Question

What are some of the challenges involved in combining methodologies when creating a research proposal and carrying out a research project? How can these challenges be overcom

Answer 1

COMBINED METHODOLOGY:It is a systematic theoretical analysis of methods applied to field of study.

there are many reasons for social scientist to welcome methodological pluralism and greater use of mixed methods.

mixed methods take a variety of form.A researcher may use different methods to address different research questions or content or different methods may guide different stages of research program

combination of formal and qualitative method address concerns about logical coherence and casual processes in contingent relationship where there is no expectation of generalization.

ADVANTAGES:

--Provides a study with advantages both qualitative and quantitative

--Combines inductive and deductive thinking and reasoning

--Researcher can use both number and words to communicate results and findings and thus appeal to a wide audience

CHALLENGES :

--These researches do not guarantee superior social science research

--different methods reflect different assumptions about the nature of casualty

--Greater care is needed in matching methods to ontological assumptions

--These type of studies are not feasible

--Hypothesis imply complex statistical models that limits available data

--These strain the technical skills of both researcher and audience

--The interaction effects ,dummy variables,hierarchical models and other similar statistical fixes do not accurately reflect the relationship posited in the underlying theories

--The assumption that observation are independent (eg :globalization) need strategic interactions

--The appropriateness of standard statistical technology is not good

--Even the new strategies proposed,pose a question of their relationship with underlying theories

--Latest techniques are some times adopted with little reference to theoretical consideration or understanding of underlying assumptions

--Methodological sophistication does not work as substitute to theory

--If analysis is not supported by theoretical micro foundation or careful exploration of data .....they yield unreliable results and should not be treated

--Requires more intensive and diversified form of technical skill development

--More time consuming to collect quantitative and qualitative data

--Requires more resources to collect data

Procedures are more complicated and may be out of comfort zone of researcher

--Investigators are mostly trained in quantitative or qualitative methods and may require consistence crossing area

--Methodology requires clear presentation when published or presented so that the audience can accurately use procedures and findings

OVERCOMING THESE CHALLENGES

Researchers require to gain competency in 4 methods

--FORMAL

--QUANTITATIVE

--QUALITATIVE

--EXPERIMENTAL

--Using computational power and statistical software makes it easy to apply advanced statistical techniques

--if researcher is to perform experiment,he needs to learn the practice of experimental design in order to measure the relevant attributes of different experimental treatments

--Qualitative methods includes ethnography,participant observation ,interviews,oral history and archival history.Researcher must understand this and apply

--For field work ,researcher must have language skills and sufficient understanding of local content to gain access ,recognize informal institutions and accurately interpret culturally coded observation

--Scholars with strengths in complementary methods should work together with increased confidence that each method is applied rigorously

--All the scholars should have trust in the work they do because this leads to smooth functioning

--Training in both qualitative and quantitative methods

--Scholars should be given proper recognition

--Career incentives --Hiring scholars who have multiple approach talent

--Giving more weight to multi authored publications than single authored publications