SSC211e TMA01: Scientific Method in Social Research Analysis

This essay delves into the importance of applying the scientific research method to study civic honesty across different countries. The research, divided into three sections, begins by explaining the rationale behind using the scientific method, followed by a discussion of positivist social science and its differentiation from other types of social science. The essay then examines the practical application of the research, emphasizing the collection of empirical data, statistical analysis, and the significance of quantitative data in achieving accurate results. It explores the use of positivist research to determine people's reactions to incidents, while also touching upon the interpretive and critical social science methods, highlighting their differences. The study focuses on the selection of drop-off locations and the ethical considerations involved in the research, ensuring that the anonymity of participants and the integrity of the data collection process are maintained. Overall, the essay emphasizes the value of scientific rigor in social research for obtaining reliable insights into human behavior and societal trends.

Running head: SOCIAL RESEARCH IN SCIENTIFIC METHOD
SOCIAL RESEARCH IN SCIENTIFIC METHOD
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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The essay concentrates to probe deep into the importance of implementation of
scientific research method for the purpose of arranging the survey to determine the civic
honesty existing in citizens from different countries across the globe. It has been observed
that the most number of the people usually return the wallet if found to have dropped. They
are likely to return it when the wallet carried more money or keys and sometimes certain
significant documents. People have shown great responsibilities to return the wallets. The
paper is divided into three sections that starts with the reason behind applying scientific
method for the survey while the next part concentrates on the kind of social science that has
been employed in the process making clear differentiations from the others (Hughes &
Sharrock, 2016). Finally the last part deals with the two practices that have been put into the
research.
The scientific method of social science is very significant because it is appropriate for
reaching the exact data that leads the research to understand the real scenario of the society.
When a data is represented with statistical analysis, number chart, graphs and accurate
justification, it is supposed to reach the accuracy (Zetterberg, 2018). The entire research
consists of methodical process through which some systematic empirical evidences are
gathered. The objective of this method is to discard all sorts of emotional attachment from the
meticulous system of the research. The data that are collected through the survey are
trustworthy and the outcome of the survey becomes the base or reaching the ultimatum. This
kind of research invokes more convenience because the analysis of the data is not likely to be
ignored. As a fact people are more inclined towards numerical than they do in just texts.
Social researches are of three kinds. In order to find out civic honesty of the citizens
on the road, the positivist scientific research has been implemented because that has the
possibility of coming up with the exact number of people’s reaction to the incident. However,

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it is important to know what the two other kinds of social sciences are. Then it will be easier
to understand why this particular social has been applied here.
As Augusto Comte has pointed out that social science has reached this pinnacle
because it has crossed multiple ways among which positivist social science finds its way to
the conclusion by collecting empirical evidences. Here is no scope of assumption (Bonell et
al., 2018). The entire process is followed by the natural science. Science and scientific
researches are conducted only by specific value and quantitative data where the researchers
look forward to go through different statistics and numerical data through experiments.
Sometimes this process is supported and enhanced by the structural functional theory
(Rosenberg, 2017). Deductive logic has been imposed to come to the conclusion where the
standard human behavior is compared to the behaviors that have been caught in the survey.
Therefore applying this method, the pattern of human behavior is calculated.
Since the social beings are nothing near to God it is impossible for an individual to
know everything right. The learning process of human goes through gradual development
everyday. The reality seems to lurk outside the existence of human beings yet it is not
impossible to achieve (Fuchs, 2017). The pattern of regularity remains the same while the
behavior depending on the social construct keeps on changing. Certain determiners affect the
behavior of the human beings on the surface.
Marx Weber and William Dilthey have shown that in the interpretive social science,
investment of emotion is important which is completely missing in the positivist social
science (Walliman, 2017). This method depends more on the emotional and subjective
outlook of the expression because according to the scholars it is impossible to calculate
human emotions in terms of numbers. Therefore in this method, the subjects of the survey are

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exposed to express them while being put to test. With this method, the change in the behavior
can be justified with the changing circumstances.
It is true that a person reacts to a situation when he is surrounded by the people of his
own choice and his behavior changes when he is surrounded by people unknown and
strangers. It clearly identifies if there is any kind of discrimination in the behavior of human
beings regarding the changing of the social structure and the social atmosphere (Prasad,
2017). Critical social science is employed to dig into the depth of any research and find out
the rusted truth that cannot be seen without magnifying glass or close observation. An
interviewer must have to go through situations where the interviewee might oppose to open
up then the interviewer has to be sensible enough to read between the lines. The critical
ideology has been given emphasis upon in this system.
However, it is evident that interpretive and critical social science cannot be
appropriate to examine the factual information about how many people are behaving in a
particular order. Hence, positivist social science seems to fit the research perfectly.
The drop-off location has been given emphasis upon by the researchers. The location
was selected before so that they could avoid the problems that could be raised in the survey.
Banks, theatres, shopping malls, post offices, hotels and pubs are the places where more
number of people gather around therefore they have chosen this extremely congested place
which are often visited by pedestrians. Due to the geographical location of the post offices the
wallets could not be distributed equally. Along with that the same wallets could not be placed
at a similar distance because that could have generated the possibility of taking the same
wallet to the same police station time and again. One thing that should be remembered that
though it was planned in the form of a prank yet sentiment of any subject was not hurt during
the survey. Nobody was judged on the basis of the survey. The selection of wallets was also

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very smart because they have chosen wallets that were transparent so that the keys or the
documents and in fact the money that the wallets contain could be visible without any further
effort. Therefore if a person did not want to touch the wallet he could willfully avoid it and
even after touching and picking up the wallets he is not morally judged. The ethics of the
research is highly maintained and no decorum was hurt during the process of research. In fact
no name of any real person was used. The three names that were randomly placed in every
alternative wallets were fictional. There was no similarity in the names with real human
beings though the first names and the last names were collected from multiple social media in
order to avoid any similarity.
Certain German speaking assistants were included in the research to conduct the
whole survey. Although the task was profusely performed by them with a long and tedious
process of three years yet it has to understand that the task had some risks associated with it.
There moral value could be put to question (Mykhalovskiy & Namaste, 2019). They could
have been caught in placing the wallets in the crowded place which could bring in some
negative impression upon them by the regular citizens. It could lead to hurt the moral ground
of the research. In fact in some places like Czech Republic and Switzerland a couple of real
names were used for the purpose of research. The names that had been used were the real
names of the assistant professors so a fir chance of miscommunication could have taken place
hurting the sentiment of the research.

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References
Bonell, C., Moore, G., Warren, E., & Moore, L. (2018). Are randomised controlled trials
positivist? Reviewing the social science and philosophy literature to assess positivist
tendencies of trials of social interventions in public health and health
services. Trials, 19(1), 238.
Fuchs, C. (2017). From digital positivism and administrative big data analytics towards
critical digital and social media research!. European Journal of
Communication, 32(1), 37-49.
Hughes, J. A., & Sharrock, W. W. (2016). The philosophy of social research. Routledge.
Mykhalovskiy, E., & Namaste, V. (Eds.). (2019). Thinking Differently about HIV/AIDS:
Contributions from Critical Social Science. UBC Press.
Prasad, P. (2017). Crafting qualitative research: Beyond positivist traditions. Routledge.
Rosenberg, G. N. (2017). Positivism, interpretivism, and the study of law. In Law and Social
Movements (pp. 33-53). Routledge.
Walliman, N. (2017). Research methods: The basics. Routledge.
Zetterberg, H. L. (2018). Social theory and social practice. Routledge.