Science Game: An Introduction to Research in the Social Sciences

On all too rare occasions a book appears on the scene that, without exceptions, is essential and must reading for everyone. Neil McK. Agnew's and Sandra Pyke's "The Science Game" is just such a book. It is a formidable challenge to explain why in a very brief review. I hope that the following imagined conversation between a grandfather and his grandchildren will explain why. Grandkids: Gramps haven't you learned anything in your life time that you want us to know so we do not have to spend a lifetime to relearn it? Gramps: Emphatically yes! Life is a game of chance and uncertainty into which you are born. There are rules and patterns in the game that you must discover and apply as you are playing the game. The rules and patterns are not self evident, defy common sense, and most often are in conflict with what our senses tell us. You have to know how to arrive at "truth" in order to place your bets. You, and everyone else in the world are playing the "truth game", and you need instructions how to play it. The best introduction that I have ever read on how the truth game works, and how to play it, is Neil McK Agnew's and Sandra Pyke's, "The Science Game". Of necessity we are all behavioral and social scientists. We have no alternative, and most of the time we are pretty good behavioral and social scientists. Unfortunately the goal of the science game is learn how to go beyond the limits of our senses in order to discover what is not self evident and common sense that will help us in making decisions and bets in our day-to-day affairs. So it becomes incumbent upon us to keep abreast of what is discovered that defies, and is in conflict with common sense, and learn how to apply it in the game of chance and uncertainty in which we are all trapped. Unfortunately success in the science game leads us into inescapable paradoxes with which we have to learn to live. We are faced with living with the truth of what our senses tell us, and concurrently the truth of what we have accessed that goes beyond the limits of our senses that we have accessed through the science game, both paradoxically being right and in conflict with each other at the same time. So the most important thing that I can bring to your attention is a warning. Danger! As the science game progresses you will be confronted with discovering how to live with inescapable paradoxes. You will be "paraboxed". (A word I've invented that will permit you to talk about and identify and define a problem, which is the first step towards solving the problem.) Being "paraboxed" is very unhealthy and can lead to dire consequences. It is incumbent upon you, as early in your life as possible, that you become aware of being "paraboxed" and give much thought on what you can do about it. The place to start is with "The Science Game", particularly Chapter 2, "Big Puzzles, Small Brains", and Chapter 16, "The Truth Spinners". Grandkids: Thanks a lot Gramps! We thought that you would tell us something

The Science Game is back in a 7th edition. Hallelujah! I can now retire my much thumbed copy of the 6th edition that appeared in 1994. I wondered what had happened to the authors and feared the worst. I fear no more. The new Science Game is every bit as good as previous editions and better. The authors approach the topic very much as the name implies, carefully pointing out the trials and tribulations of researchers and the often tortured path they must tread to reach a goal of valid results. The text covers all the essentials of social science research methodology and does so in such an entertaining way that you almost forget you are reading a text book. And if I may dare say it has applications beyond research to decision making in general. I heartily recommend the text for anyone teaching in the area or even to the general reader who wants to comprehend the research process.