Quote:
Originally Posted by Energy
Are you talking about EXACTNESS?
What I learned, and Wikipedia helps me organize those thoughts, is that "validity is the extent to which a concept, conclusion or measurement is well-founded and corresponds accurately to the real world".
There is an element of reasonableness here, sometimes there will be outliers.
In business, for example, I remember from a marketing class that social science studies show that a grocery store or retail outlet is can be organized in many different ways. One way a grocery store like Safeway is arranged is that all the meat and dairy are in the back, which forces people to pass through the stuff they don't need like snacks and chips.
This was proven to be a result that accurately represents normal behavior. Of course, there might be people that are in a rush or just want their milk but that doesn't make the results any less valid.
So how is this any less useful than something you can prove 100% of the time?
You mention empiricism and reproducibility, the studies that led to the conclusion above meet both those requirements.
There you have an example of how social science can lead to practical results businesses have used to turn make money.
(my example is from what I remember from class years ago, it might not be exactly what we were taught but the idea is there).
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lol, by making this post, you essentially reinforced my original point of university failing to teach critical learning. scientific validity is a cornerstone of the scientific method, how did you not learn this in school?
