The purpose of social science research

The research purpose of humanities and social sciences is to explain social phenomena first. Understanding the social situation, comprehensively grasping the essence of social activities, people's thoughts, attitudes, behaviors, relationships and various social phenomena formed therefrom, the goal is to explore and understand, form and produce systematic knowledge about society. Social activities are extremely complex, and humanities and social sciences need to pay attention to various issues. Only by understanding the society and all kinds of social problems can we understand people's thoughts and behaviors of participating in social activities and interact with them effectively. The purpose of studying society is to understand all kinds of social phenomena, including all kinds of contradictions and conflicts, all kinds of organizational phenomena and behaviors, and all kinds of emergencies, and to understand their causes and reasons. Interpretation is not static, but develops with the improvement of scientific knowledge interpretation ability.

The second purpose of the study is to predict, the explanation is to explain what has happened, and the prediction is to predict what has not happened, which is based on known conditions. These predictions can be research-oriented and can be used as the basis for making assumptions and further research; It can also be practical as a basis for guiding practical actions. In order to guide people's thoughts and behaviors, it is necessary to have predictions and be as reliable as possible. If the scientific prediction is confirmed by practical activities, it will not only increase the confidence of both sides, but also strengthen mutual trust.

The third purpose of research is to control. The so-called control refers to manipulating the decisive factors or conditions of an event, so that the event, including the people involved in the activity, changes in the expected direction. Any more accurate prediction can be used as the basis of control work. With the prediction of development, we can grasp the factors and conditions that affect the future, so that the effective operation of these factors and conditions can produce the generally accurate results that the controller hopes.

The purpose of research is mainly to solve why to study, what problems to solve, and what is the use of research. On this basis, it is the choice of research methods. The research method mainly solves the problem of research method.

In terms of specific methods, there are four main research methods commonly used in humanities and social sciences, namely, investigation, experimental research, field investigation and literature research.