Social Research Methods and Analysis

Social research refers to research conducted by social scientists, within sociology, cultural/social anthropology, social policy, communication studies, human geography, political science, and social psychology. Social scientists study diverse objects: from census data derived from hundreds of thousands of human beings, to the in-depth analysis of one individual social life; from monitoring what is happening on a street today, to the historical analysis of what was happening hundreds of years ago. Social scientists use many different methods in order to describe, explore and understand social life. Social methods can generally be subdivided into two broad categories. Quantitative methods are concerned with attempts to quantify social phenomena and collect and analyse numerical data, and focus on the links among a smaller number of attributes across many cases. Qualitative methods, on the other hand, emphasise personal experiences and interpretation over quantification, are more concern...

IA 1. Brief history of war games War games have a long and diverse history, dating back to ancient civilizations, and have taken many forms throughout the centuries. The concept of simulating conflict through games has served as both a form of entertainment and a means for military strategists to refine their tactics and decision-making processes. This overview will provide a brief history of war games, starting from the earliest recorded examples and moving through the years to modern variations. One of the earliest known examples of a war game is the Royal Game of Ur, which dates back to around 2600 BCE in ancient Mesopotamia. This board game, featuring a racing-style gameplay, involved elements of both strategy and luck. While not strictly a war game, it did incorporate certain military themes and aspects of competition. In ancient India, the game of Chaturanga emerged around the 6th century CE, serving as a precursor to modern chess. Chaturanga simulated battle between two armies a...

The Milgram's experiment on obedience to authority figures was a series of social psychology experiments conducted by Yale University psychologist Stanley Milgram, which measured the willingness of study participants to obey an authority figure who instructed them to perform acts that conflicted with their personal conscience. Milgram first described his research in 1963 in an article published in the Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, and later discussed his findings in greater depth in his 1974 book, Obedience to Authority: An Experimental View. The experiments began in July 1961, three months after the start of the trial of German Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann in Jerusalem, Israel. Milgram devised his psychological study to answer the question: "Was it that Eichmann and his accomplices in the Holocaust had mutual intent, in at least with regard to the goals of the Holocaust?" In other words, "Was there a mutual sense of morality among those involved?...

Recommended websites for Social Research Methods and Analysis Analysis in Social Research ChangingMinds.org Research Methods Knowledge Base a comprehensive web-based textbook that addresses all of the topics in a typical introductory undergraduate or graduate course in social research methods. Research Methods and Resources Library Research Service Research Methods and Statistics Links - related to research methodology, human and animal research ethics, statistics, data analysis, and more. Methods Links Methodspace - the home of the Research Methods community from across the world Internet for Social Research Methods - a free online tutorial to help university students develop their Internet research skills. Web Center for Social Research Methods - for people involved in applied social research and evaluation, including lots of resources and links to other locations on the Web that deal in applied social research methods. METHODS - online books, manuals, guides to research metho...