Is it good policy to give financial aid to liberal arts majors?

[Apocalypse]

Originally posted by Lawrence of Arabia


theres no way - they have no need for calc I, calc II, partials, statistics, probabilities, or econometrics.

Explain why even a half decent psych or IS program wouldn't need partials, statistics, & probabilities.

The psych and IS departments here take more statistics than any other department.

[Lawrence of Arabia]

Explain why even a half decent psych or IS program wouldn't need partials, statistics, & probabilities.

The psych and IS departments here take more statistics than any other department.

because there is nothing mathematical in international studies - IS is just a degree where you take a little poly si, a little international law/relationas, a little economics (the none mathematical classes, heavy on graphs, nonexistant on manipulating those graphs or adding numbers to them) maybe some geography/ history classes. again, no math

pyschology is just mind ****ing. no need to take any derivatives, or find the stationary points, or find the regression.

[Apocalypse]

Originally posted by Lawrence of Arabia


because there is nothing mathematical in international studies - IS is just a degree where you take a little poly si, a little international law/relationas, a little economics (the none mathematical classes, heavy on graphs, nonexistant on manipulating those graphs or adding numbers to them) maybe some geography/ history classes. again, no math

pyschology is just mind ****ing. no need to take any derivatives, or find the stationary points, or find the regression.

You seem to have exposure to some bad departments then, which is my original point. The good ones do use more math than that.

[Lawrence of Arabia]

although in economics, its important to remember that 80% of the calc is simply an excercise in academics - you cannot really use that in real life to figure things out, since you dont know anyones U, the slope, their substitution or revenu effect, or being able to figure out what the golden rule steady state level is.

the application comes with once you know how to manipulate these things, then draw wide range conclusions based on what the models show (also in development economics, a lot is based on research, statistics, corrolation v causation, since theres still a lot of voodoo in it, since in general, development countries do not meet the minimum standards of the models in economics (full employment, etcc))

[Lawrence of Arabia]

You seem to have exposure to some bad departments then, which is my original point. The good ones do use more math than that.

you know what, youre right, i just checked my uni pages (#1 psycho dept in america,) and they do do some math, but only I quarter of stats, but all the calc.

[TCO]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui


Well the Prisoner's Dilemma may be a great tool to see the effect of cooperation or non-cooperation may be on a certain issue and if it is likely cooperation will occur. I'm sure game theory is being used right now to try to find answers to the nuclear proliferation issues (whether they will or not... different question).

My impression is that the insights from understanding game theory (free rider effects, equilibriums, etc.) are more useful to general issue analysis then actually using game theory to mathematically work on problems. I think John Nash said that people are still looking for something where you can really just use game theory as a tool. I do think it is very useful in business as a management tool, to open people's eyes, etc. Same thing with options valuation of project choices.

[TCO]

Originally posted by Asher

" Significant background in mathematics" is relative. It's probably very tough to find anyone in sociology who knows the basics of real mathematics, rather than arithmetic.

Graduate level work and real research requires very good understanding of statistics. A lot of the controversies are about if the statistics was done right. It's similar to econ in that you do better just taking someone with mathematical ability and having them do that kind of work than taking the "sohsch" majors from u/g.

[TCO]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker


All of the published psychology research papers I've read have seemed to be just as scientific as the biology ones.

Journal of Applied Psychology has some of the best econ/business academic writing. Full of good experiments and plenty of statistics. Lots of economists publish there.

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by BeBro
Just curious, why is it so important how much math there is in a certain field? I don't think this would say something about the level of "scientificness" in this field.......

Math generally implies rigor.

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by Lawrence of Arabia
because there is nothing mathematical in international studies - IS is just a degree where you take a little poly si, a little international law/relationas, a little economics (the none mathematical classes, heavy on graphs, nonexistant on manipulating those graphs or adding numbers to them) maybe some geography/ history classes. again, no math

pyschology is just mind ****ing. no need to take any derivatives, or find the stationary points, or find the regression.

There's plenty of statistics in psych. It's not just sitting down on a couch...

[TCO]

Originally posted by Lawrence of Arabia
although in economics, its important to remember that 80% of the calc is simply an excercise in academics - you cannot really use that in real life to figure things out, since you dont know anyones U, the slope, their substitution or revenu effect, or being able to figure out what the golden rule steady state level is.

the application comes with once you know how to manipulate these things, then draw wide range conclusions based on what the models show (also in development economics, a lot is based on research, statistics, corrolation v causation, since theres still a lot of voodoo in it, since in general, development countries do not meet the minimum standards of the models in economics (full employment, etcc))

That's a bunch of macro crap and is a common misconception from the hoi palloi about econ. Micro is the interesting part of econ and you can use some of the tools to solve practical problems.

[Lawrence of Arabia]

That's a bunch of macro crap and is a common misconception from the hoi palloi about econ. Micro is the interesting part of econ and you can use some of the tools to solve practical problems.

how can you tell a microeconomics student at the cafeteria?

before ordering his food, he draws out his utility curve and hammers out a lagrangeian.

micro is internesting, but not as interesting as macro and development.

[Imran Siddiqui]

BOTH are interesting... it just depends on the person. I don't need to hear another micro v. macro debate.

[BeBMan]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker


Math generally implies rigor.

If humans were computers, that would probably count as the only important thing (in science and generally), but they aren't.....

[Agathon]

Originally posted by BeBro
Just curious, why is it so important how much math there is in a certain field? I don't think this would say something about the level of "scientificness" in this field.......

Because these are the people that Swift was writing about when he wrote the third part of Gulliver's Travels.