Relevance Of Theory And Research To The Discipline Of Sociology

ORDER OF TOPICS DISCUSSED Introduction What is theory? Things that makes a good theory Types of theory in sociology Macro theories and Micro theories Relevant of theories to the discipline of sociology Critics or problems associated with theories in sociology What is research? Objectives or purpose of a good research Type of research: Basic research and applied research Dimension in research Importance or relevance of theories to the discipline of sociology Critics or problems associated with research in sociology Conclusion and references INTRODUCTION: No one lives in a vacuum in society. People interact with each other in the society every day. Even if you stay in your room all day and do not go outside, you are still expected to obey the laws and rules of society which have influence on the lives of people either positive or negative impact and sometimes create social problems as experienced during the “industrial revolution and French revolution’’. Sociology is the scientific study of human society and its pattern. Moving further, it is the scientific study of human behavior (in group) and society. They use scientific methodology (empirical analysis) to study human behavior, society and interaction. Due to the high rate of social problems in the society, sociologist have tried various attempts to provide a solution to these problems through various “means’’ and these means can only be achieve through what we called “theory and research’’. Theory and research play a significant role in the discipline of sociology and through formulation of different theory sociology has tried to provide solution to societal problems such as crime, prostitution, and religion activity etc. sociology has given us a full understanding of “why’’ and “how’’ certain thing happen in the society etc. What theory and research is, the various tips we need to know about theory and research such as purpose of research, types of research, dimension of research would be discussed and emphasizes would be lay on relevant of theory and research within the domain of sociology and also the critics against theory will also be emphasizes. WHAT IS THEORY? Theory can simply be defined as an ideas or concepts used in explaining social phenomenon. That is, a bodies of ideas used in explaining social occurrence. According to Schutt, he defined theory as a logically interrelated set of “proposition’’ about empirical reality. He further moved by saying that these proposition comprises of three concepts which are: 1. Definitions: Sentences introducing terms that relate to the basic of the theory. 2. Functional relationships: Sentences that relate the basic concepts to each other. These can be further sub-divided into two which are: a) Assumption or axioms b) Deductions or hypothesis: this has to do with a tentative statement of assumption between two or more variables. 3. Operational definitions: Sentences that relate some theoretical statement to a set of possible observations. A theory can be conceived as a body of ideas consisting of related concepts, variables, and format, specifically designed in form of a statement to give explanation to event situation or objects. It attempts to give satisfactory account of why events occur the way they do or why an event does or does not occur. They are usually a system of interconnected abstractions or ideas that condenses and organizes knowledge about the social world. Theoretical statement are assumed to be correct until they are proved to be valid or invalid (as fact) through empirical or scientific investigation. In other word theory remains speculation until it is proved, when proved it becomes a “FACT”. Haven discussed what theory is, let now take a look at things that makes a good theory and these are: 1. Parsimony: the ability to explain in relatively few terms and statement that is a theory must be able to explain some terms and statements. 2. Breadth of phenomena explained: that is theory should be capable of explaining social phenomena. 3. Accuracy of predictions of new phenomena: a theory should be capable or should be able to predict new social issues or phenomena. 4. Ability to be disproved: a theory must be capable of being disproved as these will create room for other people to do their own research or propound their own theory because no theory is absolutely perfect. TYPE OF THEORY IN SOCIOLOGY Theories in the discipline of sociology are many, but they have been categorized into two main categorizes which are: Micro theories and Macro theories. Micro-level theory: Deals with small slices of time, space, or number of people. This type of theory examines day to day activities of the people in the society. More so, they usually examine social phenomena at a small scale level. For example, carry a research on the poverty rate in Ibadan city metropolis is a form of micro-level research because it deals with one society which is Ibadan. This type of theory usually goes more in-depth and gives full explanation of social phenomena. Micro-level theories in sociology are many which some of them are symbolic interaction theory, pluralism theory, feminism theory etc. but despite the fact that there are many theories, let take a look at what symbolic interaction is all about. Symbolic interaction is a micro theory focusing on how individual uses symbol and sign to communicate