TWO APPROACHES TO SOCIAL SCIENCE

There are two distinct bases on which contributions in the social sciences can be constructed. The first can be termed the “cumulative” approach. Here, one takes as a point of departure the most closely related scientific work done by previous theoreticians and researchers and attempts to build upon it. The contrasting approach can be called the “phenomenon” approach. Here one begins with the clearest instance of the phenomenon in general and attempts to construct a social-scientific explanation, and program of research, based upon a thorough understanding of the phenomenon.

The study of intelligence provides a ready example of these two approaches. In the cumulative approach, researchers begin with earlier attempts to operationalize intelligence - typically through standardized tests - and then they either correlate psychometric intelligence with some other variable of interest (say, creativity or success at work) or vary the actual tests in some way. In the phenomenon approach, the investigator begins with an unambiguous example of intelligent behavior and then tries to derive social-scientific principles there-from. Such otherwise diverse instances as Wertheimer's (1945) Gestalt examination of Einstein's thinking process and de Groot's (1965) cognitive approach to chess players reflect the latter approach.

These two approaches have also been manifest in studies of creativity. While there have been earlier efforts to look at creative thought and production (Freud, 1958; Ghiselin, 1952; H.A. Murray, 1938), sustained psychological work began only with the postwar studies of Getzels and Jackson (1962), Guilford (1950), Torrance (1962), and their colleagues.