I think the key difference is whether or not the parents provide the answers.
I meant college professors--and by that I mean, advanced degrees (masters and phd)--but perhaps I should qualify that further as 'those who teach in branches which rely on statistical sciences'. Psychology, industrial management, economics, anthropology, sociology, etc--all of these, at some point during the course of grad school--will have to do extensive comparative studies on the information gathered.
From a lifetime of knowing college professors of various ilks (including both parents), it seems that gathering information is the numero uno stage, and is not to be stopped once you've reached a satisfactory conclusion, but continued to the point that the evidence is unsatisfactory (in the sense of disproving one's theory). Those in the analytical sciences begin a hypothesis, in part, to test whether this hypothesis will/can be disproven. If it can, it's amended and tested again, or thrown out and something new is tried. The long-term submersion in the academic culture means this 'gathering information' is never left behind. With every new class of students, the teacher's process begins again. That's going to have a huge impact on how one parents, IME.
Given that my parents believe that "being called An Authority doesn't make someone Right," I'm not surprised my father likes to say, "check your sources." That necessarily includes all those who may/do disagree with your pet hypothesis. If you only read up on agreeing sources, that's not research. That's just mental masturbation.
*snerk* Yes, that last sentence is a quote from my mother.
no subject
Date: 11 Mar 2005 06:15 pm (UTC)I meant college professors--and by that I mean, advanced degrees (masters and phd)--but perhaps I should qualify that further as 'those who teach in branches which rely on statistical sciences'. Psychology, industrial management, economics, anthropology, sociology, etc--all of these, at some point during the course of grad school--will have to do extensive comparative studies on the information gathered.
From a lifetime of knowing college professors of various ilks (including both parents), it seems that gathering information is the numero uno stage, and is not to be stopped once you've reached a satisfactory conclusion, but continued to the point that the evidence is unsatisfactory (in the sense of disproving one's theory). Those in the analytical sciences begin a hypothesis, in part, to test whether this hypothesis will/can be disproven. If it can, it's amended and tested again, or thrown out and something new is tried. The long-term submersion in the academic culture means this 'gathering information' is never left behind. With every new class of students, the teacher's process begins again. That's going to have a huge impact on how one parents, IME.
Given that my parents believe that "being called An Authority doesn't make someone Right," I'm not surprised my father likes to say, "check your sources." That necessarily includes all those who may/do disagree with your pet hypothesis. If you only read up on agreeing sources, that's not research. That's just mental masturbation.
*snerk* Yes, that last sentence is a quote from my mother.