SCS 2150 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Conditionality
20 Aug 2016
School
Department
Course
Professor
SCS2150
January 20th 2016
continued from last class
-positivism says that social sciences can be like natural sciences
-a deductive approach can be used to acquire knowledge in social science debates
-neoclassical economics maintains that economics needs to emulate physics and
mathematics
-there is no place for human characteristics
-other social sciences need to emulate economics to be scientific (embody rational choice)
-positivism critiques:
-human behaviour is extremely complex
-measurement is often difficult or impossible
-data can be difficult or impossible to attain
-the data that is obtained can be invalid, wrong, deliberately not the truth, etc
-the facts of social phenomena are constructed or conditioned by the observers’
perceptions, experiences, and opinions
-situations in reality cannot be recreated to study specific variables
-multicausality reflects a bigger problem than just identifying one variable
-interpretivism states that the natural observation approach is very limited in its ability to
produce social knowledge
-researchers should use inductive methods to try and grasp subjective meanings of
people’s actions and behaviours
-actions should be viewed from the point of view of the social actors
-researchers should develop an understanding of the people studied
-critiques of interpretivism:
-is unscientific
-too subjective to arrive at a conclusion
-description
-people can internally midland researchers
-Milgrim Obedience study:
-inhumane — although results are groundbreaking
-Milgrim wanted to make a mark on psychology/sociology
-tested the theory that people get things right the next time when they are punished for
getting it wrong
-shock voltage was increased every time the answer was wrong
-most subjects were conflicted, disturbed, etc
-most researchers did not care about the ethical grounds of the experiment
-identified that people would be obedient in the face of authority to great lengths
-importance of values and their contribution to bias in research:
-influence the choice of topic, formation of the research question, choice of method,
formulation of research data and design
-influence actual data collection (how it is done, what questions used, etc)
-analysis of data is highly biased and subject to many interpretations
-three different positions on values in social research:
-research should be value free
-research cannot be value free, but researchers should be open and explicit about their
values
-best conduction of researching a theory: acknowledge personal bias and give opinion, but
focus on facts and let them steer the research, not personal interpretation
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Positivism says that social sciences can be like natural sciences. A deductive approach can be used to acquire knowledge in social science debates. Neoclassical economics maintains that economics needs to emulate physics and mathematics. There is no place for human characteristics. Other social sciences need to emulate economics to be scienti c (embody rational choice) Data can be dif cult or impossible to attain. The data that is obtained can be invalid, wrong, deliberately not the truth, etc. The facts of social phenomena are constructed or conditioned by the observers" perceptions, experiences, and opinions. Situations in reality cannot be recreated to study speci c variables. Multicausality re ects a bigger problem than just identifying one variable. Interpretivism states that the natural observation approach is very limited in its ability to produce social knowledge. Researchers should use inductive methods to try and grasp subjective meanings of people"s actions and behaviours.
