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
Copyright Status
Unknown
Socpus ID
85043430701 (Scopus)
Source API URL
https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/85043430701
STARS Citation
Strickhouser, Sara M. and Wright, James D., "Applied Social Research, History Of" (2015). Scopus Export 2015-2019. 1445.
https://stars.library.ucf.edu/scopus2015/1445