The Causes of Human Behavior: Implications for Theory and Method in the Social Sciences - Hardcover

Mohr, Lawrence B.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0472106651 ISBN 13: 9780472106653

Publisher: University of Michigan Press, 1996

Synopsis

Acknowledging that though the disciplines are supposed to be cumulative, there is little in the way of accumulated, general theory, this work opens a dialogue about the appropriate means and ends of social research based in analysis of fundamental issues.
This book examines two root issues in the methodology of explanatory social research--the meaning of the idea of causation in social science and the question of the physiological mechanism that generates intentional behavior. Conclusions on these as well as on several derived problems emerge through the analysis. Among the latter, the analysis shows that neither universal nor probabilistic laws governing human behavior are possible, even within the positivist or empiricist traditions in which laws are a central feature. Instead, the analysis reveals a more modest view of what an explanatory social theory can be and do. In this view, the kind of theory that can be produced is basically the same in form and content across quantitative and qualitative research approaches, and similarly across different disciplines. The two streams of analysis are combined with resulting implications for large-sample, small-sample, and case study research design as well as for laws and theory.
Written for the practicing empirical researcher in political science and organization theory, whether quantitative or qualitative, the major issuesand findings are meant to hold identically, however, for history, sociology, and other social science disciplines.
Lawrence B. Mohr is Professor of Political Science and Public Policy, University of Michigan.

About this title

About the Author

Lawrence B. Mohr is Professor of Political Science and Public Policy, University of Michigan.

From the Back Cover

Two root issues in the methodology of explanatory social research are examined in this book - the meaning of the idea of causation in social science and the question of the physiological mechanism that generates intentional behavior. Conclusions on these as well as on several derived problems emerge through the analysis. Among the latter, the analysis shows that neither universal nor probabilistic laws governing human behavior are possible, even within the positivist or empiricist traditions in which laws are a central feature. Instead, the analysis reveals a more modest view of explanatory social theory and what it can accomplish. In this view, the kind of theory that can be produced is basically the same in form and content across quantitative and qualitative research approaches, and across different disciplines. The two streams of analysis are combined with resulting implications for large-sample, small-sample, and case study research design as well as for laws and theory. Written for the practicing empirical researcher in political science and organization theory, whether quantitative or qualitative, the major issues and findings of The Causes of Human Behavior are meant to hold as well for history, sociology, and other social science disciplines.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Michigan Press
• Publication date: 1996
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0472106651
• ISBN 13: 9780472106653
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 193