Social Science Theory and Methodology, Essay Example

Introduction

Social science is a discipline that involves the social cultural behavior or aspects of men. It is comprised of economics, sociology, social psychology, cultural anthropology among others. Human beings undergo successive stages of growth during their lifetime, these stages have different features they include physiological physical and behavioral characteristics which influence their behavior. Human beings develop their behavior as they undergo the stages of life. The stages include infancy, childhood, adolescence and adulthood.

Research explains that the real behavior of people start to be developed after childhood. Social science deals with explanation of how different environs affect the behavior. This discipline also tries to explain why we behave in a given way and not in another way. Psychological development is the growth of human beings emotional, intellectual, cognitive, and social abilities from infancy through their mature age. Personality on the other hand is the character of a person that he has developed during his lifespan. Social interaction is the relationship of the human beings with the other human beings, social classes are the grouping that human being form as they relate with fellow men.

There are a number of question which can be related to study of the psychological development, personality and social interaction of men, social science study entails a number of concepts and their measurement. A concept can be defined as a blocks or foundation of theory that represents points within which social research is conducted. Examples of social science concepts include social class, religious orientation, presentation of self, healthy lifestyle, intelligence, among others. Measure of a concept can be explained as the quantification of the concept for instance, intelligence quotient is a measure of intelligence concept, temperature uses centigrade and Fahrenheit as the measure and so on.

Formulated Question

The question that we may ask ourselves in our study is ‘How does intelligence quotient vary with different people in a society’. In this study we should break our question of study into different simple questions which include:-

• What is intelligence? Under this we will be concerned about what makes up the intelligence of a human being, how different people regard intelligence in the society, what society considers being intelligence and the different forms of intelligence in the society. This concept has arisen as a result of knowing that some human beings are clever, others not bright at all, and others quite clever.
• How can we measure intelligence of a person- in this we will be concerned about how we can conduct a survey to measure the intelligence of human beings?
• How will the knowledge obtained in survey help the society and how will significant to the society.
• What is the relationship of intelligence and gender of the person in this we will survey and measure the correlation between sex and intelligence?

Research Methods

There are a number of methods used in conducting research; the methods used may be either qualitative or quantitative method. The social scientist will be required to determine if the concept is to be surveyed with quantitative method or qualitative method, in quantitative method it will involves measuring of the concept. It is always advisable to consider the context of the research and to focus on the interest and the hypothesis of the survey. To effectively show quantitative concepts, it requires that the researcher should familiarize themselves with the language. It is further emphasized that there is an importance of understanding and getting involved in the entire process of the research. In quantitative research it is good to know the units of measurement of the concept one is testing. In our research we will be concerned about the quantitative methods of survey. Some of the commonly used methods in survey include:-

• Experimental Method – this method is the most scientific method; this is because experimental method is the only method which has control over the survey. It can thus be explained as a study of effect and cause which involves manipulation of one variable deliberately while keeping the other variables constant. The researcher in this method is required to formulate a variable which he will measure, and this variable is the one referred to as independent variable, the second variable which is known as experimental variable can also be referred as dependent variable. The other variables which usually have impact on the results are referred to as random variables or confounding variables. This method involves changing a variable that is independent and then measuring the other variable which is the dependent variable; as a result of this we are able to make conclusions with certainty. The social scientist can use this method by dividing the respondents of the research in two groups, the experimental group and the group which will be used for control; this will be followed by introducing a change in the group used as experimental. The control group should be the group which doesn’t change and is referred as independent variable and the experimental group is the dependent variable, these groups should be matched on all aspects which are important like sex, age etc. The researcher will then continue varying the experimental group while collect the data, he will further process the data and analyze it. After the analyzing the data the researcher should make conclusions about the research.
• Correlation Method – This is a method which measures how two variables are related. The researcher examines things which already exists and then concludes on how the two variables are related; he also determines how these variables are related for instance measuring if there is a correlation between sex and intelligence quotient. When we get to know there exist a relationship between two variable we can make conclusions and prediction. This research method is advantages in that we can make predictions of two variables for instance in our problem if we know that there is a relationship between the examination score and the intelligence quotient of the student we can use the information in admission of the student in a school if we are aiming at admitting the intelligent students. This method is however limiting in that it lacks cause, it shows us that the two variable are correlated but we don’t know whether one is the cause of the other, it therefore limits us from making conclusion about the cause and effect.
• Survey Method – this is a non experimental research technique. Surveys are mostly used when we are intending to collect data on phenomena that can’t be observed. There are several types of surveys. One of them being cross-sectional surveys which gather information on one point in a given time. For instance a questionnaire to collect data on the performance of the students from there parents. We also have longitudinal survey this method gathers data for a given period of time the researcher then analyses the data and attempts to explain them. Other types of survey are sampling and question design technique. The first step of this method involves the researcher deciding on the technique to use, based on the type of the design he formulates the hypothesis to test in the survey, in this he should make the null hypothesis and the alternative hypothesis. He should also devise the measure of the concept that he will be testing in his survey; this is followed by choice of the respondent to be involved in the survey. The researcher will then be required to collect the data from his respondent. He further goes ahead to process the collected data and also to analyze the data to facts. Based on the finding of the research the researcher draws conclusions about the hypothesis he was testing.

Conclusion

In conclusion, am stressing the use of several methodological approaches in establishing the different intelligence capabilities of human beings. To statistically provide evidence of the relationship between gender and intelligence, I consider using survey; I would then observe several populations while testing my hypothesis. During my survey I would collect data from varied research sites and different respondents from different geographical areas. I would further emphasize on collecting the data firsthand to be able to make concrete and reliable conclusion.

To measure the different capabilities of intelligence quotient I would use the experimental method, in this I would first formulate the hypothesis both the null hypothesis and the alternative hypothesis I will divide the groups into two; the experimental group and the group which will be used for control, I would consider varying the experimental group to obtain the data I require.  To prove the strength and the existence of the relationship between the sex and intelligence, I would make use of the correlation method which I will start by formulation of the hypothesis I would then test the significance of the hypothesis statistically using the data that I would have collected from my respondents. I will either classify the relation as either strong relationship or weak relationship based on my processed and analyzed data.