GOVT2991 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Behavioralism, Auguste Comte, Scientific Method

• School: University of Sydney
• Department: Government and International Relations
• Course: GOVT2991
• Professor: Martin John Kear

Document Summary

Week 5: behaviouralism and practical research skills (4 april) Part 2 - karen chilcott (social sciences librarian): library research skills and locating data sources for assignment 1. Textbook: chapter 1 david sanders behavioural analysis", pp. Observable behaviour wheather it is at the level of the individual or the social aggregate should be the focus of analysis and any explanation of that behaviour shouls be susceptible to empirical testing. Social enquiry is about trying to understand what it is that some people do, think or say. Importance in i950s and i960s origins in the writing of auguste comte. An empirical theory is a set of interconnected abstract statements consisting of assumptions, definitions and empirically testable hypotheses, which purports to describe and explain the occurrence of a given phenomenon or set of phenomena. An explanation is a causal account of the occurrence of some phenomenon or set of phenomena.