Four Paradigms for Childhood Obesity
According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC) (2010), childhood obesity has more than tripled over the past 30 years. The frequency of obesity among children aged 6 to 11 years rose from 6.5% in 1980 to 19.6% in 2008, while among adolescents aged 12 to 19 years the obesity rate increased from 5.0% to 18.1% during the same period. This paper examines four paradigms for childhood obesity, the functionalist perspective, social learning theory, the interpretive or hermeneutic paradigm, and the critical paradigm perspective.
Thomas Kuhn\'s Paradigm Theory
Thomas Kuhn (1922-1996) was an American scientist, historian and philosopher who wrote a controversial book in 1962 called The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. This paper examines Kuhn's theory and its relevance to science as well as to the way humans learn and how culture is tied to the expression of knowledge through paradigm shifts. The scientific ideas of concept, theory and paradigm are examined, and examples are included that buttress the argument that Kuhn was correct in calling his theory a paradigm shift. Kuhn pushed the boundaries of experimentation as well as data collection and scientific methodologies that have been extrapolated into a number of fields from the social sciences to business and organizational modelling, and most especially how the philosophy of science continues to evolve.