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

Problem-focused research 637
to a general need for synthesis marked by a reaction against the excessesTand
inconveniences of specialization.
Bringing together the contributions of different disciplines gives a fuller and
richer knowledge of the object under investigation. We are much better off by
comparing the results obtained in one discipline with those offered by other
disciplines, by comparing points of view, even pushing collaboration further by
comparing basic assumptions of work and methods in order better to judge the
work accomplished. What results is not merely a mutual enrichment of the
researchers -if only by a keener perception of the relativity of their approaches -
but also a more complete knowledge of the phenomenon under study.
This reduces the drawbacks of excessive specialization and in the case of
problem-focused research work, the subject of which is always a complex social
problem, the advantages are sure. It has too often happened that different spe-
cialists have tackled the same problem, each from his own point of view, and
each in complete ignorance of what the others were doing. And every one
may consider himself competent in the matter. Thus the study of an industrial
strike may be carried on simultaneously by a sociologist, a social psychologist,
aneconomist, or even a jurist or historian, and each wil bring out different
factors - in some cases only apparently different - in terms of his theoretical
vocabulary and schemata and of centres of interest appropriate to his discipline.
Every monodisciplinary view being in a sense partial and limited - by the
definition it gives to a phenomenon, by the variables it considers, by the analysis
it chooses, and the conclusions it reaches - it is clearly important both in the
field of knowledge and in that of action to know the results reached by different
specialists. Let us take the study of prejudices. The sociologist may choose
manifestations of prejudices in the verbal field - stereotypes for example - and
analyse their distribution within a society. He wil try to give an account of this
distribution by a series of sociological variables which have some explanatory
value, e.g. social class, level of education, residential zone, etc. He wil use his
own techniques : observation by participation, interviews, questionnaires, anal-
ysis of the contents of written matter, films, etc. The social psychologist, making
use, in part, of the same techniques, wil facilitate a better knowledge of the
concrete processes by which prejudices gradually spread and take shape within
small groups, and he wil provide other explanatory elements from a knowledge
of attitudes. On the other hand, the psychologist will throw light on the role of
personality, and the influence of experiences in early life. Each point of view
complements and enriches the other and contributes its own recommendations
as to action.
It has sometimes been claimed that multidisciplinary research holds up the
acquisition of new knowledge, or is even an obstacle to creativity. Many
experiments show on the contrary the reality of cross-fertilization. Thus J. C.
Nunally’s monograph, starting from the fact that in many cases the mentally
sick remain so because they are so defined, finishes by preaching the value of
combined studies on attitudes, on public opinion and on certain knowledge
about the mentally sick with a view to reintegrating them in a community by
having them considered ‘cured’ and normal. cm