Objectivity in Social Research: A Critical Analysis

Introduction. Part One: Approaches to Social Research 1. Social research Controversy 1: Can there be Objectivity in Social Research? 2. Scientific social research Controversy 2: Macho, Mourner, Freedom-Fighter or Thug? 3. Interpretative social research Part Two: Techniques for Collecting Information Controversy 3: The Choices within Research Design 4. Samples, cases and response Controversy 4: What Really went on under the Banyan Trees? 5. Observation Controversy 5: The Never-ending Nature-Nurture Debate 6. Questions Controversy 6: Class Size in Primary Schools 7. Variations on the experiment Controversy 7: Burt Rumbles on 8. Reinforcing the evidence Part Three: Personal, Professional and Political Influences Controversy 8: Suffer the Little Children 9. The author in time and place Controversy 9: The Publication of Piaget 10. The publication of research Controversy 10: The Effectiveness of Schools 11. The limitations and scope of social research References. Index.

The author addresses the potential of a multiple-methods approach in human geography, an approach to social research which has received little explicit attention in the geographical literature to date. The relationship between epistemology and methodology is outlined, and the similarities and differences between quantitative and qualitative methods are described. Some problems surrounding subjectivity and objectivity in social research are also discussed. In addition, the relationship between methods and to whom the research is communicated is considered. It is hoped that the paper will stimulate future discussion both of the theoretical implications and of the practical use of a mixed-methods approach in human geography.

Over the years the research endeavours in social sciences have been directed towards producing profound discoveries about humankind and the society they live in. Now-a-days qualitative research has been flourishing in many fields of the social sciences. Rapid social change and the resulting diversification of life scenarios are increasingly confronting social researchers with new social contexts and perspectives. There is a specific relevance for qualitative research to the study of social contexts and life situations. This has lead to the development of several social theories and social research methods which have still continued to develop in order to understand the diverse social problems. The challenge for social scientists and researchers worldwide is to continue in the search for a unified consensus on what methodology is to be adopted for research for meeting the emerging diverse needs of humankind and the society. This thought has led to the proliferation of pluralism or multi-method research in which the researcher synthesizes multiple research methodologies in order to study social problems in a holistic way. This concept of pluralism in research has to a greater extend subverted methodological tribalism which had existed till the recent past. This paper focuses on the philosophical assumptions as guidelines to research paradigms have influenced the development of social research theory and social research methods towards pluralism. This paper intends to explore pluralism in qualitative Social Science researches as it may be applied methodologically and philosophically. In this context, the paper heeds a thought on refocusing pluralistic qualitative research in terms of its needs and demands based on the level and depth of the study undertaken. Key Terms: Qualitative research, methodological pluralism, research paradigms, philosophical assumptions

This study explores foundations of qualitative social work research. A template-based review was completed on 100 articles from social work journals. Reviewers examined five things: (1) purpose or aims of research, (2) rationale or justification for work, (3) populations studied, (4) presence of four markers (addressing theory, paradigm, reflexivity, and power dynamics), and (5) implications presented. Results underscore exploratory nature of qualitative social work research; authors were most likely to use word explore and least likely to use term to describe their aims. The most common rationale given for research was a gap in literature (77%), followed by severity or extent of problem (50%). Authors emphasized perspectives of respondents, who were most likely to be social work practitioners (39%) or clients (28%). Among markers examined, authors were most likely to mention use of theory (55%) and a research paradigm (51%) and least likely to apply reflexivity (16%) or acknowledge power dynamics inherent in research (7%). Finally, authors were most likely to identify practice implications in their work (90%), followed by research (60%), theory (38%), and policy (29%). KEY WORDS: epistemology; qualitative methods; research methods; social work research; theory Social inquiry is shaped by epistemology of researcher, his or her underlying assumptions about process of knowing (Denzin, 2002). Epistemology may be seen as theories of knowledge that justify knowledge-building process that is actively or consciously adopted by (Carter & Little, 2007; Pascale, 2010). These assumptions guide our decisions about topics, research questions, theories, methods, analyses, and conclusions and help us evaluate knowledge contributions of published work (Carter & Little, 2007; Hesse-Biber & Leavy, 2011; Pascale, 2010). Koch and Hamngton (1998) recognized that bring to research product, data generated, a range of literature, a positioning of this literature, a positioning of oneself, and moral socio-political contexts (p. 882). Examining ways our social locations shape our process of knowing can help us understand why certain questions get asked and answered, examine how values shape observation (Pascale, 2010; Takacs, 2003, p. 37). Anastas (2004) noted that researcher's epistemology affects kind of scholarly work done, how one values scholarship and understands its political import, and how one situates oneself in relation to work. Marshall and Rossman (2006) noted importance of epistemological integrity, in which authors account for logical and compelling connections between genre, overall strategy, research questions, design, and (p. 55). Researchers demonstrate their engagement with work through explicit discussion of their research paradigm or inquiry tradition, which is fundamental for rigorous qualitative research (Anastas, 2004; Marshall & Rossman, 2006). Qualitative research should reveal a consistency and integrity of approach that is easily recognized by reader and reviewer (Padgett, 2009, p. 102). Given importance of epistemology to research endeavor, social work researchers must make explicit decisions made in process of inquiry if they are serious about contributing to knowledge base of profession. As Padgett pointed out, the burden of proof is on researcher (p. 102) to be accountable to readers regarding underlying assumptions and logic of our work. We focus our discussion on epistemology as research praxis that contributes to development of knowledge in our field. Our aim in this section of article is to discuss practice of epistemology to support social work researchers using qualitative methods to think and write more explicitly about foundations of our work. …

