Discuss the characteristics of the scientific method which makes it superior over other methods as a means of obtaining new and reliable knowledge.

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BA (Hons) Business Studies with Specialisms

Quantitative Analysis / Research Methods

Discuss the characteristics of the scientific method which makes it superior over other methods as a means of obtaining new and reliable knowledge

 

Introduction

Marketing research has borrowed liberally from other disciplines; this is not surprising because research methodologies and techniques have application over many fields of study.  Like other emerging disciplines, marketing research theory has been developed by creative adaptation rather than blind adoption.  The extent to which marketing theory has been built on borrowed concepts was noted some years ago by the Marketing Science Institute of America.  Historically, most sciences started by borrowing their conceptual approach and general theoretical ideas from other sciences.

Joyce1 has observed that:

Market research is not a practice or study isolated from other practices or studies.  It has drawn freely from certain expert academic fields and will no doubt continue to do so.  Further, market research organisations make use of people with expert, specialist training – especially from those fields known broadly as ‘the social sciences ‘ – both as staff members and consultants.

It took a long while to determine how is the world better investigated.  One way is to talk about it.  For example: Aristotle, the Greek philosopher, stated that males and females have different number of teeth, without bothering to check; he then provided long arguments as to why this is the way things ought to be.  This method is unreliable: to determine whether a statement is correct it requires evidence.  Debating over a subject or putting an argument forward does not qualify as proof.  Consideration of the history of research methods requires a look at the history of science.

What is Science?

A basic question asked by many and answered in almost as many ways.  Early roots of science begin with Plato (427-347 B.C.) and his search for everlasting truth and reality.

James Randi2 defines science as:

‘a careful, disciplined, logical search for knowledge about any and all aspects of the universe, obtained by examination of the best available evidence.  What’s left is magic. And it doesn’t work.’

We can define science as a methodical approach to the acquisition of knowledge.  This important word distinguishes how a scientist works from how people learn about the world.  

Ross Koning3 has some personal observations:

‘Creation must have occurred because life was not always here.  Science is merely saying creation was not sudden and is still on-going.  Science does not deny existence of God, God just cannot be tested scientifically.  Scientists are commonly very religious.  

Science is the acquisition of truth.’

Modern science is an amazing phenomenon, and curiosity of how it works will continue to occupy people’s minds.  

The Scientific Method

On a broad level, science is a methodology for attaining knowledge, where knowledge is a form of belief distinct from mere opinion or uninformed guesswork. Science is not the knowledge gained through the approach; hence, knowledge can be gained through a variety of ways.  Science seeks out better ways of representing our experiences. The experiences and their representation in a system of beliefs are termed, respectively, observation and theory.

Recognizing that personal and cultural beliefs influence both our perceptions and our interpretations of natural phenomena, the aim is through the use of standard procedures and criteria to minimize those influences when developing a theory.

A better approach is to do experiments and perform careful observations.  The results of this approach are universal in the sense that they can be reproduced by any skeptic.  It is from these ideas that the scientific method was developed.

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What is the “scientific method”?

The scientific method is the best way yet discovered for scrutinizing the truth from lies and delusion.  It is based upon evidence rather than belief.  This distinguishes science from faith.  

The scientific method revolves around the following key steps:

  1. Observe some aspect of the universe
  2. Invent a tentative description, called a hypothesis, that is consistent with what you have observed
  3. Use the hypothesis to predict the existence of other phenomena, or to predict quantitatively the results of new observations
  4. Perform experimental tests of the predictions and modify hypothesis
  5. Return to step ...

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