Strategies for Meaningful Comparison
Ronald J. Schoenberg · Sociological Methodology · 1972
D. T. Campbell and T. C. Stanley (1963, p. 176) pinpointed perhaps the crucial aspect of research activity: Any appearance of absolute knowledge or intrinsic knowledge about singular isolated objects is found to be illusory upon analysis. Securing scientific evidence involves making at least one comparison. In nonexperimental and survey research especially, many comparisons-the more the better-are made in order to estimate and control for extraneous variation. This process I call comparison of the first kind. A second kind of comparison arises when we compare parameters that have already been established by the comparison of the first kind. For example, suppose that we are interested in the relationship of socioeconomic