Methodology and Human Development - Essay Example

? Theory, Methodology and Human Development Theory, Methodology, and Human Development How can family size influence the process of socialization? As they say, ‘Charity begins at home’, and, therefore, a family is the first society that a person meets. Many personal beliefs, abilities and inhibitions are first cultivated in the place one calls home. These beliefs, perceptions, and inhibitions are either acquired from of through one’s seniors at home such that a parent’s beliefs usually end up their children’s. These children see the world through their parents’ eyes and most people go through their lives with the beliefs they acquired as children with few or no modifications. The environment in which individuals grow up in or find themselves determines most of their financial, social and other perceptions. For instance, though a parent may not have a certain characteristic, the child may be treated in such a way that promotes the development of a previously non-existent or the manifestation of an underlying strength or weakness. Therefore, important as family background is, parents should be educated on how best to give a developing child an environment for optimal development of a growing individual. In addition to learning desirable character traits from parents, elder siblings enable the younger ones to inculcate these useful life traits. Interaction with other people is quite an important component of the daily life. This is necessitated by the fact that no person can live without involving others in their endeavors. In this regard, it is quite important that one lives in an environment that gives the chance to survive and bloom in the social world. Since family is the first community that one has, it means that the social environment developed at home is quite likely to influence how an individual reacts in the presence of other people. One factor that can affect one’s social life is family size. If researched scientifically, the effect of family size on socialization can help determine the ideal family size and give recommendations. If smaller families favor one’s socialization abilities, then the recommendation would be for larger family settings to be split up into smaller, more manageable, and socially advantageous units. On the contrary, if larger family settings do promote one’s ability to socialize, then the recommended family size would be readjusted and smaller family units merged to form larger ones in accordance to increasing advantage of this merger. Research Considerations What should be used as an indicator of the level of success in socialization? This question acts as a guide to the researcher to ensure that the answers obtained from the study would not be abstract but quantifiable to enable analysis using scientific methods like statistical analysis and scientific representation by use of graphs. It is important to have quantitative data because if recommendations are to be implemented, it has to be in a way that their effects can be measured and modified or terminated if ineffective. In this case, the number of close friends one has or the number of people dated until one gets married could be an indicator of the level of socialization success. Therefore, study objectives and hypotheses must be formulated such that when data is obtained, a relationship can be derived between the perceived level of success and the family background in which one grew. A researcher should have in mind that data collected may be complex and variations may result from many unforeseen underlying factors that must be put into consideration before, during, and after the study so that after data analysis, all assumptions must be put into account and stated in the final report (Lerner, 2002). What method of data collection is most appropriate in analyzing people’s social life? Questionnaires are the most effective methods of collecting social data if the respondents-to-be co-operate and answer the researchers’ questions in good faith. However, this is not the case as some people would tend to exaggerate or understate facts when handed a questionnaire. In addition, questionnaires among other methods of primary data collection are expensive and tedious to use and that is why many researchers prefer to use already available data from previous studies. Secondary sources have the advantages of being readily available with quite little searching, saving time and most of this data spreads over many years enabling the social scientists to study trends in the society over a defined period of time without the need to perform prolonged historical tests. How should samples be selected? The study sample should be selected such that it is representative of the population in consideration. Randomization is the recommended sampling method but in a society, people are divided into various social groups and the scientists must go an extra mile to ensure that their sample is not limited to a single population but can be generalized for other populations as well. Generalization saves researchers time, money, and other resources as the data, results, analysis, conclusions, and recommendations of a study in one location can be applied to other places with similar or related social characteristics. For effective sampling, preliminary studies should be done to determine the situation on the ground before embarking on proper study. Preliminary studies are done by performing the research in micro scale to have an overview of the results and determine if the study would be relevant, followed by all the necessary adjustments (Perry & Perry 2009). Application of the scientific method Physical sciences, from which social science borrows its research methodologies, depend on laboratory-like controlled environments for experiments. The scientific method involves defining of study questions, objectives and hypotheses followed by setting up, observation and recording of data, which is finally analyzed by statistical methods before recommendations, can be made. The study question ‘How can family size influence the process of socialization?’ acts as a guide to the aspects of socialization that the scientist has to study. Objectives would be to ensure fulfillment of certain aims the major one being ‘to identify the extent to which family size affects socialization’ by the end of the study. A hypothesis like ‘family size affects socialization’ is a statement that postulates the likely conclusion of the study and the aim of the research is either to approve or disapprove this hypothesis. If approved by the research, the hypothesis is on its way to becoming a scientific theory whereas if it is disapproved, the hypothesis is discarded and a more suitable one adopted. In addition, in a scientific research, the scientist has to ensure that his or her research is fair, meaning that apart from the one factor under scrutiny, all other factors must be held constant. For a scientist to make unbiased observations and conclusions, one has to maintain a neutral perspective on phenomena. A natural science researcher can maintain objectivity when doing research because he or she cannot interact with the research in any other way. A social scientist however has to deal with other issues that the natural scientists would not come across. Since the object of study is society that is made of people just like the researcher, the researcher is at risk of and usually will fall into subjectivity and end up participating in the research as an object of study. Subjectivity involves bias and emotions that end up interfering with the observed reality (Rossi, Lipsey & Freeman, 2004). In addition to subjectivity, a social scientist faces many ethical issues and cultural relativism. For instance, the scientist should avoid having personal opinions on the effect of family size on socialization and should only record observed facts. Scientific method can be successfully used to study trends and variations in society and the underlying causes. However, the kind of control found in natural sciences is not possible in social sciences because it is literally impossible to hold constant any factor when studying people. In fact, the limiting factor when applying the scientific method is considering many varying factors and giving many assumptions. For instance, it would be scientifically wrong to generalise the social characteristics of the behaviour of people in the selected samples without making the necessary corrections as this would result in the assumption that the population is homogenous, which is hardly ever the case. Conclusion Instead of relying on the scientific method, social scientists can come up with a new way of doing things the social science way. For instance, instead of formulating a single objective for a study, a researcher can formulate several unrelated objectives, in addition to defining more as the research progresses. This enables flexibility to accommodate previously unseen factors affecting the phenomenon in question. Social scientists should also do a better combination of primary and secondary methods than physical scientists do because in physical science, conclusive answers and recommendations can be made from a single source since everything can be compared against a simple standard. However, in social science, there are many variations and many underlying factors to consider and thus data from one source would prove inadequate for conclusive discussions, conclusions and recommendations. References Lerner, R. M. (2002). Concepts and theories of human development. 3rd Edn. Routledge. Perry, J. & Perry, E. (2009). Contemporary society: An introduction to social science. Boston, MA: Pearson. Rossi, P. H., Lipsey, M. W., & Freeman, H. E. (2004). Evaluation: A systematic approach. 7th Edn. Thousand Oaks: Sage. Read More