Social Science Methodology

This paper analyzes the research methodology of the sleeping patterns of Singaporeans and suggests alternative research methods for a comprehensive understanding of the issue.

Running head: SOCIAL SCIENCE METHODOLOGY
Social science methodology
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author Note

1SOCIAL SCIENCE METHODOLOGY
Introduction
The aim of the paper is to analyze the issue of the research conducted by the Singaporean
government to find out the sleeping pattern of the citizens and their impact on their daily lives.
This paper is divided into three parts while the first part of the paper deals with the key tents of
the research and the significance of the research, the next part of the paper deals with the major
sleeping patterns of the Singaporeans. This also focuses on the issues of pitfalls of the survey. It
is aimed at analyzing the nuances of good research. The last part of the paper deals with the
research methodology used in the research and looking into the alternative research
methodologies which could have been applied to conduct the research in an effective manner.
Part A :
The key tents of the research are that on an average 40% of the Singaporeans do not get
enough sleep at night. Over 44% of the population does not get seven hours of sleep; this is due
to multiple factors that are contributing to fewer hours of sleep (Ho and Ho, 2019). Four out of
ten Singaporeans get to sleep less than seven hours at night. What is more striking in the research
is that only a quarter of the Singaporeans sleep through the night. The research further provides
details of the 77% of the Singaporeans wake up at least once in the night while the percentage
that sleeps at night without breakage of sleep is just 23% (Ho and Ho, 2019). The research
provides data that the people of the lower income group are likely to have more problems of
sleep and it is important to note that the financial status of the families determines their sleep
patterns to a great extent. It is also found through the research that people with good sleep are
likely to fall asleep with the help of “Chou Chou" which is a comfort object due to the problem

2SOCIAL SCIENCE METHODOLOGY
of falling asleep (Ho and Ho, 2019). It is also argued by the author that the percentage of women
is higher compared to men who tend to use this comfort object than men between the ages of 25
to 34 (Ho and Ho, 2019).
However, it is important to note that good research is one that focuses on finding an issue
or a problem in the body of the research and proceeds with the articulation of the question.
Good research also focuses on chalking out a plan and diving each of these problems into smaller
parts (Bernard, 2017). This is further preceded by finding the hypothesis of the paper and
developing the same in the body of the article. This is significant to note that this particular
research is lacking the basic tenets of good research (Bernard, 2017). For example, this does not
start with a question or a problem; neither has it followed a good methodology. However, it is
important to note that good social science research is one that aims to provide authentic
information to the people and it deals with the issue of society and people (Brannen, 2017). Good
social science research focuses on the different social problems since the issue of sleep is a
matter of concern for the Singaporeans; this research provides valuable information about the
sleep patterns of the people which is important to conduct further research in this regard. This
research forms a good foundation for future research that can be based on finding the possible
reasons for the uneven sleep patterns of the people. This research is the result of the surveys
conducted on the Singaporeans, and it is important to note that the survey based researches are
more specific in nature since it chooses a sample size of the population to find out the general
patterns. Hence it could be concluded that this research helps to identify one of the social issues
that the Singaporean are facing and provides a solid foundation for the same.

3SOCIAL SCIENCE METHODOLOGY
Part B:
According to the research it has been found that there is a difference in sleeping patterns
based on generations (The New Paper, 2019). One generation of people tends to have different
sleeping patterns than the new generation. This is even significant to note that countries like
Belgium and New Zealand have the best pattern of sleep while there are Chinese and
Singaporeans who tend to get less sleep and one of the reasons for this sleep is worrying (The
New Paper, 2019). There are people who also consider sleep to be less important than the rest of
the job they do. For examples, some even find spending time with the family is more important
than sleeping is a less important job. Moreover, it is further argued that Singaporeans are the
over-achievers in every field of their life. It is due to the lack of sleep that there are complaining
about higher rates of tiredness, headache and fatigue.
One of the key issues of this survey-based research is that centricity of the survey method
adopted. This research is based on the survey itself, and it does not ponder upon the other
research methods like interviews and focus groups. This is imperative to note that the research
fails to identify the issue with the help of the secondary data. Moreover, there are certain pitfalls
of survey-based research, and this research suffers from the following drawbacks.
1. The participants of the survey may not always feel interested, and there are chances
of getting the wrong information for the research.
2. It is also to be noted that survey-based research is based on the close-ended questions
and it is not given enough validation like the other research methods.
3. This is also a problem associated with the survey-based research that the survey based
answer might be having a different interpretation based on the perception of the
research.

