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PubMed1992

On the epistemology of risk: language, logic and social science.

'Risk' is a widely used concept in literatures related to health, health care and medicine. In recent decades, three bodies of literature have emerged in which 'risk' is the primary focus of concern: Health Risk Appraisal, the Risk Approach and Risk Analysis/Assessment/Management. These literatures overlook important concepts and theoretical developments in contemporary social science. They also lack conceptual coherence. Reduction of incoherence will require re-examination of the epistemology of risk in relation to both its language and its logic in light of developments in social science.

Disease↗
PubMed1979

[Field research in the social sciences].

The different types of field research in social sciences are arranged according to two theoretically independent dimensions: the experimental design (experimental, quasi-experimental, pre-experimental) and the "field" of research, which consists of a treatment (independent variable) and a behavior (dependent variable) part. Each part can be natural: natural treatment means that naturally occuring treatments means that no instructions (implicite or explicite) are given to the subjects. Both parts can be used in natural or artificial settings, and both of them can occur with or without the subject knowing the fact that a research is done or which are the hypotheses. Therefore, as an example, a study can consist of an artificial treatment in natural setting without the subjects knowing it, while the measured behavior is instructed (e. g. responding a questionnaire) in an artificial setting and the subjects well know that their behavior is measured, but they ignore the objective of the study. Some problems are discussed. Final conclusion is that both laboratory and field studies should be done, one completing the other, and both have their advantages and difficulties.

Humans↗
PubMed2000

On sources and narratives in historical social science: a realist critique of positivist and postmodernist epistemologies.

Critics of the interdisciplinary enterprise of historical sociology commonly contend that the narrational accounts of past social phenomena provided by historians are inadequate to the task of theory-building and testing. In support of this negative assessment, opponents will adduce informational deficiencies in the available data (the standard positivist appraisal of historical evidence), or cite the interpretive anarchy that seemingly prevails at the narrative phase of emplotment (the skeptical, postmodernist contention that historiographic texts 'construct' rather than veridically represent the events they artfully contrive to signify). Both of these lines of criticism are unbalanced, and therefore seriously misleading as regards the epistemic foundations of historical-sociological inquiry. The 'social authenticity' and 'informational density' of historical evidence does allow for veridical reconstructions of the past, while the reflexive interpretive protocols of source criticism and the sociology of knowledge can be deployed to provide warrant for discriminating arbitrations between competing theories and narratives. The various epistemological deformations in the study of human affairs that have been encouraged by the old idiographic-nomothetic polarity - chronic ahistoricism within the social sciences, the atheoretical predilections of much conventional historiography - are rectifiable through the consolidation of a fully integrated sociological history, a unified and inclusive historical social science.

Data Collection↗
PubMed1998

Social work in health care: do practitioners' writings suggest an applied social science?

There are two sources of literature in social work-one from academics and the other from practitioners. Each group is driven by different motivations to write. Academics seek a 'scientific rationality' for the field, while practitioners assume practical and intuitive reasoning, experience aligned with theory, and the 'art of practice' to guide them. It has been said that practitioners do not write and that 'faculty' are the trustees of the knowledge base of the profession, and are responsible for its promulgation via publication. Practitioners, however, do write about their practice and their programs, and analyze both, but publish much of their work in non-social work media. Their work tends not to be referenced by academic writers. One department's social workers' publications are described. We learn, from their practice writings, what concerns clinicians. Theirs is case-based learning, theoretically supported, in which the organization of services calls for their participation in multi-professional decision-making. There is the growing realization among social workers that practice wisdom and scientific technologies need to be reassessed together to find ways to enhance social work services. Clinicians' knowledge can lead to continuing refinement of practice and enhanced institutional services. If practitioners' writings can be assessed, they may lead to a written practice knowledge base, subject to timely change. Academic and practitioner separateness hampers progress in the field. They need each other, and a shared professional literature. There is beginning indication they are getting together.

Humans↗
PubMed2004

Trends in complexity theories and computation in the social sciences.

A modified bibliometric study and citation analysis of the use of complexity theories, encompassing chaos and complexity theory, and computational simulation in published literature was conducted. Articles published during 1971-1999 in four disciplines were examined: business, education, psychology and sociology. Overall, there was a marked pattern of increased use in the terms within the social sciences. There was a differentiated use of the terms between disciplines. A qualitative study on a subset from each discipline was generated to create a disciplinary profile of the quantitative and qualitative use of the terms in research activities, called a problem topology. Three research implications that arise from the differential adaptation of the theories and methods into the four social sciences are discussed.

