Humans in the Loop: Validation and Validity Concepts in the Social Sciences in the Context of Applied and Operational Settings - Military Social Scientists to Evaluate National Security Threats

This excellent report has been professionally converted for accurate flowing-text e-book format reproduction. Threats in the 21st century are increasingly complex, requiring multiple perspectives and disciplines to understand and anticipate challenges. National security issues will require consideration of the insights that might be gained through social science analysis in order to provide broader understanding of both challenges and potential solutions. Many of the challenges and potential missions faced by the Department of Defense (DoD) will be multi-faceted in their most fundamental nature. To better understand these issues, their origins, and potential solutions, we need to think clearly about insights provided about the psychological and social dynamics impacting complex security problems. We can anticipate military operations and missions in a networked, dynamic global environment where modern media, the pace of technological change, and speed of events overlay often long standing historic social legacies and conflicts. We can turn to the social sciences to better understand the intersection of new technologies and legacies and, therefore, assist in crafting strategies to deal with current and emerging issues.

This white paper discusses the validity concepts and validation of the social sciences in the context of applied and operational settings. It focuses on a key issue: How do we gauge the degree to which our frameworks, models, and measures of human social behaviors correspond to the real issues with which DoD operators are concerned? It addresses these issues from several perspectives: 1. Scientific Validation in Social Science: What concepts are appropriate for assessing the "goodness" of the social science within the scope of DoD missions? 2. Determining Mission Applicability: Social sciences play roles at various phases of military planning. Will these necessitate varying degrees of validation? 3. The need to develop military social scientists to bridge the gap between social sciences as an academic discipline and their potential applications in strategic, operational, and tactical decision making.

1. Overview * 2. Background * 3. What Does Validation Mean? Scientific Validation in Social Science * 4. UK "Fitness for Purpose" Approach to Reliability and Validation * 5. How Operators Should Use Input They Receive From the Social Sciences Mainly Working Outside Their Realm (Determining Mission Applicability) * 6. Thoughts on the Need to Develop Military Social Scientists * 7. Observations and Conclusions