Social research is a research conducted by
social scientists following a systematic plan.
Social research methodologies can be classified
as quantitative and qualitative.
Quantitative designs approach social phenomena
through quantifiable evidence, and often rely
on statistical analysis of many cases (or
across intentionally designed treatments in
an experiment) to create valid and reliable
general claims.
Related to quantity.
Qualitative designs emphasize understanding
of social phenomena through direct observation,
communication with participants, or analysis
of texts, and may stress contextual subjective
accuracy over generality.
Related to quality.While methods may be classified
as quantitative or qualitative, most methods
contain elements of both.
For example, qualitative data analysis often
involves a fairly structured approach to coding
the raw data into systematic information,
and quantifying intercoder reliability.
Thus, there is often a more complex relationship
between "qualitative" and "quantitative" approaches
than would be suggested by drawing a simple
distinction between them.
Social scientists employ a range of methods
in order to analyse a vast breadth of social
phenomena: from census survey data derived
from millions of individuals, to the in-depth
analysis of a single agent's social experiences;
from monitoring what is happening on contemporary
streets, to the investigation of ancient historical
documents.
Methods rooted in classical sociology and
statistics have formed the basis for research
in other disciplines, such as political science,
media studies, program evaluation and market
research.
== Method ==
Social scientists are divided into camps of
support for particular research techniques.
These disputes relate to the historical core
of social theory (positivism and antipositivism;
structure and agency).
While very different in many aspects, both
qualitative and quantitative approaches involve
a systematic interaction between theory and
data.
The choice of method often depends largely
on what the researcher intends to investigate.
For example, a researcher concerned with drawing
a statistical generalization across an entire
population may administer a survey questionnaire
to a representative sample population.
By contrast, a researcher who seeks full contextual
understanding of an individuals' social actions
may choose ethnographic participant observation
or open-ended interviews.
Studies will commonly combine, or triangulate,
quantitative and qualitative methods as part
of a multi-strategy design.
== Sampling ==
Typically a population is very large, making
a census or a complete enumeration of all
the values in that population infeasible.
A sample thus forms a manageable subset of
a population.
In positivist research, statistics derived
from a sample are analysed in order to draw
inferences regarding the population as a whole.
The process of collecting information from
a sample is referred to as sampling.
Sampling methods may be either random (random
sampling, systematic sampling, stratified
sampling, cluster sampling) or non-random/nonprobability
(convenience sampling, purposive sampling,
snowball sampling).
The most common reason for sampling is to
obtain information about a population.
Sampling is quicker and cheaper than a complete
census of a population.
== Methodological assumptions ==
Social research is based on logic and empirical
observations.
Charles C. Ragin writes in his Constructing
Social Research book that "Social research
involved the interaction between ideas and
evidence.
Ideas help social researchers make sense of
evidence, and researchers use evidence to
extend, revise and test ideas."
Social research thus attempts to create or
validate theories through data collection
and data analysis, and its goal is exploration,
description, explanation, and prediction.
It should never lead or be mistaken with philosophy
or belief.
Social research aims to find social patterns
of regularity in social life and usually deals
with social groups (aggregates of individuals),
not individuals themselves (although science
of psychology is an exception here).
Research can also be divided into pure research
and applied research.
Pure research has no application on real life,
whereas applied research attempts to influence
the real world.
There are no laws in social science that parallel
the laws in natural science.
A law in social science is a universal generalization
about a class of facts.
A fact is an observed phenomenon, and observation
means it has been seen, heard or otherwise
experienced by researcher.
A theory is a systematic explanation for the
observations that relate to a particular aspect
of social life.
Concepts are the basic building blocks of
theory and are abstract elements representing
classes of phenomena.
Axioms or postulates are basic assertions
assumed to be true.
Propositions are conclusions drawn about the
relationships among concepts, based on analysis
of axioms.
Hypotheses are specified expectations about
empirical reality derived from propositions.
Social research involves testing these hypotheses
to see if they are true.
Social research involves creating a theory,
operationalization (measurement of variables)
and observation (actual collection of data
to test hypothesized relationship).
