Research Methods and Thinking

Once you have collected your primary data (see earlier post for definition and examples). But today I will just give an analogy of the whole process.

Processing Primary Data
When thinking about your primary data, keep in mind that its is what you will uses as the basis for generating your project outcome. It follows that if you say your outcome is a strategy, or a model, or a position paper then it only makes sense if you know what primary data you want and a way to combine them (called pre and post processing) so that you can manufacture that particular outcome. Suppose by way of analogy, one was making a wedding cake (analogous to your project outcome). Essentially any recipe (analogous to a research design) is in 3 parts: ingredients, quantities and making process.

Ingredients (analogous to defining and locating the primary data) - We define the ingredients we need, make a list of them and then locate a shop that sells the ingredients.

Quantities (analogous to collecting the data) - We use our ingredient list and add quantities and go get them. But of course as we collect them they will not automatically be in the right quantities and forms. Therefore at the end of this we will have bags of currents, icing sugar, flour, nuts and so on but obviously in this state we cannot use them directly to get the outcome.

Making (analogous to pre-processing and post processing to finally generate the outcome)

Pre-process by measuring out the various ingredients and put the correct amounts into individual bowls ready for the final stage. We use the last part of the recipe to take the bowls analogous to post processing to finally generate the outcome (bake the cake)

Implicit in this is that the levels of skill needed becomes higher and higher the closer you get to generating the outcome. Summarising: if I were making a cake (outcome) then I assemble the ingredients (the data) but I also need secondary information/data and skills: a recipe to tell me what to do, instructions on how to use the kitchen gadgets, how to set the timer, how to check cooking progress, how to manage costs, how to serve it up, definition of terms, I might watch a cooking program on TV and so on but no one would think of these extra things as ingredients (primary data) would they. By analogy this is saying you need literature support to do the work which you can use to help you know what to do and help you find meaning in your results.

Bunter, do you know Roy Baumeister's book "Willpower"? It's about the science of discipline and willpower. One of the most excellent books I've ever read.

Become self-aware
Most of us think we know who we are but often that knowing excludes or pushes into the shadows the uncomfortable things about our personalities and character tending to make us look for excuses rather than facing up to and fixing any failings we have.�

It is vital to know how you see and organises your world and generate meaning from your experiences. You may think of this as examining Weltanschauung, which is often loosely translated as world-view but carries the idea that our world view is shaped by who we are: our culture, our teachers, our religion, our family, our friends, our choices and indeed a whole host of things over which we have in general little control in their formative years and means that two people will not act in an identical way even when confronted by identical circumstances. Indeed, we ourselves may not think, feel and act in the same way from one more or less identical situation to another at a different time or place.�

We cannot do much about who we are but we can become more aware of ourselves, our thinking, our feelings our actions; that will help us stop blaming everything or everyone but ourselves and over time our learning will change who we are because the meaning systems that people adopt, usually unconsciously, are as important or perhaps more important than logic in shaping their thinking. There is nothing really new here for Socrates, almost 3,000 years ago said "The unexamined life is not worth living" because for him growing in knowledge and character was everything. So if something in our lives or experienced cannot be questioned, no matter what it is, then ir may ultimately destroy our growth because it means we have no-go areas where learning cannot take place.

This really is about managing ourselves and not running away or trying to hide flaws in our character and knowledge, and we all have them, but facing up to them and working to eradicate them. Bill Hybels when talking about himself said "It's a terribly lonely feeling to have no one to blame, look to no one to rescue you. It's rotten to realise that to find the bad guy, you just have to look in the mirror. The truth is that the only person who can put a sustainability programme together for us is us. Anything else is a self-leadership fumble, an illusion."

Edited by bunter - 30 November 2012 at 9:39am

In research it is important that you don't block out explicitly or implicitly things you may not like or don't agree with otherwise you will miss major truths.

To have an open mind means to be willing to consider or receive new and different ideas. It means being flexible and adaptive to new experiences and ideas although it does not mean you have to accept everything you hear.

People who are open-minded are willing to change their views when presented with new facts and evidence. Those who are not, and are resistant to change will find life less rewarding and satisfying, not to mention dull. If we limit ourselves to what we know and were more comfortable with in the past, we will become more and more frustrated.

If we choose to approach life in the same way day after day, as well as becoming bored and uninspired, we will reduce our intellectual aptitude. If, on the other hand, we seek new ways of doing and looking at things, we will expand our intellectual capability, find life more exciting, and broaden our experiences. Most people agree that open-mindedness is one of the fundamental aims of education, always elusive but eminently worth pursuing. It is the childlike attitude of wonder and interest in new ideas coupled with a determination to have one's beliefs properly grounded.

Bertrand Russell regarded open-mindedness as the virtue that prevents habit and desire from making us unable or unwilling to entertain the idea that earlier beliefs (of whatever kind) may have to be revised or abandoned; its main value lies in challenging the fanaticism that comes from a conviction that our views are absolutely certain, that WE are right.

'You are obstinate, he is pigheaded, I needless to say, I merely hold firm opinions.' This is Russell's memorable way of making the point that it is enormously difficult to recognise one's own tendencies towards closed-mindedness. We see ourselves as eminently reasonable, and our views as open to discussion, even though it may be perfectly clear to others that we are only going through the motions of giving a serious hearing to a rival

Edited by bunter - 13 November 2012 at 11:04am