Validity Threats in Modern Science: Why Social Science Research Methods Should be Compulsory for STEM Disciplines

Abstract

The principles of research methodology were borrowed by social scientists from the natural sciences. However, research methods courses are more likely to be found in the social sciences today while the natural sciences take the principles of methodology for granted except in courses on laboratory methods in physics and chemistry or numeric methods in mathematics. This article suggests that it is time for the social sciences to serve as a model for the natural sciences by emphasizing the importance of teaching quantitative and qualitative research methods courses and adhering to the principles in research. The important principle of validity will be used to illustrate what modern physics, for example, could relearn from the social sciences.