The purpose of conducting research is to obtain knowledge regarding specific issue or problem. As sociology is the study of society therefore, sociological research can be briefly defined as the process of obtaining knowledge regarding society. Conducting sociological research is important because it provides knowledge concerning, the social world in which we live. Even states need sociological research to proceed with their public administrative business. Demographic survey is conducted by public organizations in every part of the globe, which help policy makers to formulate policy for public welfare. The logical question here to ask is that; how does demographic survey help in development of policy? Answer is very simple demographic survey depict the population structure of every district, city and province in the country. As it’s the fundamental duties of state to provide health, educational and communication services to public. Policy maker cannot formulate a good policy, concerning satisfying the public basic needs, absent demographic knowledge because they would not know; how much schools and colleges should be established? How many hospitals should be developed? How many teacher should be hired? How many doctors should be hired? And how many nurses should be hired? In different provinces, districts or towns of the country. But if policy maker know exact structure of population of the country; then it would be easy to identify the needs of particular district and town and satisfy them accordingly. Non-governmental organizations conduct research on different social issues, such as gender based violence, juvenile delinquency, child abuse etc., but these are very broader social issues, non-governmental research may emphasize on specific part of the issue. For example one may be interested in exploring and determining the “causes of gender based violence” in a particular society. On the other hand, another might be interested in “identifying the methods for preventing gender based violence” in particular society. Same goes with the other mentioned issues or social problems, therefore, society, human behavior and social life can be explored, by sociological research; from different dimensions.
Sociological research can be conducted from different methods, it depends on researcher which method he selects, to be reliable for his research. Following are the methods of sociological research; survey method, content analysis or secondary data analysis method, experiment method and field work method. However, application of each method has its advantages and disadvantages, therefore researcher has to decide which method would give him or her authentic findings. Furthermore, researcher has to collect data for conducting research, there are different tools for collecting data such as, interview, questioners, focus group discussion, observation and case study. Each data collection method is different from others. Whereas, data are of two types; primary data and secondary data, both data are vital for conducting research.
