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Science at Risk- Midterm 1
Midterm 1
30
Sociology
Undergraduate 1
10/18/2010

Additional Sociology Flashcards

 


 

Cards

Term

 

Social reproduction of science careers

 

Definition

 

the process in which individuals enter the scientific field as a result of exposure to science at an early age

 

Term

Uncoordinated system for science funding

Definition

no central system for funding/budget for American science. Lack of funding priorities

Term

Demarcation problem

Definition

How is science bounded from non-science (preserving careers, protecting from politics, keeping out pseudoscience)

Term

Matthew effect

Definition

In science is the observation that credit tends to go to those who are already famous, at the expense of those who are not.
For example, if a paper is written by a team of researchers, only one of whom is well known in the field, readers will tend to refer to the article by the alpha scientist’s name even if it is far back in the authorial pack.

Term

Matilda effect

Definition

Women’s accomplishments overwhelmed by men’s accomplishments

Term

“Deficit model” as defined by Mooney

Definition

  • Lack of public understanding of science
  • Talking down to public
  • Assumes if they understood the science they will always agree

Term

Institutions

Definition

social practices that are regularly and continuously repeated, are sanctioned and maintained by social norms

Term

 

Norm of universalism

 

Definition

 

pre-established criterion, pre-defined set of observations and rules of science
Universalism requires that when a scientist offers a contribution to scientific knowledge, the community's assessment of the validity of that claim should not be influenced by personal or social attributes of the scientist and should be subject to "pre-established impersonal criteria"

 

Term

Norm of communalism

Definition

collective effort of scientific community; peer review: test if it’s good and they decide whether or not to publish

Term

Reification

Definition

general culture values to be seen as natural IE: gender roles become biological

Term

OECD nation

Definition

a nation that is part of the Organization for Co-operation and Economic Development, an international group whose goal is to improve the global economy

Term

Hegemony

Definition

Marxist notion/ predominant influence by one person/ group over society

Term

 

PISA (Program for International Student Assessment)

 

Definition

a triennial survey (with a science focus) of the knowledge and skills of 15-year-olds that is used to develop valid comparisons across countries and cultures

Term

Levels of analysis

Definition

The outcome of an independent variable and how broad or narrow that given outcome may be

Term

Science self-concept

Definition

how an individual perceives themselves to be in the field of science IE: science self-esteem

Term

Out of field teaching

Definition

teachers who are teaching outside of their declared field

Term

Labeling effect

Definition

the effect that placing a label on someone, such as “bad student” will cause that label to come true. Similar to a self-fulfilling prophecy

Term

Institutional review board

Definition

a board that reviews the ethics of the procedures of research done on humans in order to insure the well-being of the subject

Term

Restricted code for science/religion discussion

Definition

a limited ability to communicate ideas about complicated subjects. IE: Scientists who are unable to properly distinguish religions

Term

  1. What is a “Civic Scientist?” What are the challenges to developing more civic scientists?(Your answer should define a civic scientist, use examples from class AND GUEST SPEAKERS, and define some challenges to developing more civic scientists).

Definition

Civic Scientist: Scientist who appeals to the public by presenting information to the public through schools, churches, or by using the media to get the public interested and aware of issues occurring in the scientific community.

Dr Neal Lane:

Challenges: Social sciences are especially at risk because they doubt their findings, don’t object as much to the mathematicians or physicists because they don’t understand what they are doing. Biomedical sciences are starting to encounter issues because of the ethical issues they might pose.
It takes extra work to simplify complex subjects, don’t have time, being too popular can be bad. “Power, rewards, funding, prestige.”

Term

  1. How does Peterson define disciplinary imperialism and what does he find problematic about the scientific disciplines being imperialistic (include the concepts of “lower level disciplines,” “higher levels disciplines” and “scientism” in your answers)

Definition

Scientism: science is only real source of knowledge: everything else not defined with science does not exist; material or naturalist entities are the most fundamental.
-Ex: defining love in terms of science
Lower level disciplines: Physics and chem
Higher level disciplines: Philosophy
Disciplinary Imperialism: When a lower level discipline takes over a higher level discipline and reduced it.

Term

  1. What do Evans and Evans (2008) mean when they say that the “epistemological conflict narrative” has dominated studies of science and religion and what (based on their article) have been challenges to the epistemological conflict narrative?

