Chapter 1: Understanding Scientific Inquiry

Introduction

Social research is based on the methods of scientific inquiry. This way of looking at the world around us is relatively new, beginning only about 500 hundred years ago. Previously, people followed other paths to what was accepted as true. Their beliefs about nature and mankind were based mainly on traditions passed down from one generation to the next and the unquestioned acceptance that what they were taught was true.  

Scientific inquiry began in Europe in the 16th century when a few men challenged the traditional and authoritarian beliefs of their time and began analyzing what they observed about nature. Their early research led to what we now call scientific inquiry. All scientific research, including social research, is based on the assumptions underlying scientific inquiry and the norms scientists use in conducting and evaluating research. Much of this chapter is devoted to an examination of the assumptions and norms of scientific inquiry.

Scientific inquiry, however, has limits. It cannot be used to discover everything we would like to know. Scientific inquiry, for example, cannot answer questions about what is right or wrong in a moral sense; nor can it settle differences in religious or philosophical beliefs. Its use is limited to answering questions only about things we can observe with our senses. Gaining an understanding of scientific inquiry and its limits is essential for planning and conducting research.

Alternatives to scientific inquiry

Humans, with brains and feelings much like ours, have roamed the earth for perhaps 100,000 years or longer. Through all this time, humans have lived in social groups - families, tribes, and now nations - and, over time, have developed a large number of different beliefs about the natural world and how social life should be organized. These beliefs, common to all societies, include how the universe and our world were created; why the sun, moon and stars move as they do; how mankind came to exist; why crops grow or fail to do so; on what basis leaders of the group should be selected; and thousands of other things that each society accepts as true and proper.

Some of the beliefs from these earlier times still persist and can influence our ability to conduct scientific inquiry. Two forms of beliefs, in particular, can undermine a scientific approach to discovering new information. These are the acceptance of traditional beliefs and those based on the authority of persons. As researchers, we have to guard against accepting either form of beliefs without testing them to see if they are true. Unquestioned acceptance of traditional and authoritarian beliefs can influence your thinking as you prepare to do research. Also, each of us, even with research training, can make certain errors in reaching conclusions from what we observe. One kind of error is the uncritical acceptance of traditional beliefs.