Читать книгу Social Work Research Methods - Reginald O. York - Страница 56

In the history of human inquiry, there has been an enormous amount of social research that has been undertaken. When we develop a research question, we usually find that there is a great deal of guidance that can come from an examination of the literature. Often, we will find a suitable answer to our question from this review and will not find it necessary to undertake a new study of the subject. Even when we do not find a suitable answer to our question, we will find much guidance from the literature on those aspects of the question that have been left more unanswered, and we can find assistance with the conceptualization of our study and the measurement of social phenomena required to answer our question.

It is not reasonable for us to expect a novice researcher to acquire an exhaustive review of the literature on a given subject. You will find a wide range of knowledge in places that are not well known or easily accessed. However, we can expect a novice researcher to delve into the most available and best known literature on the subject of inquiry, so that he or she can avoid repeating the mistakes of early work on the subject or failing to contribute anything of substance about the topic.

You will find that there is normally a wide array of research on any given subject. You will also find that there is usually a good deal of research that needs to be added. Often what is needed is the use of a different type of person as the study subject or a different way of conceptualizing or measuring the phenomena under inquiry. Thus, we are not likely to encounter a situation in which the research we wish to undertake is substantially redundant. The greater reason for examining the previous literature is to help us avoid the mistakes of the past. We might find that the way we wish to undertake our study has been done many years ago but has been found wanting in its ability to provide a good means of addressing our research question. Later research will be found to have corrected for these mistakes in research methods.