Human Sciences

Human Sciences

Human sciencesStudying Human Behaviour

• Psychology• Economics• Anthropology• Sociology

Inconsistencies

• Psychology – bright and less bright

• Economics – bull and bear markets

• Anthropology – voodoo death

Methods

• Observation- done• Measurement• Experiment• Laws

Measurement

• How crazy is he? • How many thoughts have you had today?

Too many variables here.

This is why we study behaviour not consciousness. Behaviourism

What can we measure?

• Population• Income• Rate of inflationButWe must be aware of how figures are interpreted

Who really won the 1996 Olympics?Rank Country Medals total

1 USA 101

2 Germany 65

3 Russia 63

4 China 50

11 Canada 22

Country Gold Silver Bronze Medals total

USA 44 32 25 101

Germany 20 18 27 65

Russia 26 21 16 63

China 16 22 12 50

Canada 3 11 8 22

Medal totals by colour

Using numbers to quantify

Rank Country Gold Silver Bronze Points

1 USA 44 32 25 221

2 Russia 26 21 16 136

3 Germany 20 18 27 123

4 China 16 22 12 104

11 Canada 3 11 8 39

Comparing like with like (or not)

Can you say that a gold medal is worth 3 bronze medals?

Or that 2 apples are worth one orange?

By population

Rank Country Points per million

1 Tonga 20

2 Bahamas 6.6

3 Cuba 4.6

25 Canada 1.3

37 USA 0.9

1. How would you go about trying to put a monetary value on a human life? Does society ever do this?

2. Which of the following is easy to measure and which is not? How would you go about trying to measure them?

a. Weightb. Temperaturec. Happinessd. Progresse. Intelligence

Experiments

• Do not play as large a part in human sciences as in natural sciences;

Because:• Deal in complex real-life situations• Artificiality can distort behaviour • Ethical reasons – some experiments might

adversely affect the participants

Possible solutions

• Wait for things to occur naturally• Use history (e.g. in Economics) to provide

evidence of likely outcomes• Observe and draw conclusions, then test

them.

• Is it possible that psychologists might see what they want to see in experiments?

The Milgram experiment• Yale 1963, Stanley Milgram.• How willing are people to obey orders?• Advertised for volunteers to take part in an

experiment “to test the effects of punishment on learning”.

• 100 volunteers – what % would have continued up to 450 volts?

• What would you have done?• What does it tell us about human nature?

Could we question the ethics of the experiment rather than the participants?

How would they feel about themselves?

Does the knowledge gained outweigh the moral issues about the way the experiment was conducted?

• What difference do you think it would have made if the original advert had mentioned electric shocks? What conclusion can you draw from this?

• Design your own ethical code of conduct for the running of experiments in the human sciences. What three or four key points would you include and why?