Research Process in Social Sciences

Short introduction to Research Process in Social Sciences 

Part 1

Salman Ata

The research process is an organized, systematic way to state and answer questions and to solve problems. It involves different steps in a cyclic form which implies that it is a continuous process. There is no single “official” way to determine the steps in the research process and it is also difficult to assess where the actual research process begins. However before data collection a research problem, and indeed a research question should be defined without which data collected will likely be imperfect or useless. Moreover, decisions about the social setting intended for observation, sampling procedures and techniques should be made. The research process also differs somewhat from one discipline to another. There is no single “official” way to determine the steps in research process; however, outlines below do help to describe how research is done

A)   INTRODUCTION AND REVIEW OF LITERATURE

(1)   Identifying a Research Problem and Question

i)               RESEARCH PROBLEM

A research problem is a subject or issue which is intended to investigate, address, or study descriptively or experimentally.  It is the centre or rational motive for indulging in research. Ideally, it is a phenomenon, topic or challenge in which researcher is interested in and with which he is at least a bit familiar.  For example “Problem faced by agricultural officers having Agricultural extension as a major subject regarding pest control measures in cotton crop” can be a research problem. For most researchers, identifying exactly what they are researching, and why, is the most difficult part of the entire research process. There are so many questions and unresolved problems, but not all of these are appropriate for a research. There are some features which lead to a suitable research question; some of these are:

1.     Interest: Researcher will have to spend many months for intended research. He/she should have a keen interest in the subject/topic under investigation. 

2.     Significant: It is not desirable to make unnecessary replications of already researched questions or to focus on less important topics. The intended research should have a potential to contribute adequately in scientific knowledge and preferably have practical value.  3.     Topics with limited shelf life

Selection of problems which persist for years is a better strategy instead of selecting problems which are “burning issues” for a short period of time.

4.     Specific and researchable: The research problem should be understandable. The researcher should avoid vague and unnecessarily detailed problems. He/she should also be able to collect all necessary information required to complete the research. For this purpose, he/she should consider time, resources, cooperating individuals and organizations etc keeping in view the depth and width of the research.

5.     Practical value: The researcher should be able to suggest at least some solution to the problem. In other words, he/she should be able to have some conclusion and recommendations.

Sources of Research problems

There are four main sources of research problem: past research, daily life, practical issues, and theory. 

Daily life: In our daily life we confront many issues and ideas and many of them can be appropriate for a scientific research. For example, a students’ observation about different teaching methods can lead to a research about the appropriateness of a technique in a specific situation and for a specific audience.

Practical issues: Practical issues are also an important source of research problems. For example impact of price fluctuations on farmers’ livelihoods, the impact of terrorism on overall development of Pakistan etc can be categories as practical issues in the Pakistani context. 

Past research: past research is one of the most important sources of the research problem. Many previous pieces of research identify the gaps in research and often generate more questions than answers. These questions and gaps can be taken as research problem if the researcher is interested in the subject matter. In this case, not only the topic but also the methodology of the previous studies should be given due consideration. 

i)               RESEARCH QUESTIONS

Research questions are specific questions about an event, phenomenon or behaviour and are the mode of conveying researchers’ interest in a research problem.  Examples include: what are the factors which affect the learning ability of students of B.Sc (Hons.) Agriculture at the University of Agriculture Faisalabad? How creative thinking can be improved in Pakistani students? A good research question is one which can be generalized to a broader population, address real, complex, and un-answered problems. In qualitative research, research questions are often used instead of objectives or hypotheses. Narrowly focused research questions are not desirable because often they are not able to capture complex social phenomena and lead to un-publishable research findings. Such type of questions should be avoided in which researcher ask questions which are interesting to him/her but not for the scientific community and it does not have the worth to add significantly to scientific knowledge. As research process consume much time, resources and energy of researcher, the researcher should be sure that research questions address the real problems, not the imaginary ones and has not been previously addressed properly (Anol, 2012, pp-21).

The research questions often take two forms: central question and sub-questions. The central question is more general or broader question which is designed to explore the core phenomenon or concept under investigation. The associated questions help to answer the central question. For example, in the field of agriculture, a central question can be: “what major factors are responsible for low yield of cotton in Punjab, Pakistan?”. The associated sub-questions can be as follows: 1. What are the associated problems (and to what extent) of farmers regarding the production of cotton? what are associated causes? 2. What are the problems (and to what extent) regarding plant protection measures? 3. What type of problems cotton growers faced regarding marketing? and so on.

In social sciences, there are two types of research questions:

        1.     Descriptive (what is going on?)

        2.     Explanatory (why is it going on)

1.     Descriptive Research Questions

              Descriptive research performs a key role in research by immeasurably adding knowledge about the nature and shape of the society we live. Government-funded researchers such as population census (what is the population in the country?), economic survey (what is the status of country's’ economy?), crime statistics (what is the nature and rate of crimes in the country) mainly encompass descriptive research. The good description provides direction for explanatory research questions (why). For example, if we find that yield of major crops in Pakistan is declining over the last 5 years than we can ask “why it is happening?”

2.     Explanatory Research Questions

               Explanatory research centres on “why?” questions. Why yield of cotton in Pakistan is low as compared to India? Why food security status in South Punjab is not satisfactory? and Why terrorist attack in Pakistan increased over last 10 years? are examples of explanatory research questions. As already mentioned, descriptive research provides a way to ask an explanatory research question.

