Theorienreduktion in den Sozialwissenschaften. Eine Fallstudie am Beispiel der Balancetheorien

Theory Reduction in the Social Sciences. The example of balance theories. A central topic both in philosophy of science as well as in the empirical sciences is the reconstruction of the relations between theories. In the past comparisons of theories by means of traditional linguistic methods have proved to be extremely difficult and complicated. In this article the reconstruction of intertheoretical relations based on model-theoretical terms is propagated, as formulated within the structuralist view of theories. The efficiency of a model theoretical based comparison of theories is demonstrated by two theory elements from the social science research program of balance theories: The basic element by Heider and the transitivity theory by Holland and Leinhardt. First of all both theory elements are introduced informally and reconstructed in the structuralist format. On the basis of these reconstructions can be shown, that the Heider theory can be formally reduced to the Holland-Leinhardt theory and that the theory younger in history means an improvement. However, an integration of all balance theoretical elements into a theory net is not possible. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Structuralist constraints and mathematical social theorizing

Several case studies and theoretical reports indicate that the structuralist concept of a constraint has a central role in the reconstruction of physical theories. It is surprising that there is, in the literature, only little theoretical discussion on the relevance of constraints for the reconstruction of social scientific theories. Almost all structuralist reconstructions of social theorizing are vacuously constrained. Consequently, constraints are methodologically irrelevant.In this paper I try to show that there really exist constraint-type assumptions in mathematical modelling in the social sciences. Methodologically constraints have exactly the same role in the context of social mathematical modelling as they have in physical theories. In typical cases of mathematical modelling in the social sciences, the related constraints work as empirical hypotheses and should be tested by statistical means.     

A contextual approach to research on AIDS prevention

The acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) is a disease that is transmitted almost entirely through behavioral factors. In the absence of a cure or vaccine, the modification of AIDS-risk behavior presents a unique challenge to behavioral scientists and should be taken as a clear imperative by behavior analysts. This paper discusses the currently dominant social-cognitive theories (the health belief model, the theory of reasoned action, and self-efficacy theory) that have been widely used to predict and understand AIDS-risk behavior. Although these theories have generated a voluminous literature on the cognitive, attitudinal, and demographic correlates of AIDS-risk behavior, they have not resulted in specific intervention strategies to influence risky behavior, most likely because they fail to specify manipulable variables. As an alternative to social-cognitive theories, this paper evaluates the usefulness of a behavior-analytic approach to stem the spread of HIV infection. It examines some of the philosophical differences underlying cognitive and behavioral approaches that are embedded in mechanistic versus functional contextualistic principles. It explores the theoretical and practical implications of adopting either predicting and explaining behavior or predicting and influencing behavior as the goals of science. To illustrate the value of adopting the goal of prediction and influence, behavior-analytic research on the social context of risky sexual behavior in adolescents is described. The paper argues that in order to alter the future course of the AIDS epidemic, the behavioral sciences must move beyond describing cognitive and attitudinal correlates of risky behavior and focus on the social context of the behavior of individuals. In addition, population-wide changes in AIDS-risk behavior can be accomplished only if research focuses on how to influence larger social systems, including the media, school systems, and community organizations.     

Complexity Theory: Predictions Based on the Confluence of Science-Wide and Behavioral Theories

Views of behavioral and science wide complexity theories are briefly summarized. Theory-based predictions for human cognition and behavior based on both theories are advanced.
Streufert (in this special issue) has discussed the confluence of science-wide and behavioral complexity theory. Even though the former attempts to find common processes in all the sciences and the latter theory has, to date, limited itself to human behavior, there are many similarities in approach and in explanations of observed phenomena. Differences between the two theories are minor in comparison to their commonalities. Considering the many similarities, it may be useful to confirm (and possibly extend) behavioral complexity theory. A number of theorems, many familiar, some slightly modified, some new, will be provided at the end of this paper.     

Methods matter: A review of Scientific Method: How Science Works,Fails to Work,and Pretends to Work by John Staddon,Routledge Press, 2018

The short and engaging book, How Science Works by John Staddon, reviews ways in which social and behavioral sciences arrive at decisions and how those decisions can best influence public policy. It is a provocative book that takes on controversial topics, including a critique of null hypothesis statistical testing, classical economic theories of supply and demand, limitations of Prospect Theory and behavioral economics, and evidence behind the health effects of smoking. A key theme running throughout is the idea that the theories and quantitative models used in the social sciences capture behavior and attitudes as fixed in time and fail to address the important issue of how behavior arose and how pliable it might be. The book will be of interest to scientists of all types as well as advanced students of psychology and other behavioral scientists.     

Foundations for Ethical Standards and Codes: The Role of Moral Philosophy and Theory in Ethics

Ethical practice is a concern for all who practice in the psychological, social, and behavioral sciences. A central problem is discerning what action is ethically correct in a particular situation. It has been said that there is nothing so practical as good theory, because theory can help counselors organize and integrate knowledge. It seems, therefore, that a sound means to facilitate ethical competence in counseling would be through a knowledge and understanding of foundations and theories of ethics. Much of this pragmatic foundation is found in moral philosophy and related ethical theory.     

