Getting to the beginning of any scientific activity, the first thing to do is to determine the subject and object of research. These concepts are closely related, since they directly combine the activities and conditions that are created for it or accompany it. Typically, the object of study is small or large social units, and exactly the relationship between the participants in the study process. Thus, the object of study is the unity of the objective and subjective.
The importance of determining the object of study
No scientific work has the right to claim the title of solid and complete, if it was not started, deciding to identify the object and subject of research. This moment in the research process should be given special significance. After all, isolating from all the available tasks the only true, necessary and relevant for the work is the first step to making responsible, sound scientific work.
Characteristics and structure
All objects subjected to the research process have some characteristics, such as: location, demographic and social composition, size, units, depending on various factors (skin color, nationality, gender).
Each object of research is a unit different from similar ones, which has a certain individual character of interaction with other social groups and individual objects, the environment and its individual factors. An important feature is the territorial characteristics, which are determined in advance before the start of the scientific process.
It is equally important before the start of scientific work to determine the duration, duration of the scientific work, purpose of the study, object of study and subject.
Inadmissibility of mixing the object and subject of research
The object of study is that factor, the isolation of which is of great importance. First of all, it is necessary to be able to correctly distinguish an object from it, because it is only an integral part of the first. It is necessary to take a responsible attitude to the definition of the objective sphere that arouses the interest of the researcher, as well as to isolate the area regarding which the scientist plans to obtain new information. Confusion in understanding what the object and subject of research is capable of leading to the inaccuracy of global conclusions and the substitution of research results for assumptions about truths that have been established for a long time and cannot be disputed.
It will be incorrect to define the object of scientific research as a broad research area, and the subject is narrow. Also, researchers often make a big mistake, considering the object of those who participate in the process. This is not true. You need to understand what is being specifically studied and how the functions and aspects of what is being studied are revealed.
Typical errors in determining the object of study. Examples from the field of pedagogical research
The object of social scientific research in the field of pedagogy is most often educational educational activity, the relationship between the participants in the process (collective and personality, self-education and training, self-education and upbringing), management or organization of educational and cognitive activities of adolescents, the institution or processes taking place in it.
The research subject, unlike the object, can determine the goals of upbringing and education, forecasting, forms, content and methods of conducting and organizing the pedagogical process as a whole. It also includes a characteristic of the activities of students and their teachers, ways to improve the processes of training and education, the nature and properties of the requirements and impacts of teachers in relation to their pupils.
The study of the object of research during pedagogical research is carried out by analyzing various types of conflicts and situations, relations between pupils and their interaction in the team (collective and personality, student and his parents, student and teacher, family and school, the school and its leadership, the public and students ) The important elements of the subject of research are considered to be the process of self-learning (child and teacher), self-knowledge, self-education, receptivity to advice and external influence, education of life experience and its influence on actions and behavior.
It is advisable at the start of the research process to choose one specific aspect for study, it will be the main subject of research. Other objects and methods will be only auxiliary.
Subject of research as a natural inseparable part of an object
The subject of the study is the various sides (relations and properties) of the object that connect it with the actual problem being studied or a specific situation. It is on them that the main task of the scientist conducting a particular sociological research is usually focused. Usually, the essence of the concept of the subject of research includes only the elements, relations and connections of the object that are subject to research in this particular scientific work. To determine the subject of research means to establish the boundaries of the search, to assume the most significant connections and problems in the field of the task at hand, to admit the time frame for the possible isolation of each and the collection of all elements of the study into a single whole, into the system. It is in the subject of research that all areas and directions chosen for study are usually expressed, the most important goals and objectives, as well as the possibilities of their proposed solution, which would imply appropriate means and methods.
Research methods
In science, the object of research is the main field of activity of the research process. But in each separately taken scientific direction, a number of objects for research can be distinguished, each of which represents an independent separate field, and together they are a logically connected being and the goal of the research scientific process in a specific scientific direction.
Usually, choosing such objects and research methods, they decide to study something unknown, previously unexplored, or part of a certain aspect that has not been previously studied by science. Previously, before the fact of separation, all previously unknown phenomena in a certain field of cognition are singled out. This method is used as a scientific method, provided that the selection of the individual from the general is possible a priori.
The significance of logical conclusions
The above described division, carried out according to the chosen fields of several sciences at once or of one particular scientific discipline, is carried out using logical reasoning and is applied to the scope of laws, on the basis of which a specific scientific discipline or a number of scientific disciplines exists and functions. This is determined experimentally and greatly facilitates the study process, helping to cope with the difficulties encountered during the study.
Observation Method and Hypothesis Formation
The process of observation is of paramount importance in isolating the object of study, provided that it is possible. The next most important way to study an object is most often called an experiment.The creation of special rules, scientific logic and the availability of already known data helps to make a connection between observed, previously known and newly clarified data. Based on the conclusions made after this, scientists make assumptions or hypotheses, which, in turn, inherently represent a predictive method of research.
Often, in the process of scientific research, in addition to the above methods, deduction is also used. It is retrospective and has the greatest popularity in the exact sciences, such as mathematics, forensics.
World scientific activity has come a long way since its birth, but the scientific method is still considered the surest way to build a correct scientific theory.
From the point of view of philosophy, the object of study is ...
Philosophy allows us to analyze the object and subject of research, from the point of view of the general and the individual. As you know, any process, thing or phenomenon has a number of properties, characteristics and features that are inherent only to them. Consider trees as an example. Birch, poplar, oak and pine have their individual special qualities. This is private or single. As each quotient is a representative of something in common, the elements listed above have such common characteristics that make it possible to name them only as “trees”.
It turns out that everything that exists in the universe, except for individual characteristics, has characteristics that are characteristic of other processes, objects or phenomena. And this helps to highlight certain groups and the general qualities of their components.
The functional aspect of the study
A review of the implementation of objects during cognitive activity will help to make an addition to what has been learned in the research process. In this case, the subject and the object contribute to solving different problems. The object is engaged in fixing the very fact of the presence of a process or phenomenon that is subject to study. It denotes the laws of development, properties and interconnections of the functioning of what is being studied. The subject clarifies the framework that limits the area of knowledge of the object. It aims to reflect the essential aspects considered from different points of view. The multifaceted, detailed reflection of all the objective aspects of knowledge contributes to the formation of the depth of the content of scientific research. The subject fixes all the laws, properties and relationships that are present in scientific knowledge and previously formed as logical entities.
Examples of the object and subject of research in sociology
The program of each sociological research, as a mandatory component, contains objects of social research. Usually they are a kind of structure consisting of a series of ordered interconnected elements. For example, society is an object of study of many sciences: history, philosophy, political science and psychology, that is, it is studied from various angles and concretized using the subject of research, where the subject is connections, properties, relationships that are social in nature. So, provided that the purpose of the study is to identify the reasons for the poor performance of schoolchildren, the definition of the object of study will be as follows: this is a social group, part of society, consisting of school-age children.
And the subject of scientific activity in this case will be the causes, relationships and the nature of the relationship of students with each other and the world.
