Block I | L1
Introduction to Research
in the SHS

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Introduction and Summary of the Block

In this first block, the emphasis is on the elements that underpin research in the humanities and social sciences ¹ . This course is intended as an introduction to the questions and issues that define research in human and social sciences, its specificity and authenticity. Research begins with a question about the world around us and a desire to provide an answer to a problem of knowledge, Schutt tells us that ... what makes social and human sciences research different from the ordinary process of reflecting on our experiences is the emphasis that is placed on broader questions that involve people outside our immediate experience, and the use of systematic research methods to answer these questions ^{(Schutt, 2012, p.2)} .

We will begin with a general discussion of research in the humanities and social sciences and the factors underlying its use, we will then look at the context of research in the humanities and social sciences and its methods : Our aim here is to enable students to consider certain basic aspects of research work, by looking in turn at the role of theory in the research process and the role of hypotheses. Above all, we would like to initiate a process of reflection on the nature of research in the humanities and social sciences, its purpose, the type of knowledge it provides, and the conditions for its production and validity. Secondly, we will look at what we have come to call the stages of research. ² with particular attention paid to the elements that will facilitate your dissertation work, namely: literature review, exploitation of theories and formulation of concepts, research questions and hypotheses, sampling and data collection, data analysis and interpretation, and writing up the results of the research. Finally, it goes without saying that scientific research is fraught with pitfalls, and this is one of the elements that we would like to highlight in view of its importance in building the critical spirit that should animate any researcher in this kind of discipline.

Session Objectives

This course session is organized around the following elements:

• Types of Knowledge: This presentation will distinguish between scientific and non-scientific knowledge.
• Scientific Research Orientations: This section will focus on applied and fundamental research, which is the objective of our teaching.
• The Aims of Scientific Research: This text discusses three aims: exploration, description, and explanation.
• The Foundations of Scientific Research: This section will begin a discussion on the primary components of a scientific inquiry and its specificities.
• Foundations of Data Analysis: This objective is the essence of our module. We will reserve a significant portion of the discussion on the research steps for this topic.

Topics to be covered during the session

Knowledge, research (fundamental - applied), inquiry, science, scientific thinking, induction, deduction, social ontology, method and methodology.

Block Presentation

What is a research in humanities and social sciences and why conduct it ?

The concept of research in the HSS is not easy to define. The definition of research is linked to a set of conceptual, philosophical, and epistemological considerations. These three major areas invite us to consider not only the research itself, but also its spirit, purposes, and limitations. At this stage, we will limit the meaning of the concept of research to its most fundamental aspect: its purposes. The topics of the spirit of research and its limitations require more advanced research methodology teachings.

The research aims to fill a knowledge gap on a given subject, which the researcher intends to study.

Why? Providing answers and reconsidering unresolved aspects are important when conducting a research project. Education on research methods is crucial not only to ensure proper procedures are followed but also to appreciate the choices researchers face.

We conduct research to expand and enhance the stock of knowledge. It is not only researchers who conduct research, but also other professionals, without necessarily sharing it with the scientific community or publishing it in academic journals or specialized works.

Research in human and social sciences and the context of its methods.

Research takes shape and develops within a particular context or contexts, and the methods that the researcher is required to develop to account for the reality of the context being studied cannot be dissociated from it. Each research project is unique, and therefore, researchers must take great care in their use of the elements that make up their approach to reality, the frameworks that explain it, and the logistical means they decide to implement to investigate the phenomenon they want to understand or explain. To make a phenomenon understandable, several epistemological and ontological considerations must be taken into account. We aim to clarify certain elements of the research method's context to provide students with the means to reflect before beginning their research:

• All research work is part of a continuum.
  Every research in social sciences, regardless of its originality, is based on one or more theoretical and methodological frameworks that support it. Every research in social sciences, regardless of its originality, is based on one or more theoretical and methodological frameworks that support it. The theories used by researchers to aid in understanding the social world have an impact on what is researched and how research findings are interpreted. In other words, the studied subjects are deeply influenced by the available theoretical positions ^{(Bryman A, 2012, 05)} , it is important for the authenticity and integrity of research work to refer to sources whenever necessary. The scientific tradition is a collection of objective knowledge that researchers in the human and social sciences cannot ignore or neglect its origins. Later on, we will see that previous studies reflect this moral and academic concern of building research on mechanisms that make the investigation more valid.


