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Review the attached doucment and answer the following questions:
- What is interdisciplinarity and why is it important in the social sciences? (4 points)
- How might anthropologists think about a smart phone and its impact on modern society?
- Gerontologists are concerned that there may be a digital divide between older adults and younger people. Why do you think such a divide might exist? Suggest at least one way in which the gap might be narrowed.
- How has technology advanced the work of psychologists?
- According to a sociologist, how might technology change how social groups function and what are some possible consequences of these changes?
BEHS103 – Interdisciplinarity and the Social Sciences
Social science refers to any field of study that examines human behaviors within the context of society. Included in the social sciences are the fields of anthropology, criminology, economics, geography, gerontology, history, law, political science, psychology, and sociology. Each of these fields has its own vocabulary, theories, and methodologies. Each makes sense of social problems from a disciplinary lens that is necessarily biased and limited in scope. Increasingly, social scientists recognize that social phenomena are best understood when examined from the perspectives of multiple disciplines and within the social sciences we see greater collaboration across fields as well as the borrowing of methods and terminology.
At UMUC, the BEHS designator identifies courses that examine social problems from an interdisciplinary perspective. The term “interdisciplinarity” suggests that we can gain a richer and more meaningful understanding of social phenomena by incorporating the perspectives of more than one traditional discipline. In John Godfrey Saxe’s (1963) famous poem, “The Blind Men and the Elephant,” six blind men attempt to describe the characteristics of an elephant from their different vantage points. One man, feeling the elephant’s knee, describes it as a tree, while another holding onto the tail compares it to a rope. Though each man is accurate, each focuses so narrowly on one part of the elephant that none can appreciate the whole.
And so these men of Indostan
Disputed loud and long,
Each in his own opinion
Exceeding stiff and strong,
Though each was partly in the right,
And all were in the wrong!
MORAL.
So oft in theologic wars,
The disputants, I ween,
Rail on in utter ignorance
Of what each other mean,
And prate about an Elephant
Not one of them has seen!
In the social sciences, there is a growing recognition that the complexities of social issues cannot be fully understood through just one disciplinary lens. Social forces exert their impact at multiple levels (e.g. individual, group, community, society), often with far-reaching consequences that are best appreciated by a sweeping assessment across disciplines.
In Nissani’s (1997) classic article “
Ten Cheers for Interdisciplinarity
,”
the advantages and pitfalls of interdisciplinary exploration are outlined. There are many reasons why interdisciplinarity is valuable, including:
· Greater opportunities for creative thinking
· Greater likelihood of detecting errors through the eyes of someone with different background
· Greater ability to explore and understand complex social problems
· Greater flexibility and branching out in research
· Willingness to explore new territory
· Ability to serve as translators and moderators between disciplines
· Creating greater synergy between disciplines resulting in outcomes that cut across disciplines and advance science and social justice
OVERVIEW OF THE SOCIAL SCIENCES
Although there are many fields that fall within the umbrella of social science, we focus here on four: anthropology, gerontology, psychology, and sociology.
ANTHROPOLOGY
Source: Supin & DeCorse (2012)
Anthropology is the study of man or humankind. The discipline of anthropology consists of “four fields” that explore human nature in a manner that bridges the natural and social sciences. The fields include physical anthropology, archaeology, linguistic anthropology and cultural anthropology.
Physical anthropologists are interested in humans as biological species and are particularly interested in human evolution and human variation. In recent years, physical anthropologists have become interested in the role played by genetics in evolution and variation.
Archaeologists explore the culture (the shared values, believes and norms) of civilizations by studying artifacts, which are materials left behind by former and present societies. These materials can range from precious treasures like jewelry and ceremonial riches to more mundane finds such as trash piles (middens) and shards of broken household items.
Linguistic anthropologists study the relationship between language and culture. Structural linguists examine how language influences thought, brain development, and life experience. For example, in cultures that emphasize social order, there may be several words for “I” or “you” that reflect the relationship between the speaker and the referent. In Thailand, there are thirteen words meaning “I.” The word used depends on whether the speaker is talking with a peer, an elder, a child, or someone of the opposite sex. Historical linguists examine how language changes over time both in structure and in sound. Language is heavily influenced by migration patterns and more recently, by the influence of the media which is readily disseminated through modern technology.
