What is social research?

Social research is a way of finding true , valid and useful information about a particular domain or phenomenon or about problems in our universe. It is a method of getting some assurance about another researcher’s proposition, work or assertions. It is a method of securing some credible or reasonable information, or reasonable answers about some questions or social problems. It is a way of satisfying oneself about issue or phenomenon which seems unbelievable at first.
Functions of social research

• It helps to discover answers to questions about social phenomena
• It helps to provide insight & explanations to social phenomena
• It helps the researcher & other parties to understand the complexities of human activities including human behaviour .
• Social research is a problem solving device and information gathering device through application of scientific procedure.
• Social research gives more meaning to social science as far as social scientists are concerned

Science

Who is a scientist? A scientist is perceived as a peculiar person who works with facts in the laboratories, uses complicated equipment, does numerous experiments, builds up facts for the ultimate purpose of improving the lot of mankind.

A scientist is seen as a brilliant individual. He thinks, spins complex theories and spends his time in university aloof from the world and its problems. He is an impractical theorist, and works at the improvement of man’s inventions and artifacts.

Science can be viewed in two ways:
1) Static view: Science is an activity that contributes systemized information to the world. Scientists job is to add to the existing body of information. Science in this view is a way of explaining observed phenomenon
2) Dynamic view: Regard science more as an activity as regards what scientists do. The present state of knowledge is important, because it is a base for further scientific theory and research: that is, “Henristic view which means it serves to discover something new and now. A henristic emphasis is a discovery emphasis.

Science is an act of explaining, predicting, controlling and understanding a human environment. Emphasis are placed on information regarding new knowledge, creativity & discovery.

Concept

A concept expresses an abstraction formed by generalization from particulars e.g weight, height.

Variables

A variable is a symbol to which numerals or values are assigned. E.g x or Y. A variable may have two values, e.g if “X” is the concept under study or the level of abstraction under study, then x can be assigned 1 or 0. Examples of two valued variables are : alive and dead; citizen & non citizen; middle class & upper class; teachers & non- teachers; UPN & NPN. Such variables are called dichotomy’s variables e.g present or absent.

Theory

Theory is a set of interrelated concept, definitions and propositions that represent a systematic view of social behaviour or social phenomena. A theory is a set of propositions consisting of defined and interrelated concepts. It sets out the interrelation among variables.
Through specifications of variable relationships, theory explains social behaviour, thus enabling the researcher to predict from certain variables e.g the theory of schools failure. The variables might be intelligence, attendance, participants, verbal and numerical aptitudes, class tests or exams, anxiety, social class, membership and motivation etc. School failure is explained by specifying relationships between each of these variables or by combining the variables.

Theory explains observed social phenomenon. In the process of theorizing, we generalize, observe and draw conclusions.

The research process:
The research processs include:
1) The research problem
2) A review of literature
3) Research theory
4) Hypothesis
5) Methodology
6) Data collection
7) Analysis of data
8) Findings & its interpretation
9) Conclusions
10) Recommendation based on findings
11) Suggestion for future research

Research design

Research design is the plan structure and strategy of research questions or investigations conceived by the researcher in order to obtain answers to research questions and control variances.
Plan: The overall scheme or programme of research which includes what the researcher will do from writing the research problem, the hypothesis & their operational implication to the final analysis of data.
Structure of the research: I.e the outline; the paradigm of the operation of the variables
Strategy: Implies how the research objectives will be accomplished and how the research problems will be tackled. I.e the methods & techniques used.

Purposes of research design

Research design serves two basic functions, which are:
a) To provide research questions with answers
b) To control variance

Naturally, research design cannot do these things but the investigator or researcher does them. Design only helps the investigator to obtain answers to research questions. It also helps him in controlling experimental extraneous and error variances with respect to the research problem being studied.
As all research activities do provide answers to research questions, research design then can be said to have one grand purpose in the control of variance, yet this is dangerous. The invention of research design enables the researcher answer research questions as validly, objectively, accurately and economically as possible. Any research plan hence is deliberately and specifically conceived and executed to bring empirical evidence to bear on the research problem; the research problems which can be stated or are often stated in the form of hypothesis.

Formulating a research problem
In doing this, we should know;
1) What the general topic is?
2) What is already known about the topic?
3) What kind of questions about the topic are considered answered
4) What is the operational meaning of each term in the question?
5) The best strategy of getting answers to the questions
Before proceeding to a reasonable question, we must have a fairly clear idea of what the questions are. One must be able to state one’s research problem clearly and complete. i.e one must know what one is trying to find out and should one finally know, the problem is along way towards solving. The formulation of a problem always starts from a question; e.g why do students go on strike?or why did Asuu do industrial action?

