Human Inquiry and Science

1
Human Inquiry and Science

• Holographic Overview

2
Questions for Discussion

• What are the common errors of human inquiry?
• What are quantitative and qualitative data?
• What are independent and dependent variables?
• What is the relation of attributes?

3
Searching for answers

• Human Inquiry aimed at answering what and why
  through observations and experiences
• Tradition accepting what everyone knows
• Authority judgment of an expert

4
Errors

• Inaccurate Observations
• Measurement devices
• Overgeneralization
• Large and representative samples
• Replication repeat and check
• Possibly vary conditions
• Selective Observation
• Illogical Reasoning
• Be careful with contradictions

5
A Variable Language

• Variable a logical set of attributes
• Attribute characteristic
• Example
• Common Social Concepts
• See examples on page 15

6
Dependent and Independent Variables

• Use common sense and everyday language
• Dependent variables are determined or caused by
  something depends on something else
• Independent variables have no dependence they
  are what they are

7
Idiographic and Nomothetic

• Idiographic seeks to explain a particular
  situation
• Limited to the single case
• Nomothetic seeks to explain a class of
  situations
• Generalizability

8
Inductive versus Deductive

• Inductive from a set of specific observations to
  the discovery of a pattern that represents some
  degree of order among all the given events
  particular to general
• Deductive from a pattern that might be logically
  or theoretically expected to observations that
  test whether the expected pattern actually occurs
  general to specific

9
Numerical versus Nonnumerical

• Quantitative data are numerical
• Qualitative data are nonnumerical
• Both are useful for different purposes
• Can be used in conjunction with one another