When seeking evidence in child welfare, what types of objectivity and subjectivity are desirable or feasible?

Eileen MunroMay 2012

Outline

What are we worried about?What claims are made about objectivity?A bit of historyWhat aspects of subjectivity do people want

to avoid?Where do and should values play a part?Where does objectivity fit in whole process of

EBP?

What are we worried about?

• Being ineffective in helping families

• Imposing our values and beliefs on less powerful social groups

‘More layers of meaning than a mille-feuille’ Daston & Gallison, 2010

• Ontological claim:– An objective world of particulars independent

of experience

• Character claim:– Impartiality, detachment, disinterestedness,

and a willingness to submit to evidence

• Epistemological claim: – beliefs, judgments, or products of thought

about what is really the case

A bit of history

Late 18th century concept emerges in science:Truth-to-nature

Mechanical objectivity

Trained judgments

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Truth-to-nature

Species Archetype

Mechanical objectivity

Trained judgment

3 different goals when talking of ‘objectivity’

1. eliminating the subject

2. value freedom

3. getting it right

The subjectivity of the scientist

• Any methodology makes assumptions about how is science is done and the character of the scientist

• Values– Honesty– Willingness to be influenced by the evidence– Disinterested

Eliminating the subject

• Relatively recent aspiration in science

• Wanting to avoid – standpoint claims – things that are true from

one perspective but not another– Moral claim– Individual views, preferences etc– First person experience – what it feels like to

be abused

Where does the subjective influence research?

• Choice of question– Maltreatment arises from multiple factors,

some structural, some individual– Where to focus change effort?– How to define ‘success’ – a value

• Choice of method– manualisable

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The ‘view from nowhere’ and social reality

• T Nagel: “A view or form of thought is more objective than another if it relies less on the specifics of the individual’s makeup and position in the world, or on the character of the particular type of creature he is.”

The construction of social reality

• Core concepts – maltreatment, family, money – are socially constructed and vary over time and from one place to another

• Limits generalisability

• Will more theory help by capturing key component in differing social constructions?

The subjectivity of standardisation

Reasons to standardise:– Most accurate measure -theoretical

agreement– Inter-rater agreement in research, operational

definitions– Inter-subjective agreement – who is asked?– Mistrust of judgment– Imposing preference

Mistrust

• Judgments are seen as too variable, potentially biased, unfair

• Regulatory authorities like standardisation

• Distrust of those selling a finding – drug companies, social interventions

• Judgments carry responsibility – the more blaming the culture, the more attractive rule-following looks

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Where values might play a role in science

1. In the ‘early stages’ (Douglas’s term): In the set-up and conduct of science.

2. In standards of acceptance for knowledge claims.

3. In the effects of science.

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1. Legitimate locales for direct roles for moral values: early stages?

Douglas argues that in the early stages moral (and ‘cognitive’) values can – indeed, should – be invoked as independent reasons (i.e. direct role) in social or individual decisions about

• What projects to undertake. • How much to invest.• What questions to ask.• Aspects of methodology.

Standards for acceptance

• Since scientific methods under-determine what we should accept as true, then we need something to fill in the gap

• Are these locally developed, historically conditioned?

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3. The effects of science

Three views– Learning the truth trumps all (or, within bounds of

acceptable methods of search).– Kitcher: science – and scientists – have a

(defeasible) obligation not to create knowledge that will predictably be misused.

– Everything is so unpredictable that this obligation can generally be ignored.

-end of presentation-

Use in child welfare

• Actuarial risk assessment tools used to determine action

• Evidence-based practices applied with limited or no consent

What if there is no ‘view from nowhere’?

“The worry is that unless there are universal principles governing the procedures that make for objectivity, or at least some very general principles, then…Well, I don’t know how to finish that sentence, but I know that…something bad is supposed to follow, probably something that involves relativism and irrationalism” (Fine,

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An alternative view: sailors at sea

Otto Neurath: “We are like sailors who have to rebuild their ship on open sea, without ever being able to dismantle it in dry dock and reconstruct it from the best components.” (‘Physicalism’, The Monist, 1931)

This applies both to• The planks we use: the ‘facts’ we take as known• The building plan: the rules for induction

References

Daston, L. & Galison, P. (2010) Objectivity, New York, Zone Books.

Fine, A. (1998 ) ‘The viewpoint of no-one in particular’, American Philosophical Association, 72, 2, 7-20.

Nagel, T. (1986) The View from Nowhere, Oxford University Press.

Porter, T. (1995) Trust in Numbers, The Pursuit of Objectivity in Science and Public Life, Princeton University Press.