Some Social Research Objectives (Blaikie, 2003)

„Social research objectives can include (Blaikie, 2003): 

"„To explore is to attempt to develop an initial rough description or, possibly, an understanding of some social phenomenon.

„To describe is to provide a detailed account or the precise measurement and reporting of the characteristics of some population, group or phenomenon, including establishing regularities.

„To explain is to establish the elements, factors or mechanisms that are responsible for producing the state of or regularities in a social phenomenon.

„To understand is to establish reasons for particular social action, the occurrence of an event or the course of a social episode, these reasons being derived from the ones given by social actors.

„To predict is to use some established understanding or explanation of a phenomenon to postulate certain outcomes under particular conditions.

„To change is to intervene in a social situation by manipulating some aspects of it, or by assisting the participants to do so, preferably on the basis of established understanding or explanation.

„To evaluate is to monitor social intervention programmes to assess whether they have achieved their desired outcomes, and to assist with problem solving and policy-making.

„To assess social impacts is to identify the likely social and cultural consequences of planned projects, technological change or policy actions on social structures, social processes and/or people." 

Source:

Blaikie, N. (2003). Social research and data analysis: Demystifying basic concepts. In Analyzing Quantitative Data: From Description To Explanation (pp. 10-36) [26 pp.], pp. 10-11; emphasis added. London and Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.DOI: https://dx-doi-org.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/10.4135/9781849208604.n2[available in electronic format on the U of T Library site at: http://methods.sagepub.com.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/book/analyzing-quantitative-data/n2.xml]