• Scientific research is a constructed and informed knowledge.
  As stated in the previous section, existing knowledge (also referred to as knowledge stock) in the researcher's field of study is an important part of the context in which research in the humanities and social sciences takes place. Specifically, this means that someone considering conducting research must be familiar with the previous studies that are most exemplary and exploitable, which have dealt with the subject in question.
  The literature review (or state of the art) is a fundamental exercise that researchers must undertake to assert the authenticity of their work. Moreover, by becoming familiar with the literature, researchers can avoid redundancy in information and analysis, ensuring the scientific validity of their research.


• Consider how research should be conducted, the nature of the phenomena under study, and how to make them understandable.
  This consideration has a dual implication for research. In a traditional research framework, it is customary to assume that a scientific approach to human and social phenomena must be based on a set of hypotheses that need to be validated by testing them through research techniques (quantitative or qualitative). This consideration emphasises the means of accessing knowledge and the postures that should be adopted in this regard. Scientists refer to this as epistemological considerations ; on the other hand, considerations about the nature of social phenomena also influence the research process. In the tradition of the humanities and social sciences, it is suggested that the social world be considered as something external to the social actors and over which they have no control, but another approach is possible by considering that the social world is the product of interaction between the social actors who give meaning to life in society. Such considerations are grouped together in what researchers in the human and social sciences are accustomed to call ontological because they provide information about the inertia of social phenomena or their dynamics.


• Ethics in research in the humanities and social sciences
  Ethical considerations in research are an important indicator of its integrity. Ethical considerations are part of the requirements of research, and as such cannot be ignored.


• The research aims
  This point in the development relates to the aims of research in the humanities and social sciences, and the question is: what is the purpose of the research?
  In practice, there are two main trends: a purely academic research, whose main objective is to add to the existing stock of knowledge about the social world; and a second, more pragmatic, applied research, which believes that research should have a practical purpose and should contribute to action on the world around us.


• The researcher's personality
  The researcher's training and personal values are crucial in conducting research in the humanities and social sciences, as they can influence the choice of research area, the research questions and the methods used in the survey.
  

Sources of error in reasoning about the human and social world

When we observe the world around us, without any scientific prerequisites, we convey an inaccurate image of the phenomena that take shape in it. In the absence of a methodology for observing the facts, we have a tendency to peddle, to accept without any criticism or hindsight, certain true-false ideas that are the stuff of common sense.

Many authors have stressed the danger that common knowledge represents for the construction of knowledge around a given issue. We illustrate below the main processes that distort reasoning and obscure understanding of social reality :

Selective observation

Selective observation stems from the fact that individuals base their point of view on their beliefs or even preferences. Selective observation selective observation encloses thought and reasoning in frameworks constructed by popular thinking, stereotypes. In fact, when our observation is selective, it does not give us an objective view of the reality around us, and what we feel is not necessarily what we see.

Over-generalisation

Over-generalisation means that individuals tend to draw conclusions from the observation of certain isolated cases and generalise this observation to other cases.
This kind of reasoning stems from the fact that our everyday experience interferes with our subjectivity and our way of looking at things.

This kind of hasty observation and conclusion shows how limited our experience of everyday life is. Social reality is something much more complex than can be elucidated in such a naive and vulgar way. Our subjective experience of reality allows us to interact with an extremely limited number of cases and individuals, in a reduced space and a very short time.

Subjective reasoning

Subjective reasoning occurs when we draw conclusions from invalid assumptions or hypotheses.

Resistance to change

We talk of resistance to change in cases where individuals do not want to revise their opinions or knowledge of a given problem in the light of new explanations or information.

Research objectives

In the field of human and social sciences, different objectives are pursued for the needs of a precise knowledge of reality ^{(Strydom, 2013, p.2)} . We generally associate three major objectives with this knowledge activity: exploration, description and explanation.

