Introduction to Communication Research

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Introduction to Communication Research

• Dr. Mark J. Bergstrom
• Department of Communication
• University of Utah

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Overview

• I. The Role of Theory and Research in
  Communication
• II. Two approaches to Generating Theory
• III. Introduction to Epistemology and Ontology

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I. The Role of Theory and Research in
Communication

• Introduction
• Goal of course
• Everyday ways of knowing
• Problems with everyday ways
• Course approach

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II. Two approaches to Generating Theory

• A. The Hypothetico-Deductive Method
• Theory
• Operationalize
• Hypothesis
• Test
• Support or fail to support hypothesis

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II. Two approaches to Generating Theory (cont.)

• B. The Grounded Approach/
• Observe
• Systematic analysis of observation
• Propose theory

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Two approaches to Generating Theory

• A. The Hypothetico-Deductive Method
• Theory Method starts with a Theory
• Cooperative Conflict Management Promotes
  successful Relationships

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A. The Hypothetico-Deductive Method

• 2. Operationalize Must operationalize all
  concepts in the theory. Here I will use a
  conflict style questionnaire and a relational
  satisfaction questionnaire. The style
  questionnaire identifies a persons preference for
  cooperative tactics and the satisfaction
  questionnaire gives higher scores for couples who
  are more satisfied with their relationships.

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A. The Hypothetico-Deductive Method

• 3. Hypothesis The hypothesis is how we actually
  test the theory in operational terms.
• Higher cooperation preferences are related to
  higher relational satisfaction scores

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A. The Hypothetico-Deductive Method

• 4. Test I will give my surveys to 50 newly
  married couples. Each relational partner will
  fill out the two surveys. Then I will plot each
  of the scores and see if the hypothesis is
  supported.

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Plot of Results
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A. The Hypothetico-Deductive Method

• 5. Support or fail to support hypothesis. It
  looks like the graph supports the hypothesis. I
  could test this with statistics and conclude, My
  research supports the theory that cooperative
  conflict preferences promote successful
  relationships.

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B. The Grounded Approach

• 1. Observation. In this approach I wouldnt
  start with a specific theory. I am still
  interested in cooperation and successful
  relationships. I might choose to observe 15
  couples in marital therapy and 15 couples who
  answer an add for a study of well-adjusted
  couples.

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B. The Grounded Approach

• 2. Systematic analysis of observations. I decide
  to transcribe each couples talk and compare the
  groups. I sort through all the talk and try to
  group it into categories. I discover that
  adjusted couples use more we pronouns than
  mal-adjusted couples. (i.e. We talk all the
  time versus You have your friends and I have
  mine.)

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B. The Grounded Approach

• 3. Propose a theory What seems to be the best
  way to explain my findings? Adjusted couples
  create more joint talk. Joint talk reflects
  interdependent relationship investment.

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III. Introduction to Epistemology and Ontology

• A. Epistemology
• Plato
• Aristotle
• Newton
• Logical Positivist

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Introduction to Epistemology and Ontology

• B. Ontology
• 1. Determinism versus Teleology. How much free
  will do humans have?
• 2. How do we interpret human behavior? If we
  think behavior is fairly deterministic, we might
  develop trait theories. If we think behavior is
  fairly variable, we might develop state theories.