Historical research design

HISTORICAL
RESEARCH
DESIGN
PRESENTED
BY:LAXMI
THAPA

Historical research design
 Analyzing the past events and develops the present
concept and conclusion.
 Analyzing the previous information or events
minutely and testing their validity.
 The purpose of a historical research design is to
collect, verify, and synthesize evidence from the past
to establish facts that defend or refute a hypothesis.
 Describes what occurred in the past.
 Depends upon data observed by other rather than
investigator.

Examples of Historical research
studies
A historical research on the development of
nursing in Nepal
A historical research on the development of
nursing education in Nepal

Characteristics
 Historical research involves the careful study and
analysis of data about past events.
 It is a critical investigation of events, their
development, experiences of past.
 The purpose is to gain a clearer understanding of the
impact of past on present and future events related to
life process.
 Involves the review of written materials but may
include oral documentation as well.

 Typically relies on available data which are in form of
diaries, letters, newspaper, reports and so on.
 It covers categories such as historical legal,
documentary, bibliographical, biographical,
institutional, ideational and organizational.
 Important existing sources for nurse researchers are
hospital records, order sheets, nursing charts,
physicians and care plan statements.

STEPS OF HISTORICAL RESEARCH
1. FIRST STEP: data collection
2. SECOND STEP: criticism of the data
3. THIRD STEP: presentation of the facts

First step: data collection
Comprehensive gathering of data is undertaken.
Historical sources of data are usually classified into
two main categories:
Primary sources:
Primary sources are first hand information that include:
 Remains or relic associated with persons, groups, periods
or events.
 Fossils, skeletons, tools, weapons, utensils, clothing,
furniture, pictures, painting, coins and art objects are
examples of remains that were not deliberately intended
for use in transmitting information or to be used as a
record.

 Oral or testimony or the records kept and written by
actual participants in an event or actual witnesses of the
same.
 Documents called as primary sources are constitutions,
characters, laws, official records, deeds, wills, licenses,
newspapers, magazine e.t.c.
 Secondary sources:
These are the reports of people who related the testimony
of an actual witness of an event or actual participants in
the same. For example: most of the history books and
encyclopaedia.

Second step: criticism of data
• The second step necessitates a comprehensive review of
gathered materials. Christy (1975) describes the analytic
process of document review as a two-pronged activity.
1. External criticism: the establishment of validity by
determining the authenticity of the source.
 External criticism is covered basically with the
authenticity and genuineness of data.
 It primarily deals with data relating to form and
appearance rather than meaning of contents, while
internal criticism weighs the testimony of document in
relation to truth.

 The nurse ascertained that all the documents were
original. First-hand oral and written accounts were
accepted as valid.
2. Internal criticism: the determination of reliability by
Correctly interpreting the contents of the documents.
 The use of original, authentic sources; awareness of
one’s biases; the substantiation of the document in
question by another collaborating source are a few
of the safeguards used to ensure that interpretations
are correct.

To ensure reliability, the nurse examined each
document to make sure that the meaning of facts and
statements was clearly understood.
After authenticity of a historical document or relic
has been established, the next question is to establish
the validity of its contents or to determine the
accuracy and value of the statement made.
In performing internal criticism, historians must make
several determinations, which require historical
knowledge beyond perusal of the materials in
question.

Evidence bearing on the accuracy of historical data might
include one of the following:
1) Comparison with other people’s accounts of the same
event to determine degree of agreement.
2) Knowledge of time at which the document was
produced.
3) Knowledge of the points of view or biases of the written
and oral documents.
4) Knowledge of the degree of competence of the writer to
record events authoritatively and accurately.

Third step: presentation of facts
After evaluating the authenticity and accuracy of
historical data, the researcher must bring the material
together to analyse it and to test the research hypotheses.
 Historical researchers must be extremely careful at this
point since the analysis of historical data involves logical
processes rather than statistical ones and therefore
possibility of subjectivity arises.
 Historical composition is a synthetic and constructive
process that involves the mechanical problem of
documentation, logical problem of arrangement of topics
and subtopics and philosophical problem of
interpretation.

 The organization of historical material can also be done in
topical, thematic or functional arrangement.
 The writing of history demands careful avoidance of following
factors:
 Oversignifying facts.
 Overgeneralizations from insufficient evidence.
 Failure to distinguish between significant and trivial facts.
 Tendency to use secondary data.
 Personal bias
 A dull and colourless style.
 Failure to interpret words and expressions in light of their
usage in earlier times.

AREAS OF HISTORICAL STUDY
1. Periods: Historical studies focus on events and
developments that occurred during particular blocks of
time in the past. Historical researcher gives these periods
of time names in order to allow the organization of ideas
and classificatory generalization to be used by these
researchers,
2. Geographical location: particular geographical locations
can form the basis of historical study. For example:
continents, countries and cities.
3. Military history: concentrates on the study of conflicts
that have happened in human society. This includes
examining the wars, battles, military strategies, and
weaponry.

Methods and Tools Used in HR
a. Contemporaneous corroboration: it is further support
provided by the existing evidence about the past events.
It is powerful method used to establish facts beyond
their limited lifespans.
b. Photography: A methodological tool for collection of
all known information about individuals in a given
period.
c. Historical revisionism: traditionally used in completely
natural sense to describe the work or idea of historian
who has revised a previously accepted view of a
particular topic.
d. Change log: log or record of changes made to a project
such as website or software project.

e. Human evolution: process of change and
development or evolution by which human beings
emerged as distinctively special.
f. Social change: changes in nature, social institutions,
social behavior or the social relations of a society or
community of people.

Historical research design

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Historical research design