Standard Social Science Research Articles

Fictionalizing Life Stories: Yukee the Wine Thief

This narrative is a fictionalization of a story an informant shared during a research interview. The story was so compelling that standard social science formats did not seem to fit. Although the core narrative is faithful to the man’s account, details from the life history accounts of other informants who had sexually abused children and/or who had been sexually abused as children flesh out the present account.

The instinct debate and the standard social science model

In light of the claim that evolutionary psychology is a ‘new paradigm’, a ‘new science of the mind’ (e.g., Buss 1995; Cosmides and Tooby 2001), this paper reviews the lengthy and intense effort made in the late nineteenth and first quarter of the twentieth century to establish the concept of instinct in psychology and the social sciences. Whilst a single definition of the term ‘instinct’ was not settled upon, attempts at a definition never lost grounding in Darwinian theory and most proponents explicitly invoked Darwin to support their case. The instinct debate suggests that evolutionary psychology is not new and the ‘Standard Social Science Model’ thesis it deploys to substantiate the claim is incorrect. I conclude by suggesting that Boring's 1929 analysis of The Psychology of Controversy may be usefully drawn upon by evolutionary psychology if it is to avoid the fate of its predecessor.

The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature

The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature Steven Pinker Allen Lane, 2002, 0-713-99256-5 John Locke famously compared the mind to "white paper void of all characters, without any ideas". He claimed that its contents were furnished by experience. The Blank Slate is in part a history of this beguiling theory. Because of its influence, whether in the form of behaviorism, cultural anthropology or historical materialism, social science has not done justice to genetic factors. Until recently that is. For according to Pinker a model of the mind is now being developed that acknowledges the importance of heredity as well as the environment. Locke and his disciple John Stuart Mill were empiricists. They believed that human intelligence could be explained without recourse to the notion of innate organisation and they attributed all knowledge to experience. Behaviorism is a form of empiricism and it profoundly affected the social sciences of the last century, especially psychology. Indeed, according to a study carried out by Haggbloom (2002), B.F. Skinner was the most eminent psychologist of the last century. Because experience was all-important for the behaviorists, they blamed poverty and ignorance on defects in social institutions. A behaviorist could not have written The Bell Curve. Professor Arthur Jensen (1998a) recalls that when he began to study psychology at Berkeley in the 1940's the influence of genes was completely ignored. The orthodox view in American psychology was that "...individual differences in the behavioral realm originated entirely outside the organism, through its exposure to different environmental contingencies..." B.F. Skinner maintained that studying the brain was misguided. Even Hans Eysenck, the doyen of the hereditarian London School thought that overt behavior was the only legitimate domain of psychology. Eysenck regarded Freudian theory as empirically unverifiable and he championed a form of therapy based on the learning theory of Pavlov and Skinner Jensen, 2000). Robert Plomin (1997) has constructed a pleasing diagram that illustrates the historical swings of the pendulum between nature and nurture. It shows an emphatic movement towards the latter in the 1950's. Evidently the Holocaust made the concept of human nature, not to mention eugenics and racial science, anathema in that decade. Yet as Pinker observes, state sponsored mass murder also took place under Marxist regimes that had an explicitly anti-innatist ideology. It is therefore hardly logical to disapprove of behavioral genetics or evolutionary theory because of their historical association with National Socialism. Nor are twin studies immoral because Dr. Joseph Mengele undertook them. At the beginning of the 20th century the anthropologist Franz Boas elaborated what eventually became the standard social science model. Boas believed that differences between races and classes were cultural not biological. All ethnic groups were endowed with the same basic mental abilities, in his view. Although Boas regarded Western civilisation as superior, he thought that all peoples were capable of attaining it. Pearson (1993) has highlighted the pivotal position attained by Boas' disciples in American social science, in particular anthropology. "Boas created a monster", as Pinker colourfully puts it. Like E.O. Wilson, Pinker supports the unification of knowledge or consilience. The wall dividing biology from culture must come down. But arguably Pinker exaggerates the egalitarianism of those who built this wall. The autonomy of culture was the founding principle not only of cultural anthropology but also of sociology. Comte and Durkheim, two of sociology's founding fathers, regarded society as sui generis. Indeed, Durkheim feared that if the pre-social features of the individual, namely his race and heredity, were considered by sociology it would "dissolve into psychology" (Lukes, 1973). Yet both Comte and Durkheim were conservatives who sought a secular basis for social order. …

Child abuse and the balance of power in parental relationships: an evolved domain-independent mental mechanism that accounts for behavioral variation.