Social theories are written in the language
of variables, in other words, theories describe
logical relationships between variables.
Variables are logical sets of attributes,
with people being the "carriers" of those
variables (for example, gender can be a variable
with two attributes: male and female).
Variables are also divided into independent
variables (data) that influences the dependent
variables (which scientists are trying to
explain).
For example, in a study of how different dosages
of a drug are related to the severity of symptoms
of a disease, a measure of the severity of
the symptoms of the disease is a dependent
variable and the administration of the drug
in specified doses is the independent variable.
Researchers will compare the different values
of the dependent variable (severity of the
symptoms) and attempt to draw conclusions.
== Guidelines for "good research" ==
When social scientists speak of "good research"
the guidelines refer to how the science is
mentioned and understood.
It does not refer to how what the results
are but how they are figured.
Glenn Firebaugh summarizes the principles
for good research in his book Seven Rules
for Social Research.
The first rule is that "There should be the
possibility of surprise in social research."
As Firebaugh (p. 1) elaborates: "Rule 1 is
intended to warn that you don't want to be
blinded by preconceived ideas so that you
fail to look for contrary evidence, or you
fail to recognize contrary evidence when you
do encounter it, or you recognize contrary
evidence but suppress it and refuse to accept
your findings for what they appear to say."
In addition, good research will "look for
differences that make a difference" (Rule
2) and "build in reality checks" (Rule 3).
Rule 4 advises researchers to replicate, that
is, "to see if identical analyses yield similar
results for different samples of people" (p.
90).
The next two rules urge researchers to "compare
like with like" (Rule 5) and to "study change"
(Rule 6); these two rules are especially important
when researchers want to estimate the effect
of one variable on another (e.g. how much
does college education actually matter for
wages?).
The final rule, "Let method be the servant,
not the master," reminds researchers that
methods are the means, not the end, of social
research; it is critical from the outset to
fit the research design to the research issue,
rather than the other way around.
Explanations in social theories can be idiographic
or nomothetic.
An idiographic approach to an explanation
is one where the scientists seek to exhaust
the idiosyncratic causes of a particular condition
or event, i.e. by trying to provide all possible
explanations of a particular case.
Nomothetic explanations tend to be more general
with scientists trying to identify a few causal
factors that impact a wide class of conditions
or events.
For example, when dealing with the problem
of how people choose a job, idiographic explanation
would be to list all possible reasons why
a given person (or group) chooses a given
job, while nomothetic explanation would try
to find factors that determine why job applicants
in general choose a given job.
Research in science and in social science
is a long, slow and difficult process that
sometimes produces false results because of
methodological weaknesses and in rare cases
because of fraud, so that reliance on any
one study is inadvisable.
== Ethics ==
The ethics of social research are shared with
those of medical research.
In the United States, these are formalized
by the Belmont report as:
=== Respect for persons ===
The principle of respect for persons holds
that (a) individuals should be respected as
autonomous agents capable of making their
own decisions, and that (b) subjects with
diminished autonomy deserve special considerations.
A cornerstone of this principle is the use
of informed consent.
=== Beneficence ===
The principle of beneficence holds that (a)
the subjects of research should be protected
from harm, and, (b) the research should bring
tangible benefits to society.
By this definition, research with no scientific
merit is automatically considered unethical.
=== Justice ===
The principle of justice states the benefits
of research should be distributed fairly.
The definition of fairness used is case-dependent,
varying between "(1) to each person an equal
share, (2) to each person according to individual
need, (3) to each person according to individual
effort, (4) to each person according to societal
contribution, and (5) to each person according
to merit."
== Types of method ==
The following list of research methods is
not exhaustive:
== Foundations of social research ==
=== 
Sociological positivism ===
The origin of the survey can be traced back
at least early as the Domesday Book in 1086,
while some scholars pinpoint the origin of
demography to 1663 with the publication of
John Graunt's Natural and Political Observations
upon the Bills of Mortality.
Social research began most intentionally,
however, with the positivist philosophy of
science in the early 19th century.
Statistical sociological research, and indeed
the formal academic discipline of sociology,
began with the work of Émile Durkheim (1858–1917).
