Humanistic coefficient

A humanistic coefficient (Polish: współczynnik humanistyczny) is a conceptual object, methodological principle, or method of conducting social research wherein data analysis stresses the perceived import of analyzed experiences to their participants. The term was coined by Polish sociologist Florian Znaniecki.

Znaniecki coined the term in Polish in his Wstęp do socjologii (Introduction to Sociology, 1922) and translated it into English as "humanistic coefficient" in his book, The Object-Matter of Sociology (1927).

Definitions

Grossly and simply speaking, the humanistic coefficient is the difference between trying to describe or explain social facts as if they were purely physical phenomena, or doing it instead by taking into account the culture of the folk or milieu in which those facts happen.

In Znaniecki's own words: "an observer of cultural life can understand the data observed only if taken with the "humanistic coefficient", only if he does not limit his observation to his own direct experience of the data but reconstructs the experience and the data in the social context of the people involved". Elsewhere he wrote: "This essential character of cultural data we call the humanistic coefficient, because such data, as objects of the student's theoretic reflection, already belong to somebody's else's experience and are such as this active experience makes them."

Piotr Sztompka defines the humanistic coefficient as "a connection that exists between each social fact and actions and experiences of particular individuals, and the resulting need for those facts to be studied from specific perspective that requires the research to place him or herself in the position of those individuals." Elżbieta Hałas in turn defines it as "the notion of the human collective's constructing and reconstructing of reality", thus related to the concept of social constructionist.

Meaning

According to the concept of the humanistic coefficient, all social facts are created by social actors, and can only be understood from their perspective. No social facts can exist without connection to some individuals (although that connection does not have to necessarily be consciously perceived). Thus the sociologist should study reality by trying to understand how others see the world, not as an independent observer (objectively); in other words the scientist needs to understand the world of the subject. Ken Plummer puts it curtly as "the object of study is always linked to somebody's human meanings."

While some have criticized the humanistic coefficient approach as too close to subjectivism, Znaniecki himself saw is as anti-subjectivist; he noted that social facts like cultural systems can exist even if nobody perceives their existence.