Steps in Social Research

Social research is a systematic process designed to investigate unexplained social phenomena and to clarify doubtful or misconceived facts. It is a scientific procedure to discover new facts or verify existing ones, with the objective of understanding the causal relationships underlying a phenomenon. Consequently, the primary aim of research is to generate robust concepts, develop theoretical frameworks, and provide reliable and evidence-based explanations.
Social research involves the following steps:

1. Selection of Research Problem
2. Review of Related Literature
3. Formulation of Research Objectives
4. Devising Hypotheses
5. Making the Research Design – methodology
6. Sampling Procedure
7. Data Collection
8. Data Analysis and Interpretation
9. Hypotheses Testing
10. Deriving Findings, Conclusion, and Suggestions
11. Report Writing

A research problem is simply the topic of the research. Selection of a research problem involves choosing a broad area and then narrowing it down to a specific topic. For example, a researcher may select a broad area for their research, such as Domestic Violence. They then split this broad area into a number of sub-areas and select one sub-area as the topic for the research.

For instance, the broad area "Domestic Violence" can be divided into the following sub-areas:

• Causes of Domestic Violence
• Impact of Domestic Violence on Family
• Impacts of Domestic Violence on Children
• Services Available to Victims of Domestic Violence
• The Extent of Domestic Violence in a Society

The researcher may select one of the above sub-areas as the research topic, such as Causes of Domestic Violence. The purpose of narrowing down the broad area into sub-areas is to select a specific and manageable topic for the research. Sometimes, a researcher may also select two sub-areas to form the research topic, such as ‘Causes of Domestic Violence and its Impacts on the Family’.

The next step is to study the available literature on the topic—all previously conducted work, including research theses, research papers, books, reports, and publications. The purpose of reviewing related literature is:

• To understand various aspects of the topic and gain the contextual knowledge required for undertaking the research—definitions and explanations of specific terminologies by other scholars.
• To understand the nature of methodologies used in previous studies to help the researcher design a methodology that can effectively explore the issue.
• To identify research gaps – those areas which have not been explored by others.
• To create a theoretical background for the study (later added as a chapter in the final report) and to identify the variables that should be considered for the research.
• To provide facts and findings from previous studies to help the researcher analyze and explain their research findings in light of previous results.

Objectives are the aims of research. The research explores these aims through investigation. A simple way to formulate objectives is to first ask questions about what you want to explore in relation to the topic and then convert these questions into objectives.

For example, if you select "Impacts of Domestic Violence on Children" as your research topic, you can raise the following questions:

• What is the impact of DV on the emotional development of a child?
• How does DV affect the child’s academic performance?
• What are the effects of DV on a child's physical health?
• How does DV influence the social behavior of children?

Now, convert the above questions into objectives by using action-oriented words (e.g., to examine, to explore, to investigate, to identify, etc.) as follows:

• To understand the impact of DV on the emotional development of a child.
• To examine the influence of DV on the child’s academic performance.
• To know the various effects of DV on a child’s physical health.
• To explore the impact of DV on the child’s social behavior.

A hypothesis is a testable assumption showing a relationship between two or more variables. It is a logical relationship and is relevant to the theme of the research. It may be a true or false statement that is tested in the research to verify it. Hypotheses are intentionally devised, generally based on the studied literature, to test them so that the research can establish facts by confirming or rejecting the hypotheses. Therefore, a researcher devises hypotheses and tests them with the help of collected data using certain techniques.

Examples of hypotheses are as follows:

• The higher the illiteracy in a society, the higher will be the poverty.
• The higher the poverty in a society, the higher will be the crime rate.
• The higher the illiteracy in a society, the higher would be the discrimination against women.

Hypotheses are very important as they give direction to research and help the researcher start investigating factors related to the study. They specify the focus of the research and make it easier for the researcher to carry out the study and generate productive findings.

The research design is simply a plan for research. It outlines the methods and procedures used in the research and explains how the researcher intends to conduct the study. It includes the following:

• Which methodology will be used? (e.g., quantitative or qualitative method)
• Which tool of data collection will be used? (e.g., questionnaire, interview, or observation)
• Who will be the respondents and how many respondents? (e.g., sample size and techniques)
• How will the collected data be analyzed? (e.g., software, manual, graphs, tables, etc.)
• Which test will be used for data analysis and verification of hypotheses or other facts? (e.g., chi-square test, regression analysis)
• Conceptual framework: Conceptual framework simply refers to a set of dependent and independent variables, generally presented in tabular form to highlight their relationship. It clearly states the variables that will be explored in the research.
• Ethical considerations: A researcher must consider research ethics for research involving human participants. Therefore, it should be clearly described how research ethics will be taken into account for conducting the study, such as obtaining informed consent from the participants to ensure their informed and voluntary participation, maintaining the privacy and confidentiality of the participants, and not harming the participants in any way.

Depending on the nature of the research topic, a researcher may also consider other aspects while making the research design, such as a description of the geographical area of the study. Writing a proper research design is important because it guides the researcher throughout the research process.

Sampling means selecting a smaller part of the population for the research study. It is difficult for a researcher to study the entire population of an area due to limited resources such as time, money, and energy. Hence, a subset of the population is selected for the research study.

