Lesson 1
What Is Human Science?

What human science wants to know
• Why people interact with the environment the way they do
• What the reality of being human is

Knowledge in human science comes from…
• Consensus: There is a consensus about the standards for what is considered acceptable to be considered a knowledge claim.
• Observation
• Interpretation of the observations

A Problem with knowledge claims in Human Science
• The study of human science is itself a human activity and the researcher must have an awareness of human behaviour to be able to avoid biasing or slanting results.
• The researcher is an active part of the knowledge claims being made. Subsequently, it becomes hard for a researcher to escape human subjectivity in order to view human behaviour objectively. In the natural sciences, the researcher studies a subject other than him or her self.

• Can skew observations
• Can alter the way an experiment is done
• Can skew interpretation of results
• Does have an effect on knowledge claims

• Observe some phenomenon regarding human behaviour
• Invent a tentative description or answer, called a
hypothesis, which is consistent with what has been observed
• Use the hypothesis to make predictions
• Validation of the hypothesis

• Statistical methods
• Phenomenological methods
• Holistic analysis

Special problems of knowledge within human science
• Holistic nature
• Imprecise elements
• Unfinished work
• Accessibility
Edvard Munch. The Scream

Lesson 2 Humans and Science: Is
Predictability Equal to Knowledge?
• This lesson is comprised of three different scenarios to be read and discussed in a classroom setting.

Lesson 3
Can Psychology give us
Knowledge?

Psychological knowledge is about
• Understanding human behavour
• Predicting human behaviour
• Controlling human behaviour

Psychology explains human behaviour from different perspectives. These perspectives affect
• How behaviour is understood
• How behaviour is approached
• How behaviour is treated
• Knowledge about human behaviour

Different perspectives create different knowledge
• Biological perspective explains behaviour in terms of biological predisposition
• Cognitive psychology explains behaviour in terms of how an mental processes affect an individuals understanding of the world
• The learning perspective explains behaviour as being something we have learned
• Each perspective means that knowledge about behaviour will be different depending on the perspective from which one examines the behaviour.
• Can psychology really give knowledge about behaviour then?

Explanations from two different perspectives.

• Evolution is assumed to be a fact
• Some ancestors could palate sweet foods and some could not
• The ability to eat high energy sweet food was a useful trait which facilitated survival
• Hard times such as famine or drought came

• Those who ate sweet food were able to find enough energy to survive
• Consequently their genes were passed on
• After many generations, everyone was able to eat sweet, high-energy food
• Do we really even “like” sweet food?

• We are all born as blank slates (tabula rasa)
• First sweet taste of mother’s milk associated with warmth and security
• Throughout growing up sweets always associated with something positive
• We are conditioned to like sweets

• Perhaps it is never possible to know for sure what causes human behaviour
• The knowledge is based on faith in the assumptions of a perspective
• Consensus also creates knowledge. People agree on reasonable interpretations
• Consensus, faith, and reason all important concepts in human science

There are three kinds of lies—lies, damned lies and statistics.
Mark Twain quoting Benjamin Disraeli

Statistics is an invaluable tool for human science
• They reveal information about the behaviour and attitudes of large groups
• They help to make clear relationships between factors
• They are useful as empirical support for interpretations
• However there are many pitfalls in statistics and much opportunity to mislead a population

Larry Liar’s Easy Steps
to
Learning how to Lie with Statistics
Poverty Rises Again
25
20
15
10
5
0
Sickenss
Fear of War at Record Levels
Robbery Murder War
27
22
17
12
37
32
1 2
Year
3

• Intentional deceit (Larry’s favorite)
• Selective data-use (Do Not Report On
All The Data)
• Faulty assumptions (Do not leave the thinking for the audience. We have to do the thinking for them).
• Creative graphics
• Incompetence

• Choosing which sample to use
• Carefully choose the size of your sample
• “Random” sampling

The three best ways to lie with sampling are:
• Not only should you ignore any possible biases in your sampling method, you should actively seek to find samples which will give you the answers you want.
• Always claim everything has been done randomly. It is expected of you!
• Do Not Elaborate!!

Trickery with Averages
• Ambiguity is a statistician’s best friend —
Antonius Stewartius

Pick the average that suits you best
• There are three measures of central tendency. All three of them can conveniently be called the “average” in statistics
 Mean (the sum of all values divided by number of values)
 Median (the middle value)
 Mode (the most common value)

Fir
Alder
Teak
Oak
Beech
Walnut
Chestnut
Sandalwood
Driftwood
Neverwould
Pine
Here’s an example of how it can work in real life
Number of armed robberies per county 1996
County
Maple
Numbers of
264
82
Robberies
• Mean = 51
• Median = 26
• Mode = 16
Birch 75
8
1
16
16
16
16
56
51
43
26
• Pick your favourite and use it to support the claim you want to make

• Confusing Graphics:
Leave information out and let the image do the talking.
• When lying with statistics, image is everything
25
20
15
10
5
0
Sickenss
Fear of War at Record Levels
Robbery Murder War

• Alter the Y-axis to make the graphs look like you think they should
• Make them show what you say they show 140
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
Drastic Rise in Phobia Cases
22
20
18
16
14
12
10
1 2
1995-2004
3
Insignificant Rise in New Phobia Cases
4
1 2
1995-2004
3 4

Manipulation of colours and pictures
• Pick colors that will accentuate the message you are trying to make
• Dark and drab colors for sad statistics, bright and cheerful colors happy statistics
Poverty Increase Slows Poverty Rises Again
37
32
27
22
17
12
1 2
Year
3
100
80
60
40
20
0
200
180
160
140
120
1 2
Year
3

Important points to remember about using graphs
• Use Confusing and Vague Graphs
• Choose a scale which suits your needs best
• Manipulate colors and pictures to create a tone which is to your advantage

• Be sure to use loaded questions
• Confuse correlation with causation
• Try and try Again. If the sample does not give you the result you want, just get a new sample

Lesson 5 Free will vs. determinism
Titan. Adam and Eve . Ca. 1550

• We do not decide the things we do because something predisposes us to behave in a certain way
• Our biology dictates our choices. We all have a “selfish gene”
• Societal conditioning dictates our choices

We are masters of our own destiny
• We are free to do as we wish. When we decide what we want to do, it is our conscious mind that makes the decision
• Our tastes and preferences are chosen by us. They reflect our individuality and freedom to choose
• Life is but a long line of choices

The debate is important to human science because
• Human science wants to understand the motives behind human behaviour
• If our behaviour is determined by our biology, it is crucial for the human scientist to understand how biology affects human behaviour
• If behaviour is determined by our social environment, the human scientist would look at environmental factors to explain why people behave the way they do

The debate is important to human science because (contd.)
• If behaviour is on account of free will, is the consciousness even accessible?
• Can anyone access the individual consciousness to a degree that will allow an outsider to understand the inner motivations of another human being?

• To the human scientist, knowing human behaviour is, in part, being able to predict human behaviour
• If behaviour is the result of free will, then this makes predicting behaviour nearly impossible
• The human scientist wants to understand why people behave the way they do. Free will makes it hard for a human scientist to do this