to each other. The main notion of the theory is how individual communicate to each other through the use of symbol. The major proponents of this theory are Max Weber, Herbert Blumer, Arnold Rose, George Mead etc. Their main assumption is that people attach meaning to their behavior or every behavior which an individual exhibit usually have a meaning and people behave or react based on these meaning. For example if a person strictly off his cloth remaining pant or boxer, people will surely think may be that person is mad, but on the other hand if a swimming pool is in that area, people will think maybe that person want to swim. So therefore, to the symbolic interaction they hold the notion that for every behavior in society, there will surely be a meaning attach to it and these meaning can only be understood by those individual involve in it (those that are in actions). For example if two individual lock themselves inside a room and the only thing you can see is reflection of light from the room (you did not hear their voice). For a lay man, he may think maybe they are reading but whereas they may be praying. So therefore the meaning of behavior is only understood by those individual involve in it, you that you are outside cannot understand, unless you asked them. Symbolic interaction also holds the notion that people behavior or react to something based on the meaning they attach to it. For example, why is it that an individual if he or she see a snake he will run whereas if he see an hen he will not run, the answers to the question is not far behind, individual react to both of them based on the meaning those thing serve for them, they know that a snake is more dangerous than an hen. Furthermore, another assumption of symbolic is that people communicate or relate to each other through sign and symbol which form the basis of language and language serves as a means of social interaction and communication among people in the society. For example in the olden days people use various symbol to communicate at different time, maybe in time of war such as the use of red cloth to signify danger and white cloth to signify peace and harmony. Though despite the fact that symbolic interaction provide a basic to understanding the establishment of meaning and adds to the understanding of human being as an active agent, the theory has also be criticized in so many way which are: it does not provide specific guideline on where one attention is focused that is it does not provide guide for the exhibition of a particular behavior. More so, it inability to deals with social structure which is a fundamental sociological concern is also a major critics and lastly, the theory have been criticized as been un-systematic with a very narrow on focus of research on interaction, that is no systematic guideline to which action is carried out. Macro-Level Theory Unlike the micro-level theory which deals with small slice of people, time and space. Macro-level theory deals with large slice of people, time and space. It is a form of theory that examines society from larger perspectives or explains social phenomena in a broad way or larger way. For example, high rate of poverty in Nigeria is a form of Macro-level theory because it tries to examine society from a larger view rather than a smaller view. Macro theories usually examine social phenomena relating to social, economic, political and geographical activities of individual living in society. Macro theories in sociology can be sub-divided into: a. structural functionalism or functional theory b. Conflict theory 1. Structural functionalism or functional theory is a theory propounded by many scholars such as Auguste Comte, Emile Durkheim, Talcott Parson, Herbert Spencer etc. The main notion is based on consensus and stability in society just like Auguste Comte observes social disorder during the French revolution and propound a theory (theological stage, metaphysical and positivism) to explain how society move from one level to another and the mentality of human being during that time. More so, they relate human society to a biological human being comprises of many part which make up a system such as the ear, nose, mouth, teeth etc. according to them they said any mal-function in one we surely affect the other part of the body because they work in harmony together in other to ensure sustainability of the body. So also the social structure (like family, education, political, economy and religion) must work in hand together in other to ensure sustainability of the society because they are inter-dependent on each other and any mal-function in one will surely affect the other. For example if there is mal-function in political aspect it will surely affect other social structure. Example is 2013/2014 ASSU strike which government fail to pay their salary, at the later run, it affect the educational structure in which many university went on strike which has effect on academic calendar and performances of student. So therefore the functionalist holds the notion that social structure or institution should work in harmony to enhance social stability and order because they are the pillars that holds the society from disintegrating as Emile Durkheim said. Despite the relevant of this theory, it has been criticized by many scholars as unrealistic that the theory is only applicable to an egalitarian society. More so, the issue of social order is more pronounced by the functionalist which sometime involve the use of force without considering the present situation of people living in the society e.g. they did not consider whether people are suffering or not, all they want is peace and social order. Lastly, the theory has been criticized for absolute social order which is impossible because no society can achieve absolute social order because there will always be deviance and in the course of that leading to social disorder. 