ARAŞTIRMA YÖNTEMLERİ - Deneme Sınavı - 13

Artifacts are another source of help qualitative researchers can use to answer the research questions. They can also be described as physical evidence for qualitative research (Merriam, 2013; Onwuegbuzie, Leech, and Collins, 2010). Artifacts refer to object(s) located within the focal context, and somehow, they appeal to the researcher’s interest. These objects may range from things that people in the focal setting use for their daily routines and rituals to a book, chair, or another piece of decoration in the environment (Onwuegbuzie et al., 2010). Some examples of artifacts that can be used for a research within IR can be historical footsteps in a specific region, or ruins of a battlefield and a communal area. If the aim is to conduct a more contemporary research study, then some examples may include the goods that refugees leave behind in their camps during migration. Artifacts that a researcher would utilize as a source of data depend primarily on the focal phenomenon and the research questions. The corerct answer is B.

In data storage and transfer, it is advised to conceal the participants’ names in your data set for confidentiality reasons. The correct answer is D.

Rigor means care, attention, and diligence displayed during every step of a research process where data about a topic is collected and analyzed, and findings are reported (Stringer, 2008). Rigor of a study is accepted as an indicator of its quality; thus, all necessary steps have to be completed and reported meticulously (MacNaughton and Hughes, 2009; Yin, 2014).The correct answer is B.

The term “epistemology” comes from the ancient Greek roots, from “episteme” meaning “knowledge” and from “logos” meaning “the study of.” Thus, epistemology can be defined as the philosophy of knowledge, or the study of knowledge. Epistemology, thus, is also referred to as the theory of knowledge. Epistemology focuses on answering such questions as “what is the nature of coming to know?”, “what are the foundations or sources of knowledge?” and “what are the limits of human knowledge?”

The scientific study of social life began in the early 19th century, with Auguste Comte’s proposal of positivism as the model for studying society (in 1830s). The discipline of sociology was thereby established; thus, Comte is often referred to as the founding father of sociology (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2018).

Rationalism is most often associated with Rene Descartes (1596-1690) in modern philosophy. Rationalism defends the idea that knowledge that is obtained through the senses lack certainty, because senses often deceive us. However, the knowledge we gain through rational thinking and reason gives us certain knowledge.

A priori proposition/knowledge is a concept that refers to propositions or knowledge gained through rational means like thinking and reasoning. In other words, they don’t come from sense experience, or they are prior to the experience.

Plato defended the idea that the sense experience of our everyday lives was just a reflection of the actual reality of forms (an ideal world), which was innate to us but accessible only through careful reasoning. And, our sense experiences in this world is only a venue towards the real world of forms, however only if we can reason effectively (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2018).

Scientific anti-realism is the view which defends that we are not in a position to know or claim that our theories correspond to an external reality. We cannot know if there is a reality existing independent of our perceptions. Thus, anti-realism defends the idea that we are engaged in science and we develop scientific theories only because we are interested in what can science offer to us, for its practical, instrumental benefits for our life conditions. Science simply gives us useful tools to deal with the natural world for our own purposes, thus we cannot have claims about its ability to represent an external, mind-independent reality.

The idea of systematic method of science was developed in the 17th century, by Francis Bacon (1561-1626). It is systematic in the sense that it is based on certain rules that could be followed by any practitioner who is interested in replicating a study. Bacon argued that science should be based on carefully conducted observations and measurements of a phenomenon. The method proposed by Bacon is based on inductive reasoning, thus known as inductivism.

Inductivism poses further a problem known as the problem of theory-ladennes, which states that inductivism assumes that theory-free observations are possible, however neither theory-free observations nor statements are possible. Because, without a framework for what to observe, that provides guidance for what features to pay attention to, or what to focus on, there are too many things to observe. Any observation statement presumes a theory behind it. In other words, theory-free observations are impossible simply because there are no pure facts to observe; what we call facts are interpreted by us as relevant to our purposes at hand. Thus, any observation statement is necessarily theory-laden, regardless of how purely-factual it appears to be.

An anomaly is defined by Kuhn as a deviation of the “paradigm-induced expectations that govern normal science” (Kuhn, 1962, pp. 52-53).

Ontology is a particular focus area within metaphysics, which focuses particularly on the study of “being” or “existence.” The term ontology also comes from the ancient Greek roots, from “ontos” which means “being”, “to be” or “to exist” and from “logos” which means “the study of.” Thus, ontology can be defined as the philosophy or the study of being or existence. Thus, ontology focuses on questions related to abstract concepts such as “what is it mean to exist?”, “What is the unchanging substance of the existing things?”, “Is there an objective, unchanging reality beyond human perception and conception?” and so on.

Axiological knowledge. It can also be called a “theory of experience”. This kind of knowledge is created by practitioners who share their long-term experiences. Axiological knowledge may include important conclusions and generalizations. This kind of literature knowledge does not mean technicalities but the world of practice. So, the literature reviewer should notice the potential use of the axiological knowledge and avoid using it as a theory or prior research.

A literature review can be performed in seven steps (Fink, 2014, 3): 1. Identification of research questions. This step guides the review. 2. Selecting the databases and sources. There are numerous bibliographic or article databases, websites, and other resources that can be utilized. 3. Specifying the key terms. Key terms are the words that are used to search and get the related documents. 4. Applying practical screening criteria. Literature reviewer can set the criteria to include or exclude the documents from the review among the numerous articles. 5. Applying methodological screening criteria. Methodological criteria incorporate criteria for assessing scientific quality. 6. Doing the review. To ensure the reliability and validity of the literature review, a standardized form should be used for abstracting data from papers. Besides, reviewers should be trained for abstracting the data and pilot testing of the process should be reported. 7. Synthesizing the results. Literature review results may be synthesized expressively. An uncommon sort of synthesis-a metaanalysis involves the utilization of statistical results of two or more research.

Epistemology can be defined as the philosophy of
knowledge, or the study of knowledge. Epistemology,
thus, is also referred to as the theory of knowledge.
Epistemology focuses on answering such questions
as “what is the nature of coming to know?”, “what
are the foundations or sources of knowledge?”
and “what are the limits of human knowledge?”

Ontology is a concept that means the study
of being/existence and the nature of reality.
Ontology asks questions such as “What is
the essential substance of (or the underlying
foundation of) existence?”, “What is the nature of reality?” and “Is it possible for us to perceive reality as is?”

Epistemology is concerned with the sources of
our knowledge and how we come to know about
the world and reality. There have been two major
epistemological positions about the sources of
human knowledge. These positions are known as
rationalism and empiricism, and they defend
opposing views. Both of these positions have a role
in methods of scientific practice.

According to direct realism, human reality of the external world is
perceived directly from the natural/physical world.
In other words, the reality of the external, physical
world exists exactly as is perceived by us, hence direct.

for the empiricists, all knowledge is a posteriori, that is, it comes from experience or is dependent on experience. Thus,
empiricism does not have any claim about existence
of any underlying reality beyond experience