Presentation on the Human Sciences for IBToK

1. The proper study of mankind is man.
Alexander Pope

2. ANTHROPOLOGY
 the study of human beings, study of their physical
character, evolutionary history, racial classification,
historical and present day geographic distribution, group
relationships, and cultural history

3. GEOGRAPHY
 the study of the location and distribution of living things
and the physical environment in which they live

4. SOCIOLOGY
 the study of social customs, structures and institutions
and of the effects on individuals of participation in groups
and organisations

5. PSYCHOLOGY
 the study of mental processes and behaviour through the
observation and recording of how people relate to one
another and the environment

6. POLITICAL SCIENCE
 the study of the functions performed by governments as
well as patterns in the behaviour of voters, political
parties, pressure groups etc

7. ECONOMICS
 the study of the process through which people make a
living, the production and distribution of goods, the
organization of industries, banking, trade, and the use of
resources

8. Related to Human Sciences
 Linguistics
 Criminology
 International relations
 Business and
management studies
 Religious studies
 Archaeology
 History

9. Some aims of Human Sciences
 Knowledge about human behaviour and interaction in
society
 Understanding of influences on human behaviour
 Explain underlying patterns
 Understanding how decisions are made
 Predicting human behaviour
 Informing decisions

10. Particularity of human sciences
 Man is the subject and the student
 Compare Martian as student
The car
engines
malfunction
when the
lights go
red!
Wir verstehen!

11. Claims about Human and Social Sciences
 Human sciences permeated with values
 Concepts in social sciences are vague and
imprecise
 Unavoidable interaction between the scientist and
what he studies
 Human scientist cannot state and verify hypotheses
with precision and universality
 No social scientist can predict with any assurance

12. METHODOGLOGY
 Questionnaires and surveys
 Interviews
 Observation
 Gathering and interpretation of statistics
 Study of written sources (official records, books …)
 Study of artefacts
 Experiments

13. Issues in observation
 Surveys
 Scope and scale
 Sample size and choice
 Question(er) bias / loaded questions
 Quality of answers

14. Issues in observation
 Are you in favour of bringing back National Service?

15. Issues in Experimentation
 People as the subject / Interaction
between scientist and subject
 Behaviour of people being observed
 Margaret Mead Case (the observed
respond to the expectations of the
observer)
 Hawthorne Effect (presence of
observers produces a bias and
unduly affects the outcome of the
experiment)

16. Issues in Experimentation
 Controlled or repeat experiments (impossible in almost all
cases)

17. Issues in Experimentation
 Ethical Problems
 Milgram experiment
 Zimbardo experiment at Stanford University

18. Measurement and interpretation
 Can everything be measured satisfactorily?
 Thought in a child?
 Happiness?
 Economic data?
 The use of numbers and data
 Statistics
 Models
Isaac Newton:
“I can
calculate the
motions of
heavenly
bodies, but not
the madness
of crowds”

19. The Model 1 - The Credit Crunch
"It was the failure to properly price …. risky assets that
precipitated the crisis. In recent decades, a vast risk management
and pricing system has evolved, combining the best insights of
mathematicians and finance experts supported by major advances in
computer and communications technology. A Nobel Prize was
awarded for the discovery of the pricing model that underpins much
of the advance in derivatives markets. This modern risk management
paradigm held sway for decades. The whole intellectual edifice,
however, collapsed in the summer of last year because the data
inputted into the risk management models generally covered
only the past two decades, a period of euphoria.“
Dr. Alan Greenspan, US House of Representatives Committee on Government Oversight and Reform, October 23,
2008

20. Measurement and interpretation
 Correlation v. Causation
 The Phillips curve
When in the 1970s this failed to explain stagflation, Milton Friedman
argued that there were a series of different Phillips curves for each
level of expected inflation. If people expected inflation to occur, then
they would anticipate and expect a correspondingly higher wage
rise.

21. Correlation v. Causation
 Facebook users have lower overall grades than non-
users, according to a survey of college students
 Students who supplement their studies with
interactive, game like computer animations retain a
much better understanding of a scientific concept
than those who don't.
 Men with deep voices tend to have more children
than those who speak at a higher pitch, scientists
say.

22. Causation and social policy
 Tony Blair: 'tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime'
 Feeding children a diet rich in fish could prevent violent
and anti-social behaviour in their teens, according to
research ….. which suggests the root causes of crime
may be biological rather than social. The study raises
major questions over the extent to which criminals
exercise free will, as well as fuelling fresh debate over
whether simple childhood interventions might be more
use in preventing crime than blaming parents or
organising draconian crackdowns on crime.
The Observer, Sunday 14 September 2003

23. Free Will - C’est écrit là-haut!
 How did they meet? By chance, like everyone else.
What were they called? What does that matter to
you? Where were they coming from? From the
nearest place. Where were they going? Who knows
where they were going? What were they saying?
The master was silent and Jacques was saying that
his captain in the army used say that all the good
and bad that happens to us down here on earth was
already written up there.

24. Oedipus
 He knew (because of a prophecy)
theat he would kill his father and
marry his mother
 To what extent did his knowledge of
the prophecy affect his behaviour
and choices?
 Why does he punish himself?
 Why does he blind himself as a
punishment?

25. The Oedipus effect.
 “ …… the oracle played a most important role in the
sequence of events which led to the fulfilment of its
prophecy. … For a time I thought that the existence of the
Oedipus effect distinguished the social from the natural
sciences. But in biology, too—even in molecular
biology—expectations often play a role in bringing about
what has been expected. ”
Karl Popper

26. Self fulfilling prophecy - psychology.
 A person who expects people to be friendly, may smile
more and thus receive more smiles
 A person expecting to be lucky, may enter many more
competitions and thus increase their chances of winning.
 Children randomly allocated to a group labelled ‘bright’
did better in an experiment than a similar group labelled
‘less bright’
 BUT you may also do your utmost to ensure a prediction
made by a psychologist does not happen!

27. Self fulfilling prophecy - Economics
 Told that a bank was in trouble, people rushed to take out
their money thereby causing the bank to fail.
 Bear and Bull markets – expectations of market rises and
falls tend to make them rise or fall.
 Predictions of depression make people behave in a way
which (at least) hastens it

28. Placebo and Nocebo
 A patient given a pill expects it to make him better
(placebo) and often does
 In a classic nocebo experiment conducted in the early
1980s volunteers were told that a mild electrical current
would pass through their head, and although no electrical
current was used, two-thirds of the volunteers
complained of a headache after the experiment.

29. The Purposes of Human Sciences
 Understanding of how people and societies work
 To make people or societies work better (or how we think
they should work)
 Involve predictions on the basis of which we make
 Personal choices
 Economic and social policy
 Business and management decisions

30. BUT are Human Sciences able to produce
reliable Laws?

31. … some of the reasons
 Confirmation bias
 Question(er) bias
 Difficulties in measurement
 Observation of people may affect their behaviour

32. .. and more reasons?
 Problem of (no) controlled experiments
 Human sciences often affected by moral issues
 Limitations on willingness or ability to experiment
 Human science suggests the ‘probable’
 Uncomfortable with falsification