2. Conflict theory: Unlike the functionalist theory focuses on social order and stability in the society, conflict theory is quite different from functionalist view because the main notion of the theory is conflict of interest which existed in the society among two individual called the “Bourgeoisie (capitalist or owner of production and resources) and Proletariat (the labour or workers used in the production process, they owned no economic resources)’’. The proponent of these theory are Karl Marx (chief proponent), Engel etc. According to Marx, he said there is unequal access to power and resources (wealth) in the society, the workers are used rigorously in the course of production and are pay less (salary). They are usually exploited by the owners of production in other to maximize profit which Marx referred to as “surplus profit’’ because they suppose to be pay to the labour. He further moved on by saying it will get to a point where there will be constant struggle and conflict of interest between the worker and the owner of production (the labour cannot bear the suffering and exploitation again) and these struggle will lead to the destruction and downfall of capitalist. He said “capitalist is impregnated with the seed of its own destruction’’ (after the destruction) in which the society will move from one level of society to another that is from capitalist to socialist to communism etc until a fairly stable society is acquired. Marx notion is usually based on economic production which he said is the bedrocks to which all other social structure rest, and also conflict of power and unequal access to resources in the society was his main notion. Despite his contribution, the theory has been criticized has unrealistic because not all society will undergo changes as he has emphasizes in his theory. Example is egalitarian society; also the destruction of capitalist which he emphasizes in his theory is not certainly true because some society such as U.S.A.; Cuba etc are still practicing capitalist economy, but though his theory share some similarity with the functionalist view on the aspect of social change and order in the society. RELEVANCE OF THEORY TO THE DISCIPLINE OF SOCIOLOGY 1. It helps to provide foundation for social research that is theory serves as bedrock to which many research rest on. Theories play a significant role in aspect of research because it serves as eagle eyes for research or provide a way for research purpose. 2. It helps in explaining social phenomena in a more sensible way such as theory of suicide (Emile Durkheim) which explains reason for high suicide rate, the functionalist theory which explains the relative importance of social structure and stability in the society. 3. It also helps in formulating hypothesis or tentative statement which can be used to describe the relationship between two or more variables. 4. It also helps in predicting or forecasting the likely social occurrence in the future that is thing that is likely to happen in the society are usually explained through theory e.g. In Marx theory, he explained the reason for change and also predict what is likely to happen in the future. 5. It has helps to increase our knowledge and also our understanding on particular social phenomena and also reasons for their occurrence in the society. 6. It has also helps in formulation of other theories as said earlier, there is no absolute correct theory to explain all social phenomena because there will surely be a weakness and because of these weaknesses, it leads to formulation of other theories. For example, due to the weakness of functionalist theory to explain all social phenomena it later leads to formulation of conflict theory to explain further. CRITICS ASSOCIATED WITH THEORIES IN SOCIOLOGY 1. Most theories are unsystematic that is they did not follow normal scientific procedure in explaining individual behavior. Those proponents formulate their theory based on imagination or abstract ideas, without relevant scientific backup. Example is symbolic interaction theory which is unsystematic because it does not provide backup or guideline to which behavior is exhibited. 2. Non-accurate prediction of social phenomena: Most theories are capable of non-accurate prediction of social phenomena especially both present and future one. Example Marx theory which emphasizes that capitalist will destroy and the society will move from capitalist to socialist and from socialist to communism etc which is actually false because in some countries like U.S.A. and capitalist holds the major economy system. 3. Lack of coverage or one dimension explanation of social phenomena: most theories in sociology are usually one dimension approach in explaining social phenomena, they do not explain or cover many social issues, they only focuses on one particular social phenomena. For example functionalist theory focus on social order and stability, symbolic interaction focus on use of symbol and language to interact and conflict theory also focus on social change and conflict of interest . Looking at those theories, we can see that those theories usually focus on one aspect of social phenomena. 