Question

Step 1 Scientific Method and Basic Concepts.

This assignment asks that you consider introductory concepts in social research methods. Write a descriptive response to each of the following questions:

• What is science?
• What is theory and what role does it play in science?
• What role does science play in social research?
• How does science differ from how people learn informally - that is, from common sense? How are they similar?

Answer 1

According to Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary, the definition of science is "knowledge attained through study or practice," or "knowledge covering general truths of the operation of general laws, esp. as obtained" The most general description is that the purpose of science is to produce useful models of reality. Most scientific investigations use some form of the scientific method. Find out more about the scientific method. Science is called pure science to differentiate it from applied science, which is the application of research to human needs.

Natural science offers to society at large, as well as to the individual man of science, several distinct benefits. One is simply the existence of an organized body of knowledge, accessible to those interested in it; for science, like every other intellectual discipline, is to be valued in itself for the truth which it contains. Another is the existence of a body of men trained to appreciate this knowledge, and acquainted with the arduous work of gathering data and interpreting them; good scientific work demands that the man of science should aim to be energetic, humble, both constructive and critical, neither sterile nor credulous, accustomed to think before he acts and to act upon his conclusions. A third social benefit is conferred by the applicability of scientific knowledge to provide techniques for large-scale handling of matter, and hence for the improvement of the material conditions of life; properly used, this last function of science can confer real benefits, for example, by raising the life of the poor to a more tolerable standard.

Social research makes use of existing standard methods to examine human behaviour and suggest possible measures to change and adapt. The existing novels made on human behavioural patterns make use of scientific tools to to study the requisite patterns and this is possible with knowledge of science only

Science  possesses many important aspects for true understanding that common sense does not. Based on observations we make, science operates under theories, constantly revised and checked by experiment. Science also has controls, or ways of eliminating other explanations that may fit our preconceptions and intuitions but do not adequately explain phenomena. Science rules out the metaphysical (so far). Common sense allows us to believe that ghosts, goblins, and angels run amok throughout our world, themselves causal agents of events in our lives. To suggest that angels cured your disease, and not modern medicine, for example, is exactly why common sense is such a poor master.

Common sense and science sometimes do have similar phases in between them. For example before leaving the house for work in the morning, when we look out the window and find that the weather appears to be windy and wet, we wrap up warm and bring and umbrella - it is what we call 'common-sense'. Common sense therefore is practical and a human attribute that allows us to make reasonably safe decisions. Practical, human judgements about the world allows us to establish certain things about it as common sense becomes and arbiter of facts and what we come to perceive as valid 'readings' of what is before us. Science is also a method of establishing knowledge and like common sense, we also utilize science, in particular the scientific method to establish knowledge