On Assumptions in Social Science Research and the Objectivity Question
0Tuesday, September 18, 2012 by Unknown
One thing that stood out from the readings in Luker
(Chapters 1 – 3) is that social science research does not take place in a
vacuum. Social science research is
shaped by the assumptions and beliefs of the researcher. As Luker states in Chapter 2, “Not only are
our assumptions about the social world themselves socially influenced, but so
are our assumptions about the best way to go about investigating the social
world.” (Salsa Dancing Into The Social
Sciences, Kristin Luker, 31.)
This statement brings to light a recent article in the Toronto Metro News paper, entitled “Toronto
study links parental divorce to stroke in males”. According to the article, “Men with divorced
parents are three times more likely to suffer a stroke than men with married
parents, according to new research from the University of Toronto.” (http://metronews.ca/health/368468/stroke-rate-triple-for-men-with-divorced-parents-toronto-study-finds/)
The article further posited that though researchers don’t know with conviction
why this is the case, they nonetheless believe that somehow the stress hormone
cortisol is involved. (http://metronews.ca/health/368468/stroke-rate-triple-for-men-with-divorced-parents-toronto-study-finds/)
Pertaining to the line of thought which guided the researchers in the study,
the article stated, “Our hypothesis is that it may be the way sons react to the
loss of their fathers...Men often had very minimal contact with their children
after that.” (http://metronews.ca/health/368468/stroke-rate-triple-for-men-with-divorced-parents-toronto-study-finds/) As this study suggests, before any researcher(s)
undertakes a study, they need a lens or point of view from which to conduct
their research. This implies that the
researcher has to make an assumption about causes in things and their effects,
otherwise research would be impossible.
What does this mean about objectivity and the quest for
knowledge and truth in social science research? I take this to mean that it is
nearly impossible to prove cause and effect with any certainty. Though researchers may control for variables to
ensure that they are setting out to measure what they want to examine, the
issue still remains that the cause of something could be related to a variable that
the researcher didn’t measure, or other variables which are correlated to the
variable they are studying. (Natural Experiments Of History, Jared
Diamond and James A. Robinson, Prologue 2.) It all depends upon whether or not the theory
within which the researcher(s) is operating accounts for all possible
variables. However, since there is a
certain amount of subjectivity in any type of research, the findings of any
particular study may not actually reflect what is really
cause and effect.