4. Non-Stability of theory: lack of stability of theory in sociology also create a lot of problem because of critics made by others scholars which sometime make it irrelevant in explaining social phenomena. WHAT IS RESEARCH? Research is a logical and systematic search for new and useful information on a particular topic. Just like the nursery school children rhymes or song: Little twinkle little star “How’’ I wonder “what’’ you are….. Research is a process of examining “how’’ and “what’’ essentially a social phenomenon is. Example is when you are trying to examine “how’’ people contact HIV virus and “what’’ effect does it have on the lives of people and society entirely and also what are the possible solution to the problems. Research has to do with making or carrying an investigation for the purpose of finding solutions to scientific and social problems through objective and systematic analysis of data. It is a search for knowledge or discovery of hidden truth. Which means when you carry out a research you discover some fact and these helps to increase your knowledge on the subject being studied and also contribute to existing knowledge (the one you have already know). Research is not confined to science and technology only as many people thinks, it cut across my fields such as languages, literature, history and also play a significant role in the discipline of sociology. Whatever it might be the subject being studied, research has to be an active, diligent, and systematic process of inquiry in other to discover, interpret or revise facts, events, behavior and also theories. That is it must be done with the help of study, experiment, observation, analysis, comparison and reasoning. For example looking at the society, we all know that smoking is injurious to health, heroine is addictive, cow dung is a useful source of biogas, and malaria is due to the virus protozoan plasmodium, AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome). The question we are about to ask our ourselves is how did we know all these? The answer is not far behind; we became aware of all these information only through research which helps to seek prediction of events, explanation, relationship and theory for them. OBJECTIVES OR PURPOSE OF CONDUCTING A RESEARCH The purpose of conducting a research or study varies among individual because different individual have different perception on why he or she is conducting the research. Some may “due to my project’’, “It was a class assignment or group work’’, or “My supervisor or lecturer told me to do it”. Despite the fact that there are almost as many reasons to do research as there are researchers. Yet the purpose of research or main objectives of conducting a research can be organized into three groups based on what the researcher is trying to accomplish and these are: exploration, description and explanation. 1) Exploration has to do with exploring a new topic or issue in other to learn about it. This type of research usually deals with exploring or discovery new topics or which no researchers has written about it, which you begin at the beginning, thereby formulating question which will surely address in future research. Exploratory research may be the first stage sequence of studies and they usually question such as “what’’. Example what is this social activity really about? Exploratory researchers tend to use qualitative data and not be wedded to a specific theory or research question. Exploratory researcher rarely yield definitive answers because there are few guidelines to follow and researcher may get frustrated and find it difficult. 2) Description Research: Descriptive research presents a picture of the specific details of a situation, social setting or relationship. That is you have a more highly developed idea about social phenomenon and want to describe it. Descriptive researcher use most data-gathering techniques such as survey, field research, content analysis and historical comparative research. They usually focus on “how” and “who” question such as “how did it happen”, “who was involved”. More so, in this type of research, a researcher begins with a well-defined subject and conduct a study to describe it accurately and the outcome is a detailed picture of the subject. 3) Explanation Research: Explanatory research is a form of research that identifies the source of social behavior, belief, condition and event. It document cause test theories and provide reason. For example an exploratory study discovers a new type of abuse by parents, a descriptive researcher document that 10% of parent abuse their children in this new way and describe the kinds of parents and condition for which it is most frequent, the explanatory researcher focuses on why certain parents abuses their children. TYPES OF RESEARCH Research is broadly classified into two main classes which are: fundamental or basic research and applied research. 