Week 1 discussion
The Logic of Inference: The Science of Uncertainty
Describing and explaining social phenomena is a complex
task. Box’s quote speaks to the point that it is a near impossible undertaking
to fully explain such systems—physical or social—using a set of models. Yet
even though these models contain some error, the models nevertheless assist
with illuminating how the world works and advancing social change.
The competent quantitative researcher understands the
balance between making statements related to theoretical understanding of
relationships and recognizing that our social systems are of such complexity
that we will always have some error. The key, for the rigorous researcher, is
recognizing and mitigating the error as much as possible.
As a graduate student and consumer of research, you must
recognize the error that might be present within your research and the research
of others.
To prepare for this Discussion:
Use the Walden Library Course Guide and Assignment Help
found in this week’s Learning Resources to search for and select a quantitative
article that interests you and that has social change implications.
As you read the article, reflect on George Box’s quote in
the introduction for this Discussion.
For additional support, review the Skill Builder:
Independent and Dependent Variables, which you can find by navigating back to
your Blackboard Course Home Page. From there, locate the Skill Builder link in
the left navigation pane.
By Day 3
Post a very brief description (1–3 sentences) of the article
you found and address the following:
Describe how you think the research in the article is useful
(e.g., what population is it helping? What problem is it solving?).
Using Y=f(X) +E notation, identify the independent and
dependent variables.
How might the research models presented be wrong? What types
of error might be present in the reported research?
Be sure to support your Main Post and Response Post with
reference to the week’s Learning Resources and other scholarly evidence in APA
Style.
By Day 5
Remembering that all research has some error, respond to at
least one colleague’s post and comment on how we as social change agents and
critical consumers of research can balance the usefulness with the error in the
research. Do we throw the research out because of too much error, or is there
something useful that it can tell us?
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