• Exploration
  Exploratory research is used when a subject is new, or to familiarise oneself with a subject. Exploratory research rarely yields definitive results. The aim of this type of research is to understand the What? of the subject being studied. The information and data collected is poorly structured, if at all. Exploratory research is used when there is an obvious lack of information on a subject.


• Description
  In this case, the aim is to describe reality by producing the most accurate account possible, highlighting the characteristics that form the essence of the phenomenon being studied. Precision is required, with the aim of making explicit the various components of the phenomenon.


• Explanation
  One of the most widely pursued aims in the human and social sciences, explanation seeks to find the causal links between different phenomena.

Elements of the human and social sciences research process

In this part of the course, we would like to draw the students' attention to an element of prime importance concerning the research process. One of the recurring questions concerning research is the composition of its stages, their number and their arrangement. There is a great deal of debate on this issue, even to the point of divergence within the community of methodologists. We have chosen to favour the notion of process over that of stages. ... why?

In making this choice, we would like above all to emphasise the originality of each research procedure, whatever the subject under consideration. Each researcher conceives his study according to the needs and shortcomings of the context in which he is evolving; to speak of stages of research would be to refer to strict adherence to canonical teaching and would obscure any initiative and form of reflection that the researcher needs so much.

Secondly, the notion of process is also part of a long tradition of research in the human and social sciences, as formulated by the pioneers of research and taken up by the scientific community (this is in line with the central idea developed by Gaston BACHELARD on the scientific approach and subsequently taken up by many researchers).

Finally, the research process as such needs to be considered in its practical sense. Scientific research is an investigation that cannot be conceived as a rigid form of teaching, and the researcher's familiarity with his or her field of investigation is the only guarantee of the researcher's accommodation to the process as a whole and to the techniques that run through it.

In the literature dealing with the scientific approach in the human and social sciences, we reproduce the most recurrent elements of the process, i.e. those whose presence is indisputable. Students are given some leeway as to how other (related) procedures can be integrated into their research work. This course material will cover the following elements :

5.1. The literature review
A literature review (also known as a "state of the art" ) on a subject of interest to the researcher, sheds light on the possible problems surrounding the phenomenon and identifies avenues for reflection that the researcher may not have been aware of at first glance.

We will come back to this subject, which is crucial in scientific research, in greater detail in the part of this course devoted to it; but first of all, we will say that the literature review gives the researcher access to six essential elements, namely :

• The state of knowledge on the subject ;
• What concepts and theories have been used to study the phenomenon in question ?
• What types of methods were used to describe the phenomenon under study ?
• What controversies have arisen as a result of studying this phenomenon, and what avenues for reflection have emerged ?
• What are the debates and major questions raised by this research theme ?
• What are the major contributions in this area of research ?

It should be added that a literature review is not simply a crude presentation of what has been read; researchers in the humanities and social sciences have a duty to be critical when undertaking this type of exercise. Being critical in the presentation of the content of previous studies does not mean going against what has been put forward, but quite the opposite, it means having in mind this ability to evaluate the scope of these works, and to show how each previous study, in its singularity, has contributed to shaping the research work.
This last point raises the question of the credibility of the research work. A researcher must be able to link his or her own interests, questions, results and their discussion to existing theoretical and empirical frameworks.

5.2. Theories and their concepts
To use a very common formula, let's say that concepts are the way in which we represent the world to ourselves. In this sense, concepts are essentially labels that we give to aspects of the social world that seem to have common characteristics that are significant to us ... the social sciences have a strong tradition of concepts, many of which have become part of the language of everyday life. Concepts are the ingredients of theories, and it is impossible to imagine a theory that does not have a rooted concept.
Concepts reveal the whole point of research, because they provide information about the way in which the research has been organised. A research project is built around interconnected concepts that are rooted in the theories they take up. and their analysis process.

5.3. Research and its question system
All research needs to be defined by a question, and what is meant by a research question is also called by some other authors in methodology (starting question, general question, etc.) to mean that in one way or another, the research work takes on its meaning when we ask questions about a given reality.
The term "question system" is used here to distinguish between the question that the researcher asks himself at the start of his research and the more elaborate question that will emerge once his problem has been defined. Research questions are of undoubted importance in any scientific investigation, because they enable us to give an account of what really interests us in the object we have set ourselves for study; equally, research questions (whether general or specific) enable us to clarify the objectives of our research in a more precise and rigorous way, they enable us to refine our thinking and give us the privilege of penetrating the essence of the phenomenon.
In more practical terms, the research questions help to guide the researcher in sorting through his or her reading (and previous studies) and therefore in deciding what type of method to choose. Research questions also play a vital role in selecting the data to be collected and the way in which it will be analysed. Finally, they enable the relevant results of interest to the research to be reported and communicated as clearly as possible.