Digital features like virtual reality have hardly been used in the framework of data collection in qualitative social work research. Virtual reality holds specific promise because it allows the immersion of participants in a situation and has the potential to strengthen the ecological validity of data. In this light, we examined the use of a virtual reality serious game in qualitative in-person interviews in the framework of a prevention-oriented HIV social research project. We designed and developed an immersive virtual reality serious game, and integrated it into 24 problem-centred in-person interviews. The integration was feasible, and the virtual reality serious game was well accepted. It prompted participants to elaborate their lived experiences more extensively and in depth. Participants subsequently recalled episodes they had not mentioned before, complemented their narratives and brought up new topics. The atmosphere became less formal, and participants were even more communicative. The use of virtual reality seems to have the potential to open up new perspectives, broaden epistemic possibilities and complement the qualitative methods used to investigate, in particular, verbal and non-verbal communication and interaction processes. From an ethical perspective, the use of virtual reality should be well reflected upon regarding possible after-effects for the participants.

The purpose of this paper is discussing the main issues in conceptualizing reliability and validity between qualitative and quantitative research approaches. The researcher examined the arguments about validity and reliability in inquiry methodology and identified three main debates primarily in qualitative research. The first one was about qualitative inquirers’ limited emphasis on the data collection process to increase the robustness of their research efforts. Most of the strategies in qualitative research (e.g. peer debriefing, member check, audit trail) are used after completing the data collection procedures. Another important discussion in social inquiry was about what valid research means in qualitative paradigm. There are various interpretations of what validity is in qualitative research. This is due to epistemological grounds of qualitative research. Qualitative research does not accept a single truth. Reality is not fixed in qualitative research. It is concerned with cooperation of the multiple constructed realities to reach the contextual truth. The third debate reported in the literature was the discussion about reliability in qualitative research. It is evident that replication of any qualitative methods will not release the same results due to changing contextual conditions. Even though reliability has a long history in inquiry methodology discussions, some qualitative inquirers claim that reliability is not an appropriate concept for qualitative inquiry.

Contents: Introduction Part I Perspectives on Social Work Research: Cutting edge issues in social work research Is social work distinctive? Ways of knowing in social work Rereading The Jack Roller: hidden histories in sociology and social work William J. Reid: an appreciation. Part II Evaluation: Social work and the human services Evidence from qualitative evaluation Seeing the trees for the wood: the politics of evaluating in practice Evaluation for a learning organization? Part III Qualitative Research: Qualitative social work: a room with a view Qualitative research and outcomes in health, social work and education Ethics and the practice of qualitative research Constructing causal accounts in social work The consequences of qualitative social work research Unbroken voices: children, young people and qualitative methods. Part IV Research, Theory and Practice: The quality of mercy: the management of quality in the personal social services Game plans, buzzes and sheer luck: doing well in social work Practitioner evaluation at work Evaluating in practice Culture and the indigenisation of quality in Third World social research. Part V Service Users and Research: Consumer opinion and social policy: a research review Consumer evaluations of the personal social services Engaging the user: participation, empowerment and the rhetoric of quality Just inquiry? Research and evaluation for service users Users and practitioners' research Indexes.

Greetings to readers as we start a new year for Qualitative Social Work. Last year saw an increase in papers to the Journal and as our readership continues to grow, the value of qualitative research for social work is confirmed. However, there is no room for complacency and if we are to ensure that the Journal continues to thrive, it is important to remain abreast of changes in the world of qualitative research and social research more generally. So, this brings me to consider the issue of innovation in this new year editorial. For readers familiar with writing or reviewing grant applications, claims by academics that their work is novel or innovative are all very familiar. As Taylor and Coffey described in 2009, pressures stemming from funding councils and publishers encourage academics to state and indeed over-state the cutting edge nature of their work. Writing in 2015, it seems that claims to innovation are now endemic and if we examine the mission of the UK’s major social science research funding council – the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) – the word innovation is never far from the Council’s funding calls, strategy statements or impact case studies. In the Council’s research funding guide, applicants must pay attention to impact, innovation and interdisciplinarity. The Council’s conceptualisation of innovation is broad, to include: ‘innovative or even untested methods’, through to research which challenges ‘existing paradigms in respect of research ethics’ (ESRC, 2015). So what exactly is meant by innovation and to what extent is new invention better than old? In response to the latter question, critics differ in their opinion. For example, there are those who consider that innovative methods simply represent the latest fads, leaving unresolved the long-standing challenges in qualitative research (Travers, 2009). The problem of fad is that where we fetishise the novel we may inadvertently recast tried and tested methodologies as dated, or at worse obsolete. Traditional ethnography and conventional methods of qualitative interviewing have been so vital to our understanding of the social world, we must resist casting such methods as old hat (Wiles et al., 2011). Critics have also argued that claims to innovation are frequently overstated and can amount to little more than Qualitative Social Work 2016, Vol. 15(1) 3–10 ! The Author(s) 2016 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/1473325015619822 qsw.sagepub.com

