Applied Research

Historical Context

Prior to World War I, sociology, psychology, and other social sciences were focused primarily on basic research in an attempt to gain status as pure and objective scientific disciplines. However, by the end of World War I in 1918, more opportunities and needs for applied and action-oriented research began to emerge. These served to legitimize this pursuit as multiple examples of social progress and reform established the utility of applied research. At the University of Chicago, where early sociologists focused their attention largely on applied problems and dedicated their efforts to social improvement, community agencies began to partner with sociological researchers in the development of scientifically based human services. In the midst of the Great Depression (1929–1939) and with the onset of World War II (1939), both the public and scientific communities strengthened their calls for researchers to participate in social and community action. Although the conservative atmosphere that permeated the late 1940s and 1950s shifted the scientific focus away from social reform and back to the pursuit of knowledge for the sake of science and theoretical advancement, the pervasive activism of the 1960s and 1970s led to a resurgence in attention to applied research. This has resulted in a large body of literature on strategies for effective social change. Today numerous researchers in the social sciences remain dedicated to addressing national crises and social concerns, and the National Science Foundation in the United States has prioritized many applied research initiatives.

Over time, the term applied research has evolved to include many diverse forms of research. William Whyte proposed the terms action research (research that leads to action objectives), participatory research (research that involves the participation of organizations or citizens without action objectives), and participatory action research (research that fully includes participation of organization members or citizens throughout the entire research process and in the development of action steps) to further delineate various forms of applied research. Kurt Lewin's writings and work are also crucial to applied research. He first proposed the term action research to represent a form of applied research in which phenomena are changed so as to observe the subsequent effects of that change. Thus, he called for real-life experiments to be done within natural settings. His famous words, “There is nothing so practical as a good theory,” were said in support of applied work in a paper that advocated active cooperation between theoretical and applied research, but these words are often taken out of context and misunderstood as a criticism of applied research. Although Lewin challenged applied researchers to recognize the practicality of theory, he equally challenged basic researchers to remove their aversion to real-life problems and applied research questions. Lewin believed that if active cooperation between basic and applied research could be achieved, it would simultaneously answer theoretical problems and provide rational approaches to practical problems.

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