ABSTRACT
The application of social science research to social policy inescapably involves considerations of social research methodology. Assessment of the methodological soundness of a piece of applied research is an essential first step on the road to utilization. A quite different example of the importance of methodological assessment is provided by qualitative research upon socially deprived working-class families. An even more useful distinction is between descriptive, explanatory and evaluative research. Descriptive research seeks to present a factual account relevant to the determination of policy. The former is embodied in the familiar medical model of health as the treatment of disease, the latter in the definition of health adopted by the World Health Organization, ‘a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity’. Sociological theories of health inequality, on the other hand, emphasize the social production of health outcomes through material and cultural influences.