Interpretivism is a research paradigm that is associated with qualitative research.A tradition of Interpretivism can be linked to the ethnographies of non-western peoples in the 19th century and continues to be a popular way to explain human behaviour and social phenomenon today.The interpretivist view invites the researcher to investigate meaning behind the understanding of human behaviour, interactions and society.This involves the researcher attempting to develop an in-depth subjective understanding of people's lives.The difference between the natural sciences and social sciences is that the natural sciences requires the researcher to observe and interpret natural processes but the social sciences requires the researcher to observe a phenomenon and understand the interpretations that individuals have already made.Social work research aims to explain human behavior and social phenomenon and not to focus on isolating and objectively measuring variables or on developing generalizations.Social work research requires a focus on gaining an empathic understanding of an individual's feelings and the meaning that they give to everyday life with the goal to gaining greater understanding of the individual's behavior.For this reason, interpretive research is well suited to social work research.In this introductory paper, the authors present the validity of interpretive research and the value of using it in social work research.

Qualitative social science research is fundamentally embedded in grounded theory concerned with how the social world is interpreted, realized, understood and experienced, or produced. Qualitative investigation seeks answers to their questions in the realistic world. They congregate what they see, hear and read from the people and places and from events and activities and their main purpose are to learn about some aspects of the social world and to generate new understandings that can be used by that social world. The main objective of this study is the interpretation of social world especially of cultures and people’s life-ways rather than seeking causal explanations for social-cultural practices. Nevertheless, in very rapidly changing information dominated globalized world, innovative traditions of the perception of emerging local and global contexts and realities need to be exposed and accepted as well as practiced in qualitative social science research. Janapriya Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies, Vol. III (December 2014), page: 54-61

Local government departments charged with the responsibility of engaging with their communities require a codified evidence base for designing and delivering engagement initiatives. This is vital if the engagement initiative is to take effective account of the often multifarious and divergent needs that present within the community. This was the case for the Community Development and Facilities Branch of the Toowoomba Regional Council in Queensland, which in partnership with social researchers based in an Australian regional university set about developing a sequenced professional development programme that up‐skilled council staff in field‐based qualitative research approaches. This article addresses findings from this collaboration, as well as detailing more broadly the role qualitative social research might play in local government community engagement practice. Core concerns are how the views, perceptions, beliefs and attitudes of a community might be gathered through qualitative social research and the ways in which this might inform engagement initiatives.

Qualitative and Mixed Methods Research in Cross-Cultural Psychology

The Coming of Age for Qualitative Research: Embracing the Diversity of Qualitative Methods

Australia employs an evidence-based approach to public health policy, emphasizing disease prevention, health promotion, and healthcare access that is informed by relevant research. However, implementing effective policy can be challenging due to the complexity of various public health issues. Social and behavioral factors significantly impact individual and community health outcomes, necessitating a deeper understanding of their interrelationships. Social science theories and methodologies provide critical insights into the complex relationships between individuals and society. This perspective paper highlights the critical role of qualitative social science research in shaping public policy by offering rich, contextual insights that quantitative data alone cannot capture. This article examines the benefit of incorporating qualitative social science research in a New South Wales (NSW) local health district's pursuit of evidence-based approaches. Through five case studies, we demonstrate how qualitative social science research has been instrumental in addressing key public health challenges, particularly in managing zoonotic diseases and pandemics, ultimately informing and shaping public health policy.

Recent years have seen an explosion in social media in our everyday lives, and a corresponding increase in social media research in IS. As social media researchers, we are intrigued by the problem of virtuality and context in social media research, and how we might apply reflexive research principles to such settings. In social media, the absence of a setting's real physical boundaries (to a large extent) limits participants' ability to create a common experience at the present time and develop a history of shared experiences. As a result, we would contend that many social media researchers' interpretations of data in social media settings are often black‐boxed. In this paper, we argue that many of the challenges concerned with social media settings, by nature, are emergent and linked to their virtual and contextual features. We use the Klein and Myers (1999) framework for traditional interpretive field studies as a vehicle for unpacking these challenges. We contend that these challenges may remain unnoticed if researchers do not actively reflect upon their impact on the research process. In this paper, we present a framework for social media research, considering social media research as a reflexive space, building on the notion of three levels of reflexivity: theory, design and practice. Finally, we discuss some implications of reflexivity for qualitative social media research in IS.