Monday, 1 September 2025

A brief note on research approaches (reasoning) for teaching purpose

A brief note on research approaches (reasoning) for teaching purpose (information from perplexity.ai)


My question is: "Briefly highlight the main ideas of the three types of research approaches in social science, i.e., the inductive approach, the deductive approach and the abductive approach with regard to the following topics: (1) favored research philosophy, (2) favored research methods, (3) favored research method design quality criteria, (4) typical research ethics issues encountered, and (5) favored researcher's role in research project."

The reply: "The three types of research approaches in social science—inductive, deductive, and abductive—differ in their favored research philosophy, methods, design quality criteria, ethics issues, and researcher's role. Here is a brief highlight of their main ideas regarding the requested topics:

  1. Inductive Approach:

  • Favored Research Philosophy: Often aligned with interpretivism, emphasizing subjective understanding and generation of new theory from data.

  • Favored Research Methods: Qualitative methods such as interviews, observations, and content analysis, focusing on rich contextual data.

  • Favored Design Quality Criteria: Flexibility, depth of contextual understanding, and theoretical sensitivity.

  • Typical Research Ethics Issues: Respecting participant meanings, confidentiality in qualitative data, and avoiding researcher bias.

  • Favored Researcher's Role: Active in data interpretation and theory building, often immersed in the research context to understand participants' perspectives.

  1. Deductive Approach:

  • Favored Research Philosophy: Positivism, emphasizing objective measurement, hypothesis testing, and theory verification.

  • Favored Research Methods: Quantitative methods, including surveys, experiments, and statistical analysis.

  • Favored Design Quality Criteria: Rigor in hypothesis testing, reliability, and validity of measurement instruments.

  • Typical Research Ethics Issues: Ensuring objectivity, avoiding manipulation of data, and securing informed consent in experimental settings.

  • Favored Researcher's Role: Detached and objective, focusing on testing existing theory without influencing the data.

  1. Abductive Approach:

  • Favored Research Philosophy: Pragmatism, embracing flexibility and iterative movement between theory and data.

  • Favored Research Methods: Mixed methods, combining qualitative and quantitative techniques to iteratively refine hypotheses.

  • Favored Design Quality Criteria: Practical relevance, adaptability, and iterative validation of emerging theories.

  • Typical Research Ethics Issues: Managing complexity in data integration and maintaining transparency in iterative theorizing.

  • Favored Researcher's Role: Pragmatic problem solver, cycling between data and theory to generate actionable knowledge.

These highlights reflect key philosophical orientations and methodological preferences associated with each approach as typically used in social science research."



A collection of blog notes on using chatgpt for research purpose.

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