There Is No Hope of Doing a Perfect Research (griffiths, 1998, P97). Do You Agree?
Autor: moto • April 10, 2011 • Essay • 631 Words (3 Pages) • 2,732 Views
Robson Chihota
28 August 2010
There is no hope of doing a perfect research (Griffiths, 1998, p97). Do you agree?
Research has produced several innovations in science, technology and humanities. Research is conducted by human beings who are bound to err hence it has been a constant aspiration for researchers to improve methods or processes of research. Research results have been promising and very helpful but their reliability has always been weakened with the presence of errors and biases in the study leading some scholars to argue that there is no hope of doing a perfect research. The definition of research is very crucial in answering this question. Research is "…the study of phenomena by the rigorous and systematic collection and analysis of data. Research is a private enterprise made public for the purpose of exposing it to the scrutiny of others, to allow for replication, verification or falsification" (Parahoo 37). It is common knowledge that perfect means complete and accurate in every respect or without error. That being the case, perfection and research can never go hand in glove. To say a research is perfect means it is devoid of any faults or errors. That is impossible in the research process as studies have shown that there is some room for error in it. As Patton notes, "There are no perfect research designs. There are always trade-offs" (162). Any researcher has to understand this reality that they will make no overweening claims about conclusiveness relative to what they have learned. In both qualitative and quantitative research categories, there is no guarantee of perfection of neither the research process nor the results (Parahoo 406). Two types of error which have been identified with common forms of research are random and systematic. Biases also affect the results of the research. Biases manifest themselves in the selection, measurement and intervention stages (407). In my seminar paper presented at Ohio Northern
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