Social research

Social research refers to research conducted by social  scientists, which follows by the systematic plan. Social research is the scientific study of society. More specifically, social research examines a society’s attitudes, assumptions, beliefs, trends, stratifications and rules. Social research determines the relationship between one or more variables. For example, sex and income level are variables.

According to Pauline V.Young, “… social research is a systematic method of exploring, analyzing and conceptualising social life in order to “extend, correct, or verify knowledge, whether that knowledge aids in the construction of a theory or in the practice of an art.”

 According to Wallace and Wallace, “Sociological research refers to the structural observa­tion of social behaviour”.

Social research is the systematic and empirical exploration of

human social life.

Exploration: The central term in this definition is exploration. Social research

is about exploring the mysteries of social life. Social life contains countless

mysteries:

Systematic: As with all detective work, research is not a haphazard search for

clues; it is systematic .Good researchers work in ways that can be described as

structured, orderly, methodical, coherent, consistent, and logical.

Empirical: The exploration in social research is systematic and it also is

empirical, meaning that it is evidence-based. Evidence in research is called

data, and data are defined as what we can sense about the social world— In research,

something is true because we can sense it—we can see it, hear it, touch it,

smell it, or feel it.

Social Life: The final term in the definition of social research describes the

types of mysteries that interest social researchers