5.4. Sample, sampling and case studies
At this point in the course, we do not wish to examine in depth the similarities and differences between these three processes (Block 2 is devoted exclusively to this). We would just like to point out one very important idea, which is that research in the human and social sciences carried out for the purposes of dissertation or thesis work is not based on a large number of cases (the term case encompasses both the individuals and the materials to be investigated, such as written or audiovisual content), because considerations of time and cost will constrain the researcher's work, and this is the whole point of making a selection of individuals on whom the study will focus. An investigative study reports on a representative microcosm which the researcher will have to define clearly and control its variables and attributes.
We will end this point by saying that one of the major objectives of this course is to inculcate in the student a less standardised, more analytical way of looking at things, consisting of choosing his survey population as well as the fraction derived from it not through calculations and obtuse reasoning, but for the strict objectives and aims of his research.

5.5. Data collection
In the human and social sciences, evidence is established by examining a certain number of cases. Scientific research involves the collection of data, whether objective or subjective, which will subsequently testify to the veracity of the author's statements.

Data collection in a survey is carried out using tools and techniques which the researcher uses according to the theoretical and practical considerations required by the research.
As far as our teaching is concerned, we will discuss in greater detail research questionnaires and interviews, considered to be the two most commonly used techniques in research.
Data collection is the prelude to the analysis that will be made of the material collected, and the researcher, whatever his or her degree of expertise, is called upon to master the rudiments.

5.6. Data analysis
Data analysis is the stage that consists of transforming the raw data collected from the materials used in the field of investigation into meaningful data, after subjecting it to a coding operation.
The main task in this part of the research is to synthesise the corpus of data collected in the field, with a view to reducing it to a meaningful whole (or sets of whole(s)).
In fact, data analysis depends on the nature of the data and the conceptual and empirical models used to process it.
The course you are about to follow is designed to summarise this vast disciplinary field in three areas: we will deal with sampling procedures, whatever the nature of the data to be analysed, and then we will divide our work into two, albeit complementary, areas: we will look in detail at the analysis of quantitative data (on various placements) and then the analysis of qualitative data (which concerns a more nuanced approach to research).

5.7. The final report
The research report is the crucial stage at which the researcher is called upon to highlight all the aspects of his or her investigation and its main findings. It should be noted that the writing plan differs according to the specific traditions of teaching and research establishments; however, we are highlighting the recurring elements that mark out this type of exercise :

• The introduction: this is where the researcher sets out the subject of the study, contextualising it (in space and time) and outlining the main thrust of the research ;
• Reviewing the literature : taking stock of the issues surrounding the subject and subjecting them to a critical examination;
• The research method: this should provide fairly precise information on the choice of method, sample, collection and analysis of results ;
• Results presentation ;
• Discussion: discussion of the results in relation to the literature reviewed and their response to the questions posed in the research ;
• The conclusions: highlight the importance of research and support its most convincing results.

Abstract

• Scientific research is a constructed system whose objective is to provide an answer to an intriguing question ;
• Research in the human and social sciences reflects the context in which it is carried out and is informed by it through its methodology ;
• Scientific research is original, but it is rooted in an intellectual past that is mechanically detached from common thought ;
• Research objectives are drivers of scientific activity that interact with the epistemological and ontological construction of human and social research ;
• The stages of research in the human and social sciences guarantee the authenticity of scientific production and the maintenance of a high standard of knowledge.

Bibliography of the Block

The Course does not have a final bibliography (in its online version); references are inserted at the end of each Block.

