Social science methodology: A unified framework

Social science methodology: A unified framework

Social Science Methodology is the new thoroughly rewritten version of the successful first edition (subtitled: ‘A Criterial Framework’). In the introductory chapter, Gerring introduces the reader to the issue of epistemological and methodological pluralism in the social sciences and presents his view of a unified framework, which consists of three distinct tasks associated with, respectively, h...

A Unified Framework for the Social Sciences

This paper offers four main arguments about the nature of causation in the social sciences. First, contrary to most recent work, I argue that there is a unitary conception of causation: a cause raises the probability of an event. This understanding of causation, borrowed from but not wedded to Bayesian inference, provides common semantic ground on which to base a reconstruction of causation. I ...

Developments in Social Science Methodology

In this article, the results of a modified SERVQUAL questionnaire (Parasuraman et al., 1991) are reported. The modifications consisted in substituting questionnaire items particularly suited to a specific service (banking) and context (county of Girona, Spain) for the original rather general and abstract items. These modifications led to more interpretable factors which accounted for a higher p...

On the Prospects for a Unified Social Science

Causation a Unified Framework for the Social Sciences

This paper offers four main arguments about the nature of causation in the social sciences. First, contrary to most recent work, I argue that there is a unitary conception of causation: a cause raises the probability of an event. This understanding of causation, borrowed from but not wedded to Bayesian inference, provides common semantic ground on which to base a reconstruction of causation. I ...