Principles of Scientific Method

Principles of Scientific Method : Its Applications to Anthropology

Principles of Anthropological Method

• There are tenets common to all anthropological research
• Examples: Cultural Relativism (Various Definition) versus Ethnocentrism
• There are also tenets basic to all scientific research
• In this case, they involve careful data gathering and logical reasoning—in anthropology or in any other scientific discipline.
• In that way, information should be reliable and reflect what actually happens, whether in the field or in the lab.
• Let’s discuss these in turn. 
  
  

Anthropological Method I: Fundamental Principles

• Holism: All aspects of a culture must be considered, especially their interconnections
• Cross-Cultural Comparison: Comparison of similar cultural traits in two or more cultures
• Cultural Relativism: Two Interpretations
• Scientific detachment: One observes what is out there—even cannibalism--dispassionately
• Noble savage complex: Involves acceptance of a culture according to its own standards—including cannibalism.

Anthropological Method II: Cultural Relativism

• Cultural Relativism: In either definition, involves judgment of a culture according to its own standards
• Ethnocentrism: Belief in superiority of one’s own culture, such as the self-styled Aryans in this neo-Nazi rally in London
• Ethical Relativism: The acceptance of any culture regardless of the harm of its practices, such as like this Chinese prison camp, tolerated in the name of “right to development”)

Anthropological Method III: Culture Relativism and Bounded ness

• Ethics of Cultural Relativism: How can we berate these Dani for warfare when our own government started a war in Iraq?
• Cultural Boundedness: The fact that our mental structure is culturally derived, often unconsciously
• In Britain Muslims sued Burger King’s ice cream lid with its mage of a spinning ice cream cone
• They took it as an Arabic inscription for Allah (right) (Source: The Scotsman 9/17/05)
  Plaintiff Quote: “How can you say it is a spinning swirl? If you spin it one way to the right you are offending Muslims."

Anthropological Method IV: Universalism

• Definition: Cultural Practices that occur worldwide
• The incest tabu occurs everywhere (Egyptian brother-sister marriage, left is a rare exception)
• There are rules of etiquette everywhere
• Reciprocity (gift exchange) occurs everywhere.
• Trobriand islanders trade red necklace (suspended) for white armshells (on floor) in a kula ring

Principles of Science

• Science involves two principles:
• Its practitioners seek principles that predict recurring events.
• As scientific method, it also sets forth a body of techniques for investigating phenomena, obtaining new knowledge, and correcting or confirming previous knowledge
• It is based on obtaining observable, empirical, and measurable evidence according to specific rules of reasoning
• We look at some of the basic concepts of scientific method

Some Basic Terms of Science

• Hypothesis: An educated guess explaining some thing or event that is observed in the lab or field
• Theory: A hypothesis confirmed by these observations
• Induction entails identifying patterns of knowledge from field observations or lab experiments
• Abduction entails formulating hypotheses from the knowledge inferred from observations or experiments
• Deduction predicts what should occur based on confirmed body of facts, principles, or beliefs

Some Basic Terms of Scientific Research I

• Sample: Part of a population selected for research
• Random sample: A sample in which everyone has a chance of being included
• But random samples do not ensure that all groups, especially small ones, will be selected
• Representative sample: A sample in which all groups are included for research
• Universe: Total population from which the sample is drawn

Some Basic Terms of Scientific Research II

• Bias: Use of any technique that fails to elicit a random or representative sample
• For example, is a sample of enrollees who use online registration a biased one?
• Techniques: Procedures used to gather information (observations, interviews, but also the use of videos, CD recorders, GPS mapping devices, and so on )
• Method: Scientific justification for selection of a technique
• Methodology: Overall plan that forms a coherent relation among the methods and the techniques they generate
  
  
  

How to Develop a Hypothesis: Induction and Deduction

-> General principal ->Deduction -> Prediction -> Specific instances -> Observation -> Induction ->

The Phases of Scientific Method

• Phase 1: Observe Things/Events in Field
• Phase 2: Develop an explanation (hypothesis) using the inductive process
• Phase 3: Gather relevant data
• Phase 4: Evaluate hypothesis with data.
• Phase 5: Repeat procedure if a hypothesis is confirmed only in part or disconfirmed

Formulating and Testing a Hypothesis

• The inductive/abductive process is shown in yellow
• It involves recognition of a research problem by (a) field observation, (b) experimentation, and/or (c) theory development
• Next comes consultation of existing sources
• Then the scientist formulates a hypothesis
• The expected outcomes are then specified if the hypothesis is confirmed
• Finally, the observations and/or experiments are conducted to test the expected outcomes

Consequences of Each Outcome

• The hypothesis may be modified (red) or rejected (purple)
• Further developments occur when the hypothesis is confirmed (purple)
• The hypothesis becomes a theory if confirmed repeatedly
• It becomes a unifying of theory if the theory is widely supported and applied