1. Fundamental or basic research: Is an investigation on basic principle for occurrence of a particular event or process or phenomenon. It is also called theoretical research. It involve study or investigation of some natural phenomenon relating to pure sciences and these type of research sometime may not lead to immediate use or application. It provides a systematic and deep insight into a problem and facilitates extraction of scientific and logical explanation and conclusion which helps in building new frontiers of knowledge. More so, improving a theory or a method is also referred to as fundamental research. For example, suppose a theory is applicable to a system satisfiers certain specific condition. Modifying the theory to apply it to a general situation is a basic research. Also researcher using these methods usually answers some question like why are materials like that. What are they? How does crystal melt? Etc. 2. Applied Research: In an applied research one solves certain problems employing well known and accepted theories and principles. Most of the experimental research, qualitative approach such as case studies and also inter-disciplinary research are essentially applied research. Applied research is helpful for basic research in which the outcome has immediate application known as applied research. For example research on social problem has immediate use. Applied research is concerned with actual life research such as research on increasing efficiency of a machine, pollution control, preparing vaccination for diseases etc. They usually have immediate potential application. Apart from the two types of research mention above, we still have some other type of research such as action research (fact findings to improve the quality of action in the social world), Descriptive research (fact finding to describe a particular social phenomenon, how it is, look like etc), Explanatory research (searching explanation for events and phenomenon. For example finding answers why are those thing like that? What are they?), Exploratory research (getting more information on a topic), Comparative research (obtaining similarities and differences between events, methods and techniques etc). DIMENSION IN RESEARCH This has to do with the various methods that enable a researcher to conduct his or her research accurately. They are often refers to as “time dimension in research” and these can be further explain below. 1) Quantitative Studies: Quantitative studies often refers to as an “eagle eyes” studies deals with or study social phenomena from a larger perspective. They generally looks at many cases, peoples or units and measure limited feature about them inform of numbers. They usually use various techniques such as survey, observation, experiment etc to examine phenomenon and they are easily represented by degree or number. 2) Qualitative Studies: Qualitative studies examine many diverse features of a small number of cases across other a short or for a longer period of time. This method involves the study of small or minute society. 3) Cross-Sectional Approach: This type of research examine social phenomenon from a single point in time or take a onetime snapshot approach. It is usually the simplest and least costly alternative. It disadvantage is that it cannot capture social process or change. 4) Longitudinal Research: This type of research examines social phenomenon or feature of people or other units more than one time. It is usually more complex and costly than cross-sectional research, but it is also more powerful and informative. Longitudinal research is sub-divided into three main types which are time series, panel and cohort. a) Time Series Study: A time series is a longitudinal research in which researchers gather the same type of information across two or more time periods. b) Panel Study: The panel study is a powerful type of longitudinal research in which the researcher observes exactly the same people, group or organization across multiple time points. c) Cohort Study: this type of research focus on category of people who share similar life experience in a specified time period. This type of research does not focus on specific individual. RELEVANCE OF RESEARCH TO THE DISCIPLINE OF SOCIOLOGY As already noted in earlier discussion that research play an important role both in sciences and social sciences especially the discipline of sociology and without it (research), solution to societal problem cannot be fully achieve. Some important or relevance of research to the discipline of sociology are highlighted below. 1. It is the fountain of knowledge and provides guideline for solving social problems: Through research, sociologist has provided various solutions to social issues such as poverty, crimes etc affecting people in the society. 2. It has help to provide a firm foundation for the development of theories: research helps to provide firm foundation for the development of theories because for you to develop a theory or propound a theory in sociology you must have a carry a lot of research and these research will now lead to the development of theory. 3. It has also help to direct the attention of sociologist to various social phenomenons: research helps to open the “eyes” of many sociologists to various social issues in the society such as crimes, prostitution, and child-trafficking etc. they try to examine reason for such behavior or issue in society. 