The Research Paradigms of Graduate Theses in Social Sub-Disciplines of Sports

In this study, graduate theses that are completed between the years of 2000 and 2015 in the social field of sports sciences are examined in terms of the research paradigms. In this respect, different methodological features of the theses are investigated and compared. The theses were obtained from the databases of Y？K and TüBESS. Document research and categorical content analysis were used in the study. Theses were classified based on subject, methodology, research design, graduate level and department by categorical content analysis. The classified data was analysed by using descriptive statistics. The findings showed that theses were frequently conducted in different sub-disciplines such as sport psychology (%38), sport management (%23,5), sport sociology (%16) and recreation (% 8,3). Also, the %83.4 of total theses are conducted with quantitative; %14,2 with qualitative and %2,3 with mixed methodology; within these theses, % 60 with correlational; % 16,3 with descriptive; %5,5 with compilation and %3,1 phenomenology designs are used. The results revealed that research paradigms of graduate theses in the social field of sports sciences haven’t changed; they mostly referred to quantitative methods and dominant paradigm is still positivist paradigm