Behavior in the Balance

行为平衡

• 批准号: 0424103
• 负责人: Helen Longino
• 金额: $ 4.27万
• 依托单位: University of Minnesota-Twin Cities
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2004
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2004-08-01 至 2006-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0424103&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Behavior; Balance

The project has two dimensions: a comparative epistemological analysis of four approaches in the sciences of human behavior and an analysis of the social and cultural implications of the work. The point of the epistemological analysis is to understand the kinds of knowledge of human behavior afforded by these approaches by analyzing their methods and presuppositions of inquiry. The point of the socio-cultural analysis is to understand the ways in which the scientific research is responsive to social and cultural preoccupations in the larger context and the ways in which the research is taken up in that context. The study focuses on research directed at understanding the proximate causes of individual behavior and on biological approaches or approaches that are typically contrasted or seen as in competition with biological research. Thus, this study surveys 1) behavior genetics (both classical and molecular), 2) behavioral anatomy and physiology, 3) developmental psychology, and 4) developmental and dynamic systems theories. These are the approaches most closely engaged in contemporary versions of the nature/nurture debate. In addition to identifying immediate social concerns implicated in this research, the study will examine how general philosophical concepts of human behavior and action are reinforced or undermined by scientific research. The empirical studies analyzed address aggression and sexual orientation. In the previous, epistemological, phase of the study, the investigator developed an analytic matrix to tabulate characteristic questions, investigative methodologies, and assumptions characterizing the different approaches. This enabled her to characterize the ways central behavioral concepts are operationalized, the different questions the approaches (can) investigate, the methods and data characteristic of each approach, the distinctive and shared assumptions that support interpretations of the data. The social and cultural analysis she plans to undertake in the second phase, consists of studying explicit and implicit valuations of the behavior and the philosophical concepts of human action and volition embedded in the research. These can be found in summations and review articles that indicate the perceived significance of the work and the presentation of behaviors as targets of control or encouragement. They are also discernable in choice of journals in which to publish and the institutions funding the work. By looking both at how the researchers represent their research to a larger public and how it is taken up, the investigator will identify 1) the social interests served by the kind of knowledge sought in the research and 2) the more general conceptions of human action and responsibility that are implied in particular ways of thinking about the behaviors studied. A central hypothesis of this study is that the salience and the fascination of the nature-nurture debate in connection with behaviors such as those whose investigation it follows keeps attention on the etiology of individual behavior rather than on the phenomena conceived in ways that might different policy implications. This hypothesis will be investigated by examining 1) the continuity of conceptions of behavior through different discursive contexts and 2) how controversies concerning the empirical study of human behavior are represented in those contexts. By then attending to and evaluating the representations of the policy implications articulated by the authors whose work is examined, the author will bring the results of this study to bear on social and political questions concerning behavioral research.

该项目有两个方面：对人类行为科学的四种方法进行比较认识论分析，并分析工作的社会和文化影响。认识论分析的重点是通过分析这些方法和探究的前提来理解这些方法所提供的人类行为知识的种类。社会文化分析的重点是了解科学研究在更大的背景下对社会和文化关注的反应方式，以及在这种背景下进行研究的方式。这项研究的重点是研究旨在了解个人行为的近因，以及生物学方法或通常与生物学研究形成对比或被视为与生物学研究竞争的方法。因此，本研究调查1）行为遗传学（包括经典和分子），2）行为解剖学和生理学，3）发展心理学，4）发展和动态系统理论。这些方法与当代关于先天/后天的争论最为密切相关。除了确定本研究中涉及的直接社会问题外，本研究还将研究人类行为和行动的一般哲学概念如何通过科学研究得到加强或破坏。实证研究分析了地址攻击和性取向。在研究的前一个认识论阶段，研究者开发了一个分析矩阵，将不同方法的特征问题、研究方法和假设制成表格。这使她能够描述核心行为概念的操作方式，方法（可以）调查的不同问题，每种方法的方法和数据特征，支持数据解释的独特和共享的假设。她计划在第二阶段进行的社会和文化分析包括研究对行为的显性和隐性评价以及研究中嵌入的人类行为和意志的哲学概念。这些可以在总结和评论文章中找到，这些文章指出了工作的感知意义，并将行为作为控制或鼓励的目标。在选择发表的期刊和资助工作的机构方面，也可以看出它们。通过观察研究人员如何向更广泛的公众展示他们的研究以及如何进行研究，研究人员将确定1）研究中寻求的知识所服务的社会利益，以及2）对人类行为和责任的更普遍的概念，这些概念隐含在对所研究行为的特定思考方式中。本研究的一个中心假设是，与行为相关的先天-后天争论的突出性和魅力，比如它所遵循的调查，使人们关注个体行为的病因，而不是以可能不同的政策含义的方式设想的现象。这一假设将通过以下方式进行研究：1）通过不同的话语语境，行为概念的连续性; 2）关于人类行为的实证研究的争议如何在这些语境中表现出来。然后，通过关注和评估作者所阐述的政策含义的陈述，作者将把这项研究的结果带到与行为研究有关的社会和政治问题上。