Previous studies use zero-order analyses to show a link between child abuse and exposure to "stepfathers." These studies rest on a proposed evolved, domain-specific cognitive mechanism that induces adult males to abuse or kill offspring not their own and, so, contribute directly to reproductive success. However, child abuse may reflect an evolved neurological mechanism that creates behavioral plasticity and adaptability by assigning emotional weights (which in consciousness appear rationalized as costs and benefits) to choice alternatives in all behavioral domains. This mechanism should act as a selective mechanism to create enhanced ability to avoid predation (social exploitation) and to obtain access to resources, given the properties of specific ecosystems, and should control behavioral responses to variation in the balance of power in social relationships. Power equalities should elicit good treatment for both parties; power inequalities, by contrast, should elicit exploitative and coercive behavior on the part of those who hold the balance of power. This paper reports a test of both hypotheses simultaneously, controlling for a standard social science risk factor (growing up in poverty). Once we control for the balance of power in parental relationships, exposure to a stepfather and growing up in poverty show no effect on the intensity of child abuse. Powerful women negotiated affectionate behavior from their partners for both themselves and their children; powerless women's negotiations with partners usually left both themselves and their children open to violence.

Mindless versus mindful sociology: Models of mind in sociology and the social sciences

This article deals with the dominant mode! of mind implicit or explicit in many of the social sciences and sociology. Following the lead of evolu­ tionary psychologists John Tooby and Leda Cosmides, this dominant the­ ory of mind is referred to as the 'Standard Social Science Madel'. This mode! is described and a short history of it provided. A brief explanation for ifs dominance is also offered. The paper argues that this mode! is now obsolete and that scientific progress in sociology and the social science is being hampered byadherence toit. The major shortcomings f the mode! are identified. An alternate mode[ of mind, the 'Integrated Mode!', is ojfered asa scientifically sounder one that offers sociology and the social sciences a wayout of the rut they are currently in. The mainfeatures of the Integrated Mode! are discussed and the paper concludes with the promise that the mode! holds for sociology and the social sciences ifït is adopted.

適応主義の構造

As is well known, Tooby and Cosmides argued that the evolutionary point of view is indispensable in the social sciences; they criticized the standard social science modes (SSSM), and proposed instead the integrated causal model (ICM) based on the evolutionary psychology. Since their proposal adopts the adaptationism, I wish to analyze the structore of the adaptationism, examining some of heir key words: adaptation, function, and module. Since the adaptationism was severely criticized by Gould and Lewontin, I wish also to examine how well it can overcome such criticisms. This review will serve as an introduction to the philosophicalc onsideration on the relevance of the evolutionary theory to the theories of mind and society.

Demographics of the gay and lesbian population in the United States: Evidence from available systematic data sources

This work provides an overview of standard social science data sources that now allow some systematic study of the gay and lesbian population in the United States. For each data source, we consider how sexual orientation can be defined, and we note the potential sample sizes. We give special attention to the important problem of measurement error, especially the extent to which individuals recorded as gay and lesbian are indeed recorded correctly. Our concern is that because gays and lesbians constitute a relatively small fraction of the population, modest measurement problems could lead to serious errors in inference. In examining gays and lesbians in multiple data sets we also achieve a second objective: We provide a set of statistics about this population that is relevant to several current policy debates.

Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge

Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge

Sibling Incest Avoidance: From Westermarck to WolfSexual Attraction and Childhood Association: A Chinese Brief for Edward Westermarck.Arthur P. Wolf

IN 1891 Edward Westermarck published The History of Human Marriage, wherein he attempted to explain the commonplace observation that siblings rarely mate with one another. Influenced by Darwin, by ethnographies, and by studies of nonhuman animal behavior, Westermarck hypothesized that children who are reared together from birth-as siblings usually are-develop a mutual sexual aversion that is manifested during their postpubescent years. The Westermarck hypothesis (WH) was initially well received, although a few scholars expressed reservations. As Westermarck successfully addressed these concerns, the WH received even wider support. In the early 20th century, however, the WV suffered a dramatic reversal of fortune, due in part to the ascent of Freudianism. Although Westermarck rebutted Freud's claim that children innately experience strong sexual attraction to their closest relatives, a claim that lacked empirical support, the hypothesis nonetheless slipped into a decline that lasted decades. The ascent of Freudianism, however, probably was not the only reason for this decline. During the 20th century, most social and behavioral scientists came to believe that human behavior is overwhelmingly determined by the environment. Although the psychological implications of this belief rarely were (or are) made explicit, it in fact implies that human behavior is underpinned by a few unspecialized psychological mechanisms. In other words, the standard social science model (SSSM) of human psychology (Tooby and Cosmides 1992) conceives of the human mind as a content-independent, general purpose machine, wherein a few vaguely characterized domaingeneral processes of association and imitation are regarded as sufficient to explain human behavior. Because the WH implies the existence of one or more specialized psychological mechanisms, designed specifically to solve the problem of incest avoidance, it is incompatible with the SSSM. This incompatibility may be the most important reason for the decline of the WH during the 20th century.

