Basic Concept of Social Research

Lecture 01
Social Research: Meaning, Definition & Purpose
A/Professor Sadik Hasan, PhD
Course Teacher
Research: Meaning
 Social research is a process in which people combine a set of principles, outlooks, and
ideas (i.e., methodology) with a collection of specific practices, techniques, and strategies
(i.e., a method of inquiry) to produce knowledge. It is an exciting process of discovery,
but it requires persistence, personal integrity, tolerance for ambiguity, interaction with
others, and pride in doing quality work.
 Fundamental concern of research is to discover the truth. Research also attempts to
scrutinize and test the extent of the validity of the previously drawn conclusions and to
explore new facts and draws generalizations in the light of the objective conditions.
 To Webster International Dictionary:

 Research is “a careful critical inquiry or examination in seeking facts or principles,

diligent investigation in order to ascertain something”.
Social Research: Meaning
 Social research is broadly based on the assumption that an arguable and valid explanation
of any phenomena can be drawn from the objective analysis of the observable events. A
social research entails scientific investigation conducted in the field of social sciences
using theories, models, concepts, tools, techniques, processes drawn from the various
disciplines of social and behavioral sciences to explain interpret, understand, and improve
the social issues, problems, and institutions.
 To PV Young (1975): Research is “The systematic method of discovering new facts or
verifying old facts, their sequences, inter-relationships, causal explanations and the natural
laws which govern them”.
 Social research has its own characteristics; it focuses primarily on human behavior and
social issues and problems. The main emphasis is to develop and generate new
knowledge, facts, and to discover and establish interrelationships between processes and
phenomena in a social setting.
Social Research: Purpose
 From functional point of view, social research has many purposes of which followings are
the main (Ghose, 1982):
 Social research aims at understanding the human behavior and its interaction into the
social system and institutions.
 Social research helps the acquisition of new knowledge and theory to develop insights
into the existing social problems.
 Social research aims to understand social life and thereby to gain a greater measure of
control over social behavior.
 It helps to improve and test the various tools of analysis, or to test these against the
complex human behavior and institutions.
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 Young (1975), however, broadly identified four main purposes of social research:
 Social research attempts to understand the cause-effect relationship of some social
phenomena.
 Social research may be motivated by the desire to discover new theories, concepts and
techniques in order to gain knowledge more efficiently and within a short time
horizon.
 Curiosity and necessity are the important factors of social research.
 The primary motive of social research is to understand, analyze, and explain social
phenomena to appreciate social dynamics.