SOME DIALECTICS OF SOCIAL SCIENCE
    Idiographic and Nomothetic Explanation
    Inductive and Deductive Theory
    Qualitative and Quantitative Data

    In this course, you will discover that social research can follow numerous paths.  This section of the book describes some of the major possibilities.

    When you explain all the reasons that went into your choice of a college to attend and the reasons why you decided against others, we feel we fully understand your choice.  This is an example of idiographic explanation: fully understanding a single case, or maybe a few cases.  When we discover that most people based their choice of college on just a few variables--say, location, cost, and quality--that's an example of nomothetic explanation: a partial understanding of some phenomenon in general.  Both modes are legitimate approaches to social research.

    In an inductive inquiry, we begin with some observations and try to identify some general pattern that might lead to the development of a theory.  You might interview a number of people who support a particular candidate to discover what they have in common.  Ultimately, we might formulate a theory about support for that candidate.  A deductive inquiry begin with a theory, from which we derive hypotheses for testing through observation.  Our theory might suggest the candidate's appeal was based in racial bigotry.  We might test that theory through a survey in which we determine whether prejudiced people were more likely to support the candidate that the nonprejudiced.  Science proveeds through both induction and deduction.

    Finally, some social research is sometimes quantitative (involving statistical analyses) and sometimes qualitative (without statistical analyses).  Both are legitimate scientific approaches.