The virtue of human universals and cooperation: a review essay of Matt Ridley'sThe Origins of Virtue

In reviewing Matt Ridley's The Origins of Virtue we do five things. (1) We discuss and challenge the basic assumptions of the Standard Social Sciences Model which permeates management scholarship. (2) We present some alternatives to this model, particularly evolutionary psychology. (3) We look at how these alternatives provide a framework for understanding cooperation. (4) We enumerate some of the difficulties (both real and imaginary) with evolutionary psychology. (5) Finally, we suggest that management scholars work more closely with scholars from the many other disciplines that are developing solid theories of cooperation. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Research as Social Change, New Opportunities for Qualitative Research

Have you ever thought research is boring? Research writes Umberto Eco should be fun. It seems unlikely that Umberto Eco has read many of the standard social science or education research texts. But social research does offer the possibility of involvement in projects that are informative, sometimes revealing, and fun to do. This book shows us that teaching, learning and research are essentially social and deeply personal activities and that fun needs to be an integral part of this. This is not a conventional text, although it is about ways in which research can be used by those in various areas of professional practice. Its main concerns are with qualitative research, action research and case study methods, and it goes back to first principles arguing for research that is concerned with the nature of personal memories and of perception, the use of drawings and photographs, the emotional relationships implicit in any kind of research and the context of the contemporary workplace. The authors develop new directions and new possibilities for research and find ways of bringing together theory and practice, the personal and the social, organisations and their clients. It is an important resource for all who are interested in doing research but are sceptical or critical of most studies that are currently available.

Spatial and Cultural Dimensions of the Houses of Omdurman, Sudan

This paper summarizes the results of a concurrent investigation of extant housing patterns and daily domestic habits conducted in an urban Sudanese context. A combination of standard social sciences' research procedures and a modified space syntax/graph theory technique are employed to investigate society-space relationship. The social study reveals gender division in the conduct of activities and use of space, whereas the spatial analysis highlights a morphological pattern of gender segregation in the Sudanese house. The findings suggest that applying both spatial and aspatial methods of analysis is invaluable for eliciting and interpreting society's cultural norms.

Evolution and literary theory

Presupposing that all knowledge is the study of a unitary order of nature, the author maintains that the study of literature should be included within the larger field of evolutionary theory. He outlines four elementary concepts in evolutionary theory, and he argues that these concepts should regulate our understanding of literature. On the basis of these concepts, he repudiates the antirealist and irrationalist views that, under the aegis of "poststructuralism," have dominated academic literary studies for the past two decades. He examines the linkage between poststructuralism and standard social science, and he speculates about the ideological and disciplinary motives that have hitherto impeded evolutionary study in both the social sciences and the humanities. Finally, he distinguishes literature from science and argues that literary criticism integrates elements of both.

Understanding Social Science Statistics: A Spreadsheet Approach.

This book is designed for advanced undergraduate and beginning graduate students, as well as for active and productive researchers who want to enhance their grasp of standard social science statistics. Topics covered include hypothesis testing, type I and II errors, simple and multiple correlation and regression, categorical variables coding, assessment of both statistical significance and the magnitude of effects, standard experimental designs, analysis of covariance, and power analysis. Both between- and within-subjects designs and their associated post-hoc tests are presented. The core of Understanding Social Science Statistics is a series of exercises performed on a microcomputer using a spreadsheet program (like LOTUS 1-2-3) which is included with the book. The program allows for quick, hands-on analysis of realistic data using conceptually meaningful computations. As readers complete the exercises in this book they accumulate a set of spreadsheet templates that can be used with any appropriate data, creating, in effect, their own personal statistical package. Excellent for use in the classroom or as a self-study guide, this text is intended to entice the sort of student who is otherwise intimidated by statistics. The level of presentation is simple and straightforward; conceptual underpinnings and practical applications are stressed, whereas algebraic derivations and complex formulaic manipulations are avoided; and new material and ideas are presented in the context of concrete, running examples. This volume emphasizes basic statistical literacy. The level of presentation is straightforward and intended to entice the sort of student who otherwise feels intimidated by statistics. A series of integrated exercises (using a standard spreadsheet program) make it especially useful as a self-study guide for those who want to improve their statistical understanding while working at their own pace. Note: 5 1/4 disk accompanying this volume is designed and distributed for, and may only be used on, IBM PCs, XTs, ATs, and PS/2s or compatibles running MS DOS 2.0 or above.

