The Structure of Empirical Social Research

随着中国社会科学的快速发展,规范化和国际化的讨论被提上议事日程。本文旨在分析讨论西方社会科学经验研究的方法论范式。通过分析总结国际一流社会科学杂志之范文,本文勾勒出经验社会科学研究的八个组成部分:问题、理论(文献)、假设、数据、测量、方法、发现和结论。这种范式反映后实证主义逻辑,我权称其为“洋八股”结构。文中重点分析问题、理论和假设三股,讨论提出好问题,做好文献分析的指导性原则；强调假设乃连接理论与经验之桥梁,并分析建构假设的几种常见策略和形式。最后,讨论了“洋八股”与本土化之关系。

With the rapid advances of social sciences in China，reaching international standards of excellence and publishing on top international journals have become a priority for many young scholars. The purpose of this paper is to outline the methodological paradigm of mainstream western social sciences. Analyzing exemplary work from top international journals，the author has generalized an eight-component structure， consisting of question，literature ( theory)，hypothesis，data，measurement， methods，findings，and conclusion. This eight-component structure reflects the post positivist philosophy and can be called “the American paradigm.” This paper dissects and explicates each of the eight components，their individual functions and logical relationships. As the primary focus，the author discusses in detail the first three components (question，theory and hypothesis)，proposing tentative criteria for good questions and good literature review，emphasizing hypothesis as the bridge linking theory with empirical data，and outlining the different strategies for constructing hypothesis. The paper ends with a brief discussion of the integration of the American methodological paradigm with Chinese home-grown substantive theories. 

彭玉生

上海市教育委员会E-研究院建设计划项目资助

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