Why Don't We Prove Results in Social Research - Essay Example

However, it is different from scientific research. In order to prove the results of the research, there are certain elements that must exist. In science, the basic research elements are observation, description, prediction, control, falsification, and causal explanation. Descriptions should be reliable and repeatable. In social research, however, if the same study were conducted by another researcher in another place, the descriptions would not be the same. This is also true of falsification. Falsification is the ability to rule out all other possibilities, rather than merely accepting the results.

Since humans are unique in nature, the chances of disproving the results of many social research cases by conducting another study using different subjects would be strong. Instead of looking to rule out possibilities, a social researcher looks to find all the possibilities that explain certain behavior. In addition, as societies grow and change, the results of social research will also continue to change. The social sciences are not concrete like the natural sciences. They are evolving. They rely on interpretations and ideas, rather than hard facts.

For these reasons, social research is not something that can be proved.2. Compare the ways in which quantitative and qualitative social researchers deal with personal bias and the issue of trusting the researcher.It is very important that social research methods take measures to maintain a level of trust between the researcher and the researched. One built-in safeguard is to require informed consent. Informed consent has many levels. The subjects should be made aware of what the research is about and who the researcher is as well as others involved in the research.

They should be told why they have been chosen to take part in the study, what the harms and benefits are, and how the information will be used in the future. Their privacy and anonymity should be protected. They also need to be made aware that they do not have to participate and that they can drop out at any time. To ensure that informed consent is given, and researchers are providing a trustworthy setting for their subjects, peer-reviewing can be done. Bringing in outsiders, like an ethics committee to run checks can help assure this building of trust.

For example, the Office for Human Research Protections is an ethics committee that makes sure researchers abide by a certain code of ethics.Quantitative research and qualitative research are actually quite different with respect to personal bias. Quantitative research deals with a larger number of people, and fewer factors. It is statistical, and the more "scientific" of the two research types. Personal bias should not exist. With qualitative research, on the other hand, while personal bias still needs to be controlled, it is more or less accepted.

In qualitative research, the researcher's role in the study is much more pronounced than in quantitative. Since qualitative research is reliant on the researcher's observations and interpretations of the people involved, these impressions and thoughts are in fact an important part of the results. The researcher can limit his influence by being very detailed in his field notes, but he should also be aware that it is impossible to be totally objective.