Cultural anthropologists (sometimes called ethnologists) study modern cultures around the world to understand the practices, norms, and values of different societies around the world. Often, cultural anthropologists gather information about cultures through a fieldwork method called “participant observation” in which they immerse themselves in a culture to learn the language and practices of the people they are studying. Anthropologists are cognizant of the fact that while participant observation provides important information about the society being studied, they are still outsiders, and therefore may not be granted full access into the behaviors and thoughts of the people they study. The end product of participant observation is a richly detailed report called an ethnography. A famous example of an ethnography is Geertz’s “
Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese Cockfight
.”
Increasingly, some anthropologists have been recognizing the emergence of a fifth field of anthropology – applied anthropology. Although trained in one of the traditional four fields, applied anthropologists use their knowledge to better understand modern problems.
GERONTOLOGY
Gerontology is the study of aging and the aged. Despite its focus on aging and older adults, gerontology is a relatively new discipline, emerging only about 50 years ago as researchers and policy makers began to recognize that substantial increases in lifespan would have significant implications for health, work, housing, caregiving, family dynamics, social networking, the economy, and technology as a potential vehicle for well-being.
Because an aging population has a pervasive social impact, gerontologists are trained to be interdisciplinary, relying on a variety of research methods to answer important scientific questions about aging. You may see a gerontologist use surveys to get opinions from large groups of older adults to gather information about demographics, attitudes, and feelings on a large number of topics ranging from health to leisure activities to housing. Gerontologists also use qualitative methods like unstructured interviews and observation to better understand the experience of aging from the perspective of an older adult. Gerontologists interested in health outcomes may take physical and behavioral measurements like blood serum levels, bone density, walking speed, grip strength and so forth. Usually these types of studies follow participants over time to see whether there are changes associated with age or whether an intervention (e.g. medication, treatment) is effective.
Because gerontologists are interested in the process of aging, researchers in gerontology are very concerned with the role that time plays in aging. Longitudinal studies that take place over an extended period of time allow researchers to follow participants and to detect any changes that take place over time. The challenge for gerontologists is then to determine whether any changes are due to cohort effects, period effects or age effects.
Cohort effects are differences between older and younger age groups that are due to the time period in which people are born and raised. For example, an African-American person born in 1900 (prior to the Civil Rights movement) would be influenced and shaped by social factors that are very different from an African-American person born in 1980 and we would expect this to impact how people age.
Period effects are difference between age groups that are attributable to a historic event or time period. As an example, if we noticed that U.S. alcohol consumption in people 50 and older increased dramatically between 1930 and 1940, we might draw the conclusion that as people get older, they drink more; however, if we remember that Prohibition ended in 1933, we might draw a very different conclusion. That is, the reason people seemed to drink more as they got older is that the ban on alcohol ended during the time period of interest.
Age effects are changes that occur due to getting older. Certainly there are physiological changes that inevitably occur with age. For example, nearly all of us will have some degree of atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries) as we get older and in most people, all five senses tend to become less sharp with age, but what are the psychosocial and behavioral changes that occur that are attributable simply to getting older? One example of a true aging effect is that of criminal behavior. Across many generations and time periods, it has been shown that criminality is highest among teens and young adults and that as people age, the less likely they are to commit crimes. This seems to be due to the increased responsibilities that come with age.
Gerontologists rely heavily on research designs that follow participants through time. Longitudinal studies (aka “panel studies”) collect data repeatedly from the same participants over an extended period of time. This differs from cross-sectional studies that gather data across groups at only one point in time and tell researchers little about whether differences in age groups are due to age, period or cohort effects. One research design that is popular with gerontologists is the cohort sequential design, a longitudinal design that follows multiple cohorts across time. This design is especially useful because it allows researchers to differentiate between age, period and cohort effects. The primary disadvantage of this type of research is that it is expensive, labor-intensive, and takes a long time to complete.
PSYCHOLOGY
Source: Kosslyn & Rosenberg (2007)
Psychology is the study of mental processes and behavior. It began as a branch of philosophy and was concerned with the nature of thought and mental states, but in 1879, William Wundt established the first psychological research lab in Leipzig, Germany, giving rise to the field of experimental psychology. The first experimental psychologists were interested in neurological functioning, sensation and perception and conducted tightly controlled experiments that allowed researchers to draw conclusions about cause and effect.
As psychologists became interested in questions about human behavior that could not be answered in the laboratory, they relied heavily on correlational research which examines the relationship between variables that occur in real life without making attributions of cause and effect.
