Task 4
Laura Simmerman, RN
GLT1 Issues Behavioral Science
Undergrad
October 20, 2014

Sociology is the study of social behaviors. In social science or sociology, there are two specific research methods commonly used. Social anthropology is considered the holistic study of humanity. This field promotes culture as a scientific concept. Anthropologists use the study of social anthropology as the means of studying how culture affects how people adapt to their environment in non-genetic ways. In both sociology and cultural anthropology there are 2 large categories of research. Quantitative research is quantifiable, meaning measureable, and is collected by analysis. The collection must be able to be counted or mathematically calculated. In general, the idea of doing quantitative research is to be able to apply statistics to large populations of people. On the other hand, qualitative research involves interviewing or observing people. It helps us understand the “experience, meaning of life worlds, the essences of experience, the attentive practice of thoughtfulness, and caring attunements is extended” (Munhall, 1989). Qualitative research is able to be present with not only social research but experimental, linguistic, and cultural context research. It helps us study the human experience. Subcategories of these research methods will be discussed in comparison to sociology and cultural anthropology.
When researching a hypothesis there is a research approach catered to each research project. The research process itself involves “defining the problem, reviewing previous research on the topic, developing one or more hypotheses, determining the research design, defining the sample and collecting data, analyzing and interpreting the data, and finally, preparing the research report” (Tischler, 2011). Part of designing a research project, you must decide what methods to