Probability Theory - Research Article from Encyclopedia of Sociology

This encyclopedia article consists of approximately 10 pages of information about Probability Theory.

Probability Theory - Research Article from Encyclopedia of Sociology

This encyclopedia article consists of approximately 10 pages of information about Probability Theory.
This section contains 2,701 words
(approx. 10 pages at 300 words per page)
Buy the Probability Theory Encyclopedia Article

Sociologists, as much as researchers in any field perhaps, use a variety of approaches in the investigation of their subject matter. Quite successful and important are the historical and exegetical approaches and those in the traditions of anthropology and philosophy. Also of great importance are the systematic approaches that use mathematical models. Here the social investigator proposes a model, a mathematical depiction of social phenomena. A successful mathematical model can be very powerful, providing not only confidence in the theory from which the model was derived, giving us an explanation of the phenomena, but producing as well a method for predicting, giving us a practical means for controlling or affecting the social phenomena.

The social mathematical model is first of all a description of the relationship of the properties of social objects—groups, states, institutions, organizations, even people. If the model is derived from a theory...

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This section contains 2,701 words
(approx. 10 pages at 300 words per page)
Buy the Probability Theory Encyclopedia Article
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Macmillan
Probability Theory from Macmillan. Copyright © 2001-2006 by Macmillan Reference USA, an imprint of the Gale Group. All rights reserved.