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Social Research
Social Research
RESEARCH
A systemized effort to gain new knowledge, to discover new facts and
to verify and test old facts is called Research.
SOCIAL RESEARCH
Social Research is an effective method of discovering new facts, their
sequences, inter-relationship, casual explanations and social laws which
govern them.
Social Research is an attempt to know new things, facts and
information in a scientific manner.
Sociological research refers to the structural observation of social
behavior.
MAIN PURPOSE
Social research has two purposes.
• Academic purpose
• Non-Academic purpose
IMPORTANCE IN SOCIOLOGY
Social Research has a vital importance in the field of Sociology
because:
• PhD degree.
• Good salary.
• Good jobs.
• New appointments.
• New horizons.
• New business.
• Satisfactions.
• New fields.
• New development.
• New literature.
• New art.
• New style.
• New approaches.
• New trends.
• New opportunities.
• Application
• Objective
• Inquiry
Applicatio
Inquiry
n Objective
Exploratory
Research
Pure Qualitative
Research Research
Explanatory
Research
Co relational
Research
APPLICATION
Through the perspective of application, social research can be classified into
two modes:
1. PURE RESEARCH
Pure research is concerned with:
• Development
• Examination
• Verification
• Refinement
It deals with the methods, procedures, techniques and tools that form the
body of research methodology.
2. APPLIED RESEARCH
Applied research is the soul of social sciences. It is also called action
oriented research. Most of the research in the social sciences is applied.
The research techniques, procedures and methods that form the body
of research methodology are applied to collect information about various
aspects of a situation, issue, problem and about any phenomenon so that
information gathered can be used in other ways.
This gathered information can be used in;
Policy formulation.
Administration.
In the enhancement of understanding of a phenomenon.
OBJECTIVE
From the perspective of its objectives, research can be classified into four
modes:
1. EXPLORATORY RESEARCH
Exploratory research plays a vital role in the field of social research as;
2. EXPLANATORY RESEARCH
The desire to know who, what and why to explain is the purpose of
explanatory research.
3. DESCRIPTIVE RESEARCH
4. CO-RELATIONAL RESEARCH
The main emphasis in this type of research is to;
Discover
Establish
the existence of a
Relationship
Association
Interdependence
between two or more aspects of a situation.
INQUIRY
From the perspective of its inquiry, research can be classified into two
modes:
1. QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
Unstructured approach to the inquiry is called Qualitative research.
It deals with the soft data in the form of:
Impression
Words
Sentences
Photos
Symbols
Examples
2. QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH
Structured approach to the inquiry is called quantitative research.
It deals with the hard data which is in numerical and in digits form.
For example,
Age
Income
Education
Height
Weight