Social Science Research
Earl Babbie identifies exploration, description and explanation as the three purposes of social science research. Descriptive research classifies phenomena. Descriptive research generally precedes explanatory research. For example, over time chemists have described the elements through the periodic table. The periodic table’s description of the elements allows people and families to think about the elements in helpful ways. It allows for explanation and prediction when elements are combined. pi In addition, the conceptualizing of Descriptive research (categorization or taxonomy) precedes the hypotheses of explanatory research. For a discussion of how the underlying conceptualization of Exploratory research, Descriptive research and explanatory research fit together see Conceptual framework.
Read more about this topic: Descriptive Research
Famous quotes containing the words social, science and/or research:
“The value of a family is that it cushions and protects while the individual is learning ways of coping. And a supportive social system provides the same kind of cushioning for the family as a whole.”
—Michael W. Yogman, and T. Berry Brazelton (20th century)
“Our science has become terrible, our research dangerous, our findings deadly. We physicists have to make peace with reality. Reality is not as strong as we are. We will ruin reality.”
—Friedrich Dürrenmatt (1921–1990)
“The research on gender and morality shows that women and men looked at the world through very different moral frameworks. Men tend to think in terms of “justice” or absolute “right and wrong,” while women define morality through the filter of how relationships will be affected. Given these basic differences, why would men and women suddenly agree about disciplining children?”
—Ron Taffel (20th century)