Why Is Social Research So Important - Literature review Example

Running head: WHY SOCIAL RESEARCH IS IMPORTANT Sociology Name Social Research Tutor Date Social Research Introduction Social research can be termed as that research carried out by social scientists mainly in sociology, but also in other fields for instance social policy, political science, social anthropology, human geography as well as education. Sociologists along with other social scientists analyze different things ranging from census data involving hundreds of thousands of human beings, employing in-depth analysis of a particular important individual to observing what is going on the streets presently-or even what was going on during the past hundred years ago. Social research aims at providing quality research-based facts as well as advice for various bodies or individuals. This could be for instance ministers or government officials informing them on various policy developments, implementation as well as evaluation. Through social research, social scientists are able to come up with new ideas, open up debates, argue assumptions, beliefs and attitudes, and test various policy ideas in addition to developing an understanding of various issues as they impact on various societies or governments. (Worldlingo, 2010). Importance of Social Research Social research is also of great importance as it deals with the human being aspects of the real world. Babbie (2008) argues that social research reveals deliberate observations from the real world and as a result describing objects or events in terms of the aspects making up a variable. This means that social research entails an in detail study as well as human behaviour evaluation by employing scientific methods which are either quantitative or qualitative in manner. The subject matter of social research can therefore be subjective or objective. This is somehow in contrast compared to natural science as social research discloses subjective, objective, inter-subjective as well as the structural outlook of the society. In other words, social research measures social developments of a given society in addition to finding out the rising negative aspects too. Its work is to look at where the general society has been moving to and that extra that can be done to ensure the entire race benefits. For instance, by unfolding our historical evidences, we realize that social research has been a continuous part of human race development. Interestingly; great philosophers such as Aristotle were supporters of social research with their philosophies majorly based upon the objectives of social research only. As a result, social research is to a great extent present in our everyday life and has therefore a crucial role in the growth and development of the society. According to Papanagnou (2010) social research, academic or if not, has a slow impact as regards policy which can proceed on for a number of years. It serves to solve problems in addition to discussing social issues in a more significant perspective. One of its key functions is therefore to problematize present opinions and conditions in order to assist policy makers along with the general public, through prompting a wider societal debate that reflects upon present practices. In this sight, the scientific results in addition to the constant efforts to acquire more knowledge will gradually permeate the society, therefore resulting into changes in their opinions and practices as well. Without a doubt, social research, from economics to issues of gender and studies on migration, appear to be having an indirect and gradual influence on the attitudes of both the policy makers and the general public as well. Such evidence clearly brings out an indication that to a greater extent there is an enlightenment of the role played by social research (Papanagnou, 2010). Another importance of social research is that the various theories formulated by social scientists update the practices of other social workers by providing them with a framework for reference with regards to problem solving. The various theories formulated also enhance other social scientists’ practices by explaining the reason why a given is society is the way it is, and proceeds on explaining why people face various problems they are encountering. This can therefore help in finding solutions as well as informing the social scientists about complex problems facing various people (Sarantakos, 1994). An example of this can be given of an individual sitting relentlessly without any motivation or desire to get a job. This can be linked to structural theories meaning that the various structures set within the society have played a part to the helplessness of the particular individual. In short, social theories help inform social researchers making them more informed and even more intelligent. They therefore propose hypotheses as the description of various observable facts, and thereafter come up with experimental studies so that they are able to test the hypotheses. The steps are even repeated so that they are able to predict future outcomes. Theories covering wider fields of inquiry tend to bind a number of hypotheses in a logical structure. This helps to create new hypotheses or still put other hypotheses in context. This makes them now available for thorough scrutiny by other experts, therefore giving other social researchers a chance to validate the results by trying to reproduce them (Citehr, 2010). In general social research is concerned with social problems. Social in this case implies that problems are not very much there but are made by two or more individuals. In any case, it is unlikely that social problems occur on their own. Social scientists, therefore, attempt to understand how various societies along with cultures define problems as well as choosing their own methods of handling them. For this reason, attaining an understanding of the background in which various problems come up is of great significance for social scientists, so that they are able to decide on a suitable intervention strategy (Stinchcombe, 2005). Ways in which social research produces knowledge to help solve social problems Social scientists employ various methods so as to describe, explore as well as to deeply understand social life. The social methods are commonly subdivided into two categories; quantitative and qualitative. Quantitative method deals mainly with efforts to measure social phenomena and collecting as well as analyzing numerical data with a focus on the relation among small number of aspects and across a number of