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.

IMPORTANCE IN DAILY LIFE

Social research has a very vital importance in our life.

• It occupies a very important place in the field of sociology.

• It requires proper collection and analysis of social facts.
• Social research is an effective method to collect factual figures.

MAIN PURPOSE
Social research has two purposes.

• Academic purpose
• Non-Academic purpose

The main purpose of Sociological Research is to diffuse knowledge

and to establish theories on the basis of believable facts. It can also be
said that we do research to know and expand the reality.
AIMS OF SOCIAL RESEARCH
• To discover new facts.
• To verify and test old facts
• To analyze their sequence interrelation ships casual explanations
• Develop New Scientific tools concepts theories which would facilitate
reliable and valid study of human behavior.

IMPORTANCE IN SOCIOLOGY
Social Research has a vital importance in the field of Sociology
because:

• Social research is essential to diffuse knowledge and to expand its

horizon.
• Social Research helps us to verify, disprove, Confirm, reject,
modify and re-assert the existing theories and to establish new
ones.
• Social research helps us to give new theories and to analyze the
existing theories.
• Social Research provides practical clues to undertake measures
that lead to Social improvement, Social change and Social
progress.
• Social research helps us to explore the hidden truths and clues.
• It provides new insight to know the nature and magnitudes of the
problems.
• It has commercial importance also because industries, business
firms and commercial establishments can get a lot of information
about their endeavors in society.
• Social research can provide all required data and facts to undertake
the appropriate policies, plans and programs.
• It has educational importance also.
• It is mainly an intellectual activity.
• Social research motivates inter-disciplinary studies.
USES OF SOCIAL RESEARCH
Beside all these importance, through social research you can find

• 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.

TYPES OF SOCIAL RESEARCH

According to sociologists social research has three main modes,
aspects, horizons, dimensions and perspectives.

• Application
• Objective
• Inquiry

These three perspectives can further be classified into different dimensions.

Here is a flowchart of perspectives of social Research

 Social research

Applicatio
Inquiry
n Objective

Exploratory
Research

Pure Qualitative
Research Research

Explanatory
Research

Applied Descriptive Quantitative

Research Research 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.

Example of Pure research

An example is developing a sampling technique that can be applied to a

particular situation for;

 The development of methodology to assess the validity of

a procedure.
 For the development of an instrument.
 For the measurement of stress level in students.
 For the measurement of student’s attitude.

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;

 This type of social research is useful for the study of other’s

researches.
 In this research, the basic information for the procedure is found.
 This type of research helps in understanding the conditions of the
people.
 In this type of research, the researcher knows nothing about the
problems.
 The researcher doesn’t go deep into the problems of the people.
 Exploratory research is done in search of some new indicators.
 Explorative research opens the new ways and aspects during the
research.

2. EXPLANATORY RESEARCH
The desire to know who, what and why to explain is the purpose of
explanatory research.

 Explanatory research is built on descriptive and exploratory research.

 Explanatory research goes on to identify the reasons about anything
occurs.
  The main emphasis of explanatory research is on causes and reasons
of phenomena.

3. DESCRIPTIVE RESEARCH

Descriptive research describes the already existed theories and researches.

 Descriptive research is the base of the sociological knowledge.

 Sociological data is de4scriptive in nature.
 Descriptive information of social relationship is very important.

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

Happiness, sadness friendship, loneliness and hatred are example of

qualitative data.

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

Are quantitative data.