• Why do students go on strike: Implies a generalization of students in the whole world
• Why do Asuu go on industrial action? Refers particularly to a set of persons.
• What kinds of channels of information about public issues are available in the Nigerian communities? What are the sources? Are they radios? Television? Newspapers? Magazines?
• Will the training of university students lead to a reduction in manpower shortage in the country?
• Will the establishment of more universities reduce or solve the problem of not admitting qualified students?

In choosing a problem, some criteria for evaluating the relative worth of the problem or topic include:
1) The importance of the topic for the development of scientific theory.
2) How increased the knowledge of the topic or the problem will improve the social, economic or political well-being of mankind.
3) How many other people are investigating or have investigated the problem or topic?
4) How few others are investigating the topic or have investigated the topic?
5) The amount of inconsistency in the previous investigation
6) Clear up ambiguous areas of knowledge
7) Provide a practical approach to problems and areas.

A review of Literature

In doing this, bibliography may be consulted.
Bibliography is the discovery, study and accurate description of published materials as to authorship, edition, date of publication, physical make up and evolution of the text.
For a student who needs to know something about a person, place or thing. Bibliography is the starting point of this investigation, not only as a guide to what knowledge is presently available in particularly published records, but also, as an indication of what is not known, so far as published records go. Where no bibliography exists, the first task of the investigator is to compile his own as guarantee that he is not needlessly doing again what others have done.
Annotated bibliography (summary of research) may be in form of:
1) A bc guide to recent publications in the social and behavioural sciences
2) Internal bibliography of political science
3) Social and psychological abstract
4) Social science and immaturity indexes.
5) Social sciences and immaturity indexes

Reasons for doing a review of literature

1)If a certain question has been thoroughly researched, there is little purpose in relating the same process unless one suspects that he has discovered a situation where a well-established generalization does not hold.
2) If there has been only few studies in the area, then it s highly useful to repeat an investigation in order to test the confidence we might place in a certain finding. This process is called replication. Replication is a process of testing the confidence placed in a finding.
3) if there has been almost no studies on the topic, then the two lessons to be drawn are:
a) The topic might be a fruitful area for a new research or study
b) Lack of research in a given area might be an indication that there are few meaningful relationships to be found or that some inherent obstacles to serious research exist there. For example the inavailability of relevant data.

4)In addition to learning, substantive or considerable knowledge available on any given topic, a review of literature can acquaint or help someone with the methodological procedure that can be used. So, questions as to what strategies or research design other investigators have employed or the statistical techniques they used analyzing their results could be provided with answers.
Not only is it much more pleasant to learn from others errors than from one’s own. It is more eminently sensible to profit from other’s methodological sources. Report or research of past work on a particular term may be obtained from a lecturer, colleague or librarian. The card catalogue or subject index at any library can provide reference on the topic.

Hypothesis

Hypothesis is used to test an idea about social phenomenon or an event. Hypothesis is also used to confirm or dis confirm a theory. Hypothesis are statements that are usually submitted to actual testing because one may be uncertain or not sure of the extent to which they are correct. Hypothesis may be derived from theories. They are consequences of theoretical assumptions. Therefore hypothesis do logically follow a theory.
If for instance, a theoretical assumption is that Television or Audio visual viewing may lead children to commit crimes which they had no desire for, the hypothesis from it might be taken to be that exposure of children to Television viewing is related to crime commission.

The importance of hypothesis

1)Hypothesis are important and indispensable tools of scientific research because they can be deduced from theories.
2) They are working instruments of theory
3) Hypothesis can be validated or falsified through testing
4) Hypothesis are powerful tools for the advancement of knowledge since they enable man to know himself and mankind.

Public opinion
Public opinion is an aggregate of the opinions of a whole national population. Public opinion can also refer to the end product of a process of public discussion leading to the formation of one or more widely shared opinions as to the advisability or desirability of a public policy or mode of action by the government. Public opinion may be defined as “what do you say out loud?” It can be the specific attitude of people, or it can be an expressed attitude concerning political, economic and social phenomena. E.g candidate, issues parties. Opinion is made public when it is put to writing or when you are talking to people about it. Though public opinion in its total sense may not be majority opinion, opinion makers have have the tendency to seek out what majority view is and reflect this in their findings.

Factors that shape public opinion
Factors include age, religion, occupation, ethnicity, peer group, environment, economic status, social background and philosophy of life.

Interview:

Interview in any research is a universal concept which can be used in opinion poll or in any research design. It is used by the police, detectives, N.S.O. etc. Researchers may obtain information about the functioning of an organization by interviewing ots members. They are the descriptors of the organizational system. So, a researcher can thus obtain a large amount on information from people in an organization by simply asking them questions, that is interviewing. Interview is asking series of questions with a view to obtaining certain information.