cases. Alternatively, quantitative methods put emphasis on personal experiences as well as the interpretation on quantification (Stinchcombe, 2005). Quantitative methods are therefore to a great extent dealing with understanding the social phenomenal aspects and focus on the relation among a large number of aspects but across moderately few cases. Although they are different in a number of aspects, their approaches entail systematic link between theories as well as data. Common tools for quantitative researchers normally consist of questionnaires, surveys and secondary statistical data analysis which have been collected for other purposes such as censuses or outcomes of other social attitude surveys. On the other hand, commonly applied qualitative methods consist of focus groups, observation of the participant in addition to other techniques (Reagan, 1994) According to Babbie (2010) all these techniques offer approaches to agreement reality in addition to experiential reality. Social research therefore employs specific criteria that have to be met before agreeing to the reality of things that they may have not experienced as individuals. As a general rule, their scientific affirmations have to be both logical besides having empirical support. They have to make sense and not disagree with actual observation. Social research in this case offers a unique approach towards the finding of reality through personal experience. Babbie (2010) highlights various classes of things measured by social scientists in order to produce knowledge and thereafter solve social problems. This includes direct observables which involving those things that can be observed directly. Indirect observables require comparatively more ingenious, complex and indirect observation. For instance, a researcher notes a check mark alongside female in a questionnaire having indirectly observed the individual’s gender. Babbie (2010) give examples of historical books and other minutes of company board meetings as offering indirect observations of social actions carried out in the past. The other class comprises constructs which refers theoretical creations based on observations which cannot be observed either directly or indirectly. A clear example is the intelligent quotient which is constructed mathematically through the observations of the answers given out to a great number of questions to an intelligent quotient. Nobody can directly or indirectly scrutinize intelligent quotient. It occurs not as a real characteristic of a given people but appears more as that of prejudice. This is because they do not exist but are merely made up. Social research in general is therefore based on logic and experiential observations and involves interaction of ideas in addition to evidence. The ideas are what enables social researchers make sense out of evidences, and even use the evidence to expand, revise and test various ideas. It attempts to come up with and validate theories through collecting data and analyzing it, with its major goal being exploring, describing as well as explaining them. In this view, social research aims at finding out the social pattern of reliability as regards social life and is more often than not concerned with social groups and not individuals by themselves (Worldlingo, 2010). Social theory therefore involves creating theories, measuring the variables (operationalization) as well as observation of the actual collected data in order to test the assumed relationship. The theories are drafted employing variables meaning that social theories describe the logical relationship between various variables. Variables in this case are logical attributes found in people. For instance, gender can act as a variable having two attributes: male and female. The variables can still be further divided into independent variables which still have an influence on the dependant variables that social scientists attempt to explain. For instance, in study to find out how various drug dosages are related to the harshness of particular symptoms of a given disease, a measure of the symptom’s harshness of the disease is the dependant variable whereas the administration of the drugs in particular doses is the independent variable. In this case, researchers will make a comparison of the various values of independent variable and thereafter make efforts to come up with the conclusion (Worldlingo, 2010). Conclusion Social research seems to be thriving in the present world. Observed from a large number of university students, to those of professional researchers and scholars; from the large amount of scientific publications such as policy briefs and journals to the extent of subjects’ coverage, social research has proved to be a very significant part of the contemporary societies in their quest for knowledge as well as self improvement. Papanagnou (2010) argues that since its institutionalization, social research has strived to become a dependable as well as valued source of knowledge on social realm. Social research has strived to arrive at the scientific status by following methods as well as the ambitions of natural sciences. Using the society as the subject, social scientists have been able to get on a search for reliable in addition to verifiable knowledge which could thereafter be used guide some actions. This progress leading to scientification has further been demonstrated by the ascendancy coming out from the positivism in social inquiry. According to Reagan (1994), representation of social life through social research portrays a strong ground both in ideas as well as evidence and has great potentials in influencing various social policies. References Babbie, E.R. (2010).The Practice of Social Research, Edition 12, Cengage Learning. Babbie, E.R. (2008).The basics of social research, Edition 4, illustrated, Cengage Learning. Citehr. (2010).Research Methodology, Retrieved on October 29 from http://www.citehr.com/150459-research-methodology.html Papanagnou, G. (2010).Research, Discourses and Democracy. Innovating the Social Science-policy Nexus, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Reagan, C. (1994).Constructing Social Research: The Unity and Diversity of Method, Pine Forge Press. Stinchcombe, L .(2005).The logic of social research. University of Chicago Press. Sarantakos, S . (1994). Social research. Macmillan. Worldlingo. (2010).Social Research, Retrieved on October 29 from http://www.worldlingo.com/ma/enwiki/en/Social_research Stinchcombe, L .(2005).The logic of social research. University of Chicago Press. Sarantakos, S . (1994). Social research. Macmillan. Read More