A researcher on vacation is reading a newspaper article about conflict-related violence. While reading through the comments section of the article, she notices that the comments appear to show that the readers of the article may have been traumatised by the content of the article. She formulates a theory about the psychological impact of newspaper reporting on readers, collects and analyses data from the comments section, and concludes with the hypothesis that graphic newspaper reports can cause secondary traumatic stress in readers who have not witnessed the violence directly. What type of knowledge has this researcher generated?

Question

a.
Intuitive, non-scientific knowledge

b.
Scientific knowledge

Answer 1

The researcher's approach involves formulating a theory, collecting and analyzing data, and drawing conclusions based on her findings. This method aligns with the scientific method, which emphasizes systematic observation, data gathering, and hypothesis testing. Therefore, the type of knowledge generated by this researcher is:

b. Scientific knowledge