Lecture: February 10, 1998
Lecture: February 10, 1998
1. Announcements 2. Class Business 3. Review of previous lecture -ethnomethodology -Agnes story as an example -surnames and babies names (Jennifer McPhee's NYT Mag. article): a
current example with ethnomethodological insights 4. Biology vs. Society (or, Biology is
Society?) Theory and Evidence The continuum of perspectives about nature vs. nurture Evolutionary Theory The Wilson School (genetic basis (nature)) The Centrists (social evolutionary (interaction of nature and
nurture)) Social/Learned Effects Upon Behavior (nurture more than
nature) The Evidence Sociobiological and Genetic Social Evolutionary The Counter Evidence What other evidence would you need to change your mind? The Scientific Method What is a theory? (inductive vs. deductive reasoning) How do we test it? (hypotheses, data, probable
distributions) Sampling frame - (defining a population, selecting a "representative
sample", generalizeability of the case, reasonable comparisons or
comparative case) Drawing inferences, extrapolating Tautological Arguments (e.g. anthropomorphizing animal behavior,
hypothesizing anthropormophic behavior of animals, finding anthropomorphic
behavior, extrapolating animal behavior to human behavior ) Causal Relationships (Testerone and aggression example, environment
and hormone levels) Sample Selection Bias (chimps in wild vs. chimps in cages) Variation in expression of characteristics (distribution (bell
curve), mean, mode, min., max.) Controls or Spurious Relationships
Language, Metaphors and Science
Are we doing better science or are we just thinking differently?
5. Do differences really matter?
Do differences really matter? Should they matter? Are talking about a moral or ethical issue here? What are the ethics? Fundamentally does the variety in expression of the nature/nurture interaction within humans justify social inequality?
