Applied Social Research, History Of

Keywords

Adam Smith; Applied research; Basic research; Charles Booth; DuBois; Durkheim; Economics; Enlightenment; Freud; Galton; Individualism; Marx; Munsterberg; Political science; Psychology; Quetelet; Social reform; Social theory; Sociology; Weber; Wundt

Abstract

The history of applied social research is reviewed. The social sciences generally are a product of the Enlightenment and most of the social sciences originated in applied concerns. Thus, in contrast to the conventional view that the basic science is developed first and then applied to solving certain problems, most of the social sciences developed in the opposite direction: in the effort to understand and solve various social problems (education, crime, poverty, pestilence), the pioneers of the social sciences developed the theories, concepts, and methods that came eventually to comprise the basic disciplines. The history of applied social research is, indeed, the history of the social sciences themselves.

Publication Date

3-26-2015

Publication Title

International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences: Second Edition

Number of Pages

850-857

Document Type

Article; Book Chapter

Personal Identifier

scopus

DOI Link

https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-08-097086-8.03051-8

Socpus ID

85043430701 (Scopus)

Source API URL

https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/85043430701

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