• Babbie, E. R. (2012). The basics of social research, Cengage learning. ^[retour]
• Babbie, E. R. (2020). The practice of social research. Cengage learning. ^[retour]
• Bowles, W., & Alston, M. (2013). Research for social workers: An introduction to methods. Routledge. ^[retour]
• Bronner, G. (2014). Science, pseudo-sciences et démagogisme cognitif. In V. Rasplus (Ed.), Sciences et pseudo-sciences. Regards des sciences humaines (pp. 55-79). Éditions Matériologiques. ^[retour]
• Bryman, A. (2012). Social Research Methods. Oxford University Press, USA. ^[retour]
• Cariou, J.-Y. (2019). Histoire des démarches scientifiques: De l'Antiquité au monde contemporain. ^[retour]
• Gingras, F.-P., & Côté, C. (2009). La sociologie de la connaissance. In B. Gauthier (Ed.), Recherche sociale, de la problématique à la collecte de données (pp. 19-50). ^[retour]
• Lawrence Neuman, W. (2014). Social research methods: qualitative and quantitative approaches. Pearson. ^[retour]
• Pourtois, J.-P., & Desmet, H. (2007). Épistémologie et instrumentation en sciences humaines. Editions Mardaga. ^[retour]
• Rasplus, V. (2014). Siences et pseudo-sciences. Éditions Matériologiques. ^[retour]
• Schutt, R. K. (2012). Investigating the social world: The process and practice of research. Sage publications. ^[retour]
• Strydom, H. (2013). An evaluation of the purposes of research in social work. Social Work/Maatskaplike Werk, 49(2).

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  [Strydom's article is highly interesting in that it synthesizes the positions of various authors on the aims of scientific research.]

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  ^[retour]

Summary Questions

The following questions will enable you to take stock of the knowledge discussed during the block, which will be discussed during the tutorial sessions.

• What's the point of doing scientific research ?
• What are the sources of knowledge ?
• In a table, compare the various objectives of scientific research ?
• How can we broadly define the fields of data analysis ?

M.C.Q.

The MCQ consists of ten questions, at the end of which you will receive your assessment and the answers.

To access the MCQ, click on the following icon:

Course & GW sheets

In this section you can download files related to this course.

Sheet 1 Course summary : this first Sheet contains the most important points to remember, and you should make a note of them on the same sheet.

Sheet 2 The research process : This sheet covers the process as presented by Wallace (1971), we chose this document because of the simplicity it implies and the way it presents the process. By clicking on This link you will have access to the resource.

Sheet 3 GW Sheet : This first tutorial sheet provides a review of the main concepts of algebraic calculus. It will be followed by a second sheet on statistical and probability calculus. The tutorial sheet can be downloaded by clicking on this Link

Further information

To learn more about this first Block, you can consult the following links:

• Book chapter
  This is Cariou's collective work : Cariou, J. (2019). Histoire des démarches scientifiques: De l'Antiquité au monde contemporain. https://doi.org/10.3917/edmat.cariou.2019.01, more specifically, chapter 21: Regards sur l'épistémologie et la science contemporaines. [disponible gratuitement en vous connectant au compte de l'université].


• Scientific articles
  In this article, the authors Nadia Gauducheau, Michel Marcoccia, analyse a theme that they place in the field of information and communication sciences, in a very interesting way: La violence verbale dans un forum de discussion pour les 18-25 ans: Gauducheau, N. & Marcoccia, M. (2023). La violence verbale dans un forum de discussion pour les 18-25 ans: Comment les jeunes jugent-ils les messages. Réseaux, 241, 79-122. https://doi.org/10.3917/res.241.0079 . [available free of charge by logging in to the university account].


• Video
  A link to a YouTube channel which explains the basics of data analysis in various episodes. GradCoach

On the course app

On the Course App, you will find a summary of this block and the related series of tutorials.
There are also links to multimedia content of interest to the Bloc.
An update is planned for the Notifications section, based on questions raised by students during lectures and tutorials.
There will also be an update of exams from previous sessions, which will be corrected in tutorial sessions in preparation for the current year's exams.

Course Download

By using the links below, you can download: the course in pdf format :

Blog Comment

The forum gives you the opportunity to discuss this first session, and you'll notice that there's a subscription button so that you can follow the discussions about research in the humanities and social sciences. It's also an opportunity for the teacher to respond to students' concerns and questions.