Computers Social Behavioral Sciences. Please Format: It

¶ … computers social behavioral sciences. Please format:

It is difficult to visualize contemporary society without the use of computers. Quite simply, computers are ubiquitous, and have significantly affected not only every professional industry, but also every realm of life. Computers assist people in performing their jobs better, they help people to manage their personal lives, and they even play a substantial role in the way in which people not only socialize with one another but also communicate. These facts are all the more staggering when one considers the fact that personal computers have only been around since the early 1970's (Cox, 2013). Yet even a perfunctory analysis of today's social, professional, and governmental processes indicates, the deployment and usage of computers will not recede anytime soon, and is only likely to increase.

The objective of this work is to present an effective analysis at the way in which the pervasive usage of computers has influenced the social and behavioral sciences. Just because computer usage is widespread does not necessarily mean that all of the changes it has wrought are benevolent. There are inherently advantages and disadvantages of the advent of any form of technology, particularly when it becomes as ubiquitous as the use of computers within the past three decades. The social and behavioral sciences are still developing, and the way in which these fields develop is largely influenced by the effect computers produce on them. This paper will attempt to summarize and stratify those effects, both positive and otherwise.

The methodology employed within this research document involved sifting through a variety of databases to determine the effects of computers on the field of social and behavioral sciences. Information was examined to identify points of eminence, which were then sought after in additional articles in order to readily identify trends. Once trends were identified, they were stratified into those pertaining to positive and negative impacts on this field.

One of the advantages of the usage of computers is that they allow for a large influx of data, due to notions of big data and the rampant use of social media (James, 2013), which can be used to identify anthropological and sociological trends. Additionally, computers are useful to the field of social and behavioral sciences because they allow for researchers to readily store and access their work (Lee, 1973, p. 243). Lastly, computers are effective for working in this field because they provide access to a bevy of research materials and papers from external sources that researchers can examine, enabling faster calculations (Ward, 1955, p. 826). Disadvantages of the usage of computers in this field include the fact that some researchers may prefer such secondary research to primary research gathered in the field. The quality of research conducted via computers may be suspect, due to websites with ulterior motives. Finally, the usage of computers is part of the culture of instant gratification which may foster a degree of impatience in researchers and other dysfunctional symptoms (Sim et al., 2012, p. 748).