The depth of history and explanation as benefit and bane for psychological control theories

A longstanding debate has recently re-erupted in the self-regulation literature around the concept of self-efficacy. This article presents an argument that the debate emerges from a lack of understanding of the history of control theories within both the social and physical sciences and the various levels of explanation to which phenomena can be subjected. This history, coupled with the issues of determinism, materialism, and empiricism evoked by the deeper level of explanation that some versions of control theory provide, has led some critics to mis-apply non-psychological properties to control theories and obscure their usefulness. Here, the usefulness of a deeper control theory level of explanation is illustrated using comparisons with explanations found in goal-setting theory and social cognitive theory.     

The Allegory of the Olive Tree: A case study for (neo) structuralist analysis

The Book of Mormon presents a fascinating opportunity to test aspects of structuralist analysis of myth and culture. This article examines some of the key issues in structuralist theory and attempts to develop some new avenues of structuralist analysis, particularly in relation to agency and transformation. Although in some sense these avenues can be seen as challenging principles of traditional structuralism, the changes suggested are more refinements than significant alterations. The article then tests these theories in relation to a series of very complex allegories in the Book of Mormon. This discussion both demonstrates the analytical power of the approach and raises some interesting ethnographic issues, particularly the presence of triadic rather than dyadic structure. In order to add a diachronic aspect to the discussion and to examine process of transformation between cultures, the article touches on the use of similar allegories in the New Testament and in Intertestamental literature.     

内隐人格理论的实体论－渐变论维度研究述评

对内隐人格理论的实体论－渐变论维度的研究是近年来社会认知研究的一个新趋势。研究发现,人们对人的特性（如智力、品德和人格特征等）的内隐认知理论,制约调节着他们对人的行为的理解和反应。人们持有的不同内隐人格理论导致他们不同的社会认知模式和行为反应方式。实体论者由于认为人的特性是固定不变的,而倾向于用抽象概括化的和静态的内在特质来理解人的行为;而渐变论者由于认为人的特性是动态可塑的,而倾向于用影响心理动态过程的内外具体调节因素来理解人的行为。作者在综述有关研究的基础上,进而提出一些新的见解。     

A Dialectic on Validity: Where We Have Been and Where We Are Going

It has been suggested that the primary issue in considerations of validity today is the discrepancy between currently accepted theory and the practice of validation. The reason for this discrepancy may be that although considerable discussion has taken place in educational measurement and psychometrics regarding changes in our conceptions of validity, that has not been the case more generally in the social and behavioral sciences. A dialectic on the current status of validity theory for social and behavioral scientists is presented to help bridge this gap.     

The Structure of Causal Sets

More often than not, recently popular structuralist interpretations of physical theories leave the central concept of a structure insufficiently precisified. The incipient causal sets approach to quantum gravity offers a paradigmatic case of a physical theory predestined to be interpreted in structuralist terms. It is shown how employing structuralism lends itself to a natural interpretation of the physical meaning of causal set theory. Conversely, the conceptually exceptionally clear case of causal sets is used as a foil to illustrate how a mathematically informed rigorous conceptualization of structure serves to identify structures in physical theories. Furthermore, a number of technical issues infesting structuralist interpretations of physical theories such as difficulties with grounding the identity of the places of highly symmetrical physical structures in their relational profile and what may resolve these difficulties can be vividly illustrated with causal sets.     

An abductive theory of scientific method

A broad theory of scientific method is sketched that has particular relevance for the behavioral sciences. This theory of method assembles a complex of specific strategies and methods that are used in the detection of empirical phenomena and the subsequent construction of explanatory theories. A characterization of the nature of phenomena is given, and the process of their detection is briefly described in terms of a multistage model of data analysis. The construction of explanatory theories is shown to involve their generation through abductive, or explanatory, reasoning, their development through analogical modeling, and their fuller appraisal in terms of judgments of the best of competing explanations. The nature and limits of this theory of method are discussed in the light of relevant developments in scientific methodology.     

The Allegory of the Olive Tree: a case study for (neo) structuralist analysis

The Book of Mormon presents a fascinating opportunity to test aspects of structuralist analysis of myth and culture. This article examines some of the key issues in structuralist theory and attempts to develop some new avenues of structuralist analysis, particularly in relation to agency and transformation. Although in some sense these avenues can be seen as challenging principles of traditional structuralism, the changes suggested are more refinements than significant alterations. The article then tests these theories in relation to a series of very complex allegories in the Book of Mormon. This discussion both demonstrates the analytical power of the approach and raises some interesting ethnographic issues, particularly the presence of triadic rather than dyadic structure. In order to add a diachronic aspect to the discussion and to examine process of transformation between cultures, the article touches on the use of similar allegories in the New Testament and in Intertestamental literature.     