Definition

  • The “epistemological conflict narrative” assumes religion and science always conflict and that they conflict over competing truth claims about the world.
  • Religion is decreasingly concerned with the truth of the natural world is also a normative position of some in the theology and science debates, most notably Gould (1997), who argued that religion and science should be en- gaged in different activities of truth making and meaning making.
  • Religion and science rarely conflict
    • Most of the truth claims of religion are not publicly contested by science.
    • There is no research agenda within science to show that human resurrection is impossible, so the incompatibility of truth claims on this topic remains fully hypothetical and thus unlikely to enter the mind of the average religious person.

Term

  1. How does the Merton thesis explain the rise of science? (Your answer should include a basic discussion of Puritanism and the relationship of rational calculation to the rise of science)

Definition

Dominant cultural values expressed in Puritanism contributed to the rise of science.  Puritanism prioritized values such as diligence in order to achieve salvation (protestant work ethic), as well as empiricism and experimentation.  These cultural values complemented science rather than conflicted with it, as visible in the use of the scientific method.  Religious affiliation can be seen as the independent variable in a sociological study, and the growth of science is the corresponding dependent variable.

Term

  1. If we care about equal access to science education, name 2-3 current barriers (as discussed in the course so far) to equal science education access in the US. If, as a nation, we care only about being the world leader in scientific innovation what would be the best strategy to achieve this? Defend your answer using concepts from the course.  (The Program for International Student Assessment, Sept. 14)

Definition

Challenges in Access

  • Different resources lead to different levels of access
    • Allocation differences in funding
    • Private and Public School Disparities
  • Geographic differences in school resources
    • Higher minority concentration in poorer schools (urban areas)
    • Extreme poverty in rural areas
    • Students who need most help get least
  • Staffing
    • Shortage of Qualified Teachers
  • Poverty
    • Lack of basic resources
    • Free breakfast and exercise increase science performance

Challenges in Urban Schools

  • Immigrant students
    • Reduced English proficiency
  • High mobility
    • Poorer children are likely to move more
    • Lack of consistent mentors

What can be done if we only care about being the world leader in science?

  • Specialized education compared to general education
    • Ex. Vocational and trade schools in Europe where not all 15 year olds study math/science

Term

  1. How do Goodstein’s three motives/risk factors for fraud in science relate to the Hwang and Milken examples? (Your answer should list the three motives and whether each could be applied to Hwang and Milken)

Definition

1)      Career pressure – Hwang received national praise for first reported success in human somatic cell cloning; subordinates under Hwang also felt pressure and kept fudging data; Millikan took credit for sole authorship of paper on electric charge that would establish his reputation (Goodstein 33)

2)      Replication difficult – somatic cell nuclear transfer is rare/hard to reproduce

3)      Knew or thought they knew the answer – Millikan selected data that met his hypothesis and said the drops reported were the only ones he measured (Goodstein 35)

Term

 

What is sociology and how is it relevant to the study of science? What is the sociology of science? (Your answer should include explanation of the larger theoretical questions sociologists generally ask and the types of methodologies sociologists employ, levels of analysis, institutions, norms and scope conditions and your answer should include explanation of the two views of the social construction of science that we discussed in the course, and key questions asked by sociologists of science.

 

Definition

 

-Sociology: the scientific study of how groups and group processes influence the life of society and the life of the individual.
Larger theoretical questions sociologists generally ask: How do groups come to exist? How do groups sustain themselves? How do groups maintain boundaries?
Types of methodologies sociologists employ:
-surveying, interviews, historical methods
-comparisons between nations/ groups
-comparative methods
-have an idea, find data
-deductive: hypothesis testing, coming to the data with an idea and working backwards to get it
-inductive: have data and think about why
Institutionalization how do social practices become sufficiently regular to described as institutions?
From wiki: widely used in social theory to refer to the process of embedding something (for example a concept, a social role, a particular value or mode of behavior) within an organization, social system, or society as a whole.
Norms agreed upon group processes for social behavior
Scope conditions bounds around theoretical assertions. Under what conditions does the theory work?
-Social scientists (and sociologists in particular) are concerned with the social construction of science)
1.) Some social scientists see science as “socially constructed” to some extent
2.) Some social scientists are interested in examining the social aspects of science, how science is organized, etc.

