What's Behind the Research?
Discovering Hidden Assumptions in the Behavioral Sciences
- Brent D. Slife - Brigham Young University, Provo, USA
- Richard N. Williams - Brigham Young University, Provo, USA
Essays/Dissertations (PG)
The text begins with a review and critique of the major theoretical approaches: psychoanalysis, behaviourism, 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 behavioural sciences.
This book is well structured and methodically written. It takes a complex topic and makes it 'easy' to understand through clear, logical and concise writing.