4. It also helps in testing the existing theory: through research sociologist as try to test existing theories whether it is relevant or not and how accurate is it toward projecting the likely occurrence in the future etc. Apart from theories being relevant to the discipline of sociology, theories are also important in non-academic area such as: • It provides basis for government in formulating various polices for example research on the needs and desires of the people and on the availability of revenue to meet the needs helps a government to prepare a budget. • It is important in industry and business for higher gain and productivity and also to improve the quality of product. For example a research may be carried out by a company to test our useful their product is to the live of people in the society. • Lastly, it helps in the development of invention for example; new novel phenomena and processes such as superconductivity and cloning have been discovered through research. CRITICS ASSOCIATED WITH RESEARCH IN SOCIOLOGY 1) Problem of objectivity: Objectivity is a goal of scientific investigation. Sociology also being a science aspires for the goal of objectivity. Objectivity is a frame of mind so that personal prejudices, preferences or predilections of the researcher do not contaminate the collection or analysis of data. Thus scientific investigation should free from prejudices of race, colour, religion, sex or ideological biases. The need for objectivity has been emphasized by many sociologist scholars. For example Radcliff Brown emphasize that research in sociology should be free from ethnocentric and egocentric biases while carrying it. More so Malinowski advocated cultural relativism while anthropological field work in other to ensure objectivity. 2) Problem of subjectivity and topic chosen: most research in sociology encounter a lot of subjectivity problems at various stages. According to Merton, he believe that the very choice of topic is influenced by personal preferences and ideological biases of the researcher. More so, apart from personal preferences the ideological biases acquired in the course of education and training has a bearing on the choice of topic for research. Subjectivity and ideological biases can occur at various levels as said earlier. For example if Mr. A is carrying out research on particular society and at the later on, Mr. A concluded that there is cultural harmony in the society using functionalist theory. On the other hand, if Mr. B also carried research on the same particular society where Mr. A carried his own and concluded that there is no cultural harmony in the society rather there is struggle using Marxist approach. Looking at the two researchers, we are able to deduce that problem of ideological biases and subjectivity has already occurred in the course of research conducted because the two information provided are not reliable. 3) Wrong formulation of hypothesis: This problem also occurred when carried out research in sociology. Normally hypothesis is deducted from existing body of theory. Formulation of hypothesis can cause a lot of problem which can lead to wrong formulation and therefore introduce bias information. For example, in hypothesis we have H0 (null hypothesis) and H1(alternative hypothesis), if a researcher carry an investigation suppose to accept H0 in the course of analysis but rather he is rejecting it and accepting H1, biases of data has already be introduce in the data or information gotten. 4) Methodology or method problem: The method use in research or methods to be used in research also posed a lot of problems for researcher in aspect to be used either quantitative method or qualitative method. In a situation whereby a researcher suppose to use quantitative method and he or she is using qualitative methods, definitely there will surely be a problem in research process. 5) Wrong collection of data: This also creates a lot of problem for research, once topic is available, followed by method, collection of data also posed a lot of problem because no technique of data collection is perfect. That is each techniques may lead to subjectivity in one way or the other. For example in case of participant observation the observer as a result of false data, he or she acquires a bias data in favour of the group he is studying. While in non-participant, observation of the sociologist belongs to different group than that under study, he is likely to impose his values and prejudices. More so, when you are using in-depth interview wrong collection of data may occurred which may be influenced by the interviewed, the interaction between them and also if the person is not knowledgeable on the subject discussed it can lead to wrong collection of data. CONCLUSION: In the course of my discussion, I have already explained what theory is, the concept of theories, type of theory in sociology and more so, details was laid on what research is, purpose of research, type of research and dimension of research. More so, I have taken a look at relevance of theory and research to the discipline of sociology and also the critics of both theory and research are also examined. With the little few details of mine, I am able to say that theory and research play a significant role in the discipline of sociology because both of them (theory and research) serves as a pillar that holds the discipline of sociology and thus help them in providing solution to societal problem which is the major aims of for establishing sociology. REFERENCES Basic of social research – qualitative and quantitative approach by W. Lawrence Neuma, www.sociologyguide.com