 

Term

 

How do societal concerns about ethics have an impact on science? (Your answer should include discussion of two of the dominant ways that scientists understand ethics and explain three of the central areas that provide ethical conundrums for science. You should also give an example where ethical concerns might limit or negatively affect research AND an example where ethical concerns might appropriately limit the scope of science?  Embryonic stem cell research should be discussed in your answer).

 

Definition

  • Ethics are the rules or standards governing the conduct of a person or the conduct of members of a profession
    • Types of Ethics:
      • žDescriptive: An empirical investigation of people’s moral beliefs; How individuals understand/describe the moral (matters of right and wrong in different contexts) issues important to them
      • žNormative: Principled or theoretical approaches to morality
  •  
    •  
      • Ex: descriptive ethics would be concerned with determining what proportion of people believe that killing is always wrong, while normative ethics is concerned with whether it is correct to hold such a belief.
  • Ethical conundrums
    • Embryonic research
    • AIDS research in Africa
    • Consent - Tuskegee syphilis study
    • Genetic research (Evans and Hudson)
    • Research with industry – conflicts of interest

Term

 

What is evolution and what kind of legal, philosophical, religious, and scientific challenges does intelligent design pose to the theory of evolution? What are some of the various ways that scientists have responded to religious challenges to evolution? (Your answer should include discussion of the theory of evolution and fact of evolution, natural selection, genetic drift, methodological naturalism, theistic realism, 1987 Case of Edwards V. Aguillard, 2005 Tammy Kitzmiller, et al. v. Dover Area School District, et al, Phillip Johnson, Michael Behe, William Dembski, and The Wedge Document)

 

Definition

 

Evolution is generally thought of as explanation for development of life on earth.
  • Natural Selection
    • Heritable traits that are helpful for survival and reproduction to become more common in a population, and harmful traits to become more rare
  • Genetic Drift
    • The similarities between organisms suggest that all known species are (or ancestral gene pool)
  • Evolution as a theory and a fact
    • Fact: micro evolutionary processes observed in the lab
    • Theory: scientific explanation of how processes occur
  • Intelligent Design
    • Certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not a process such as natural selection, irreducible complexity, “God of the gaps”
  • Methodological realism= philosophical desire to overturn the idea that all phenomena can be explained in terms of natural causes and laws
  • Idea of theistic realism: true knowledge begins with God as creator
  • 1987 Case of Edwards V. Aguillard
  •  
    • A Louisiana law requiring that creation science be taught in public schools along with evolution was ruled unconstitutional because law was intended to advance a particular religion. Teaching a variety of scientific theories about evolution might be done.
  • 2005 Tammy Kitzmiller, et al. v. Dover Area School District

Parents sued the school district over a statement that the school board required be read aloud when evolution was taught. Argument of the court was that intelligent design is not science and can not uncouple itself from creationist antecedents

  • Phillip Johnson, Michael Behe, William Dembski, and The Wedge Document
    • Political and social action plan authored by Discovery Institute
    • Reverse the stifling materialist world view

 

Term

Based on the Science Vs. Religion book, what kinds of information/data can social science methods and theories bring to the religion and science debates? (Your answer should include a discussion of how Merton’s ideas about the normative structure of science help us understand why some scientists might not be religious believers, three core ways that sociologists of religion understand individual religiosity and how this framework helps us understand religion (or lack thereof) among scientists as well as compare the religiosity of scientists to that of the general public).

Definition

-          how Merton’s ideas about the normative structure of science help us understand why some scientists might not be religious believers
o   the community of science all adheres to same norms/guidelines about appropriate behavior about what constitutes good science.  Scientists are united by a constant questioning of the truth (scientific norm) whereas religious groups united by acceptance of beliefs (Ecklund 37)
o   another scientific norm is disinterest/lack of agenda, which contrasts with religion, which has personal bias (Ecklund 17)
o   Scientists think science is only true form of knowledge and judge religion according to the strict norms of science
- three core ways that sociologists of religion understand individual religiosity and how this framework helps us understand religion (or lack thereof) among scientists and compare the religiosity of scientists to that of the general public)
o   1. Beliefs: 36% of scientists believe in God versus 94% public
o   2. practices: 18% scientists attend reli services 1+ times/mth versus 46% gen pop
o   3.  identities 54% scientists had no reli affiliation versus 16% gen population
o   breaking up religiosity into those three modes enables sociologists to make more accurate comparisons to other populations

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