Philippine E-Journals

An Integrative Review of Social and Behavioral Sciences’ Researches

Maria Leah Danja D. Lapitan | Mavyl L. Tobias

 

Abstract:

Integrative review of research is a narrative account of information that are already currently available. The present study attempted to make an integrative review of 366 researches conducted by students in the Social Sciences’ Department in Southern Luzon State University, A.Y 2009-2013. It aimed to determine the research trend in the completed researches and the commonalities in the different elements of research such as research problem, types of participants, research locale, sampling technique, method of research, research instrument and statistical treatment. Researches in three disciplines, Psychology (n=144), Public Administration (n=143) and History (n=79) compiled in the University Library and College Resources Center were subjected to content analysis. Data were consolidated and summarized qualitatively. Researches subjected for review were distributed by discipline: History with 79 (22%); Public Administration with 143(39%) and Psychology with 144 (39%). Students in the three social science disciplines/programs were mainly interested to investigate problems that dealt with social issues affecting behavior of individual person or group and community life, though; each discipline had its own dominant focus and since they were describing social phenomena the most appropriate method in research used was descriptive method. There were some commonalities in the element of research in the researches. Availability, accessibility, practicality and economy were considered in the choice of research problem, methodology, participants, locale and statistical techniques. It is recommended that meta-analytic review should be included as topic in research methodology so that interested students can use this method of research, but limited only on problem studied in their program.