Empirical Social Research: Definition and Methods

In sociology, psychology, anthropology, political science or economics, empirical social research is accorded central importance – and not without reason! Unnoticed, the results of empirical social research actually shape our entire everyday life: they influence the content in the press and on social media platforms, determine the placement of advertising on television and influence political strategies in elections.

If you are studying one of the subjects mentioned above, you will need to deal with scientific strategies and methods for exploring social reality. Engaging with the fundamentals of empirical data collection and its evaluation does not have to be difficult or unnecessary at all, but will certainly come up again and again in your later professional practice.

What do we understand by 'empirical social research'?

 

“All social sciences understand themselves as empirical disciplines; they proceed in the acquisition of their statements essentially according to the same research logic and employ the instruments from the same toolbox.” (Helmut Kromrey 2002: 10)

 

Empirical social research is a subcategory of empirical research and is – therefore its designation – applied in the social sciences (e.g., in sociology, psychology, pedagogy, etc.). The goal is to gather systematic information about human behaviour in order to derive societal, demographic, political and socioeconomic relationships from it.

Definition

"Empirical research" as a term stems from the ancient Greek “empeiria”, which roughly means “experiential knowledge” or “based on experience”. Accordingly, in empirical research, knowledge about a research object is acquired through a systematic and standardized process in such a way that it is discernible through our external senses.

In general, every scientific discipline has a subject area specific to it, pursues its own research objectives, and employs a set of appropriate research methods for this purpose. Empirical disciplines, to which various natural, economic and social sciences belong, share the common goal of describing complex social phenomena, economic relationships and individual behaviour. All these sciences work with similar methods and differ mainly in their substantive focus.

In every socially relevant debate, empirical social research plays an important role. Similar to other empirical disciplines, social research is also about testing theoretical considerations against collected data in reality.

In empirical social research, a distinction is frequently made between theoretical basic research and application-oriented research. In principle, both project types are based on the same methodology, but differ in their objectives and practical feasibility:

Basic research (also known as 'basic research' or 'academic research') aims, by using data that is as universally valid as possible, to provide an overarching description and explanation of social facts. Rather than focusing on a specific individual case, general trends are examined in order to ideally close an existing research gap.

• Such an investigation is designed so that precise statements can be obtained under controlled conditions (e.g., in the laboratory). Demonstrating compliance with the highest possible scientific standard and critical discourse with academic colleagues is an integral part of this type of research.
  
  Example: Lampert, Claudia (2007). Health promotion in entertainment formats. How young people perceive and evaluate health-related messages in fictional television programmes. Baden Baden: Nomos Publishing House.
  
  ➔ If you are considering basic research for a thesis, you must think carefully in advance about whether you can provide the necessary conditions (e.g., an experiment in the laboratory), because here precision of research is paramount. For most theses, basic research would be too extensive and therefore less suitable.

Application-oriented research or practice research (in older papers also known as 'action research') relies instead on problem-oriented findings that can be related to a current case (e.g., in market research or as behaviour research in social youth work). Instead of scientific precision and universal validity, practical relevance takes centre stage here.

• The results obtained often need to be directly applicable to the problem to be solved (e.g., the results of an election survey must be available in time before the election, not afterwards). In contrast to basic research, scientists and responsible specialists (such as political advisors or youth welfare workers) work closely together.
  
  Example: Mack, Alexander/Alexander Wohnig (2019). “And it all worked out somehow: First results from the pilot project 'Political Participation'”. Society in transition – New tasks for political education and its didactics. Ed. Kerstin Pohl/Mathias Lotz. Frankfurt am Main: Wochenschau Publishing House. P. 205-213.
  
  ➔ The application-oriented approach is very well suited for a thesis, as it is somewhat easier to implement. In addition, you can conduct research in a practice-relevant area that could even be relevant to your future career.

 

Literature recommendation:
Kromrey, Helmut (2002). Empirical Social Research: Models and Methods of Standardized Data Collection and Data Analysis. 10th Edition. Opladen: Leske + Budrich.
➔ This comprehensive volume by Prof. Dr. Kromrey not only requires no specialized knowledge, but is also extremely clearly written. Therefore, this treatise is particularly well suited as a reference work for students of the social sciences – regardless of whether you are at the beginning of your studies or already writing your thesis.