Humans↗
PubMed2002

Social science research and experimentation in Australian criminal proceedings: prejudicial pre-trial publicity and psychological research.

Using the decision of Barr J in Attorney-General (NSW) v John Fairfax Publications [1999] NSWSC 318, the authors analyse the need for external validity and relevance in social science evidence adduced in the courts. They argue in favour of the rigour employed within Barr J's judgment and contend that a constructive legacy of the decision should be a greater sensitisation on the part of researchers to the kinds of factors that can distance experimental scenarios from curial contexts to a point where generalisations from the former become strained and even spurious. A number of these considerations have the potential to be addressed to a significant extent by improved methodologies. However, the authors warn against an excess of purist fervour in demanding complete comparability of scenarios, lest the fruits of social science be denied to the courts and decision-making be adversely affected by the absence of expert insights falling short of complete replication of conditions between experiments and forensic reality.

Australia↗
PubMed2003

Integrating behavioral and social science into a public health agency: a case study of New York City.

In the last century, both the health and life expectancy of Americans improved dramatically. These gains were primarily the result of advances in public health. But the approaches used may not be adequate to achieve the next level of improvements in health. Because health exists in the context of social, environmental, community, religious, political, and other spheres, ecological approaches that incorporate behavioral and social science theory and methodologies may provide the best avenue for advancing health in the 21st century. In 1999, the New York City Department of Health (NYCDOH) undertook the task of integrating behavioral and social science into its public health practice. The experience serves as a case study on the integration process at a public health agency.

Behavioral Sciences↗
PubMed2002

Latent variables in psychology and the social sciences.

The paper discusses the use of latent variables in psychology and social science research. Local independence, expected value true scores, and nondeterministic functions of observed variables are three types of definitions for latent variables. These definitions are reviewed and an alternative "sample realizations" definition is presented. Another section briefly describes identification, latent variable indeterminancy, and other properties common to models with latent variables. The paper then reviews the role of latent variables in multiple regression, probit and logistic regression, factor analysis, latent curve models, item response theory, latent class analysis, and structural equation models. Though these application areas are diverse, the paper highlights the similarities as well as the differences in the manner in which the latent variables are defined and used. It concludes with an evaluation of the different definitions of latent variables and their properties.

Factor Analysis, Statistical↗
PubMed2006

New challenges facing interinstitutional social science and educational program evaluation research at academic health centers: a case study from the ELAM program.

Since the mid-1990s, the protection of human subjects through institutional review boards (IRBs) has progressively broadened in scope. In this case study, the authors describe their challenges in effectively handling IRB processes to conduct educational and social sciences research within academic health centers, particularly (1) complications in conducting longitudinal interinstitutional research that involves multiple IRBs, each with different procedures that changed over ten years; and (2) factors affecting consent form and survey response rates when applying the biomedical IRB process to obtain the consent of human subjects for participation in social and educational research. The authors had a unique opportunity to follow the effect of changes in consent forms (from no form to a one-page form to a three-page form requiring signature of a witness), ways of administration (in person or by mail), and time of administration (at the time of the program or years later) on consent form and survey response rates among medical and dental school faculty members. The authors explore the extended timelines required for data collection and increased costs in dealing with these issues, as well as the effects on response rates of consent form language and administration procedures. The authors recommend strategies to lessen adverse effects of dealing with multiple IRBs at different institutions for social science and educational research, and discuss policy implications for funders, institutions and investigators.

Academic Medical Centers↗
PubMed1992

Health, Society, and the Physician: problem-based learning of the social sciences and humanities. Eight years of experience.

We describe a required course for fourth-year medical students focusing on the application of the social sciences and the humanities to critical decisions in the practice of medicine. During 160 hours (70 with faculty contact) in a 7-week period, active, patient-centered, problem-based learning takes place in small collaborating groups, is facilitated by trained tutors, and uses computerized access to library materials plus reference files and resource persons. Major issues identified in the cases are clarified in complementary lectures and symposia. Formative evaluation is ongoing within tutorial groups. Summative evaluation is determined by the individual student's performance in a final complex management problem using a simulated patient. Evaluation of the course, and the basis for its ongoing revision, are provided by participating students and faculty, whose evaluations of the course have been favorable in 80% to 90% of cases.

Curriculum↗
PubMed1999

"Lifepoint": a case study in using social science community identification data to guide the implementation of a needle exchange program.

