▪ ''What are the benefits and drawbacks of research in social sciences''

▪ Essay on the subject "Introduction to research"

▪ Ivan Nemchenko
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▪ Social scientists do social research in an effort to create and refine theories that help us
make sense of the universe. By creating theories, social scientists simplify this process.
Unrefined reality is too chaotic for our comprehension. We need to know why these things
happen if we are to have any chance of influencing what occurs. We also need to simplify our
concept of reality if we are to have any chance of comprehending why they occur.
▪ Research on social issues is carried out according to a methodical approach by social
scientists. Methodologies used in social research fall into two categories: quantitative and
qualitative. In order to generate legitimate and trustworthy general assertions, quantitative
designs frequently rely on statistical analyses of numerous cases (or across purposefully
defined treatments in an experiment). They approach social problems through quantifiable
data. connected to the number.
▪ Understanding social phenomena through firsthand observation, participant interaction,
or text analysis is the main focus of qualitative designs, which may place more emphasis on
contextual subjectivity than universality. connected to quality.
▪ Both are present in most approaches. For instance, assessing intercoder reliability and
converting unstructured data into systematic information are common tasks in qualitative data
analysis. "Qualitative" and "quantitative" techniques frequently have a more nuanced
relationship than would be implied by making a clear separation between them. We may
consult Popper's essay, which offers us three conceptualizations of social reality: a clock, a
cloud, and a plastic control system.
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▪ This paradigm, of course, best captures the political reality, the explanation of which
is the mission of political science. It is made up of concepts—human choices, objectives, and
predestinations—that are in close, continuous contact with one another, with human conduct,
and with the outside environment.
▪ This intricate system embodies judgments and choices—choices to demand, command,
submit to, and vote. The political cosmos is structured; decision-makers decide what to order,
when to issue directives, and how to carry them out. Decisions about whether to obey, how to
obey, and whether to make demands are made by subjects and citizens. This is the core of
politics, which is the focus of political science's study and comprehension.
▪ These processes essentially take place as a result of the behavioral actors' non-fixed
repertoires. Actors learn from experience and have memories. They have objectives, hopes,
and methods of computation. The domains of memory, learning, goal-setting, and problem-
solving are situated between independent and dependent variables, or "cause" and "effect".
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▪ This essay is written in order to try to analyze the issue of the price of social research on
the basis of scientific papers read from this course and their analysis. When writing the essay,
I mainly relied on information obtained from the work "The craft of political research".
Scientific research helps us to create a theory based on the information received from
research, but I would like to consider the other side - the impact on the units that are directly
involved in the research. The main question will be to find out the consequences of social
research on people who agreed to take part in your experiment. There will be positive and
negative sides to this issue. A "pure science" approach to these challenges could be to say that
we should let the dice fall where they may because it is so difficult to evaluate the products of
knowledge in the first place. We should just pursue the truth without considering its
consequences. But as this book will show, social scientists seldom work with unchallenged
truths. We have enough challenges in our work, particularly because we are typically unable
to conduct experiments, thus our conclusions are partially subjective interpretations of reality.
When interpreting reality, we follow the norms of evidence, but our conclusions still require
our own judgment and personal decisions.
▪ No matter how challenging these ethical considerations may be, we must accept
personal responsibility for the findings of our research since we are not merely objective
truth-tellers.
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▪ It is also important to note that imposing rigid guidelines on what constitutes quality
research is undesirable. Any study or artistic endeavor should be assessed subjectively using
loose, ambiguous standards.
▪ As previously stated, the researcher bears the responsibility of substantiating the results
drawn from any empirical investigation. This is not necessary in any kind of non-empirical
research, though it might strengthen a normative argument or add interest to a formal theory
exercise by demonstrating the veracity of the assumptions it makes. It is also important to
emphasize that every qualitative research ought to focus on the issue of interest. The reason
behind the study and its intended goal will determine how "interesting" the problem is. It is
crucial to select challenges that are very relevant to contemporary politics for any type of
applied study. Stated differently, applied research need to be pertinent in the traditional
meaning of the term. You might think of a sociologist as someone who undertakes intricate,
methodical acts while conducting research and building a theory. In actuality, sociologists'
process of formulating ideas is essentially the same as our daily process of observing or
analyzing our surroundings. Sociologists merely provide a clearer and more methodical
interpretation of reality. The researchers of society are stuck in the absence of hypotheses.
