What Is the Importance of Social Research?
The importance of social research is reflected in its ability to provide fact-checked and well-validated answers to questions involving human interactions. Social research replaces the often costly and time-consuming approach to determining best-practice approaches through trial-and-error. The results of social research, which can be either qualitative or quantitative, range from the statistical data obtained from ancient historical records to an understanding of the dynamics of day-to-day life in the modern world.
Social scientists use a wide variety of methods to collect, study and analyze data relevant to a vast range of social activity and phenomena. The classical disciplines of statistics and sociology have widened to encompass modern-day applications such as program evaluation, media studies, political science and market research.
Empirical observation and logic are the foundations of social research. The object of social research is to create, disprove or validate theories through the classic scientific methods of prediction, observation, data collection and analysis. Social research tests hypotheses relating to group-related human interactions to determine if they are true.
