Within the last 20 to 25 years, courses in
methods of social research have come to occupy an increasingly important role
in sociological curricula. It likely that at present every major university
offers such courses. This is because growing significance of social research
and also growing job opportunities in this field.
In this present age, social science are
accruing a scientific method of study for this method, research is an important
factor. In the last two or three decades, a social research has become an
important subject of the curriculum of sociology.
Social research has therefore, assumed
greater importance. Apart from thus, the social science research is essential
for proper understanding the society and proper collection and analysis of
social facts.
The social research is an effective
method. Research laboratory techniques are helping in finding further
knowledge, about the subject. Through research only it has been possible to
make progress and reach further.
In fact, research is an organized effort
to acquire new knowledge. It is based on the past experience and past
knowledge. The richer the past knowledge, greater the surely of the results.
Problems of Social Research and their
solutions:
In science sociology is assuming a
scientific base research has become a part of study, it is not an easy task to
predict social behavior because of human nature is ever changing. Problems of
scientific research in fact, social research deal with social phenomena which
are quite different than natural phenomena. Hence there are fundamental
differences between research in social science and that of physical and natural
science.
Let us study main difficulties faced by
the researcher in the application so scientific methods in social research.
Complexity of social data It is a well known that social science studies the
human behavior which depends on several factor such as physical, social,
temperamental ,psychological, geographical, biological social cultural etc.
because of these factors a researcher is generally confused. It is therefore
said that because of this complexity of social fatal human beings cannot be put
to scientific test.
Problems of concepts:
In social science research, one has to
face number of problems among which of:
a) Abstraction
b) Faculty reasoning Plays major role in
formulating and defining the concepts and laws.
Problems in
interpreting relationship between cause and effects:
In social science research, we generally
find interdependent relationship between cause and effect. The cause and effect
are one and the same, for example, in underdevelopment countries, the economics
development cannot be accelerated due to lack of technical know how and capital
cannot be obtained due to underdevelopment of the country.
Dynamic nature of
social phenomena
Man is a social animal and human society
undergoes constant change. What is true today may not be useful tomorrow. The
techniques used in past may prove useless for present ad future studies. On a
account of this dynamic nature of social phenomena our task of analyzing data
becomes very much complicated and the interferences drawn may be misleading.
Problems of maintaining objectivity The problem of impartiality in part of
problem of objectivity. It is generally argued that the social scientific are
less objective than natural scientific because their own interest affected by
the finding of their studies, hence leading to prejudice and bias.
Unpredictability
Predictability is one of the most
important characteristics of science. In case of physical science, high degree
of predictability is possible but it is not so in case of social data. But this
statement is also partially true the social scientist can roughly estimate the
behavior of the group.
Difficulty in
the verification of the inferences: In social research, the events of social
science are non-repetitive and the social science is ill-equipped with their
tools to verify inferences.
Difficulty in
the use of experimental method: In case of social science research its
product being a human being cannot be put to laboratory test. Even if it is
done, their responses wouldn’t be natural but subject to the awareness of the
artificial condition. Thus social scientist has to watch them in wide world.
Difficulty in
the use of experimental method: In case of social science research, its
product being a human being cannot be put to lab test. Even if it is done,
their responses wouldn’t natural but subject to the awareness of the artificial
condition. Thus the social scientist has to watch them in the wide world.
Incapability of
being dealt through empirical method: An empirical method cannot be applied in
case of social science research as repeated experiment is not possible ,for
example, the problem of unbiased sampling selection of data etc.
Problem of
inter-disciplinary research
Social science being, inter-disciplinary
one i.e. related with, economics, political science and sociology, we cannot
draw water-tight compartments for each other social science.
Paucity of funds:
In case of social science research, we
generally observed that small amount if finance is made available to them, it
is not sufficient to conduct research effectively.
Less resources:
Prof Mitchell
has rightly pointed out that social science researcher require less resources
in comparing to physical science.
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