The place of human values in the language of science: Kuhn,Saussure, and structuralism

The current paradigm in medicine generally distinguishes between genetic and environmental causes of disease. Although the word paradigm has become a commonplace, the theories of Thomas Kuhn have not received much attention in the journals of medicine. Kuhn's structuralist method differs radically from the daily activities of the scientific method itself. Using linguistic theory, this essay offers a structuralist reading of Thomas Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Our purpose is to highlight the similarities between these structuralist models of science and language. In part, we focus on the logic that enables Kuhn to assert the priority of perception over interpretation in the history of science. To illustrate some of these issues, we refer to the distinction between environmental and genetic causes of disease. While the activity of scientific research results in the revision of concepts in science, the production of significant differences that shape our knowledge is in part a social and linguistic process.     

On the Future of Group Therapy Theory

The author presents a hypothetical view of group therapy theories as they may evolve over the first decades of the New Milennium. Looking at the problem of prediction from the standpoint of postmodernism and social constructivism, the importance of these perspectives as frameworks of the social sciences is emphasized. The influence of general systems theory, Foulkesian group analysis, object relations theory, self psychology, cognitive-behavioral psychology, and neuropsychiatry are briefly examined with respect to the expected evolution of increasingly sophisticated, detailed, and nuanced theories of group psychology and group psychotherapy.     

Deductive Reasoning in the Structuralist Approach

The distinction between the syntactic and the semantic approach to scientific theories emerged in formal philosophy of science. The semantic approach is commonly considered more advanced and more successful than the syntactic one, but the transition from the one approach to the other was not brought about without any loss. In essence, it is the formal analysis of atomic propositions and the analysis of deductive reasoning that dropped out of consideration in at least some of the elaborated versions of the semantic approach. In structuralist theory of science, as founded by Sneed and Stegmüller, the focus is on global propositions concerning the question of whether or not certain empirical systems satisfy a set-theoretic predicate that encodes the axioms of a scientific theory. Hence, an analysis of deductive reasoning from atomic premisses with the help of a given theory is missing. The objective of the present paper is to develop a deductive system on the basis of the structuralist framework. This system comes with a novel formulation of empirical propositions in structuralism.     

Nietzsche and the origin of the idea of modernism

This paper combines a phenomenological account of the types of causal transaction found in social reality with a critique of two theories, one structuralist and one Marxist, that contravene it. Part I argues that there are three types of causal transaction in social life in addition to physical causal transactions: people bringing about states of affairs by acting, states of affairs bringing about actions by inducing responses, and entities and states of affairs bringing about what makes sense to people to do by making certain factors determine this. It is also contended that social formations and structures cause actions and other social formations/structures only by way of participating in these types of transaction. The conditions under which this occurs are discussed. Part II criticizes Peter Blau's account of structural effects and Jean‐Paul Sartre's version of a materialist theory of history, two theories that either advocate or require causal transactions between social structures/ formations which do not reduce to transactions of the types described in Part I. The paper concludes by suggesting that social entities that make actions possible do not thereby cause them.     

第3届逻辑、理性与互动国际研讨会综述

逻辑、理性与互动国际研讨会（The International Workshop on Logic,Rationalityand Interaction,LORI）旨在集合逻辑学家和他们在哲学、语言学、计算机科学、认知科学,尤其是知识互动话题方面,如信念和行动等领域的工作。LORI-3于2011年10月10日到13日,在中国广州举办。主办方是中山大学逻辑与认知研究所。下面是一份LORI-3的简要的会议综述,根据内容进行了分类。完整的会议论文集收录在了Logic,Rationality,and Interaction,LNAI 6953号,     

Joint custody: research, theory, and policy

A majority of states have now enacted legislation addressing the issue of joint custody of children after divorce. This article examines current research on the subject, explores its implications for family theory, and attempts to draw some empirically based conclusions regarding policy. The literature would seem to support a structuralist view of the family and to undermine normative theories of the family life cycle. The author concludes that policy should not be aimed at developing a presumption of joint legal custody alone, but, rather, of joint physical custody with specified limitations.     

Counterfactual reasoning and the problem of selecting antecedent scenarios

A recent group of social scientists have argued that counterfactual questions play an essential role in their disciplines, and that it is possible to have rigorous methods to investigate them. Unfortunately, there has been little (if any) interaction between these social scientists and the philosophers who have long held that rigorous counterfactual reasoning is possible. In this paper, I hope to encourage some fresh thinking on both sides by creating new connections between them. I describe what I term “problem of selecting antecedent scenarios,” and show that this is an essential challenge in real-life counterfactual reasoning. Then, I demonstrate that the major extant theories of counterfactuals (especially the Lewis/Stalnaker theory and Igal Kvart’s rival account) are unable to solve this problem. I show that there are instances of real-life counterfactual reasoning in the social sciences that are counterexamples to both of these accounts. And finally, I develop a new theory of how to select antecedent scenarios that overcomes these difficulties, and so would be part of a more adequate theory of counterfactuals (and counterfactual reasoning).