"Everything is known in comparison", as the well-known wisdom says. Otherwise, how would a person learn about the possibilities of his development, about how other people and peoples live, what conditions he can create in order to improve his life? Comparison is present in all manifestations of human existence. And not only in everyday life.
Science has long used comparison as one of the main ways to obtain information about the world. It is called a comparative method for assessing the relationships, similarities and differences between the objects under study. This method is a narrower concept than comparison in everyday understanding.
Even Marx and Engels distinguished between these terms, since the method involves a special organization, training, adherence to principles. They also assigned the main role to the comparative method in the formation of a dialectical view of nature.
Almost all scientific disciplines owe their achievements to this research method. Read more about what the comparative method is, where and how it is used.
Characteristics of the comparative method
The comparative method in scientific knowledge is used to compare more than two subjectsobjects in order to identify common and different in them, to build classifications and typologies. Such objects may include various ideas, research results, phenomena, processes, qualitative characteristics of objects, etc.
This method belongs to the general scientific empirical, allows you to get theoretical knowledge and is universally used. It is the basis for many applied research, since it allows creating their groups based on the distinctive features of objects. These classifications are used as a basis in subsequent studies.
Examples of the comparative method can be illustrated based on its forms:
- comparative-comparative method reveals differences in the nature of the studied objects (for example, in Christian and Muslim religious culture);
- historical-typological comparison, which allows to identify common features in unrelated phenomena under the same development conditions (for example, the relationship of different languages);
- historical-genetic comparison shows the similarity between objects united by a common origin and conditions of development, and their mutual influence (for example, the development of the psyche of an animal and a person).
Where are comparative research methods used?
The comparative method is one of the most universal in the theory and practice of knowledge, so many sciences use it:
- comparative anatomy (a branch of biology);
- theology and religious studies;
- history of linguistics;
- literary history;
- mythology;
- political science and law, in particular criminal law;
- genetic (comparative) psychology;
- philosophy.
Comparative method in psychology
The comparative method of research has been widely used in various branches of psychological science. It allows you to compare personality traits, the development of the psyche, the characteristics of groups of people and draw conclusions about the mechanisms of genesis and the causes of differences in the objects under study.
So, differential psychology uses a comparative method to identify similarities and differences in the psychological properties of individual groups of people, zoopsychology - to trace the evolution of the psyche in representatives of different stages of development of the animal world, age psychology - changes in a person's mental functions depending on his age.
"The method of cross sections" as a comparative method in psychology allows you to determine the development of the same mental function or property in different groups of people. For example, to compare the level of intelligence development in schoolchildren of different ages, different social groups or students of different forms and programs of education. There is also the "longitudinal cut method", or longitudinal. It differs from the comparative one in that one and the same object is being studied for a long time of its existence. This is done in order to trace the changes that occur to this object over time.
Possibilities of the comparative method in psychology
All typologies of personalities, classifications according to a certain attribute of people in psychology are created through the use of a comparative method. Even the setting of the experiment includes this method at the stage of assessing the effectiveness of the influence of some variables. In this case, the initial data and the result obtained after the experimental influence are compared.
Along with other organizational methods (longitudinal, complex), the comparative method in psychological science is indispensable. Without it, all psychological groups would be disparate units, there would be no classifications of professions, personality types, characteristics of age stages, etc. Therefore, this method can rightly be considered a way to streamline knowledge and predict changes.
Disadvantages of the comparative method in psychology
Among the shortcomings, which, like any other method, has a comparative, we can name:
- dependence of the research results on the static, stability of the object;
- risk of information being outdated at the time of processing the received data;
- the need to use additional research methods to obtain more complete information.
All the advantages and disadvantages of the chosen method determine the possibilities of its use. Of course, for an extensive study, one method of obtaining and systematizing information is not enough.
Comparative legal method
Comparative legal method inmethodology of state and law is one of the main ways of knowledge. It involves a comparison of processes, phenomena and concepts of a legal nature in order to study their similarities, identify the causes of differences. Such a comparison allows us to understand how their development and modification took place, in what sequence this was done, and to create classifications for such phenomena.
The comparative method allowed a separate scientific branch to stand out - comparative law, which studies and compares the various legal systems of world states.
When studying foreign experience in jurisprudence, the state can improve its own legal system, abandon outdated imperfect methods of work and use positive experience in the development of its legislation.
This method owes its appearance in jurisprudence to the achievements of other technical and social sciences: mathematics, cybernetics, psychology.
Practical significance of the comparative legal method
The practical use of the comparative method in legal science is that it allows you to find the best ways to solve social problems. It allows you to understand why the same action in the legal culture of one state is legal, and in another - criminal.
Methods of the comparative approach include different ways of comparison:
- functional, allowing you to compare the functions performed by a particular institution of the state;
- normative, using the terms and categories of specific legal systems in order to analyze the rules of law and legislative decisions;
- problematic, which compares the solution of certain legal disputes within the framework of the legislative system and analyzes the possibility of applying these solutions within the framework of its legislation;
- textual, analyzing which text design most productively affects the implementation of legal norms on a national scale;
- binary, which compares not a set, but only two existing political or social systems.
Comparative law and its aspects
Comparative law is considered in the specialized literature in three main aspects:
- As a comparative research method.
- As a branch of independent science.
- As a combination of method and separate scientific discipline.
The third approach is considered more modern, since it recognizes that comparative law can be a separate method of the entire legal science, which allows you to study the listed issues, and can also be an independent science, since it has its own subject of study, scope and practical significance.
Basic principles of the comparative legal method
Like any scientific method of cognition, the methods of the comparative approach are implemented due to the observance of the basic principles:
- Comparability of legal norms that regulates the functional sidelegal solutions, i.e. how they solve potential social problems.
- Taking into account the conditions of the historical time of the development of the legal norm, its social conditionality.
- A critical review of the findings.
Practical importance of comparative research methods
The importance of the comparative method in the history of science is hard to underestimate. The historical development of states and societies, the evolutionary theory of the emergence and improvement of the physical functions of human and animal organs and systems, the history of linguistics, psychological typologies - these and many other achievements would not have been possible where the comparative method was not used.
The characteristic of this method of obtaining information includes not only theoretical, but also its practical importance. For example, the application of the method in jurisprudence allows you to identify the best ways to solve legal issues, in psychology - to draw conclusions about the patterns of development of the psyche and create the most effective training and self-development programs for all age groups and other categories of people. It becomes clear that comparative analysis is one of the most used in almost all technical, natural and social sciences.