Psychologists are also known for descriptive research which describes the characteristics of a population or phenomenon of interest. Through the use of descriptive statistics such as averages, frequencies and ranges, researchers can make observations about the prevalence of certain variables and can make comparisons between groups.
Because psychologists are interested in measurement of behaviors, attitudes, and beliefs, they are very adept at developing instruments that capture important constructs. The development of advanced statistical software and user-friendly data management tools has allowed researchers to study complex problems using statistical tools that were not available until recent years.
In addition, advances in medical technology now allow psychologists to study the brain and its functionality in exquisite detail through the use of scanning equipment such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and positron emission tomography (PET). Psychologists have always been interested in cognition (how the brain processes information), but until the advent of MRI and PET scans, cognitive processes could only be inferred through performance on psychological tests.
SOCIOLOGY
Source: Henslin (2012)
Sociology is the study of society and human behavior and arose as a discipline during the mid-1800’s in midst of great social conflict and reform. During this time, the natural sciences were turning to the scientific method (detailed below) to answer questions about the physical world. The scientific method is a series of prescribed steps used to systematically identity, test, and validate scientific questions. The first researcher to coin the phrase “sociology” and to suggest that the scientific method be applied to the study of social problems was August Comte (1798-1857), but beyond merely answering scientific questions about the nature of society, Comte proposed that sociologists use research to improve social conditions and make the world a better place. In contrast, Social Darwinists such as Herbert Spencer (1820-1903) believed that societies evolve just as species do, and that those who are the fittest not only succeed, but make societies stronger; therefore, Social Darwinists believe that it is misguided to use social research for purposes of intervention and aiding those who are less socially fit. Interestingly, it was Spencer who coined the famous phrase “survival of the fittest,” though history credits Charles Darwin.
No discussion of sociology is complete without mention of the influence of three sociological pioneers: Marx, Durkheim, and Weber. Karl Marx (1818-1883) posited that society is inherently in conflict because of the economic competition between two social classes, the bourgeoisie (owners of land and capital) and the proletariat (workers). By nature, the class in power serves its own needs by oppressing those in the lower class until conditions become so intolerable that revolution is inevitable. Marx suggested that an ideal society is one in which the playing field is level and people work according to their abilities, receiving goods and services according to needs.
Emile Durkheim (1958-1917) is famous for his work that demonstrated that social factors are important underlying factors in suicide rates. He reported that males, Protestants, and unmarried people were more likely to commit suicide than females, Catholics, or married people. Based on these observations, Durkheim concluded that poor social integration – the degree of connectedness to social groups – can be a contributing factor to suicide. The significance of Durkheim’s work lies in the fact that it illustrated that individual human behaviors cannot be understood in a vacuum. Rather, individual behaviors are to some extent rooted in social realities.
Max Weber (1864-1920) is credited with developing the term the “Protestant ethic” and suggested that religion was the basis for social change. He observed that Protestant teachings compelled people to believe that economic prosperity was a sign of God’s favor. Frugality and investment were practiced in order to retain God’s favor. Weber credits this ethic as the driving force behind capitalism. Indeed, he found that capitalism prospered more in Protestant than Catholic countries.
In addition to the aforementioned pioneers, sociology is also known for three key schools of thought. Symbolic interactionism suggests that society is defined by the meanings that we attach to symbols. Symbols can be objects, but are more often words and ideas. The meanings attached to these symbols can change over time. For example, the term “divorce” used to be heavily associated with failure and stigma, but as life spans have increased and family structures have changed, divorce has become more prevalent and has come to represent ideas other than failure, such as freedom, new beginnings, and female empowerment. Symbolic interactionists are interested in how the meanings of symbols arise and change over time.
A second famous school of sociological thought is functionalism. Functionalists believe that society as a whole operates as an interrelated unit, with each component of society having its own separate function or role. When these roles work cooperatively and harmoniously, society functions smoothly, but when part or all of society fails, there can be serious consequences at the individual, family, community, or societal level.
The third major school of thought in sociology is conflict theory which was developed by Karl Marx. The driving concept of conflict theory is that social groups are inherently in conflict with one another. This can occur at the individual level (teenager versus parents) or on a broader scale (labor versus management; male versus female). Conflict is always rooted in the struggle to gain power.
