10) Twenty years ago, Dr. Field, a noted anthropologist, visited the island of Tertia. Using an observation-centered approach to studying Tertian culture, he concluded from his observations that children in Tertia were reared by an entire village rather than by their own biological parents. Recently another anthropologist, Dr. Karp, visited the group of islands that includes Tertia and used the interview-centered method to study child-rearing practices. In the interviews that Dr. Karp conducted with children living in this group of islands, the children spent much more time talking about their biological parents than about other adults in the village. Dr. Karp decided that Dr. Field's conclusion about Tertian village culture must be invalid. Some anthropologists recommend that to obtain accurate information on Tertian child-rearing practices, future research on the subject should be conducted via the interview-centered method.
Write a response in which you discuss what questions would need to be answered in order to decide whether the recommendation and the argument on which it is based are reasonable. Be sure to explain how the answers to these questions would help to evaluate the recommendation.
In the argument ,the arguer concludes that future research on the subjectshould be conducted via the interview-centered method .To support the argument,the arguer list out several reasons. Firstly, Dr.Karp got an oppositeconclusion through the interview-centered method. Secondly ,Dr.Karp decidedthat Dr.Field's conclusion must be invalid . These assumptions appear to bereasonable at first sight . However, when under deeper deliberation ,whetherthese evidences can prove the conclusion is questionable .
To begin with , there exists a obvious difference concerning the two'sresearches ,that Dr.Field's research was conducted 20 years ago ,while Dr.Karpdid recently . The author fail to assume with justification thatcultivation of children in both Tertia twenty years ago and recently remain thesame. During these 15 years ,there can be lots of discrepancies ,and henceweaken the assumption. For example ,perhaps the interaction between the islandof Tertia and the outer world became more frequently in this period of time ,whileTertia was isolated before ,and thus lead to the different results of theresearches . That is to say, 20 years ago ,the children in Tertia were rearedby an entire village rather than by their parents . After that ,the people inTertia exchanged with other islands that the children by parents . Therefore,the tradition of Tertia changed with the children being cultivated by theirparents .
Secondly , based on the investigation on a group of islands includingTertia ,Dr.Karp then drew his conclusion different from Dr.Field's .How can weknow whether the results in other islands besides Tertia has an influence onthe result of research in Tertia ? Maybe Dr.Karp visited 1000 childrenin these islands .However, only 10 of them came from Tertia . Andyet,children in other islands other than Tertia were reared by their children,while children in Tertia by the entire village .The author unfairly use theevidence pertaining a large group as the basis for a particular part. Therefore,the research is not representative of the children of Tertia . Withoutmore detailed evidence, it is unreasonable to reach any conclusion at all.
Finally, based on the fact that Dr.Karp decided that Dr.Field's conclusionmust be invalid , Some anthropologists recommend that future research on thesubject should be conducted via the interview-centered method. How can webelieve that Dr'Karp's decision is right ? Even if he is an authority in thisfield ,we could not agree with him easily without any powerful reasons.Moreover , whether the interview-centered method is valid,representative and reliable ,we just do not know . Regardless of the validityof interview-centered method, whether it should be used for thisresearch remains to be unknown . It is likely that there are some other methodsthat could be much more suited to applied to this research .
In sum, it is questionable to regard the interview-centered method as thefuture means of the subject. To strengthen the argument ,lots of questionsshould be answered ,such as the reliability of the survey of Dr.Karp and thevalidity of the interview-centered method, and only by doing this can theargument be more convincing . | 
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发表于 2012-3-14 09:42:31
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