Types of interviews
1) Unstructured or non directive interviews
2) Structured or open ended interview

Unstructured interview is also called client centred interviews. In this case, the interviewer provides very little guidance to the respondent in terms of questions or possible answers. The interviewer attempts to provide only minimum guidance through stimulating discussion and getting the respondent to explore his or her feelings and perception in the areas that he or she chose. Examples are general questions like:
Tell me about this place? Or how did things get to the way they are? The interviewer then tries to clarify or summarize what the respondent said by probing occasionally with questions.
In the structured or open-ended interview, the interviewer has pre-determined questions concering certain topics but the respondent is unconstrained in his answers. Examples of questions in this case may be: how do you know when you are performing poorly? Or how do you know when you are performing well?
The structured, fixed response interview is the most structured form of interview. Here, apart from pre- determined alternative responses are also provided by the interviewer. An example is: How do you feel about your job? Very satisfied? Neither satisfied nor dissatisfied? Dissatisfied? Very dissatisfied? The respondent would then be asked to pick out of these pre-determined alternative responses. This kind of question is often accompanied by a set of response card on which the responses are written to enable the respondent pick a response he or she considers most appropriate. This kind of interview is in many ways an orally administered questionnaire but it permits options. E.g when an extremely positive or negative answer is given, the interviewer may ask “why do you feel that way?”

Characteristics of interview:

1) An interview may be formal or informal. Formal is held in the pre-determined setting for a set amount of time.
2) Interviews may be conducted individually or in groups
3) Interviews may vary in their sampling: i.e everyone or a subsample of people in the organization may be interviewed.
The choice of which type of interview to select depends on the assessment of cost, as well as the evaluation of the data gathering potentials in a particular situation. The cost in this case may be in terms of money or time.

Questionnaires

Questionnaires are essentially self administered interview. A set of questions are given to the respondent in printed form. The respondent reads the questions and answers either by writing in an answer or choosing from alternative predetermined responses.

Characteristics of Questionnaires

1) It is a paper and pencil instrument and doesn’t depend on a life interviewer being present.
2) It allows simultaneous data collection from many people, organizations, community or nation since it doesn’t depend on the presence of a life interviewer.
3) With fixed responses, questionnaires, quantitative analysis can be done in a short period of time.
4) The underlining rationale for the questionnaire method is similar to that of interview. E.g information is obtained by directly asking the organizations members for their perception, evaluation and feelings.

Types of questionnaires.

Most organizational questionnaires are fixed response questionnaires because of coding problems and a tendency of respondents not wanting to write extensively. One of the most widely used questionnaires is the likert type of questionnaire.
In the Likert type, the respondent is asked to reply to the question or statement by checking a point on a scale of varying degrees of agreement, disagreement or satisfaction etc.
Example: How much do you agree with each of these two statements as a description of their work:
My Job allows me to control my own work place:
a) Strongly disagree
b) Disagree
c) Somewhat disagree
d) Neither agree nor disagree
e) Somewhat agree
f) Agree
g) Strongly disagree

I can see the result of my own work:
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 where 1 is the lowest scale, and 2 is the highest. Other questionnaire items may ask the respondent to choose from a number of alternatives where each alternative has a very specific meaning e.g
Which shift do you work on most of the time?
1) Day shift: 7 – 3pm
2) Afternoon shift: 3- 11 pm
3) Night shift: 11- 7pm
Question can also be constructed in the form that respondends would be asked to check a number indicating his or her own position on a scale described by several descriptive statements e.g
How much variety is there in your job?
1) Very little
2) Little
3) Somewhat little
4) Moderate variety
5) Very much
6) I do many things using a variety of equipment and procedures
Also, respondent may be asked to check a response on a scale procedure anchored only by two words e.g how much do you enjoy the class?
{boring} 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 {interesting}
Or
How do you find life?
{miserable} 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 {enjoyable}

Questionnaires vary in their scope of coverage e.g a questionnaire that focuses as one particular issue like group process or a questionnaire used in getting a very broad diagnostic picture of an entire organization. Standardized questionnaires have a pre-determined set of questions that are designed to be used in almost any situation. These questions have been refined and developed over a period of time. They are based on a model of organizational functioning and have been pre-tested.

Bibliography

Bibliography means list of books and writings of one of the authorship about one subject. Secondly, it means the study of the authorship, editions etc of books. More specifically, bibliography is

1.  The discovery, study and accurate description of published materials as to authorship, physical make up and evolution of the text;
2.  A list of descriptions of published materials either relating to a given subject (person, place or thing), or thing), or by a given another or published at a certain place; or
3.  The act of preparing such lists of description.

A related though broader term is “documentation”, which covers the preparation, reproduction, dissemination and recording of specialized information records. For a student who needs to know something about a person, place or thing, bibliography is the starting point of his investigation, not only as a guide to what knowledge is presently available in particular published records, as also an indication of what is not known, so far as published records go. Where no bibliography exists, the first task of the investigator is to compile his own as guarantee that he is not needlessly doing again what has already been done.

Check out a sample project on social research written by my sister, Dr Titilope Sanni: KNOWLEDGE AND ATTITUDE TO DEPRESSION AMONG ADULTS