Henríquez G. y Barriga O. 2005. El Rombo de la Investigación. Cinta moebio 23: 162-168

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The Research Rhombus

Guillermo Henríquez A. (ghenriqu@udec.cl). Magíster en Ciencias Sociales, Profesor Asociado, Departamento de Sociología, Universidad de Concepción (Chile).
Omar A. Barriga (obarriga@udec.cl). Doctor en Sociología (PhD), Profesor Asociado, Departamento de Sociología, Universidad de Concepción (Chile).

Abstract

Starting from the assumption that the final aim of science is to construct knowledge of a phenomenon that is external to us, the notion of the "construction" of the research object reflects the path from the identification of that external object that we wish to know better, to a conceptual elaboration within our own minds that represents that external object. That path, we maintain, is constituted by 3 conceptually distinct phases. The first phase, which we define as the analytic phase, consists of those processes designed to break down the object, to identifying the degrees of specificity and particularity with which we propose to observe the different aspects of the object until we achieve answers to questions that, as procedures, reflect the relevant dimensions. The product of the first phase is information. The second phase consists of the process of coding the collected information. This phase consists of granting meaning to the information at hand within a specific reference frame. The product of the second phase is data. The third phase, called the synthetic phase, represents the process of reassembling the bits of data in such a way that we achieve a representation of the research object that is coherent with our reference frame and with the object that we proposed. The product of this third phase is the constructed research object, a representation of the object that we wanted to know better.

Keywords: research methods, research object, analysis, synthesis