Some Notes on the Planning of Social Research

Abstract

SOME projects in social research may influence social welfare only gradually and indirectly; some may have a relatively prompt and direct effect. In the first group would be placed a study of Henry Elsing's notes on the debates in the House of Lords in i628 and a research on Byzantine mozaics of the iith and i2th centuries in Greece; they may add important data to our understanding of history. A research on the genetic aspects of grooming, a socially important primate behavior pattern, might lead to the conclusion that grooming among chimpanzees represents a stage in the evolution of social service. All knowledge, it is said, may be of ultimate value in the solution of social problems. There is an increasing number of studies which may have a relatively direct influence on human conduct and social welfare. A research on the factors which affect a young person's choice of an occupation presumably might result in conclusions helpful in vocational guidance work. Careful investigation of the cost of living, if the facts revealed are adequately disseminated, might lead to an increase or a decrease in wages. And the recent study of public service personnel, with the recommendation that a career system be established in federal, state, and local civil services, might result in permanent improvement in the quality of government work. Obviously, there is no sharp distinction between the two general groups; the one gradually shades into the other. In the planning of relatively extensive researches of the kind which might reasonably be expected to influence individual conduct or social policy without great delay, there appear to be five possible steps which may advantageously be considered: