How much certainty can be achieved in the human sciences?

Human sciences corresponds to humanities and social sciences, one of the key aspects of this area of knowledge is how we gather information studying human behavior.

Extended Reading

SAT/ACT article: http://www.npr.org/2014/02/18/277059528/college-applicants-sweat-the-sats-perhaps-they-shouldn-t

• Not all humans can be generalized based on one test.
• Many factors that play a role so the conclusion will not be accurate.
• There are so many factors that influence human behaviour so you cannot generalize human observation on one test/study.
• For example, for SAT it is not a reliable test to judge a student's academic ability. There are so many factors that play a role in determining a student’s SAT score. For example:
• How they are feeling that day, tired or sick?
• Certain questions that are asked
• Nervous
• Some people are generally not as good at standardized tests

I enjoyed reading this extended reading piece because it was very relatable to my life. Right now as juniors we are studying for the SAT/ACT and being told that this is one of the main tests that colleges look at for acceptance. I found that a lot of the information in the article was similar to what I have thought about before and so it was interesting to see the studies showing this.

Complete certainty cannot be achieved in the human sciences because there are many different variables that influence human behavior. This question was addressed in an article published by NPR that discusses the debate regarding standardized testing and how accurately this portrays a student's academic ability. The article states that many colleges are steering away from using these tests, based on the fact that “Human intelligence is so multifaceted, so complex, so varied, that no standardized testing system can be expected to capture it.” Certainty of one’s academic ability cannot be obtained from these tests because of the inability to generalize humans and take in account the many variables playing a role in their behavior. In conclusion, certainty cannot be achieved in the human sciences because of variables limiting the ability to have one study or test aimed at completely understanding a person’s behavior.

Knowledge Questions:

• To what extent can we be certain about knowledge in the human sciences?
• What does it mean for a discipline to be a science?
• How reliable is observation in the human sciences?

This was my original paragraph that we revised and went over in class, from this paragraph I realized that all of these questions are similar and are connected, therefore can be answered similarly.

How reliable is observation in the human sciences?

Observation is not very reliable in the human sciences because there are so many different factors that play a role in determining a person’s behavior or characteristics. This question was addressed in an article published by npr that discusses the debate regarding standardized testing and how accurately this portrays a student's academic ability. The article states that many colleges are steering away from using these tests because of the fact that humans are very complex and this can not be seen in a standardized test. It states that “Human intelligence is so multifaceted, so complex, so varied, that no standardized testing system can be expected to capture it.” This builds on the fact that there are many factors that play a role in determining a student’s academic ability that all cannot be accounted for in one three hour test. This article ties back to the main question in that an observation, which is the standardized testing, cannot aim to completely understand these aspects of a person. Humans are difficult to study because they cannot be generalized and there is not one way in which observation can understand personality and behavior.