•  
  •  

ScholarWorks > HHS > Social Work > JSSW > Vol. 1 > Iss. 1 (1973)

 

Abstract

In a separate article, it has been stated:

The kinds of theories which social scientists have been able to construct have largely been dependent on the level or the degree of inference which the researchers have been able to draw from observations or experimental designs (which may or may not reflect the empirical world), and the assumptions upon which these inferences rest (Basu and Kenyon, 1972.425).

Notably, in the past three decades the eventual "success" of a theory has been tested on this basis. A major underlying premise in the ideographic science has been that cause and effect represent the methodological level of inquiry, however singularizing (as opposed to nomothetic "generalizing" science) the social "experience" may be. These relationships are either asymetric, assming an independent-dependent variable dichotomy, or symmetric, i.e. constructing theory on the basis of an interdependent, reciprocal causation Inference. These analytic frames have attempted to explain what Darkheim has called "soclal facts." However, the problems of limitation of such a search In the development and finally application of a social theory using causal inferences as methodological guidelines have cam to light, specifically In the area of policy-planning and decision making.

It is the purpose of this paper to attempt to extend theory (specifically that applying to policy-planning and decision-making) from these limitations. The author win propose a theory of decision-making and will suggest its applications.

Download

Off-campus users:

You may need to log in to your campus proxy before being granted access to the full-text above.

Share

COinS