Scientific knowledge can be achieved by different methods, all of which are equally useful and relevant. Social research deals precisely with the problems related to the identification of the most appropriate methods in relation to a specific issue or problem to be investigated. Each method can make use of different techniques.
Generally, research is done to build our situational awareness regarding an issue. The most frequently used terms refer primarily to improving our ability to describe social phenomena. At a later stage, it is affirmed that the cognitive capacity is deeper if an individual is also able to explain and, consequently, to predict social phenomena. On closer inspection, we are not talking about three distinct intentions, or tasks, or even the achievement of increasingly "higher" levels of knowledge because describing a phenomenon with precision cannot be separated from the description of the circumstances that accompany that phenomenon or that exclude or limit the possibility of its occurrence.
As we have seen, the research process provides for the formulation of hypotheses that must be subject to empirical control of their "resilience" and, to this end, data must be collected "in the field", questioning (in a broad sense) social reality. This can be done using the numerous surveying tools that the intellect and imagination of generations of scholars have been able to make available to us. In order to identify the most appropriate tools to be used, depending on the cognitive problem to be faced, it is necessary to take into account two crucial requirements: validity and reliability.
- Validity is the suitability of a method, technique or indicator to be used for the targeted objective.
- Reliability usually refers to the technical level of research: instruments are reliable when the result of their repeated use remains solid.