The total number of respondents in a sample is known as the sample size, which can vary depending upon the nature of the study. Quantitative studies generally use a large sample because it is easier to distribute a questionnaire to a large group and collect data from them in a limited time. By contrast, qualitative studies typically use a small sample because they generally use the interview method, which is time-consuming and would not be possible for a large sample.

The sampling procedure refers to how respondents are selected from the population to form the sample so that it is as representative as possible of the entire population. There are various sampling procedures, such as random sampling, stratified sampling, purposive sampling, probability sampling, non-probability sampling, and so on. The sampling procedure and sample size are described in the research design of the study.

After making a good research design, the researcher starts to collect data for the study. The data is collected according to the techniques reflected in the research design. The collected data is used by the researcher to derive the ultimate findings of the study.
There are two main types of data: 1) primary data, and 2) secondary data.

• Primary data: It is the data that is collected for the first time by the researcher from the respondents of the study. The researcher has to visit the respondents and collect data from them using different tools of data collection, e.g., a questionnaire, interview, or observation. It generally involves a lot of fieldwork.
• Secondary data: It is the data that has already been collected by others and is available in the form of books, reports, papers, websites, magazines, encyclopedias, and so on. Such data is called secondary data. Nowadays, the use of secondary data (such as survey data provided by different organizations) for research has become quite common because it helps the researcher save time.

The collected data is analyzed to establish facts and generate findings. Before analyzing the data, the collected data is prepared for analysis, which involves data editing and data coding.

• Data editing means checking the collected data for errors or missing information and correcting it accordingly. There are different ways of treating the problem of missing values, such as simply excluding the missing values from analysis or replacing the missing values with the mean values of available responses.
• Data coding means scaling the variables in the data so that they can be measured. Various scaling methods may be used (such as nominal scale, ordinal scale, or interval scale), where the response categories for questions are assigned certain numbers. Sometimes different questions are combined to make a cumulative index for the measurement of a phenomenon. It is important to understand that data coding is not something the researcher does only after collecting data. The researcher has to design the questionnaire before collecting data in such a way as to consider the type of analysis intended after data collection. Keeping this in mind, the researcher will design the questions using nominal scale, ordinal scale, interval scale, or cumulative index so that the collected data can be analyzed as intended.

After preparing the data for analysis, it is analyzed using different techniques, such as quantitative and qualitative methods:

• Quantitative analysis is mainly based on statistical assessment of the responses of respondents in terms of their frequencies or percentages. It involves using statistical techniques such as regression analysis and other statistical tests such as the chi-square test. It may also involve making tables, graphs, and diagrams and explaining the findings in the form of discussion.
• Qualitative analysis is mainly based on assessment of the ideas expressed by the respondents. It uses qualitative techniques for analysis, such as thematic analysis and narrative interpretation. Thematic analysis involves identifying common patterns of cause-and-effect relationships (called themes) to establish facts/findings.

The ultimate purpose of analysis is to find answers to the questions raised by the researcher at the start of the study. In other words, the purpose is to achieve the objectives of the research. The obtained findings are explained and discussed in detail. These findings are also assessed in light of findings from previous studies to support the new findings or, in case they differ from previous findings, to justify why they may differ.

Hypotheses are tested in light of analyzed data. For example, we may have a hypothesis that “The higher the poverty in society, the higher will be the crime rate.” The relationship between poverty and crime rate in an area can be verified or rejected based on analyzed data. This can simply be done by checking whether the rate of crime is higher in areas where poverty is higher, as indicated by the data.

Since the collected data may be very large, to test the hypothesis systematically, different techniques and tests (e.g., chi-square test) may be used to verify a significant relationship between the variables of the hypothesis.

It should be noted that hypothesis testing is generally part of the data analysis chapter and is often done during the analysis phase. However, the researcher may add a separate section within the analysis chapter titled ‘Verification of Hypothesis.’ Then, by applying tests on each hypothesis, they are described.

Data analysis generates the findings of the study, which are confirmed facts and are discussed in detail within the analysis chapter with supporting evidence. However, the final chapter, generally titled ‘Conclusions and Recommendations’ describes only the most important and major findings (which are already discussed in detail within the analysis chapter) in a simple and concise manner. They are listed in the first section titled ‘Major Findings of the Study’ of the chapter.

The second section of the final chapter is generally ‘Conclusions of the Study.’ The conclusions are final inferences based on the major findings but by looking at their wider picture. Here, the outcomes of the study are comprehensively discussed.

The third section, titled ‘Recommendations of the Study,’ describes the recommendations and suggestions based on the research for the general public, the development community (e.g., government officials and policymakers), and the academic and research community (e.g., future researchers).

After finishing the research, the researcher needs to write a research report, usually called a thesis or dissertation. During the research, the researcher writes different parts, such as the introduction, literature review, methodology, findings, and recommendations. In the end, all these parts are combined into a complete thesis.

The main purpose of writing a thesis is to organize the research properly and present it in a clear way for readers. A research report usually follows this common format:

1. Preliminary Pages
• Title Page
• Abstract
• Table of Contents
2. Main Body
• Chapter 1 – Introduction
• Chapter 2 – Literature Review
• Chapter 3 – Research Design
• Chapter 4 – Data Analysis and Interpretation
• Chapter 5 – Findings and Suggestions
3. Closing Pages
• Bibliography/References