SOCA01H3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Observer-Expectancy Effect, Casual Dating, Testability
Document Summary
Reading notes for lecture # 3 pg 325-351 volume 2. Science is not perfect, and like all human activities, the social the social practice of science is influenced by subjectivity. People separate the world into facts and values; the real and objective versus the personal and subjective. Observer bias (making unconscious mistakes in classifying or selecting observations) is now considered as a danger to good methodological procedure. New idea only becomes accepted after being critically analyzed. Expectations and value are in tension within scientific enterprise, without them the spark of passion and creativity would be low, but with them we can led towards false conclusion. Objectivity stresses that observation should be free of distorting effect of person"s value and expectation. Subjectivity is essential to change and innovation. David hume argued that no matter how many observations we make, we couldn"t infer our next observation.
