Methods and Essential Qualities of Social Research

Social Research

Another important method or rural study is social research. Social research is the discovery of new truths about society. It is a systematic method of discovering new facts or verifying old facts, their sequences, inter-relationship, causal explanations and natural laws. In this way, social research or investigation discovers new facts about social activities, social circumstances, social assumptions, social groups, social values or social institutions etc. and investigates the old facts on these subjects. It locates inter relationship or causal relations among social incidents. It locates those natural laws which stimulate different phenomena in social life.

In this way the objective of social research is to formulate general laws by collection, analysis, interpretation and generalization of facts, having studied social incidents and activities, and to predict on the basis of these general laws as well as to indicate future changes and reactions. The aim of social research is obviously and purely theoretical and scientific lacking any direct relation with human welfare.

Social research is, by nature, scientific. Its aim is to gather fresh knowledge and to verify the knowledge which has been obtained. It is not connected with practical and immediate social planning or social engineering or with ameliorative and therapeutic measures. It is not concerned with administrative changes and refinements of administrative procedure as with social reform.

There are the following four steps in the method of social research

• Forming a hypothesis.
• Observation an collection of data.
• Classification and organization of collected data.
• Generalization.
• Verification of general laws and examination of their truth.

Social research starts with the formulation of a most probable hypothesis regarding a particular problem. For example, in order to investigate the relations of broken family with crimes, one may form a hypothesis that broken family is a cause of crime. The result of the research will either prove or disprove this hypothesis. The next step in social research will be the observation of several broken families and collecting data about criminal tendencies in them or observing criminals and finding out as to how many of them come from a broken family. This requires an alert, keen and objective approach in the researcher.

After observation and collection of the data it is classified and organized in that the implicit pattern may become sufficiently explicit. In the above mentioned example, the research will classify the families of the criminals under observation. Now, one may generalize broad principles on the basis of particular cases. By seeing that most of the criminals come from broken families or that the member of broken families generally exhibit criminal tendencies one may conclude that the broken families ten to breed crime. This proves the initial hypothesis. But before it is accepted as a scientific principle in sociology, it should be verified by many sociologists in different concrete situation.

Essential Qualities of a Social Research Worker

Compared to their fields of research, social research demands better social qualities in its research worker. He should be equipped with an 

• appropriate knowledge of the subject 
• have experience of conducting research 
• possess knowledge of past researchers
• historical facts corresponding to the present one
• the ability to profit by the experiences of others. 

He should have knowledge of the necessary machines and be able to handle them. He should also be capable of choosing tools appropriate to the time, place and subject. But besides these qualities, which are characteristic of scientific research worker, the social research worker must also supplement them with some special qualities because while other scientists conduct their research in the laboratory, the social research worker has the society as this laboratory where he has to cooperate with individuals, depend on their cooperation. Hence, he must be possessed of an attractive, adaptable and cheerful disposition. He should be a master of etiquette, and be a skilled, intelligent, impartial, alert, active, balanced, good conversationalist, forbearing and constructively imaginative.

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RURAL SOCIOLOGY BY RAJENDRA KUMAR SHARMA