 

Simplified research process: How your empirical social study unfolds!

The concrete design of your research always depends on what problem you want to investigate in your empirical thesis and what means will best help you narrow down your question.

Nevertheless, when conducting empirical social research, you will usually perform these seven work steps (based on Raithel 2008: 27-32), whereby the weighting of individual sections will vary depending on the topic:

1. Research objective, problem formulation, research question: What specific question (= research question) is to be investigated at all and what conditions (schedule, existing specifications, etc.) underlie the work?
    
2. Theory and hypothesis formation: How can you formulate your research question as a logical scientifically testable statement (= hypothesis)?
    
3. Conceptualization phase: How do you want to proceed specifically in your investigation? With which empirical method should the data be collected? Which variables are relevant to your research question? How many and which people (= sample) do you want to include in your investigation?
    
4. Data collection preparation and data collection: What do you need to pay attention to in order to ensure smooth conduct of the investigation (scheduling, interview training, obtaining consent from the subjects)?
    
5. Data preparation: How do you want to record the collected data? Should your data collection be structured in a specific way before analysis? Do you need a specialized analysis programme (e.g., SPSS)?
    
6. Data analysis: What procedure do you want to use to analyse your data? Do you need to perform hypothesis and significance tests?
    
7. Interpretation and dissemination (= documentation): How can your results be interpreted and documented? Can they serve as a basis for further research or practical application?

In the article on empirical research process, we go into detail on each of these work steps.

Source and literature recommendation:
Raithel, Jürgen (2008). Quantitative Research. A Practical Course. 2nd Edition. Wiesbaden: VS Publishing for Social Sciences.

 

Which methods exist in empirical social research?

Every scientific discipline develops its own methods for data collection. The choice of a particular data collection instrument always depends on your specific research question.

Social research as an empirical discipline works – like other empirical sciences – with quantitative and qualitative research methods. In this brief overview, we have summarized the most important methods from the relevant specialist literature for you.
 

Our literature recommendations for reference:
Brosius, Hans-Bernd et al (2009). Methods of Empirical Communication Research. An Introduction. 5 Edition. VS Publishing for Social Sciences: Wiesbaden.
➔ see in particular Ch.1, p. 17 - 46: “What are methods, what is empiricism?”

Hunziker, Alexander W. (2013). Fun in academic work. How to write a good semester, bachelor and master thesis. 5. Edition. Zurich: SKV.
➔ see in particular Ch.V, p. 74 - 110: “Methods of the Social Sciences”

 

Quantitative and qualitative research methods of empirical social research

• In a quantitative procedure, empirical observations on selected characteristics are systematically substantiated with as much data as possible or numerical values in order to measure universally valid relationships.
• A qualitative procedure is interested in complex, subjective and detailed substantiations of a specific research object.

Our comprehensive articles on quantitative and qualitative data collection instruments will help you find the right method for your empirical social research!


Methods of empirical social research: Quantitative vs. qualitative

 

Further reading:

Balzert, Helmut et al. (2011). Academic Work. 2 Edition. Berlin/Dortmund: Springer Campus.

Brosius, Hans-Bernd et al. (2009). Methods of Empirical Communication Research. An Introduction. 5 Edition. Wiesbaden: VS Publishing for Social Sciences.

Häder, Michael (2010). Empirical Social Research. An Introduction. 2 Edition. Wiesbaden: VS Publishing for Social Sciences.

Hunziker, Alexander W. (2013). Fun in academic work. How to write a good semester, bachelor and master thesis. 5. Edition. Zurich: SKV.

Kromrey, Helmut (2002). Empirical Social Research: Models and Methods of Standardized Data Collection and Data Analysis. 10th Edition. Opladen: Leske + Budrich.

Raithel, Jürgen (2008). Quantitative Research. A Practical Course. 2nd Edition. Wiesbaden: VS Publishing for Social Sciences.