The public health benefits of needle exchange programs (NEPs) are well known. NEPs lower risk factors for HIV transmission by providing injection drug users (IDUs) with clean syringes and needles; harm reduction materials; and referrals to drug, sexually transmitted disease, mental health, and medical treatment facilities. While exchange programs continue to be implemented, there have been few reports illustrating how social science and community assessment research can be used to guide the development of NEPs. Using the Lifepoint needle exchange program in Milwaukee as a case study, this paper shows how social science methods can be used to understand IDU culture through the community identification process, link qualitative and observational findings to program decision making, and guide the implementation and operation of a needle exchange. The community identification process showed that there were different IDU subcultures in the city indicating that the NEP would need to be tailored to meet the distinctive needs of multiple drug use networks. Ethnographic field observations and key informant and systems representative interviews resulted in a two-stage NEP planning process that included a community task force on IDUs and of the development of methods to operationalize community assessment findings into the operating plan of the NEP. This process illustrates the importance of integrating a systematic community analysis in the planning of a NEP.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗
PubMed1986

The social sciences in health policy and practice.

In this paper the role of the social sciences in health policy and practice is analysed. The analysis focuses on the disciplines of medical sociology and health economics. The authors attempt to describe the contribution of each of the two disciplines to health policy and health practice, firstly, be reviewing their developments in the past two decades and secondly, by analysing their future perspectives. Special attention in this description is paid to the context of health policy. It is shown that there is a prominence of economists in present-day health services research and the factors which are held responsible for this situation are analysed.

Canada↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[Social sciences in the face of AIDS: between silence and too much talk?].

During the recent years, many behavior surveys have been performed, for instance in San Francisco, Chicago, New York (U.S.A.), Ile-de-France (France), or elsewhere. They have evidenced profound change in sexual behavior among certain high-risk groups. Such a change is probably unprecedented and could contribute efficiently to the struggle against the AIDS epidemic. Nevertheless the problem is far from simple. AIDS infection risk growth is much higher when the number of sexual partners rises to 5 from 1 than to, say, 50 from 5. In the same way infection risk reduction is much lower when coming to "occasional use of condom" from "absence of use" than when passing to "systematic use" from "occasional use". Furthermore, it appears that no direct causal relationship exists between increased information on risks and change in sexual behavior. In fact the probability of an individual integrating the provided information into his/her sexual practice depends to a large extent on the acceptance of the information by his/her group. Norms within and leadership of the group are crucial for accepted preventive practices. Other factors, more personal, play also their role, the question of their impact in the long run is raised. In France, and other countries as well there is a tradition for social sciences to restrict their activities to observation and analysis, mainly in view of theory-building. Certain social scientists are extremely reluctant to commit themselves to work for supporting decision-making. Nevertheless, for the time being, social sciences must be present at the debates on how to manage, and stop, the AIDS epidemic.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗
PubMed2006

Unpacking cosmopolitanism for the social sciences: a research agenda.

This article calls for a re-conceptualization of the social sciences by asking for a cosmopolitan turn. The intellectual undertaking of redefining cosmopolitanism is a trans-disciplinary one, which includes geography, anthropology, ethnology, international relations, international law, political philosophy and political theory, and now sociology and social theory. Methodological nationalism, which subsumes society under the nation-state, has until now made this task almost impossible. The alternative, a 'cosmopolitan outlook', is a contested term and project. Cosmopolitanism must not be equalized with the global (or globalization), with 'world system theory' (Wallerstein), with 'world polity' (Meyer and others), or with 'world-society' (Luhmann). All of those concepts presuppose basic dualisms, such as domestic/foreign or national/international, which in reality have become ambiguous. Methodological cosmopolitanism opens up new horizons by demonstrating how we can make the empirical investigation of border crossings and other transnational phenomena possible.

Humanities↗
PubMed2003

The dual imperative in refugee research: some methodological and ethical considerations in social science research on forced migration.

Social scientists doing fieldwork in humanitarian situations often face a dual imperative: research should be both academically sound and policy relevant. We argue that much of the current research on forced migration is based on unsound methodology, and that the data and subsequent policy conclusions are often flawed or ethically suspect. This paper identifies some key methodological and ethical problems confronting social scientists studying forced migrants or their hosts. These problems include non-representativeness and bias, issues arising from working in unfamiliar contexts including translation and the use of local researchers, and ethical dilemmas including security and confidentiality issues and whether researchers are doing enough to 'do no harm'. The second part of the paper reviews the authors' own efforts to conduct research on urban refugees in Johannesburg. It concludes that while there is no single 'best practice' for refugee research, refugee studies would advance its academic and policy relevance by more seriously considering methodological and ethical concerns.

Altruism↗