What's Behind the Research?: Discovering Hidden Assumptions in the Behavioral Sciences

By: Dr Brent D. Slife and Dr Richard N. Williams

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Synopsis: This volume encourages students to engage in critical thinking by exploring the main assumptions upon which behavioral science theories are based and offering some alternatives to these assumptions. The text begins with a review and critique of the major theoretical approaches: psychoanalysis, behaviorism, humanism, cognitivism, eclecticism, structuralism and postmodernism. The authors then discuss the key assumptions underlying these theories - knowing, determinism, reductionism and science. They trace the intellectual history of these assumptions and offer contrasting options. The book concludes by examining ways of coming to terms with some of the inadequacies in the assumptions of the behavioral sciences.