpreting the data obtained, and preparing a report on the study. The uniqueness of case studies as an independent study was the reason for the introduction of the term case study method into scientific circulation. Yet, despite various critical statements, the number of case studies conducted in multiple fields of science is increasing, and the position of this method as a qualitative research method is becoming more and more solid.
Conclusion
In an empirical study, researchers test the subjects, process the test results by keys, and enter them into a source data table. Then, this data is processed by statistical programs, and the results of correlation analysis or the result of the analysis of differences are obtained. Based on the results of statistical calculations, conclusions are drawn about the relationship between the indicators or the differences in the indicators in the groups of subjects.
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