SOCB05H3 Lecture Notes - Nomothetic
24 Jun 2012
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Document Summary
Pyramid the lower it is, the more opinion. Depression is subjective, what canadians might see as depression might be viewed differently in china. Knowledge is contingent and process, there is a process to creating knowledge. Top layer of the pyramid: aims at objective and disinterested knowledge, builds knowledge on collective verifiable facts, uses systematic procedures. Procedures collect facts produce objective knowledge. Study variables (not people: variables an entity which changes. Attribute characteristic of people or things. Exp; religion (variable) judaism, christianity, islam (attributes) Causation is an attempt to look at a variable, if one changes or causes another. Correlation is just seeing the relationship between two variables. But correlation does not mean causation: idiographic vs. nomothetic. Tends to be exhaustive, use qualitative research. Nomothetic attempts to explain a class of situations rather than a single event. Solve cause and effect patterns, general principles across people and situations. Non exhaustive explanations: deductive vs. inductive.
