ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to develop a theory of social criterion (S.C.) as a factor influencing the nature of socially constituted verbal reports customarily collected in the context of social research. Social research relies heavily on the acceptance of the semantics of verbal reports as representing some form of “truth”. Adherents of quantitative and qualitative methods often appear to be driven by the belief that one method or the other will shed light on the “true” nature of attitudes, beliefs, social perceptions, or other states of mind and brain. Language is always socially constituted, context-bound, and performative in the sense that things are said for a purpose. Despite the difficulties of operationalising certain S. D. concepts, the notion of “criterion” thus seems to make intuitive sense at least within the social research context. Within the proposed S.C. theory, many repeated trials of the type necessitated by S. D. studies threaten to destroy the ecological validity of any data collection exercise.