The Problem(s) of (Anishinaabe) History in the Fiction of Louise Erdrich: Voices and Contexts

The publication ofLove Medicine (1984), The Beet Queen (1986), and Tracks (1988) by Louise Erdrich are mi terventions in the writing f tribal histories. Disrupting he boundaries between history and fiction, her novels reflect variety of literary c nve tions, i scribing revisionist histories of the ultural borderlands ea the geographical center of North America. Her fictionalized reservation community and town lie athwart the bound ries of the woodlands and the plains. Its pop lation of India s, whites, and mixed-bloods i ermingle in efiance of standard social science cat gories. The s ries, taken as a whole, reflects historic changes th ough most of the twentieth century in su h instituions as tribal government, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, he locally o ned butcher shop, the Catholic Church (and its schools), and the family. These institutional h stories are fr med within the personal narratives of Erd c 's fictio al c aracters. Most reviewers have commented on Erdrich's use of multiple n rrat rs, whose stories overlap, contradict, and comment on one another. For some, her shifting arrative point of view is the major flaw in her writing.' The bulk of her critics, on the other and, p a se Erdrich's narrative form. Russ ll B ks, for example, situates the orchestration of several points of view by Erdrich and others in terms of an effor t rediscover a narr tive form equal to a social and political vision radically di ferent fro the one we inherited from the mo ernists.2 Still others beli ve, as Jack Cady puts it, that [t]oo many demands are m de on the first-person short-story form, although Erdric b ings it mo t of the wa home.3 Both her avant-garde narrative structure and her use of one community over a series of novels raise questions regarding her interventions in history. To what extent does the multiplicity of voices in her novels challenge the conventions of objective history in their montage of partial truths and prejudicial interpretations? Do her works stimulate research on the part of scholars in literature who teach her works into the problems of Indian and tribal histories? How effective in raising pertinent issues is her fictional catastrophe in Tracks, with its resemblance to the historic White Earth timber scandal? What interpretive significance should be accorded novelistic histories when the author (and her husband-collaborater, Michael Dorris) insist that their work is only incidentally political? In the opening chapter of We Talk; You Listen (1970), Vmine Deloria, Jr. develops some questions regarding the content of the form in a society oriented increasingly toward instantaneous communication. Repeatedly asserting that the medium became the message, he observes that the children of the Depression generation learned the media of federal solutions for local problems. Both the demise of Kozka's butcher shop from Tracks through The Beet Queen and the double-edged entanglements of the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Tracks and Love Medicine are salient political issues, extending beyond the Depression era in both directions. How do content and form intertwine with local, national, tribal, and universal concerns in Erdrich's historical fictions? Historical dialogues regarding assimilation are refigured in the contrast of the parallel spiritual autobiographies of Pauline, Sister Leopolda and her daughter Marie Lazarre (Kashpaw) and with the stories of cultural survival of Nanapush and Eli. Almost immediately, once she begins to speak about

Ideas of human nature in contemporary conflict resolution theory

A quick overview of the developing field of conflict resolution would draw attention to the sources from which it has arisen and its shared positions, argu­ ments, and controversies. A strong impetus toward contributing to the solu­ tion of seemingly intractable and violent conflict situations, combined with a profound skepticism about the ability of ordinary social science to offer much in this area, has led many scholars to attempt to create a new interdisciplinary field in which an effective practice and a powerful theory would emerge together. These scholars have tended to come particularly from social science disciplines such as international relations, peace research (itself closely related to history and sociology), and social psychology. The current state of conflict resolution theory and practice reflects the diverse backgrounds of those who have been drawn together to invent it. Not surprisingly, the impulse toward activism and the dissatisfaction with standard social science have not in themselves comprised enough common ground to allow an uncontentious development of theory and practice. Some of the most important conceptual issues that trouble the field seem to be: ( 1) The special characteristics of deep-rooted conflict and thus the rela­ tionship of conflict resolution to conflict management (or settlement), particularly in the burgeoning Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) movement.

