The Politics of Research Methodology in Claims-Making Activities: Social Science and Sexual Harassment

Abstract

Taking sexual harassment as an example, we analyze the politicization of methodological issues in the development of an emergent social problem. Scientific debate reflects not only disagreements over the substance of competing claims, but disagreements over the nature of science itself. We argue that claims for a problem's legitimacy within the scientific community depend in large part upon assessments of methodological adequacy—hinging upon questions of generalizability, operational definitions and measurement instruments, and data, particularly how they are analyzed and reported. We conclude that methodology, as well as theory, reflects political bias, and should be a critical consideration in analyses of the natural history of social problem