4SOCIAL SCIENCE METHODOLOGY
Hence it is important to acknowledge the fact that this research is solely based on the
survey based questions and any other forms of data have not been included to substantiate the
research. It is imperative to note that this research is solely data-driven research and this
research does not deal with the reasons for the uneven sleep pattern of the Singaporeans. This
research does not deal with the qualitative view of the issue, and it is concerned solely with the
quantitative analysis of the social issue of sleep deprivation. This research fails to provide a
subjective analysis of the issue which is a crucial component of good social science research.
Even though survey research is the only practical and widely used research methods for
academic research, it is not the comprehensive method that can analyze and evaluate one issue
from all the perspectives (Vaioleti, 2016). These pitfalls could be avoided by making the analysis
holistic and subjective in nature which could be done by adopting interviews, focus groups
analysis and secondary data (Creswell et al., 2017).
Part C:
The survey is based on the study conducted over 1022 Singaporeans, and it indicates that
the centricity of the research method applied is limited in nature since the research do not give
enough insight into the issue in a holistic manner. There are certain issues attached to the survey
based research, and it is imperative to note the same to find out the limitations of the research
(Neuman, 2003). This is also aimed at finding the importance of an alternative research method
and its significance for the same. This is to be noted that survey-based research is based on the
common practice if forming a questionnaire. This is to be kept in mind of the designer that the
understanding of the requirement is the key to form a comprehensive questionnaire. Vague or
generalized questions tend to ignore the key issues, and unclear questions lead to ambiguous

5SOCIAL SCIENCE METHODOLOGY
results. The second most important issue associated with the research method is the sampling
size. The sample size is taken from the random choice of the researcher form the population.
Unlike the focus groups method or the interview method where the sample size is chosen
deliberately, the survey method is base on the analysis of the result from the random sample size.
There is another shortcoming of the research method that is the choice of the probability method.
Any random sample is extremely confusing for the researcher to derive the generalization.
It is concluded from the analysis of the research that there is a need to opt for an
alternative method of research. Since this research is based on the survey questions, it faces
multiple limitations. Hence, there is a need to include other research methods like the face-to-
face method of interview, conversations or focus groups interview to determine the nuances
associated with the issues (Fletcher, 2017). This research should also include secondary research
based on the institutional data to find out the theoretical understanding of the social issue. There
is a need to develop a record based assessment of the issue to enhance the quality of the research
(Weber, 2017). Standard research should also focus on finding the history and background of the
research because this helps to develop the phenomenon from a historical point of view as this can
be used to understand the issue in an effective manner (Seawright, 2016). There can be further
research by taking up a case study to substantiate the argument of the article.
Conclusion
The purpose of the article was to look into the issue of sleeping patterns of the
Singaporeans from the perspective of the research conducted by the YouGov. This also aimed at
analyzing the drawbacks of the article for the research methodology adopted and this is has been

6SOCIAL SCIENCE METHODOLOGY
found in the article that for a holistic and comprehensive understanding of the social issue like
the sleeping pattern of people, it is significant to go beyond the survey based analysis.

7SOCIAL SCIENCE METHODOLOGY
References
Bernard, H. R. (2017). Research methods in anthropology: Qualitative and quantitative
approaches. Rowman & Littlefield.
Brannen, J. (2017). Mixing methods: Qualitative and quantitative research. Routledge.
Creswell, J. W., & Creswell, J. D. (2017). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed
methods approach. Sage publications.
Fletcher, A. J. (2017). Applying critical realism in qualitative research: methodology meets
method. International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 20(2), 181-194.
Ho, K. and Ho, K. (2019). YouGov | Four in ten Singaporeans not getting enough sleep. [online]
YouGov: What the world thinks. Available at:
https://sg.yougov.com/en-sg/news/2018/12/11/four-ten-singaporeans-not-getting-enough-
sleep/ [Accessed 21 Feb. 2019].
Neuman, W. (2003). Social research methods : qualitative and quantitative approaches. Boston:
Allyn and Bacon.
Seawright, J. (2016). Multi-method social science: Combining qualitative and quantitative tools.
Cambridge University Press.
The New Paper. (2019). Singaporeans sleep the least - blame it on society. [online] Available at:
https://www.tnp.sg/news/singapore/singaporeans-sleep-least-blame-it-society [Accessed
21 Feb. 2019].

8SOCIAL SCIENCE METHODOLOGY
Vaioleti, T. M. (2016). Talanoa research methodology: A developing position on Pacific
research. Waikato Journal of Education, 12(1).
Weber, M. (2017). Methodology of social sciences. Routledge.