METHODOLOGY MATTERS: DOING RESEARCH IN THE BEHAVIORAL and SOCIAL SCIENCES

Material in this chapter draws on ideas from a number of my earlier publications, including: McGrath, J.E., 1984; McGrath and Brinberg, 1984; Brinberg and McGrath, 1985; Runkel and McGrath, 1972; McGrath, Martin, and Kulka, 1982. " Doing research" simply means the systematic use of some set of theoretical and empirical tools to try to increase our understanding of some set of phenomena or events. In the social and behavioral sciences, the phenomena of interest involve states and actions of hwnan systems of individuals, groups, organizations, and larger social entities and the by-products of those actions. The meaning of research evidence, in any area of science, is inherently tied to the means or methods by which that evidence was obtained. Hence, to understand empirical evidence, its meaning, and its limitations, requires that you understand the concepts and techniques on which that evidence is based. This chapter is about some of the tools with which researchers in the social and behavioral sciences go about "doing" research. It raises some issues about strategy, tactics and operations. Especially, it points out some of the inherent limits, as well as the potential strengths, of various features of the research process by which behavioral and social scientists do research.