UGC NET Sociology Research Methodology and Methods Syllabus

Research Methodology and Methods syllabus — full chapter and topic list

Expand any chapter to see its topics and sub-topics. This is the whole examinable outline for Research Methodology and Methods in UGC NET Sociology, not a summary of it.

1. 1

   Conceptualizing Social Reality

   5 topics

   • Philosophy of Science
   • Scientific Method and Epistemology in Social Science
   • Hermeneutic Traditions
   • Objectivity and Reflexivity in Social Science
   • Ethics and Politics
2. 2

   Formulating Research Design

   4 topics

   • Reading Social Science Research, Data and Documents
   • Induction and Deduction
   • Fact, Concept and Theory
   • Hypotheses, Research Questions, Objectives
3. 3

   Quantitative and Qualitative Methods

   4 topics

   • Ethnography
   • Survey Method
   • Historical Method
   • Comparative Method
4. 4

   Techniques

   5 topics

   • Sampling
   • Questionnaire and Schedule
   • Statistical Analysis
   • Observation, Interview and Case study
   • Interpretation, Data Analysis and Report Writing

Research Methodology and Methods flashcards for UGC NET Sociology

23 of 60 cards from the Research Methodology and Methods deck — real questions with worked answers.

1. What is the central concern of the 'Philosophy of Science'?

   It critically examines the foundations, assumptions, methods, logic and implications of scientific knowledge — asking what makes knowledge 'scientific', how theories are justified, and what science can validly claim about reality.

2. What is positivism in the social sciences, and who founded it?

   Positivism, founded by Auguste Comte, holds that society can be studied with the methods of natural science — relying on empirical observation, measurement and the search for general laws, while rejecting metaphysical speculation.

3. What does Karl Popper's principle of 'falsifiability' state?

   A theory is scientific only if it is falsifiable — i.e., it makes risky predictions that could in principle be refuted by observation. Science advances by conjectures and refutations, not by verification.

4. What is Thomas Kuhn's concept of a 'paradigm shift'?

   A paradigm is the shared framework of theories, methods and assumptions guiding 'normal science'. When anomalies accumulate, a scientific revolution replaces the old paradigm with a new one — a paradigm shift, as argued in 'The Structure of Scientific Revolutions'.

5. Define epistemology and contrast it with ontology.

   Epistemology is the theory of knowledge — what we can know and how we know it (validity, sources, limits). Ontology concerns the nature of reality/being — what exists. Epistemology asks 'how do we know?', ontology asks 'what is there?'

6. What distinguishes positivist from interpretivist epistemology in social science?

   Positivism seeks objective, value-free explanation of social facts through causal laws and quantitative data. Interpretivism (Verstehen) seeks subjective understanding of the meanings actors attach to action, favouring qualitative methods.

7. What is Max Weber's concept of 'Verstehen'?

   Verstehen is interpretive or empathetic understanding — grasping the subjective meanings and motives that social actors attach to their actions, which Weber held essential for explaining social action.

8. What is the hermeneutic tradition in social science?

   Hermeneutics is the theory and method of interpretation of meaning, originally of texts and later of social action and culture. It treats social reality as meaningful and 'text-like', requiring interpretation rather than causal measurement.

9. What is the 'hermeneutic circle'?

   The principle that understanding a whole requires understanding its parts, and understanding the parts requires grasping the whole — interpretation proceeds through a continual back-and-forth movement between part and whole.

10. What is 'double hermeneutic', a concept associated with Anthony Giddens?

    The idea that social science interprets a world already interpreted by lay actors, and its concepts can feed back into and reshape the social world it studies — a double layer of interpretation absent in natural science.

11. What is meant by 'objectivity' in social science research?

    Objectivity is the aim of producing knowledge free from personal bias, values and distortion — based on verifiable evidence and procedures that other researchers could replicate, yielding intersubjectively valid findings.

12. What is Max Weber's notion of 'value-neutrality' (Wertfreiheit)?

    While value-relevance guides the choice of research problems, the actual analysis should be value-free: the researcher must not let personal moral or political preferences distort the findings, keeping facts separate from value judgments.

13. What is reflexivity in social research?

    Reflexivity is the researcher's critical self-awareness of how their own social position, values, assumptions and presence influence the research process and findings, and the explicit acknowledgement of this in the analysis.

14. What is Alvin Gouldner's critique relevant to objectivity in sociology?

    Gouldner attacked the myth of a value-free sociology, arguing that all sociology embodies background assumptions and 'domain assumptions'; he called for a reflexive sociology that examines the sociologist's own values and social role.

15. List four core ethical principles in social research.

    (1) Informed consent, (2) Confidentiality/anonymity, (3) Avoidance of harm to participants, and (4) Honesty and integrity (no fabrication/plagiarism) — often with voluntary participation and privacy.

16. What is informed consent in research ethics?

    Participants must voluntarily agree to take part after being fully informed about the purpose, procedures, risks and their right to withdraw — given without coercion and with capacity to understand.

17. How do 'politics' enter the research process?

    Politics shapes funding, choice of research topics, access to the field, whose interests the research serves, control over findings and their use — meaning research is never wholly neutral but embedded in power relations.

18. What does 'reading social science research' critically involve?

    Evaluating a study's research question, theoretical framework, methodology, sampling, validity and reliability, evidence, logic of argument, ethical conduct, and the author's possible biases — rather than passively accepting conclusions.

19. Distinguish primary sources from secondary sources of data.

    Primary sources are original, first-hand data collected by the researcher or original documents (surveys, interviews, official records). Secondary sources are existing materials produced by others (published studies, statistics, prior analyses).

20. What is the difference between personal documents and official documents?

    Personal documents are private records of individual experience (diaries, letters, autobiographies); official documents are produced by organisations or the state (reports, census data, registers, minutes).

21. Define inductive reasoning in research.

    Induction reasons from specific observations to general conclusions — building theory or generalisations out of accumulated empirical data (bottom-up logic).

22. Define deductive reasoning in research.

    Deduction reasons from general premises/theory to specific testable hypotheses, which are then checked against data (top-down logic) — theory first, then test.

23. What is the relationship between induction and deduction in the research cycle?

    They are complementary: deduction derives and tests hypotheses from theory, while induction generates theory from data. Most research alternates between them (the 'wheel of science'), and abduction infers best explanations.

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