Philosophies are existentially determined doctrines By Prof Dr
Sohail ansari
September 27, 2017
After the major sins which must
be avoided, the greatest sin is that someone dies in a state of debt and leaves
behind no asset to pay it off. (Darimi)
Sociology of illusion
All
philosophies are ‘the systems of thought conceived by the selective and the
fallible mind as an ideal type’ and ‘thought of as an ideal type’ is an
inspirations followers borrow from their guru.
All
social and political doctrines which passed for knowledge are seen by the
benefit of hindsight as existentially determined doctrines; elaborate
rationalizations of the interests of classes which distorted the actualities of
social life in serving those interests. The Sociology of knowledge consequently
has turned out to be no more than the sociology of illusion creating the
intellectual paralysis of total skepticism.
1. “The
more important reason is that the research itself provides an important
long-run perspective on the issues that we face on a day-to-day basis. ” -Ben Bernanke
2. “Research
is formalized curiosity. It is poking and prying with a purpose. ” -Zora Neale Hurston
3. “To
understand how consumers really think and feel, it is vital to go beyond
words.” -Katja
Bressette
4. “Research
is about engaging in a conversation with a brand.” -Matthew Rhodes
This
lesson explores the terminology of experimental design. What are variables? How
do they influence each other? Is it possible that you are seeing connections
that don't actually exist?
https://statistics.laerd.com/
Research
As
a researcher, you're going to perform an experiment. I'm
kind of hungry right now, so let's say your experiment will examine
four people's ability to throw a ball when they haven't eaten
for a specific period of time - 6, 12, 18 and 24 hours.
We
can say that in your experiment, you are going to do something
and then see what happens to other things. But, that sentence isn't very
scientific. So, we're going to learn some new words
to replace the unscientific ones, so we can provide a
scientific explanation for what you're going to do in your
experiment.
The
starting point here is to identify what a variable is. A variable is
defined as anything that has a quantity or quality that varies. Your
experiment's variables are not eating and throwing a ball.
Now,
let's science up that earlier statement. 'You are going to
manipulate a variable to see what happens to another variable.'
It still isn't quite right because we're using the blandest
term for variable, and we didn't differentiate between the
variables. Let's take a look at some other terms that will help us make this
statement more scientific and specific.
Dependent and Independent Variables
A
moment ago, we discussed the two variables in our experiment - hunger
and throwing a ball. But, they are both better defined by the terms'dependent'
or 'independent' variable.
The dependent
variable is the variable a researcher is interested in. The
changes to the dependent variable are what the researcher is trying to measure
with all their fancy techniques. In our example, your dependent
variable is the person's ability to throw a ball. We're trying to measure the
change in ball throwing as influenced by hunger.
An independent
variable is a variable believed to affect the dependent variable. This
is the variable that you, the researcher, will manipulate to see
if it makes the dependent variable change. In our example of hungry people
throwing a ball, our independent variable is how long it's been since they've
eaten.
To
reiterate, the independent variable is the thing over which the researcher has
control and is manipulating. In this experiment, the
researcher is controlling the food intake of the participant. The dependent
variable is believed to be dependent on the independent variable.
Your
experiment's dependent variable is the ball throwing, which will hopefully change
due to the independent variable. So now, our
scientific sentence is, 'You are going to manipulate an independent
variable to see what happens to the dependent variable.'
Unwanted Influence
Sometimes,
when you're studying a dependent variable, your results don't make any sense.
For instance, what if people in one group are doing amazingly well while the
other groups are doing about the same. This could be caused by
a confounding variable, defined as an interference
caused by another variable. In our unusually competent group
example, the confounding variable could be that this group is made up of
players from the baseball team.
In our
original example of hungry people throwing the ball, there are several
confounding variables we need to make sure we account for. Some examples would
be:
- Metabolism
and weight of the individuals (for example, a 90 lb woman not eating for
24 hours compared to a 350 lb man not eating for 6 hours)
- Ball
size (people with smaller hands may have a difficult time handling a large
ball)
- Age
(a 90-year-old person will perform differently than a 19-year-old person)
Confounding variables are a specific type of extraneous
variable. Extraneous variables are defined as any
variable other than the independent and dependent variable. So, a confounding
variable is a variable that could strongly influence your study, while
extraneous variables are weaker and typically influence your experiment in a
lesser way. Some examples from our ball throwing study include:
- Time
of year
- Location
of the experiment
- The
person providing instructions
Our scientific sentence is now, 'You're going to manipulate the
independent variable to see what happens to the dependent variable, controlling
for confounding or extraneous variables.'
Reducing or Increasing Changes
In
an experiment, if you have multiple trials, you want to reduce the number of
changes between each trial. If you tell the ball throwers on the first
day to toss a ping-pong ball into a little red cup, and on the second
day you tell ball throwers to hurl a bowling ball into a barrel, your
results are going to be different.
