Data Collection Methods; The Rationale Behind Hypotheses; and Sampling in Social Sciences

Abstract

The Social Sciences – consisting of the study of people as individuals, communities, and societies including their behaviors and interactions with one another – could be subsumed under five major disciplines: Anthropology, Economics, Political Science, Psychology, and Sociology. Research works in these fields abound whereas manuals on the three most pertinent aspects of research in the fields under reference are relatively limited or too complex to understand. It thus stands to reason to explain, in layman's terms, the different methods of data collection, the essence of hypothesis construction, as well as that of the various sampling methods. The paper declares the importance of hypothesis which could never be relegated to the background in any research work, and sums up the merits and demerits of the various types of data collection as well as those of sampling methods which could help researchers to select whichever ones are suitable for any given research category.