1. Human Sciences

2. Human sciences Studying Human Behaviour Psychology Economics Anthropology Sociology

4. Inconsistencies Psychology – bright and less bright Economics – bull and bear markets Anthropology – voodoo death

5. Methods Observation- done Measurement Experiment Laws

6. Measurement How crazy is he? How many thoughts have you had today? Too many variables here. This is why we study behaviour not consciousness. Behaviourism

7. What can we measure? Population Income Rate of inflation But We must be aware of how figures are interpreted

8. Who really won the 1996 Olympics? RankCountryMedals total 1USA101 2Germany65 3Russia63 4China50 11Canada22

9. CountryGoldSilverBronzeMedals total USA443225101 Germany20182765 Russia26211663 China16221250 Canada311822 Medal totals by colour

10. Using numbers to quantify RankCountryGoldSilverBronzePoints 1USA443225221 2Russia262116136 3Germany201827123 4China162212104 11Canada311839

11. Comparing like with like (or not) Can you say that a gold medal is worth 3 bronze medals? Or that 2 apples are worth one orange?

12. By population RankCountryPoints per million 1Tonga20 2Bahamas6.6 3Cuba4.6 25Canada1.3 37USA0.9

13. 1.How would you go about trying to put a monetary value on a human life? Does society ever do this? 2.Which of the following is easy to measure and which is not? How would you go about trying to measure them? a.Weight b.Temperature c.Happiness d.Progress e.Intelligence

14. Experiments Do not play as large a part in human sciences as in natural sciences; Because: Deal in complex real-life situations Artificiality can distort behaviour Ethical reasons – some experiments might adversely affect the participants

15. Possible solutions Wait for things to occur naturally Use history (e.g. in Economics) to provide evidence of likely outcomes Observe and draw conclusions, then test them. Is it possible that psychologists might see what they want to see in experiments?

16. The Milgram experiment Yale 1963, Stanley Milgram. How willing are people to obey orders? Advertised for volunteers to take part in an experiment “to test the effects of punishment on learning”. 100 volunteers – what % would have continued up to 450 volts? What would you have done? What does it tell us about human nature?

17. Could we question the ethics of the experiment rather than the participants? How would they feel about themselves? Does the knowledge gained outweigh the moral issues about the way the experiment was conducted?

18. What difference do you think it would have made if the original advert had mentioned electric shocks? What conclusion can you draw from this? Design your own ethical code of conduct for the running of experiments in the human sciences. What three or four key points would you include and why?