Annotated Bibliography

Benett, Yates (2011) How Social Science Research Methods Might Provide Scientific Evidence for the Existence of God. Retrieved September 11, 2013 from Christian Higher Education

The article by Benett can be misleading. The article discusses the how of using social science research for the intended research for the existence of God. The author goes into detail using the scientific method for sociologic research. Yates states “in social science research it is considered scientific to collect data about the world, to build theories to explain the data and to test those theories against further data” (p. 2). Discussing every part of the scientific method, he gives examples for how he might go about with that that part of the method. Yates also discusses different approaches to the research. Phenomenology is discussed as a method for the study and possible explanation, but is left out. Instead the author decides on methodological triangulation because it allows differing methods of data collection regarding a social issue. The reason why this would be the best method as well as its benefits in social research is discussed. Yates also states that using combined research is extremely beneficial. This article will be useful because it demonstrates using the scientific method for sociologic research. It goes in depth giving example for each part of the method.

Boutellier, R., Gassmann, O., Raeder, S. (unknown) What is the difference between social and natural sciences? Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich

This article was posted as part of a class at the Virginia Tech. Institute taught by James Collier, a professor of science and technology. The article is written by three professors at the Swiss Federal Institute. The authors start with stating that it can be hard to distinguish what a science is. Natural science and social science are then compared. Each is broken down by definition, origin, subject of study, methods, philosophical stances, and limitations. Then two are then compared as one uses quantitative data and the other uses qualities data. The article will be useful as it compares both natural and social science, and gives evidence that social science is indeed a science.

Catania, A. Charles (2013) A Natural Science of Behavior. Review of General Psychology. 2013. 17(2)

Charles Catania is a psychology professor at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. In his article he states “the argument here is that psychology as a science cannot survive other than as a science of behavior”. In the article Catania focuses on that psychology is a science indeed. He compares how many of the sciences have had broken and unspecific pasts. Biology was debated over a century ago and Darwin’s theory took time to become an accepted theory. Many other theories were debated, and are still debated and changing today. It is the authors hope that psychology will be the next equivalent to Darwin’s theory of evolution. Just as animals and humans have evolved according to Darwin’s theory, so have the behaviors of humans. These behaviors are not always based on just ones surroundings, but are part of the overall human psychology. Psychology studies continue to progress and help mankind. Subtopics of psychology can be broken down into many categories, including those involving sports, medicine, and addiction.

Chirstakis, Nicholas A. (2013, July 9) Let’s Shake Up the Social Sciences The New York Times. SR12

The author, a physician and sociologist at Yale, posted this Op Ed article in the New York Times. He discusses how since he has left school, many of the traditional natural sciences have been replaced and even disappeared from the courses of study. Today, many of them have evolved into more specific areas of study. The author states that this too needs to happen with the social sciences. He claims they have become stagnant, and are studying the same topics with nothing new. Social sciences should be focusing on research that will benefit mankind in the present, according to the author. People look to social sciences to solve important problems for improving human life, and the schools of social science need to move forward in order to succeed. This article will be beneficial as not only does it argue that social sciences are indeed a science, but gives some example as to how important they are in today’ world.

Collins, Harry. (unknown). The Sociology of Science for Non-Sociologists. Cardiff School of Social Sciences.

This article is written by Harry Collins, a social sciences professor at the Cardiff school of Social Sciences in England. In the article Mr. Collins discusses the principle behind social sciences and how they are studied in similar form to the natural sciences such as physics or chemistry. He also discusses the science wars as he calls them which “could be said to be a fight about the causes of scientific beliefs. Methods of sociology and research in the field are also presented. The author has conducted social experiments on “non-social creature’s interactions with societies”. The author also discusses different methods of experiments he has conducted in the social science world. New scientific ways are being used to research and compare in the social sciences. Last, he describes that a sociology paper is not a neat put together piece by piece item. It is more piled together with no infinite result.

Hess, David J. (2011) Bourdieu and Science and Technology Studies: Toward a Reflexive Sociology. Springer Science + Business Media.

Hess’s article uses Bourdieu’s reflexive analysis to look at the fields of social sciences among large colleges in the United States. HSSST or “history and social studies of science and Technology” (2) is compared to other colleges who would be said to lean more towards STS, or Science and Technology Studies. The colleges are broken into what would be considered the older, ‘elitist’ schools and other top colleges in the country. Colleges were split into two groups, one had history programs, while the other had a separate program or history of science in regards to the social science programs. The study concluded that there is a “ higher concentration of history of science programs at the most elite universities” (pg. 340). The reasoning in the article for this is because history of science programs are an older field and most of these are older schools. As the article primarily focuses on the different types of social science programs at these colleges, it is not a good source for the paper. The article does not discuss science, sociology, and technology as relating together but rather as an overall topic in the different types of programs offered at colleges.

