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Finding Truth in the Social Sciences

Self-proclaimed Social Science Nerd

About three years ago, I earned a bachelor's degree in geography. What I loved about studying geography is that I got to study God's creation, which is to say, landscapes, people and how the two interact.

I went into college as a Christian. And my studies in geography only deepened my love for the natural and cultural beauty God created here on earth. As a result, I gained a deeper appreciation for God Himself.

Clearly, I'm a social science nerd at heart. I love it all. Psychology. Sociology. Anthropology. Social psychology. And geography, of course. It's the idiosyncrasies and unpredictable nature of people, the primary subject of the social sciences, that I find so interesting.

Now, you've probably heard the phrase, "All truth is God's truth." It's a phrase I really like. And it's another reason I like studying the social sciences. I believe good social science actually points to biblical truth — that good social science, even when conducted in a secular environment from a secular perspective, arrives at conclusions that corroborate the commandments we receive from the Bible.

Optimism and Depression

I recently finished reading a book called Learned Optimism,¹ by renowned cognitive psychologist and former president of the American Psychological Association, Martin E. P. Seligman. In it, he discusses how every one of us has an explanatory style, either optimistic or pessimistic. Pessimists are especially prone to feelings of helplessness, while optimists, when they experience adverse circumstances, can actually stave off those feelings of helplessness.

Now, before we go any further, I need to be clear that I don't write about Seligman's ideas necessarily to espouse them. And I'm not trying to fit his work into some sort of Christian mold or mis-portray his research to make a point; I'll do my best to represent his work honestly. But the point remains: I see God's fingerprints all over it.

Anyway, at the beginning of his book, Seligman reports that in the United States depression is at an all-time high. Indeed, according to his research at the time the book was published,² depression is now 10 times more prevalent than it was just 50 years ago (p. 10). Ten times! Now there's a statistic.

Throughout his book, Seligman focuses on, well, learning to think optimistically. But in the last chapter he speculates as to why "learned helplessness" is now so prevalent in our society. His answer: the "waxing of the self" and the "waning of the commons."

By "waxing of the self," Seligman means the increasing emphasis on the individual, based largely on the fact that we Westerners have so many consumer options. As Seligman puts it, "Machine intelligence opened an enormous market for customization, a market that thrived on individual choice" (p. 282). And apparently, advertising had a lot to do with it, too:

To create the market for all this, advertising whipped up a great enthusiasm for personal control. The deciding, choosing, hedonistically preoccupied individual became big business. When the individual has a lot of money to spend, individualism becomes a powerful, and profitable, worldview (pp. 282-283).

How interesting — Seligman actually uses the term "worldview."

And Seligman goes on to address this idea of the "waning of the commons," by which he means decreasing levels of commitment to things greater and more transcendent than oneself:

Where can one now turn for identity, for purpose, and for hope? When we need spiritual furniture, we look around and see that all the comfortable leather sofas and stuffed chairs have been removed and all that's left to sit on is a small, frail folding chair: the self (p. 285).

Seligman notes the behavior of "primitive" societies, ones that haven't been exposed to excessive, Western-style, self-exalting marketing. He says that because individuals within these cultures have close ties to other individuals, they are more likely to maintain their psychological health. Seligman explains: "More 'primitive' societies go out of their way to nurture the individual when loss occurs, and thus prevent helplessness from becoming hopelessness" (p. 286).

Essentially, Seligman's thesis, at least in the last chapter of his book, comes down to this: that feelings of hopelessness and meaninglessness are mitigated by de-emphasizing the self and being connected to something larger than oneself, something transcendent.

Truth in Strange Places

While I was reading Seligman's book, I couldn't help but be reminded of the two greatest commandments from the Bible. In Matthew 22 Jesus says we should love God with all our heart, mind and soul (v. 37). And just two verses later He tells us we need to love our "neighbor" as we love ourselves.

How incredibly interesting: It seems to me that these two verses contain the very antidote our generation so badly needs. Seligman stresses the need for the de-emphasis of self. Well, truly loving others seems like a fairly fool-proof way to think less of yourself. And as for Seligman's suggestion that we should connect ourselves to something transcendent, what more transcendent Thing could we be connected to than God Himself — the very Creator of the universe and arbiter of reality?

I'm not trying to insinuate that these two commands Jesus supplies us are merely a psychological salve, however. Yes, they are good for us, psychologically speaking. But they aren't good merely because they are useful.

These two "greatest commandments" are good and right because they get at the heart of reality: God is most transcendent. And loving others is as self-de-emphasizing as it gets.

Finding and Losing

And consider Matthew 10:39, where Jesus says, "Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it" (NIV).

Seligman does mention one positive aspect of this "waxing of the self," however: the potential for self-improvement. Interestingly enough, he suggests the seemingly counterintuitive — that in order to improve oneself, one should practice self-denial.

It would seem Seligman's premise reinforces the seemingly paradoxical teaching of Christ from Matthew 10.

Is it in the book of Ecclesiastes we read, "There is nothing new under the sun"?

As Seligman himself puts it, "The life committed to nothing larger than itself is a meager life indeed" (p. 284). If one finds oneself in oneself, one will be gravely disappointed. Yet, if one will find oneself in the transcendent God, then one's preoccupation with oneself — and all the hang-ups that attend such a preoccupation — fades.

How interesting that Seligman's suggestions for good psychological health can be found, it would seem, in the simple teachings of Christ.

Go After Truth Wherever You Can Find It

I find all this — that is, social science research, and how it seems quite readily to confirm biblical truths — to be incredibly fascinating.

C O F F E E  S H O P

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Where have you seen truth where you didn't expect it?

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And if you ask me, we shouldn't shy away from pursuing intellectual things, even in secular settings. Yes, sometimes very incorrect and even insidious ideas are perpetuated by their being labeled "science" (or "social science," as the case may be). But good (social) science and true investigation — the sort devoid of self-interest and blind promotion of the status quo — will lead to real truth. Our worldview informs us that, in the end, well-performed research and true knowledge only act to corroborate what we already find in Scripture.

As one author puts it, "Truth is so precious it must be prized wherever it is found."³

Because, as they say, all truth is God's truth.