Research Methods
Research methods are central to all sciences. They set the standard for what constitutes good research and not so good research.There are two general categories of social research, and many variations on the theme. It can be confusing trying to sorth them all out, but the rule of thumb is, "use the method that seems appropriate to get at the information your desire. Some projects are more amenable to a quantitative method (more or less one that uses statistics), while others are better using qualitative research methods like participant observation, or focus groups.
The two main issues that arise when looking at different research methodologies are validity and reliability. Reliability has to do with the repeatability of the research. If the research cannot be repeated, the research hypothesis cannot be tested with any certainty. Good research should yield consistant results across similar circumstances. Reliability will never be 100%, since no two researchers, or research groups are ever the same, no matter how carefully the research project is designed. Validity is the extent to which a study measures what is intended. It is often difficult to know if the respondent is answering the same question as the one you asked, since a particular term may have different meanings to different people. It is also difficult to determine if the correlation the researcher sees makes any sense, since they may be coming from very different backgrounds and have a different relationship to the idea than the person they are talking to.