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Methodology of Social Research

notes 1. Complete Detachment from Subject-matter not Possible—The first problem in establishment of
objectivity is that the researcher cannot consider himself completely detached form the subject matter
because he is visibly or invisibly an essential part of the subject which he is studying. integral here
does not mean that he is a member of that society but integral in the sense that he is a human and is
studying some or the other human phenomena. if that human phenomena is related to his own group
or society than it will have a special place in his heart and if that subject is not related to his own society
or group then also it is obvious to have some biasness regarding that. in both the conditions it is not
possible to have complete detachment and detachment in any form is a big problem for establishment
of objectivity. it is for this reason that in the study of social phenomena the researcher has his own
hatred or likenesses, enmity or conflict, attachment or detachment, like or dislike and all these will
somehow affect the nature, direction, target, analysis or facts of study, no matter the researcher is
aware of this or not or he is doing this willingly or unwillingly. in any state complete detachment
from subject matter is a problem in the establishment of objectivity.
2. Influence of Emotional Tendencies—the subject that the researcher is studying is a part of social
life and is influenced by various emotional tendencies. For various social phenomena some similar
emotional tendencies become popular in a society and the researcher becomes a victim of such
emotional tendencies during his research. for example if we take the case of prostitution during the
study of these social phenomena the researcher becomes the victim of these emotional tendencies
that all prostitutes are of bad character. one common tendency is that they earn money by selling
themselves and researcher cannot keep himself free from this tendency. in the same way while studying
joint family system, untouchability, caste system etc. the researcher is affected by some emotional
tendencies and it becomes difficult to establish objectivity.
3. particularistic fallacy—according to W.i. thomas there is one more problem in achievement of
objectivity that is particularistic fallacy which means that during the study of any social phenomena
most of the researchers commit a mistake of focusing on any particular reason and considering some
particular aspect as most important. There result is based on insufficient or unrealistic facts. For
example, “Bad company is the only reason behind child crime”, cultural differences is the only reason
for the invention of caste system”, “due to the effect of western culture indian culture has entirely lost
its speciality” such type of numerous outcome are examples of particularistic fallacy and there base is
insufficient or unrelated facts. In such a situation achievement of objectivity seem to be impossible.
4. false idols—francis Bacon has drawn our attention towards an error through an important phrase
that mostly researchers do while researching. He has written that these idols are of different types,
for example idols of Cave which means those errors that the researchers commit for any phenomena
or person because of his limited and unrelated thoughts; these thoughts are his own and therefore,
nobody else knows about them. Like this are the idols of a court or waadpeeth. An idol of forum the
researcher commits the mistake of believing unnecessarily on certain words. Along with this there
are also idols of the market place. Which means focusing too much on traditions, systems, etc. and
deriving results based on them? In the last according to Bacon there are also The Idols of the Tribe
which means that the researcher commits the mistake of seeing any substance of phenomena from his
own perspective; it become difficult for the researcher to derive result by coming out from his own
viewpoint and limited knowledge about life. All these conditions create problems in establishment
of objectivity.
5. Confusions Regarding General Knowledge and Real Knowledge—Clyde W. Hart has written that
objectivity is related to real knowledge not general knowledge. When researcher considers general
knowledge as real knowledge or tries to derived results based on general knowledge or tries to reach
less closer to objectivity then as a scientist he commits extraordinary mistake. sometimes based on
general knowledge the hypothesis he once formulates, and to prove them true he views all the facts
in that perspective and presents them likewise. the facts that do not match his general knowledge, he
carefully leaves them. Clearly from such practices anything may be achieved but not objectivity. this
does not mean that general knowledge is not practical; it only means that the tendency to not test the
reality of general knowledge by real facts creates a problem in establishment of objectivity.

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