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:
“Family ... the home of all social evil, a charitable institution for comfortable women, an anchorage for house-fathers, and a hell for children.”
—J. August Strindberg (1849–1912)
“The whole of science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday thinking.”
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955)
“If politics is the art of the possible, research is surely the art of the soluble. Both are immensely practical-minded affairs.”
—Peter B. Medawar (1915–1987)