While Durkheim rejected much of the detail
of Auguste Comte's philosophy, he retained
and refined its method, maintaining that the
social sciences are a logical continuation
of the natural ones into the realm of human
activity, and insisting that they may retain
the same objectivity, rationalism, and approach
to causality.
Durkheim set up the first European department
of sociology at the University of Bordeaux
in 1895, publishing his Rules of the Sociological
Method (1895).
In this text he argued: "[o]ur main goal is
to extend scientific rationalism to human
conduct.
... What has been called our positivism is
but a consequence of this rationalism."Durkheim's
seminal monograph, Suicide (1897), a case
study of suicide rates among Catholic and
Protestant populations, distinguished sociological
analysis from psychology or philosophy.
By carefully examining suicide statistics
in different police districts, he attempted
to demonstrate that Catholic communities have
a lower suicide rate than that of Protestants,
something he attributed to social (as opposed
to individual or psychological) causes.
He developed the notion of objective suis
generis "social facts" to delineate a unique
empirical object for the science of sociology
to study.
Through such studies he posited that sociology
would be able to determine whether any given
society is "healthy" or "pathological", and
seek social reform to negate organic breakdown
or "social anomie".
For Durkheim, sociology could be described
as the "science of institutions, their genesis
and their functioning".
=== Modern methodologies ===
In the early 20th century innovation in survey
methodology were developed that are still
dominant.
In 1928, the psychologist Louis Leon Thurstone
developed a method to select and score multiple
items with which to measure complex ideas,
such as attitudes towards religion.
In 1932, the psychologist Rensis Likert developed
the Likert scale where participants rate their
agreement with statement using five options
from totally disagree to totally agree.
Likert like scales remain the most frequently
used items in survey.
In the mid-20th century there was a general—but
not universal—trend for American sociology
to be more scientific in nature, due to the
prominence at that time of action theory and
other system-theoretical approaches.
Robert K. Merton released his Social Theory
and Social Structure (1949).
By the turn of the 1960s, sociological research
was increasingly employed as a tool by governments
and businesses worldwide.
Sociologists developed new types of quantitative
and qualitative research methods.
Paul Lazarsfeld founded Columbia University's
Bureau of Applied Social Research, where he
exerted a tremendous influence over the techniques
and the organization of social research.
His many contributions to sociological method
have earned him the title of the "founder
of modern empirical sociology".
Lazarsfeld made great strides in statistical
survey analysis, panel methods, latent structure
analysis, and contextual analysis.
Many of his ideas have been so influential
as to now be considered self-evident.
== 
See also ==
=== Social research organizations ===
Center for the Advanced Study of Communities
and Information, United States
Centre of Research in Theories and Practices
that Overcome Inequalities
Economic and Social Research Council, United
Kingdom (Research Funding Council)
National Centre of Research in Social and
Cultural Anthropology, Algeria
Institute for Social Research, Germany
Mass Observation, United Kingdom
Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and
Social Research, Australia
National Centre for Social Research, United
Kingdom
National Opinion Research Center, United States
New School for Social Research, New York City
Social Science Research Network
== References ==
== Further reading ==
Kenneth D. Bailey (1994).
Methods of Social Research.
Simon and Schuster.
ISBN 978-0-02-901279-6.
Donald H. McBurney; Theresa L. White (2009).
Research Methods.
Cengage Learning.
ISBN 0-495-60219-1.
Glenn Firebaugh, Seven Rules for Social Research,
Princeton University Press, 2008, ISBN 978-0-691-13567-0
Mills, C. Wright.
Appendix to Sociological Imagination (1959).
Appendix, On Intellectual Craftsmanship, pp.
195-226.
In the Sociological Imagination.
New York: Oxford University Press.
Earl Babbie, The Practice of Social Research,
10th edition, Wadsworth, Thomson Learning
Inc., ISBN 0-534-62029-9
W. Lawrence Neuman, Social Research Methods:
Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches, 6th
edition, Allyn & Bacon, 2006, ISBN 0-205-45793-2
== External links ==
Free Resources for Social Research Methods
Evaluation Portal
American Evaluation Association Evaluation
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