SCIENTIFIC METHOD
The scientific method is a method of inquiry that was originally developed to answer questions in the
natural sciences
. The scientific method uses systematic observation and measurement to confirm or disconfirm
hypotheses
which most often are derived from an underlying
theory
. When hypotheses are confirmed, they lend support to the theory. When they are consistently not confirmed, researchers must reformulate the theory and come up with other explanations which account for their findings. Scientists most often share their findings by presenting their results at conferences or in peer-reviewed journals.
Sharing results with the research world is an important part of the scientific method because science is iterative. This means that researchers build upon the work of others to advance the field.
Natural scientists often rely on experimentation to confirm or reject hypotheses. Experimentation is a research method in which conditions are tightly controlled in order to determine “cause and effect.”
In understanding human behavior, social scientists arguably have a greater challenge. Because we cannot exert complete control over most human behavior, it is often not possible to conduct true experiments. This makes it difficult to determine “cause and effect.” For example, if we are interested in knowing why poor people have poorer health outcomes – a problem that has significant implications for service providers, policy makers, and poor people themselves- we would need to take into account all of the factors (or
variables
) besides poverty that might explain any disparities between groups. In addition, because we cannot control for every facet of human behavior, we cannot easily make conclusions that one variable causes another. Instead, social scientists often make “best guesses” or predictions based on associations (or
correlations
) found in research data.
The scientific method has a series of prescribed steps.
Step 1: Formulate a research question
· What are you interested in knowing?
Step 2: Conduct a literature review
· What does the existing body of research tell you?
· What do we know already and where are the gaps in our knowledge?
Step 3: State your hypothesis
· What do you predict you will find based on prevailing theory and existing research?
· Make sure your variables are measurable.
Step 4: Conduct your research
· Consider your sample (who are your participants?)
· Consider your methods and materials (how will you measure your variables?)
Step 5: Analyze your results
· Consider the best way to analyze your results (which statistical method is best?)
· Draw conclusions about your results – is your hypothesis confirmed or rejected?
· What do your results mean and why are they important?
Step 6: Report your results
· Researchers share their results for the benefit of the entire scientific community by publishing their results in peer-reviewed scholarly journals or by presenting their results at a conference with other research scientists.
· Reporting results allows other researchers to benefit from the work you have done and allows the field of scientific inquiry to progress by building on previous work rather than repeating what has already been done.
TERMS
Natural sciences explore the rules and principles that govern the natural world. The natural sciences include physics, chemistry, biology as well astronomy and the earth sciences (geology, oceanography).
A hypothesis is a testable expectation that follows from a more general proposition or theory.1
A theory is a set of principles and postulates that explain natural or social phenomena.
A variable is any phenomenon of interest that is expected to predictably change in the presence of another variable. In scientific research, an independent variable is one that is expected to cause a change in another variable, called the dependent variable.
A correlation is a statistical method that demonstrates the relationship between two variables. In a positive correlation, an increase in one variable is associated with an increase in the other variable. In a negative correlation, an increase in one variable is associated with a decrease in the other variable. The correlation coefficient is a measure of the strength of the relationship and ranges from -1 to +1. The closer the coefficient is to +1, the stronger the association. A correlation coefficient of 0 means that there is no relationship between the variables.
REFERENCES
Babbie, E. (2011). The basics of social research (5th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Cengage Learning.
Geertz, C. (1973). Notes on the Balinese cockfight. The Interpretation of Cultures. New York, NY: Basic Books. Retrieved from:
http://webhome.idirect.com/~boweevil/BaliCockGeertz.html
Henslin, J.M. (2012). The sociological perspective. Sociology: A Down-to-Earth Approach Core Conetps, Census Update (4th ed). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.
Kosslin, S.M. & Rosenberg R.S. (2007). Fundamentals of psychology in context (3rd ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education.
Morgan, L.A., & Kunkel, S.R. (2011). Aging, society, and the life course (4th ed.). New York, NY: Springer Publishing.
Nissani, M. (1997). Ten cheers for interdisciplinarity: The case for interdisciplinary knowledge and research. Social Science Journal, 34 (2): 201-216. Retrieved from:
http://www.is.wayne.edu/mnissani/PAGEPUB/10CHEERS.HTM
Saxe, J.G. (1963). The blind men and the elephant: John Godfrey Saxe’s version of the famous Indian legend. New York, NY:Whittlesey House.
Scupin, R. & DeCorse, C.R. (2012). Introduction to anthropology. Anthropology: A Global Perspective (7th ed). Boston, MA: Pearson Education.
