The most apt metaphor for my current views on social research issues is that of building construction. Every building, no matter how cookie cutter prefab, has individual differences that make it unique. Most buildings have a lot of variation, subtle and not, from the buildings around it. This is how I view individual adults - a lot like buildings, particularly homes. Being friends with a lot of fans of remodeling, I'm well aware that any 'finished' home may not be nearly as finished at some point in the future, as the internal workings (aka inhabitants and. visitors) are apt to change things over time. Even so, general asumptions of similar situations, future outcomes, and such can be compared and predicted with some level of accuracy amongst homes share similar characteristics such as building materials, age of appliances, quality of insulation, etc. As such, similar generalizations can be made/predicted between groups of people who share similar characteristics (age, gender identity, parenting status, household income, and so forth - generally with a better level of accuracy when there are more areas of similarity between individuals being studied). No comparison or prediction is going to really be 100% (houses or people) because there is no realistic way to keep all the various ways the individuals can differ matching, and any mismatch between individuals studied (or the study group and another outside individual looked at later in relation to the study's findings) introduce potential errors in the comparison/prediction.
My real interest, personally, tends to lie in looking at those particular aspects of life that introduce variation, with an eye toward improving future 'construction' techniques/environments. I see the structure of the individual 'building' as existing very much in its environment and as a result of those involved in its construction - directly and indirectly. In building construction, some of these differences could be the underlaying/surrounding geographic features (solid bedrock, flood plain, fault line, high erosion, etc), the quality of the materials used in the foundation/construction/remodeling, the skill of the construction workers/archetects/etc, and variations in building code requirements between areas (which often have variations related to risks that are particularly more of an issue in one local over another, often related to the geographic conditions) .
With humans, the geographic issues are the society/culture/etc the individual exists in. Building materials quality is the quality of nutrition and other basic survival needs the individual has had over time. Construction worker 'skill' is the direct effects of important others who have been part of the individual's life (parents, teachers, mentors, lovers, etc) and whether any of those relationships have been exceptional in any way (good or bad - optimal nurturing relationships all around, long history of abuse from multiple important others, and everything in between). Variations in building codes overlaps with community assets and support structures that often have a much less direct/obvious impact on the individual but may have had an effect if looked at in relation to other individuals without that asset (such as access to quality heath care improves overall community health, which has the impact of less likelihood of an individual being exposed to a dangerous communicable disease even if they are overall healthier than average, accessa to free public education improves the intellectual environment of children regardless of their participation in it by usually bringing along other related assets such as public libraries and more others capable of sharing information that may have otherwise been outside of the individual's awareness).
Since I am generally much more davinsted with prevention than remediation of issues, I focus most of my attention on the construction (aka developmentalist) part of things, so this metaphor ma not fit quite as well with researchers focused on other aspecthe human experience. I do, however, feel quite strongly that keenh in mind how all these different factors affect and shape every individual differently is a very important thing to bear in mind for ALL research involving human subjects, so are it here in hopes of furthering a discussion not just between social researchers, but also with 'lay' people who may wonder why so much effort and time is out into studying social issues (and a bit of a idea why publication & dissemination of findings can take so long - often only to have some fundamental aspect of society change and render some aspect of the research outdated!). I hope, if nothing lar, this has given some insight to people curious about me regarding one of *my* (many) obsessive interests ;)
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