ISS 302 Final Reflection, 2022
The thing that stands out to me most about social science research is just how important it is to our society. Social Scientists use qualitative and quantitative research methods to understand the micro and macro aspects of some of our most pressing issues. One example would be social scientists using research to gain a better understanding of what social structures lead to poverty and how that affects families around the country and the world. Another example would be social scientists using research to better understand how to improve health outcomes in certain subsets of our national and global population. Social Scientists use a variety of qualitative and quantitative methods like surveys, case studies, ethnography, and field work to see if they can describe, explain, interpret, and/or predict social phenomena. The opportunities are endless when it comes to social science research but there are many challenges that Social Scientists face when conducting research. Social scientists must prepare well in advance by setting up a solid plan for their research and make sure that they define the variables and the hypothesis, know what their purpose is, know how to formulate a research question, and lastly create a thesis statement to explain their purpose and claim. The most important and challenging aspect of social science research is to make sure that every aspect of your research maintains a high level of integrity and meets ethical standards that protect research participants, institutions, the scientific community, and the community at large. Failing to uphold the highest level of ethics in research can have negative and lasting effects on many groups and may lead to a reduction of society’s confidence in the greater scientific community. Sadly, we’ve seen this play out in examples like Milgram and Stapel’s research practices, which resulted in negative impacts on their institutions, research participants, and the confidence of the greater society towards social science research.
The importance of quantitative research methods in social science cannot be overemphasized. The collection of data allows social scientists to categorize and characterize research participants’ information to identify trends among their target sample, which helps them to answer real-world questions. Data collection also allows scientists to identify relevant statistical information like averages, median, mode, and standard deviation. Plotting data into different types of graphs allows scientists to see data in ways that help them to identify trends and share information with others through data visualizations. Data visualizations take on many forms and give viewers a bigger picture viewpoint into data that then helps us to understand research in ways that we might not if we had to read through the long-form research data. Data visualization is another way for social scientists themselves to see something they may not have been able to see without the help of this tool. For instance, John Snow MD was able to identify a problematic water pump by using data visualization to map an outbreak of cholera (Withers, Lecture 5-Part 1a). Without the creation of his map of cases, he may not have solved the mystery of the deadly outbreak.
Quantitative research is an essential part of looking at complex issues to uncover causality and/or correlation. By asking important questions, researchers can test hypotheses and then use data collection through various formats which they then use to identify relationships between variables. Without qualitative research, we would not have the ability to understand these relationships and identify important ways that we can improve the lives of people around the globe.
While quantitative methods are often considered to be more objective, qualitative research methods play an important role in creating deeper insight by expanding the big-picture understanding of complex issues. Each method on its own has its merits and can provide social scientist researchers with important information but Onwuegbuzie and Leech posit, “mono-method research is the biggest threat to the advancement of the social sciences” (384). By using multi-methods, social science researchers can capture both depth and breadth in their research. According to Onwuegbuzie and Leech, “the inclusion of quantitative data can help compensate for the fact that qualitative data typically cannot be generalized. Similarly, the inclusion of qualitative data can help explain relationships discovered by quantitative data” (383). Examples of mixed methods research include the Harvard Study of Adult Development and the Princeton Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing study. Both studies utilized both qualitative and quantitative research methods which included data collection methods such as surveys, questionnaires, interviews, saliva, and other medical data collection, as well as participant observation during home visits. Social Science researchers were then able to use the information from these methods to create a broad understanding of how different variables influence and/or affect life outcomes. The insight these studies have provided is invaluable and should be seen as a great achievement for social scientists as well as an example of how using multi-method studies can help improve insight for researchers and our society.
References
Harvard Second Generation Study. Harvard University, 2015 https://www.adultdevelopmentstudy.org/
Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study. Princeton University, 2022, https://fragilefamilies.princeton.edu/documentation
McArthur, Dan, “Good Ethics Can Sometimes Mean Better Science: Research Ethics and Milgram Experiments,” Science and Engineering Ethics 15 (2009): 69-79.
Yudhijit Bhattacharjee, "The Mind of a Conman.” The New York Times, April 26, 2013.
Anthony J. Onwuegbuzie & Nancy L. Leech, (2005). On Becoming a Pragmatic Researcher: The Importance of Combining Quantitative and Qualitative Research Methodologies, International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 8:5, 375-387.