Lesson 3: Methodology as Aid:

Doing Research in Anthropology,

Sociology, and Political Science
Around the world, people make assumptions
about their everyday experiences. For instance,
we assume that women are naturally nurturing or
that men who wear make up must be gay.

However, to understand society, we need to move

beyond “common sense ” and learn what is really
going on. This requires more effort than simple
assumptions, or needs a step-by-step procedure to
get to the bottom of things. We need to do a
scientific investigation or research.
Focus on Ethnography as a central data
gathering tool in Anthropological Research
Ethnography, which was pioneered by the
anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowki, comes from two
Greek words, ethnos, reresenting folks, people, and
groups of people belonging to specific communities
and graphos, suggesting a detailed writing or
description of the aforementioned groups of people.

From the etymology of both words, ethnography is

defined as a qualitative method aimed to learn and
understand cultural phenomena reflecting the
knowledge and system of meanings guiding the life of
a cultural group.
Major objectives in Employing Ethnography as
a data gathering tool in Anthropological
Research
 Data collection is often done through participant
observation, informal, interviews, storytelling, and the like.
 This data gathering tool aims to describe the nature of
those who are studied (i.e., to describe a people or
group, an ethnos) through intensive, detailed writing.
 Data collection methods are meant to capture the “social
meanings and ordinary activities ” that are commonly
referred to as the field.
 The goal is to collect data in such a way that the
researcher does not impose any his/her own bias on the
data.
 The Role of the ethnographer

 The ethnographer’s attention focuses on a

community, selecting acquainted informants who
completely know the activities of the community.
These informants are typically asked to identify
other informants who represent the community,
often through chain sampling or snowballing.
Participant Observation
is a research technique in anthropology and
sociology characterized by the effort of an
investigator to gain entrance into and social
acceptance by a foreign culture or alien group so
as better to attain a comprehensive
understanding of the internal structure of the
society.
Advantages of Participation Observation
 The researcher is in full control of the time for
conducting research.
 The researcher has plenty of time to process
the data collected from the respondents.
 The researcher has also plenty of opportunities
to take pictures of the community and engage
the respondents in storytelling.
Disadvantages of Participant Observation
 Participant observation is very time consuming.
 It allows for personal bias to affect the data
collected from the respondents.
 The issue of being objective and detached may
be under great scrutiny by the readers of the
ethnography produced by the researcher to be
emotionally involved with the respondents and
the community under study.
“Geniuses are born smart. They do not need to study
very hard.” “People who steal are poor because
they need money. Rich people don’t steal. Why
would they? They have no need for money because
they already have.”

Sociology however begs to disagree. Stealing, in

the form of white-collar crimes like fraud, graft, and
corruption, and bribery are also common, and these
involve people of higher socioeconomic status.
 Sociology is an exciting science because it is
about people: their personal lives, community, and
neighborhood they belong to, and the world they
live in. Personally, sociology studies topics such as
love and marriage.
At the community level, sociology offers
explanations as to the role of the neighborhood in
delinquency. Globally, sociology presents sound
explanation for population increase and/or decline,
migration, HIV/AIDS explosion, etc.
 What is Research?
Research involves discovering and
exploring the unknown. Any Scientific
investigation must be systematic, controlled,
empirical, and critical. Hypothesis or a scientific
guess are investigated empirically.
The world empirical is very important
because it presupposes that researchers do not
just aimlessly turn up with answers but rather
use all their senses, such as sight hearing, feeling,
or even tasting to write about the world.
 The Research Process
The first step is selecting a topic. Begin by
asking yourself these questions: In general, what
do you want to find out? What is it that you want
to know? What are you interested in? Some
examples of topics are broken families, crime,
drug abuse, unemployment, racial tension, gender
issues.
 The second step, is defining the problem.
Here, you have to determine more specifically
what you want to find out. Make sure that there is
really a problem present. Moreover, find out if the
research worth doing and if it can be really done
given resources and time frame.
The third step is reviewing the literature.
As a researcher, you should immerse yourself in
the research problem. Read everything related to
your topic to find out whether your problem has
been researched or if not, help you sharpen your
questions and formulate your hypotesis.
 The fourth step, is formulating a hypothesis. A
hypothesis predicts a relationship between or among
variables or factors. Your hypothesis is based on what
you have found out in your literature review.
` The fifth step is choosing a research method. Some
of the methods are:
1. Survey is a research method in which subjects
respond to a series of items in a questionnaire or an
interview. Most sociologists prefer this method

2. Case study is a method that involves intensive

description and analysis of a single individual,
organization, or event based on information obtained
from a variety of sources such as interviews,
documents, test results, and archival data.
3. Documentary Study is a method that uses any
written material that contains information about a
phenomenon a researcher wishes to study.

4. Correlational method is a method that involves

measuring two variables and then determining the
degree of relationship that exists between them.

5. Experimental design is a method that uses

treatment or conditions to establish causality or
to specify cause and effect.
 The sixth step is collecting data. Three different
methods are mostly done. Researchers may do
interview, give out questionnaire, or conduct
observation. To be more comprehensive and to do
cross checking information, triangulation, or using all
three methods can be done.
The seventh step is presenting and analyzing the
results. As a researcher, you have to make sure that
your findings are presented in a comprehensive and
clear manner. Tables and figures may be used to
reduce substantive data. However, it is not only
enough to present your results but also to instance,
you can compare and contrast your findings with
other studies you have included in your review of
related literature.
 The eighth step is formulating conclusions and
recommendations. Go back to your problems and
hypothesis. With your findings, ask what inferences
you can generate. What conclusions can be arrived at?
Then, think of recommendations you can offer.
Recommendations are crucial because these serve as
areas for further research. Hence, research becomes
iterative from this point.
Although many researchers are contented with
being able to formulate conclusions and
recommendations, others think that the final step is
disseminating the results. It is important that you are
able to share your findings. Not only will you be able
to add to knowledge on the subject you tackled but
also possibly help effect positive changes.
 Political research increases our knowledge on the
system of government and of political activities and
behavior. Political research deals more with the
political situations that may either authenticate
political affairs or find solution to the pressing issue
on politics.
The most prevalent methods used in political
research are survey, statistical analysis, and case
studies. But of course, the use of primary sources is
vital to establish the legitimacy of the research. Some
approaches that may be applied in political research
include the following:
 Positivism deals primarily with observation and
experience in a political research include the
following.
 Behavioralism seeks to understand human behavior
within the political institutions
 Structural functionalism identifies the political
structure that perform its function to maintain
political stability.
 Political economy facilitates the study of the
relationship between government and economics to
come up with the better public policy.
 Institutionalism gives emphasis on to the role of the
institution in the political system.
 The approaches mentioned earlier can be used
depending on the problem that is being dealt with. Either
positivism or behavioralism can be use in studying the
description and comparison of a political set up depending
on what will be considered, the observations and
experiences of the subject or its cause and effect.

Structural-functionalism deals more on finding the best

political design that may be more efficient in founding in the
strength of a political setup. Political economy approach is
the best research approach in formulating or recommending
better policy because it always weighs the connection
between the government and economy. Institutionalism will
be the most effective research approach for establishing the
essence of the existence of an institution in political setting
Chapter 2: Human Evolution toward Human
cultural development
Lesson 1: The ascent of Man: Human Evolution in focus