Life in a Changing Greek Village: Karpofora and Its Reluctant Farmers (review)

Reviews 189 exhibited during the junta years, is not simply a disinterested onlooker. He speaks for a polity of virtue and reports that in the years since 1974 democratic principles have passed a series of tests with flying colors. According to Clogg, although the 'dictatorial deviation' of 1967-74 attempted to stem the tide of political modernization, it did in fact unwittingly create a consensus among Greek political forces which led to key changes. He writes: ". . . the remarkably smooth transition from authoritarian rule to a genuinely pluralistic democracy signified a crucial stage in the development of parties in Greece" (p. 216). The handing over of power by the conservatives to the socialists in 1981 constituted the acid test of democratization. This reviewer would like to raise certain minor questions in tribute to the author's impressive collection of data and information. The Ethnikon Enotikon Komma was founded by P. Ranellopoulos before the war and in 1950 was headed by both its founder and St. Stephanopoulos (p. 32). The text leaves one with the impression that the leadership of this party belonged to Stephanopoulos alone. Mikhail Stasinopoulos was appointed, not elected, acting-President of the Republic in 1974 (p. 66). Clogg believes that the spirit of Raramanlis' constitutional craft of 1974—which aspired to create a system of bipolar executive power (shared by the head of state and the head of the government)—was in essence preserved in the constitution promulgated in June 1975. Raramanlis initially aspired to create a Presidential Republic with the intention of occupying the high office. His original draft was, however, fraught with contradictions and was also faced with the loud outcry of the opposition. Ultimately, Raramanlis abandoned his plan for a powerful presidency and setded for a constitution that made parliament the major source of power and legitimacy . Instead of pursuing the position of the President, he chose to remain Prime Minister, at least until 1980. Thanos Veremis University of Athens Stanley Aschenbrenner, Life in a Changing Greek Village: Karpofora and Its Reluctant Farmers. Dubuque: Rendall Hunt Publishing Company . 1986. Pp. ix + 127. This monograph, the second from the University of Minnesota's Center for Ancient Studies, is a remarkably straightforward, traditionally -structured ethnography of a single rural Greek community. 190 Reviews Drawing on an extraordinary amount of field work between 1969 and 1986, Aschenbrenner sweeps widely over many aspects of life in the kinotü of Rarpofora (2km. from the Gulf of Messenia, along the Ralamata -Pylos highway). Indeed it is Aschenbrenner's detailed knowledge of this one particular community that constitutes the book's greatest strength and defines its overall limitations. Aschenbrenner presents a wealth of interesting data concerning Rarpofora that both confirm and extend points raised in other studies of rural Greece. Particularly valuable are his discussions of agricultural diversification in a market economy, fluctuations in familial wealth from generation to generation, the importance of patrilineal surname groups, the complex workings of spiritual kinship, and the ways in which young villagers have been socialized toward migration away from Rarpofora. This monograph also updates the anthropology of rural Greece by including much information on how Rarpofora has weathered the changes of the 1980s. Aschenbrenner makes an unusual attempt to place the lifeways of the kinotü in historical context by noting the village's 19th century population expansion, the 20th century development of a new settlement cluster along the highway, the growth of factionalism during the way years, and the emigration and urbanization now undermining the community's future. The general reliability of this account is attested by Aschenbrenner 's long-standing relationship with the people of Rarpofora and the open channels of communication he has clearly established with them. In translating his personal knowledge of Rarpoforan life for a wider audience, Aschenbrenner takes a middle course between internal village perceptions of that life and a more externally-directed analysis. The table of contents reflects standard social science categories and the discussion is generally positivist in nature. At the same time, a more reflexive understanding repeatedly makes itself felt through the many lengthy anecdotes concerning particular villagers scattered throughout the book. Aschenbrenner does an admirable job of moving between these two approaches, but strong proponents of...

The survival story of a non-reader: an interview.

In this article a learning disabled person tells about his most difficult, yet successful educational and social career as a non-reader. Both positive and negative aspects of our educational system are imbedded in this phenomenological account of what it means to be a non-reader in our culture. The introduction argues the need for views by exceptional persons to appear alongside the professional literature to complement and broaden our knowledge. For philosophical, epistemological, theoretical, and methodological reasons this has rarely been the case in standard social science research.

Business Libraries: Role and Function in Industrial America

HARRY BROWN'S You Can Profit from a Monetary Crisis, Studs Terkel's Working, Peter F. Drucker's Management all best sellers in the same week and all to be found in the business library! lf 2 Adam Smith's Supermoney, John Kenneth Galbraith's The New Industrial State, Charles Reich's The Greening of America all best sellers in recent years and all to be found in the business library! A business librarian who is aware that today's business literature is often represented on the best-seller lists can reasonably wonder why this exciting body of writing has sometimes been treated like a stepchild or a skeleton in the library family closet. Treated this way it has been and still is, as a study of the standard social science resource texts will quickly illustrate. B. F. Hoselitz's A Readers Guide to the Social Sciences, even in its newest edition, gives cursory one-paragraph mention in a chapter on to business periodicals.3 The new edition (1973) of C. M. White's Sources of Information in the Social Sciences devotes most of its Economics and Business Adminis-