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Ethological Methods for Observing Small Group Political Decision Making

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 May 2016

James N. Schubert
James N. Schubert*
Affiliation:
Division of Social Sciences, Alfred University, Alfred, New York 14802
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Extract

Students of biopolitics and others are concerned with the relevance and contribution of this emergent subfield to the traditional or “normal” problems of more established areas in the discipline of political science (Hines, 1982; Blank, 1982). My article addresses this issue by illustrating how ethological methods of inquiry can be applied in research on collective political decision making in small groups. (Watts, 1981). Rather than presenting a final methodology and set of findings fait accompli, my primary purpose is heuristic and developmental-that is, to contribute to critical discussion, awareness, and application of alternative field research methods in political science.

Type
Articles and Commentaries
Information
Politics and the Life Sciences , Volume 2 , Issue 1 , August 1983 , pp. 3 - 19
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Politics and the Life Sciences 

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References

Notes

1. See the State of Illinois Attorney General's Guide to the Open Meetings Act (revised January 1, 1982).Google Scholar

2. Barber acknowledged the desirability of observing groups in the field, but the events data recording equipment of the 1960s was just impractical for studying formal political bodies (see alsoSchubert, , 1982a).Google Scholar

3. Wiegele, (1978) has focused directly on this “leakage” concept in his studies of presidential stress during international crises.Google Scholar

4. Size of group is a seldom-studied factor (McGrath, 1978), but one with potential theoretical significance—especially for political ethology (McGuire, , 1982; Francis, , 1982).Google Scholar

5. For instance, the latest Radio Shack pocket computer has a keyboard-addressable clock, can interface with two cassette recorders, has an 8K internal RAM memory (sufficient to store live event and time data for a two-to-three-hour meeting), and can be purchased with a serial interface.Google Scholar

6. SeeLehner, (1979) for descriptions of the equipment used n the 1960s and 1970s.Google Scholar

7. SeeRummel's, (1968) comments on the importance of observing interactive relationships at the dyadic level.Google Scholar

8. A substantial research literature and theoretical controversy centers on the role of attention in social dominance (Chance, , et al., 1976; Abramovitch, , 1980; Masters, , 1981; Schubert, , 1983a; Jones, , 1983).Google Scholar

9. Voting data will be presented in Table 4 and discussed in detail below.Google Scholar