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Sociology Optional PYQ Solutions · Model answer

Examine the problems of maintaining objectivity and value neutrality in Social Science research?

  • UPSC 2015
  • Research Methods and Analysis

Robert Merton's observation that the very choice of a research topic is invariably shaped by a researcher's own preferences and background anchors this answer's approach: rather than treating objectivity as a single abstract puzzle, it is more accurate, and truer to how bias actually enters a study, to track the problem through each stage of…

You are reading the opening of the model answer. The full answer is part of Sociology Optional PYQ Solutions.

What the full answer covers

  • Problem at Topic Selection: What Gets Studied at All
  • Problem at Concept and Hypothesis Formation: Value-Loaded Concepts
  • Problem at Data Collection: Interviewer Effects and Reactivity
  • Problem at Interpretation: The Same Village, Two Opposite Readings
  • The Problem Inherent in the Subject Matter: The Double Hermeneutic
  • A Procedural Response, Briefly

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