The Role of Subjectivity in the Investigation Design and the Application of Results in Social Sciences. A Reflection
A Reflection
Keywords:
subjectivity, behavior, mind, first-person, methodology, metamodelAbstract
Social Sciences hardly address subjectivity. Research procedures cancel it by using a big sample, to obtain generalizable results. Very often too, subjectivity is withdrawn at the moment of applying scientific results. This is a real problem where we are dealing with persons’ behavior and results must be applied thereto. To overcome this problem, this paper offers a metamodel of a systemic consideration of subjectivity. We propose to differentiate three dimensions of subjectivity which are simultaneously present in human agency: the behavioral, the mental and the personal. The personal dimension, the deepest one, includes three systemic aspects: personal identity, relational intention, and existential positioning. We think this systemic view can contribute both to the study of general dynamics and to the application of the general results to a concrete subject.
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