The problem we have with the social sciences is that we don't have good general theories to make sense of the experiments. Think of Newton's laws of motion. We could do a few experiments and calculate g and frictional coefficients and then we could know the answers to a whole class of problems. We don't have to do experiments on how fast a x kg block will slide down an inclined plane for every value of x.
Having a theory also enables us to get more out of a single experiment. Think about how the Michelson–Morley experiment led to Einstein's theory of relativity and all it's implications.
We don't have any such framework for the social sciences. We have trouble generalizing from the results of one experiment to another experiment with the situations slightly altered.
Having a theory also enables us to get more out of a single experiment. Think about how the Michelson–Morley experiment led to Einstein's theory of relativity and all it's implications.
We don't have any such framework for the social sciences. We have trouble generalizing from the results of one experiment to another experiment with the situations slightly altered.