Understanding Research and Science: Types and Classifications
Research Types
Exploratory: When lacking knowledge of a topic, the initial step involves seeking literature that covers the history, evolution, and recent studies on the subject.
Descriptive: This type of study describes the facts of the phenomenon under investigation, defining the characteristics of the variables without delving into the relationships between them.
Correlational: Here, the relationships between variables are established and described.
Explanatory: This research determines the causes and consequences of the existence of variables and the relationships between them.
Characteristics of Facts
- Exist independently or are discovered.
- Are authentic, and their existence is unquestionable.
- Remain unchanged; what may change is the way they are perceived.
Factual vs. Formal Science
Factual Science: Addresses and analyzes natural phenomena and social facts. It studies fragments of reality that can be captured with the instruments that the sciences have developed. Examples include physics, chemistry, biology, sociology, economics, and anthropology.
Formal Science: Includes mathematics and logic, studying ideas. Therefore, findings are not found in nature.
Logic: It is a basic science, the foundation of mathematical reasoning. Together, mathematics and logic form the structure of knowledge for all other sciences. Logic is at the heart of science because all other sciences are derived from it.
Criteria for Classifying Science
A comparative analysis of their characteristics is used, including:
- The object of study.
- The theoretical and methodological procedures.
Groups of Science
Eidetic Sciences: Study ideal entities that exist only in the minds of individuals, such as numbers.
Factual Sciences: Engaged in the analysis of natural and social phenomena. Factual sciences are divided into formal sciences, natural sciences, and social or cultural sciences.
Purpose of Study
- Formal: Mathematics and logic do not depend on experience to understand their subject matter.
- Natural: Refers to levels of natural reality.
- Social: The different levels of human society.
*A Priori* and *A Posteriori* Knowledge
*A Priori* maintains that reason and experience shape knowledge. God cannot be known through experience but through natural knowledge.
*A Posteriori*: Knowledge is acquired after experience and reason.
Tests of Saint Thomas Aquinas on the Existence of God: Part of natural human knowledge (philosophy, technology, causation, and cause).
Variables in Research
Independent Variable: Is being evaluated in a trial and is not dependent on other factors.
Dependent Variable: This will be affected by the independent variable.
Quantitative Variable: This is expressed numerically.
Philosophical Positions on Knowledge
Dogmatism: Asserts the possibility of knowing absolutely; all objects can be known.
Criticism: Knowledge begins with reason and should adopt a critical and reflective approach.
Skepticism: Denies that the subject has the ability to learn.
Pragmatism: Maintains that human beings are practical beings.
Knowledge and Knowing
Knowledge is synonymous with understanding and intelligence. It is a faculty of all human beings, regardless of race, color, age, etc.
Knowing: To be; to have a concept.
Structures for Learning
Organs/Senses: Through the sense organs, we relate to our environment.
Purpose of Instinct: To preserve, identify danger, and meet needs.
Purpose of Reason: To choose how to act.