SOCIAL RESEARCH

Good Social Research

Good Social Research

Social Research

Social research is the scientific study of society. More specifically, social research examines a society's attitudes, assumptions, beliefs, trends, stratifications and rules. The scope of social research can be small or large, ranging from the self or a single individual to spanning an entire race or country. Popular topics of social research include poverty, racism, class issues, sexuality, voting behaviour, gender constructs, policing and criminal behaviour. Social research determines the relationship between one or more variables (Cargan 2007, 47-55). For example, sex and income level are variables. Social scientists will look for underlying concepts and cause-and-effect relationships of a social issue. Before even beginning research, scientists must formulate a research question. For example, a researcher might ask if there is a relationship between a person's sex and his or her income level. Do men have higher incomes than women? Are women most likely to be poor?

A third variable, race, can be added to the question. Then the social scientist can pose a research question: Does race and sex affect a person's income level? Social scientists will then collect data, organize and analyse information and create a report of their findings (Stinchcombe 2005, 33-48). People conducting social research must also consider ethics, biases and the reliability and validity of the research they're conducting. They must decide which form of sampling to use, how to measure information, how to analyze data and present their findings.

Research can be conducted using surveys, reports, observation, questionnaires, focus groups, historical accounts, personal diaries and census statistics. There are two types of research: qualitative research and quantitative research.

Qualitative Research

The lay notion of science and scientific research has been largely formed on the basis of natural science. The model for so-called 'survey analysis' is often understood as a simulation or application of the classic scientific experiment. This is why it is natural that survey research offers the exemplar of what social research is conceived to be both by the general public and by many of those who have studied in the field. Another reason for the survey's role as the exemplar of social research is the dominant position it has held for so long. In the methodology section of the university curricula, for instance, there are two courses, one on 'quantitative' and another on 'qualitative' methods. Methodology in the social sciences is divided into a two-party system, in which all can choose sides according to their preferences. In other hand, it is indeed possible to make a distinction between qualitative and quantitative analysis, but both can be quite well applied in the same study and in analyzing the same data.

The human sciences cannot be divided into quantitative and qualitative methods. Qualitative methods have become a convenient phrase depicting the other procedures and methods (Stinchcombe 2005, 33-48). Quantitative analysis is based on finding statistical regularities in the way different variables are associated with each other. In quantitative analysis, what is common to all observation units does not give any clue whatsoever about the phenomenon ...