Heydebrand, Wolf. (1994) Definition of Sociology. Science and Sociology by Max Weber. Retrieved from www.marxists.org on 9/13/2013

This article was retrieved from the Marxists.org website. The article was originally written by Max Weber, a German sociologist, in 1897. The article was transcribed in 1998. The topic of sociologic study is given eleven different parts under the “The Methodical Foundations of Sociology. Weber goes into detail to describe the many aspects of sociologic research. Weber stated “ sociology is a science which attempts the interpretive understanding of social action in order thereby to arrive at a casual explanation of its course and effects” (1). The study of sociology is subjective, and not definite. Weber explains and gives many in-depth relations that sociology is used to study the area of human interaction and behavior, with a probable outcome. Many times the sociologist must put themselves it the place of the actor, or the person being studied, along with their situation. Sociology outcomes are never definite, but give an educated hypothesis for the probable outcome of the human behavior that is expected.

This article will be helpful as it goes into significant detail regarding the study of sociology from a known sociologist. The article does not touch on technology however.

Lutus, P. (2013) Is Psychology a Science? Retrieved from www.aranachoid.com/psychology/index.html

Lutus is a scientist who was worked for NASA as well as being an engineer and developer for Apple. He first released this article in 2003, and was extremely controversial. He has since revised the article, but has not changed his stance. Lutus’ view could said to be the same of Neil Postman in that psychology is not a science, in any way, shape, or form. Lutus gives a history as well as examples that would persuade the reader to his side discrediting the field of psychology to be almost a hoax. He also cites psychologists from the past century who have discredited themselves and psychology with such practices as lobotomy and belief that IQ was hereditary. This article is helpful as the author proposes the same belief as Postman that social sciences are not sciences at all.

Marar, Z. ( 2013 April 8) Why does social science have such a hard job explaining itself. The Guardian. Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/higher-education-network/blog/2013/apr/08/social-science-funding-us-senate

Ziyad Mirar, a journalist, writes in The Guardian that in 2013 US senators voted to prohibit the use of federal funds to the National Science Foundation on social science studies. The argument by politicians pretty much spells out that in the age of the need for government cutbacks, money is best spent on other scientific items such as cancer research. Mirar argues that social science is also extremely important. Research into the social sciences may have warned of the economic crisis for example.

This article, while short, gives insight as to how important the study of the social sciences can be.

McLeod, S.A. (2008) Psychology as a Science-Simply Psychology. Retrieved from http://www.simplypsychology.org/science-psychology.html

McLeoud tries to answer the simply question asked in the title. The answer is not so simple however. The author almost seems to lean towards some of the beliefs of Postman. Psychology uses the scientific process. It has taken time to emerge as a science, and is only considered to have been thought of as a science in the last 150 years or so. Approaches to the study of psychology include psychoanalysis, behaviorism, and cognitive psychology. The author gives other examples besides those of the scientific approach, which would be considered the human approach and humanism. The author concludes that we are no closer to saying that psychology is indeed a science. The argument really depends on the scientific methodology being used.

Postman, Neil (1992) Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Society. New York, NY. Vintage Books.

In Chapter 9 , Scientism, of the book Technopoly Postman discusses and gives his argument against social sciences being actual sciences. Postman claims these are not legitimate sciences and attacks the reason behind it. He states that true sciences have hard actual facts to prove or disprove a theory. His belief is that only the natural sciences such as biology, chemistry or physics are true sciences. Postman gives three ideas that are related to scientism and the overall topic of his book technopoly, the culture takeover by technology. First he states that using the methods of natural sciences to study social sciences is absurd ( pg 147). The second idea that he discredits is the thought that “social science generates specific principles” (pg. 147). Last he correlates social science and faith. Postman uses many examples as he can to discredit the scientific notion of social science such as sociology and psychology. He claims continually that they serve no purpose as they never have conclusive results to their theories. Chapter 9 is Postman’s argument, and the topic for my paper will dispute Postman’s claims.

Simonton, Dean K. (2009) Applying the Psychology of Science to the Science of Psychology. Perspective on Psychological Science. (4)1 Association for Psychological Science.

The author, Simonton, is a psychologist at the University of California, Davis. The article was presented in a special edition of a psychology magazine. The articles top is of studying the psychology of science, not in science. The author states “ the psychology of science merely involves the psychological study of science using theoretical frameworks and methodological techniques comparable with those used in other psychological specialties” (pg. 3) the article continues with applications in the field. Identification, Education, and Evaluation are three results that can improve science. The article is not extremely beneficial, but can be useful to support the idea that social sciences are indeed science and use scientific ideas, thoughts, and patterns to come to a conclusion.