ESCP Europe

Aimed at facilitating critical theoretical thinking in the behavioral sciences, What′s Behind the Research? explores the main assumptions that behavioral science theories are based on and offers some alternatives to these assumptions. The book begins with a review of the major theoretical approaches in the behavioral sciences (psychoanalysis, behaviorism, humanism, cognitivism, eclecticism, structuralism, and postmodernism) and examines which assumptions are made versus those that are overlooked in these theories. The next four chapters reveal and discuss the key assumptions of the theories (knowing, determinism, reductionism, and science) by tracing the intellectual history of these conceptions, followed by a presentation of contrasting options. The book concludes with an examination of possible ways to come to terms with some of the inadequacies in the assumptions of the behavioral sciences. Readers will find that this book will enable them to make better choices in doing their research and in critical theoretical thinking.