Main trends of research in the social and human ... - unesdoc - Unesco

Problem-focused research 635
method is applied rather than research on a sample chosen at random; it is
also true of market studies, for which the method of written questionnaires
distributed in great numbers has been adopted rather than the technique of
fuller and more qualitative interviews. Or again the macroscopic view given by
official statistics - which may be open to question - is accepted rather than
longer and more meticulous research based on fresh and carefully-chosen
samples.
Some techniques lend themselves more than others to the relatively rapid and
systematic collection of data which can afterwards be used for different pur-
poses, and are often extremely useful in social work. W e should mention in
particular research on time-budgets and ecological research which attempt to
group, in two basic dimensions, a series of behaviours and activities. Time-
budget research has been of very great service in the study of the living con-
ditions of the working class and other social categories, in the study of leisure,
as part of social planning, and even in the study of behaviour and its motivations.
Ecological studies have been used for investigating and measuring the spatial
variations of the most varied phenomena: mental illness, crime, voting, delin-
quency, wealth, poverty, religious practice and even birth, marriage and death
rates, and so on. A precise knowledge of the spatial extent of phenomena takes
us a long way towards their explanation and therefore towards the steps to be
taken as part of any necessary action.
In various fields where problem-focused research is being undertaken, for
example in the field of youth, old age, the family, or even of family budgets, it
is most commonly the cross-sectional inquiry which prevails: it allows for rela-
tiveIy speedy results. And yet themajority of researchers, conscious of the value
of a dynamic analysis of phenomena, emphasize more and more the advantages
of researches in length: following young people through the course of their
schooling and the first few years of their professional career permits a much
sharper analysis of choices, their conditions and their motivations ; following
couples throughout the years of marriage allows a better analysis of marital
relationships as they evolve under the effect of the dynamic factors which con-
dition them in a changed social environment; analyses of family budgets should
be associated with the various stages of the family’s development, and so on.
But these studies are difficult, requiring arduous methodological refinements,
and have the inconvenience of being very long. When action cannot wait and
when the subsidies are inadequate, problem-focused research chooses the shortest
route, which is not always the best one.
Finally, delimiting research according to utilitarian criteria has not always
been found fruitful: the history of applied research in psychology shows us on
the contrary that such delimitation has sometimes been a source of impoverish-
ment.95 The concern for action is tied up with the influence of certain values.
Problem-focused research implies, by definition, the pursuit of a value other
than knowledge for its own sake. One of the dangers faced by research is that of
allowing itself to be penetrated by ideology, and it is no doubt through the bias
of problem-focused research that ideology is introduced into the concerns of
research workers. Engaged in a dialogue with the man of action or the client in