They essentially consist of a straightforward, comment-free observation of happenings.
▪ Consequently, social theory is the culmination of all the hypotheses that sociologists have
created to describe human behavior. All the ideas created to describe political behavior are
collectively referred to as political theory, which is a subset of social theory.
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▪ Nevertheless, I want to get back to the subject of the influence on study units. I would
suggest that they are a set of questions about our attitude toward the persons we study that are
more focused than those previously stated, albeit they are not necessarily simpler to respond
to. It is important for us to realize that treating the subjects of our research fairly and decently
is entirely our responsibility.
▪ People should never be tricked or coerced into taking part, and they should always be
fully informed before consenting to participate. That is the one hard guideline. Additionally,
hurting participants while conducting an experiment is unacceptable. Generally speaking, you
should refrain from doing anything bad to your study subjects or from withholding positive
information from them. Stress or embarrassment on a psychological level is also significant.
People shouldn't be coerced into taking part in your study or put in unpleasant situations.
▪ Imposing. You are requesting assistance from your subjects. Don't ask for more than
you actually require. Respecting people's personal space is also crucial when doing research.
Keep things private. The people you study with will typically want their privacy to be
respected. Simply not publishing your entire name is insufficient. It may be simpler to
identify the issue if you add pertinent facts in your report. It is important that you make sure
the people that assisted you are really hidden.
▪ Fool or mislead the participants. Make sure your subjects understand exactly what you
expect of them and how you plan to use them. If the subjects of your study are unaware that
they are being watched, your research's findings might be more trustworthy. All people do,
however, have the right to avoid deception and to not be used against their will.
▪ We must take into account the overall nature of political theories as well as the variables
influencing the choice to study a specific theory in order to comprehend all of the higher-
level difficulties. Some type of political theory might hold the answer to fixing a lot of
engineering difficulties. Some type of political theory might hold the answer to fixing a lot
of engineering difficulties. It could be necessary to create a theory that considers a number of
variables and enables you to modify them in order to effect the desired change in any given
phenomenon. For instance, theories explaining why parents give their younger child more
attention than their older child and whether or not these theories can be connected have been
developed as a result of some applied research on the issue of the success gap between first
and second children from average families. I can also give the Stauffer study, which is
another example of an engineering research where a theory had to be developed, as an
example. It was mentioned in chapter 1. In this instance, Stauffer and his crew were required
to provide an explanation for the disparity in morale between the military people and the
paramedic pilots. They have to do this in order to come up with ideas for raising army
personnel morale generally. It is important to note your research's goal here.
▪ However, a lot of engineering investigations just entail measuring things that need to
be measured; they don't call for the formation of theories. In conclusion, theory-oriented
research invariably entails the formation of political theories, whereas engineering research
may or may not. In certain research types, theory serves as a tool; in others, it is the goal in
and of itself. However, it is worthwhile to examine the essence of the idea more closely
regardless of the kind of research you are currently conducting.
▪ My written difficulties raise difficult moral dilemmas such as "ends and means." Should
research be conducted on people who must be mistreated if it would benefit society as a
whole? The answer is ambiguous.
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▪ And now, in my opinion, I'd want to gently bring up the core issue with social research.
Are all of the aforementioned aspects worthy of investigation because they may, in theory,
enhance and resolve a variety of societal issues? However, what moral criteria are appropriate
at this point in research? The values that we can obtain as a result will determine whether or
not these norms are universal. To summarize my essay, the most important problem in social
research is the possible negative impact on the unit participating in the experiment, but on the
other hand, there is a plus of studying the problem and solving it through the knowledge
gained during the experiment. A good example was given in the work of W. Phillips Shively
about experiments conducted on people in the camps of Nazi Germany. Obviously, nothing
can justify such terrible experiments on people and it is absolutely inhumane to even use the
knowledge gained during such terrible experiments, but on the other hand, this knowledge
has helped save millions of other people's lives.