   

          (1)   Searching relevant literature

The next step in the research process is searching of relevant literature. A literature review is an evaluative report of studies found in the literature related to the topic under investigation. According to Boote and Beile (2005) “a researcher cannot perform significant research without first understanding the literature in the field”. A literature review is not just a search for information but comprises of recognition and articulation of relationships between the literature and topic under study. Anol (2012) describes three main purposes of review of the literature: 1) assessment of the present status of knowledge in the field of research 2) identification of main researchers, theories, articles, and finding in the research area, and 3) identification of research/knowledge gaps in that area. In reality, a perfect review does not exist because all reviews are written from a specific perspective or viewpoint of the reviewer. Therefore, the reviewer should be aware of his/her own value judgment and try to give scholarly respect to the ideas of others.

           (2)   Selecting a Theory

             “A theory is a set of systematically interrelated constructs and propositions intended to explain and predict a phenomenon or behaviour of interest, within certain boundary conditions and assumptions” (Anol, 2012; pp-14). It is a systematic collection of connected theoretical propositions (a tentative and hypothetical relationship between constructs). In general, propositions relate two or three constructs (an abstract concept chosen or created to explain a given phenomenon), theories constitute a system of multiple constructs and propositions. Therefore theories have a wider scope and are more complex and abstract than the proposition and/or hypothesis. These are the explanations of a social or natural phenomenon, event or behaviour. More specifically, “a scientific theory is a system of constructs (concepts) and propositions (relationships between those constructs) that collectively presents a logical, systematic, and coherent explanation of a phenomenon of interest within some assumptions and boundary conditions” (Bacharach 1989, cited by Anol, 2012). A good theory not only describes and predicts things but also explain why things happen. It is important to mention here that some events or phenomenon can be predicted without explaining the causes. In simple words, we can say that any idea or hypothesis validated by testing is called a theory. While the review of literature may explore a broad range of constructs relevant to the phenomenon, a theory may identify which constructs are rationally related to the research subject. Agency Theory, Innovation Diffusion Theory, and Theory of Planned Behavior are some examples of theories in social sciences.

            3) Deriving Hypotheses   

In social phenomena, one or more relationships could be under investigation in order to learn more about their functions. However, it might be possible that some relationships under observation might be due to chance and not due to relationships between the variables. In this case there a method is needed to evaluate the probability that relationships exist by chance. The formulation and testing of hypothesis is such a method. “Hypotheses are single tentative guesses, good hunches –assumed for use in devising theory or planning experiments intended to be given a direct experimental test when possible” (Rogers, 1966). According to Creswell (1994) “Hypothesis is a formal statement that presents the expected relationship between an independent and dependent variable”. Whereas Anol (2012) defined a hypothesis as “the empirical formulation of propositions, stated as relationships between variables”. The yield of cotton crop increases with the adoption of Bt cotton in Punjab, education significantly increase women empowerment index in district Faisalabad, and ICT has potential to improve agricultural growth in Pakistan, and poverty significantly increases crime rates in Sindh, are some examples of Hypotheses. A scientific hypothesis is one which is testable. It means that through test or experiment we can show that variables might be related. The outcomes of the experiment will decide whether to accept or reject the hypothesis. The scientific hypothesis which do not indicate directionality (whether the relationship is positive or negative) and/or causality (which variable is “cause”) are considered as a weak hypothesis.  For example: “child education is associated with long-term household food security” is a weak hypothesis because it is not clear whether child education reduces or increases household food security. A strong hypothesis should be “child education increases household food security in long-term” because it defines both directionality and causality (child education improves household food security and not the reverse). A hypothesis is specified in the empirical plane, unlike the proposition which is intended for the theoretical plane. Therefore, hypotheses are observable and testable empirically and if not supported empirically, they are rejected. Statistical procedures are usually used to test the hypothesis. Hypotheses take two forms: null and alternate hypotheses. A null hypothesis makes a prediction that there is no significant difference or relationship between groups on a variable in the general population. A hypothesis can be derived from any source such as a social sciences theory, experience or previous research. The alternative hypothesis is a statement of what a hypothesis test is set up to establish: 1. Opposite of a null hypothesis; 2. Only reached if H0 is rejected. In statistical testing, it is not possible to test alternative hypothesis directly. Instead, it is indirectly tested by rejecting the null hypothesis with a specific level of probability. Unidirectional hypotheses, also called “one-tailed” states which way one variable will affect the other. Bidirectional hypotheses also called “two-tailed” states a relationship between two variables but do not indicate which way one variable will affect the other. 

      A)   DATA AND METHODS

      (1)   Collecting data

                The next step in the research process is data collection. It is the process of collecting and measuring data on concerned variables in a systematic way that enables the researcher to answer research questions, test hypotheses and interpret the findings. The data collection part of the research process is common in both social and natural sciences although there is a difference in methods. The significance of accurate and honest data collection also remains same in all fields of studies. In social sciences, different types of research instruments are used to obtain different types of data. Focus group discussions, key informant interviews and personal observation are the qualitative data collection tools whereas structured interview schedules, questionnaires, and telephonic interviews are common quantitative data collection instruments. Recently a combination of both quantitative and qualitative methods has gained much popularity (e.g., Greene and Caracelli, 1997; Tashakkori and Teddlie, 1998).

              Researchers are increasingly using triangulation (mix method techniques) for in-depth research and to widen the scope of the study.  According to the proponents of mix-method research, complex research designs are required to capture complex nature of the human phenomenon. But this combination is not always desirable and should be used when research questions and context of study need such combination.