The characteristics of scientific method. Explain the importance of scientific method in social science

Q.1. Discuss the characteristics of scientific method. Explain the importance of scientific method in social science.  

It is obvious that it would be impossible to comprehend the nature and content of research without an appreciation of method. The method used in scientific research is usually designated as scientific method. According to George Lundberg (1946), scientific method consists of three basic steps, systematic observation, classification and interpretation of data. Through these steps, scientific method brings about not only verifiability of the facts, but also it lays the confidence in the validity of conclusions. The definition requires some more explanations. First when Lundberg (1946) says that scientific method is systematic observation, he means, the scientific investigation is ordered. It aims at discovering facts as they actually are and not as they are desired to be and as such, the investigators can have critical confidence in their conclusions. Second, the scientific method is concerned with ‘classes of objects’ not ‘individual objects’ especially universality and predictability.

Science aims at description, explanation and understanding of various objects or phenomena in nature. Research is a special endeavour, which involves systematic and critical investigation towards increasing the stream of knowledge. Now it is easier to define scientific research. We may define scientific research as a “systematic and critical investigation about the natural phenomena to describe, explain and finally to understand the relations among them”.

Social sciences primarily deal with human behaviour, which is, by and large, complex and dynamic in nature. One cannot, therefore, investigate the human behaviour under guided conditions as in natural and physical sciences. This creates many problems for the researcher such as the problems of subjectivity and individualistic generalisations etc. The problems arising out of the nature and content of social sciences do not seriously diminish the importance of scientific method for social scientists. Not withstanding the inherent defects of social sciences, scientific method can be acceptable with its own limitations for the study of social phenomena so far as it helps to arrive at valid generalisations.

Possibilities and Limitations of Use of Scientific

Method in Social Sciences As described above, the social sciences deal with human beings. Hence, the subject of scientific research poses much greater complexity than that in natural sciences. Although problems of discovering principles of human behaviour are difficult, they are not impossible. Social scientists will need to carry out observations as carefully as in natural sciences. Subjective, qualitative judgements need to be supplemented by more exact, quantitative measurements which are not easy to achieve in the case of human beings. Social sciences have not been able to establish generalisations equivalent to theories of the natural sciences or, to predict events or behaviours accurately. Perhaps, social sciences will never realise the objective of science as completely as natural sciences do. In fact, there are several limitations involved in the application of the scientific method in social sciences.

Conceptual Foundations of Scientific Research

The scientific research is based on two conceptual foundations, namely, facts and theory. In the context of scientific research, fact simply means some phenomenon that has been observed. Scientific research aims at systematic description of observed facts and of their mutual relations. It also aims at understanding their nature and interprets the observed facts and relations. This involves the reduction of observed facts and their relations into a limited number of general statements that account for the observed facts and their relations. These general statements embody a theory (Mohsin 1984 p 4).

There is little agreement among social scientist’s on what theory is. For example, according to Goode and Hatt (1952): A theory refers to the relationship between facts or the ordering of them in some meaningful ways, whereas to Kerlinger (1973), a theory is a set of interrelated constructs (concepts), definitions and propositions that present a systematic view of phenomena by specifying relations among variables, with the purpose of explaining and predicting the phenomena. There are many more explanations of what a theory is. Despite the disagreement, there are certain common points in almost all the explanations. Keeping this in view we can understand a theory as a systematic explanation for the observed facts and their interrelations.

Scientific research starts with facts and then moves towards theorising. To be useful, facts must be organised, and the primary purpose of the scientific method is to develop a mechanism of organising the facts as they accumulate and become meaningful from the standpoint of their objectives. Through empirical investigations, scientists gather many facts. As these facts accumulate, there is a need for integration, organisation and classification in order to make the isolated findings meaningful. When isolated facts are put in a perspective by integrating them into a conceptual scheme, which promotes greater understanding, we approach the domain of science. Significant relationship in the data must be identified and explained. In other words, theories must be formulated.

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