"Everything is known by comparison," as the famous wisdom says. Otherwise, how would a person know about the possibilities of his development, about how other people and peoples live, what conditions can he create 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 studied objects. 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, preparation, following the 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 method of research. About what a comparative method is, where and how it is used, hereinafter.
The characteristic of the comparative method
The comparative method in scientific knowledge is used to compare more than two studied objects 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 and so on.
This method belongs to the general scientific empirical, allows you to obtain theoretical knowledge and is universally used. It is the basis for many applied research, because it allows you to create their groups based on the hallmarks of objects. These classifications are used in subsequent studies as a basis.
Examples of a comparative method can be illustrated based on its forms:
- comparative method reveals differences in the nature of the studied objects (for example, in the Christian and Muslim religious cultures);
- historical-typological comparison, allowing to highlight common features in unrelated phenomena under the same development conditions (for example, the kinship of different languages);
- historical-genetic comparison shows the similarity between objects united by a common origin and development conditions, 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 cognition; therefore, many sciences use it:
- comparative anatomy (branch of biology);
- theology and religious studies;
- history of linguistics;
- history of literature;
- mythology;
- political science and law, in particular criminal law;
- genetic (comparative) psychology;
- philosophy.
Comparative method in psychology
The comparative research method 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 studied objects.
So, differential psychology uses a comparative method to identify similarities and differences in the psychological properties of individual groups of people, zoopsychology - to track the evolution of the psyche of representatives of different stages of development of the animal world, age psychology - changes in the mental functions of a person depending on his age.
The “cross-sectional method” as a comparative method in psychology allows one to determine the development of the same mental function or property in different groups of people. For example, compare the level of development of intelligence among students of different ages, different social groups or students of various forms and training programs. There is also a “longitudinal section method,” or longitudinal. It differs from the comparative one in that it examines the same object over a long period of its existence. This is done to track the changes that occur with this object over time.
The possibilities of the comparative method in psychology
All typologies of personalities, classifications based on a specific attribute of people in psychology are created through the use of the comparative method. Even the setting up of an experiment involves this method at the stage of evaluating 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.
The disadvantages of the comparative method in psychology
Among the shortcomings, which, like any other method, has a comparative one, we can name:
- the dependence of the research results on the static, stability of the object;
- the risk of outdated information 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 selected method determine the possibilities of its use. Of course, for an extensive study of one way to obtain and organize information is not enough.
Comparative legal method
The comparative legal method in the methodology of state and law is one of the main ways of cognition. 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 makes it possible to understand how their development and modification took place, in what sequence this was accomplished, and to create classifications of such phenomena.
The comparative method allowed to distinguish a separate scientific branch - comparative law, which is engaged in the study and comparison of various legal systems of world states.
When studying foreign experience in jurisprudence, the state can improve its own legal system, abandon obsolete imperfect working methods 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.
The practical value 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 makes it possible to understand why one and the same action in the legal culture of one state is legitimate, and in another - criminal.
Comparative approach methods include various comparison methods:
- functional, allowing you to compare the functions that perform a particular state institution;
- regulatory, using the terms and categories of specific legal systems to analyze legal norms and legislative decisions;
- problematic, which compares the solution of certain legal disagreements within the framework of the legislative system and analyzes the possibility of applying these solutions within the framework of its legislation;
- textual, analyzing which textual design most productively affects the implementation of legal norms on a national scale;
- binary, which does not compare many, but only two existing political or social systems.
Comparative Law and Its Aspects
Comparative law is considered in specialized literature in three main aspects:
- As a comparative research method.
- As a branch of independent science.
- As a combination of a method and a separate scientific discipline.
The third approach is considered more modern, since it recognizes that comparative law can be a separate method of all legal science, which allows you to study these issues, and can also be an independent science, since it has its own subject of study, scope and practical value.
The basic principles of the comparative legal method
Like any scientific method of cognition, the methods of the comparative approach are implemented by observing the basic principles:
- Comparability of legal norms that governs the functional side of legal decisions, i.e., how they solve potential social problems.
- Taking into account the conditions of the historical time of the development of a legal norm, its social conditionality.
- A critical review of the data.
The practical value of comparative research methods
The value of the comparative method in the history of science is difficult to underestimate. The historical development of states and societies, the evolutionary theory of the appearance and improvement of the physical functions of organs and systems of humans and animals, the history of linguistics, psychological typologies — these and many other achievements would be impossible 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 us 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.