Scientific Method as Probabilistic

• Any theory can be tossed as new information comes in.
• If a new hypothesis explains existing data better, then the old hypothesis make way for the new
• Therefore, all theories are probabilistic and none can be stated with finality

A Six-Way Test of Hypotheses

• Background: James Lett is an anthropologist at Indian River Community College and member of the Committee for Skeptical Investigation.
• He proposed a six-way test that goes by the acronym FiLCHeRS.
• It stands for Falsifiability, Logic, Comprehensiveness, Honesty, Replication, and Sufficiency
• The article “A Field Guide to Critical Thinking” is in your reader

Falsifiability

• Does not mean to cook or fudge the data
• The hypothesis must be so stated that if unsupported it is rejected (or falsified)
• Thus, it must specify the conditions under which it is rejected.

Un-falsifiable Propositions

• Propositions so broadly stated that they can never be rejected
• Propositions with the multiple out, or what do you say to the Instant Creator?
• Suppose I say that I created the World five minutes ago
• And (if you don’t call the local nut house on your cell first) you reply that you’ve been here for years, let alone five minutes.
• Then I reply “My creation included all your memories.”
• I will have many ways to squirm out of this and any rebuttal—even though we all know this proposition is ridiculous

Logic

• As you know, there are two basic kinds of logic: inductive and deductive
• Inductive: gathering enough facts to lead to a conclusion.
• Deductive: Starting at a major premise and reasoning down to a minor premise then a conclusion.
• Lett argues from the deductive.
• Basic statement: Any argument offered as evidence in support of any claim must be both:
• Valid: follow from accepted propositions of real life or of math, such as the postulate that a straight line is the shortest distance between two points, and
• Sound: that is, the proposition must be true
• For further details, see your textbook (Ch. 2) or reader (Selection 2)

Comprehensiveness

• Evidence offered in support of any claim must be exhaustive
• All relevant evidence must be considered
• Opposite practice: Selective presentation of evidence that supports the claim
• Example: political promises, courtroom tactics, even stockbroker “predictions” rely on selective use of the facts for support.
• Remember George Bush’s “Mission Accomplished” claim about the Iraq invasion on May 1, 2003? Need I say more?

Honesty

• Evidence must be evaluated without either self-deception or intent to deceive
• Examples of temptations toward dishonesty
• Strong incentives such as funding to support pet theories
• Basic fault of advocacy groups, politicians, and lawyers
• Honesty could only lead to better hypotheses--i.e. to better explain facts
  

Replicability

• Positive results on one field study or lab experiment is not enough to verify a hypothesis.
  
• To verify positive results, the experiment or field research must be repeated under identical conditions. 
  
• Lab experiments fit the demand for replication because the conditions and procedures can be controlled so that they duplicate the first experiment exactly.

Replicability and Anthropology

• In ethnographic field work, restudies conducted in communities studied in earlier years to verify conclusions from the previous study.
• Restudies haven’t done well when it comes to replication
  
• Lewis v. Redfield in Tepoztlan, Mexico, is one example.
• Robert Redfield concluded in 1926 that Tepoztlan was a peaceful village
• In 1943, Oscar Lewis demonstrated that there was fractious conflict between groups: the bosses versus the other villagers, the factions on both sides of the Mexican revolution (1910-1920)

Restudies and the Mead-Freeman Controversy

• In 1928, Margaret Mead wrote Coming of Age in Samoa, which claimed that teenagers engage in promiscuous sex and grew up without turmoil and rebelliousness
• The book was a long-term best seller and a great influence on anthropology
• In 1983, Derek Freeman wrote Margaret Mead and Samoa, a refutation of Mead’s conclusions and showing that the Samoans were indeed puritanical about sex. 
  
  

Longitudinal Studies: A Partial Antidote

• Mead’s fieldwork lasted seven months
• Most canons of fieldwork call for at least a year.
• Revisits in communities over a long period of time have become standard
• Example: Napoleon Chagnon was given false information about Yanomamo genealogy, which he didn’t discover until six months after he started his study.
• He continued work among the Yanomamo from 1966 to the 1990s.
  

Sufficiency

• Evidence must be adequate to support any claim
• Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, and the burden of proof is on the claimant.
• Expert testimony is never adequate (Would you buy Nike shoes because Michael Jordan says they’re the best? Or Hanes underwear?)
• Even James Watson, the co-discoverer of DNA, made a dubious claim that Africans were low in intelligence.

Welcome Back to the Real World

• The tests demand a perfect world
• Real world: the field where ethnographic research is conducted is not a lab
• Homo sapiens have the same hardware worldwide—brain, bipedalism, tool making and use capacities
• But individuals and cultures vary
• The compromise involves a combination of careful preparation and observation, but always being flexible when circumstances affecting fieldwork change.
  
  

Conclusion

• First aim: to develop generalizations that apply to all societies
• Second aim: to explain the diversity of cultures
• Research must therefore meet rigorous standards, such as Lett’s Six-Way Test