Fundamental Concepts in Social Science

Question 1

The four research strategies used in Social Science

Answer 1

• Laboratory Experiment
• Social Survey
• Field Research
• Use of available data

Question 2

What are research methods?

Answer 2

Methodologies(body of procedures and techniques) used to do research in a particular social science field.

Question 3

Defining Social Science

Answer 3

• Sometimes referred to “behavioural sciences”
• Each of the social science fields has its own particular focus of study (its own aims, methodologies, concepts, and sub-fields)
• Social Sciences originated as scientific disciplines in the 19th century (Emile Durkheim, Max Weber, Auguste Comte)
• All the social sciences share the same aim(study people, how they act, think and feel, and how they interact with eachother
• looks at the groups that people form, at the relations within and between such groups and how they adapt to changes
• study of social world

Question 4

Defining the scientific method

Answer 4

• Basic set of rules, principles and procedures for explaining and understanding the world around us
• word “science” comes from the Latin scientia, which means knowledge
• so: science is a way of knowing, and scientific knowledge is produced by following the scientific method
• other socially acceptable ways of knowing include:
• > teachings of the holy scriptures
• > folkways, superstitions

Question 5

Fundamental Concepts in Social Science

Answer 5

There are two general categories of social science research: quantitative research and qualitative research

Question 6

What is Quantitative research?

Answer 6

• involves the study and use of quantitative data; data that is numerical, that can be precisely measured, can be expressed in numbers
• the focus is on hypothesis testing: researcher formulates a hypothesis, and then puts that hypothesis to the test

Question 7

Disciplines that adopt quantitative approach

Answer 7

Sociology
-> methodology? Social Survey
Ex: responses of a questionnaire are transformed into frequency and percentage data

Psychology
-> methodology? Lab Experiment
Ex: response time to a stimulus in the pre and post tests of an experiment.

Question 8

What is Qualitative research?

Answer 8

• involves the study and use of qualitative data; data that are non-numerical, that can not be expressed in numbers, that can only be described and interpreted.
• it focuses on:
  1. description and interpretation of people’s behaviour and actions
  2. understanding the special social meanings and reasons attached to their behaviour
  3. idea is that human beings think and feel, they do things for reasons

Question 9

Social science disciplines that adopt the qualitative approach

Answer 9

Anthropology
-> methodology? Field research
Ex: people’s perceptions, interpretations of events, etc.

History
-> methodology? use of primary sources, oral history
Ex: historical facts, events, dates