Page 14 - Interdisciplinary Approach to Research

pharmacist is more likely to produce work that pharmacists want to read. A pharmacist who can

think like a computer scientist is more likely to appeal to computer scientists.The same goes with

other disciplines in the humanities and social sciences. Each field of study has its own lens on the

world and its own tool kit for interpreting observations. None, however, have a monopoly on

which questions are most important as they relate to other disciplines.Putting your work in front

of an audience which does not specialize in your discipline or field can help provide you with

perspectives those within your field of study don’t emphasize. The wider audience can, of

course, benefit from exposure to your insights as well (Glod, 2016). (2)Better explanatory and

predictive work shying away from limiting your methodological scope, which under normal

circumstances will help you appreciate the human world’s institutional and psychological

complexity. It certainly will help you to explain the world in a much holistic and more accurate

perspective.Knowing the limits of your data set or methodology is key to knowing its strength as

well. Analysis of political institutions benefits from knowledge of psychology and public choice

theory presents diversity of such knowledge. If your work tries to assess or defend the efficiency

of democratic institutions, knowledge of their limitations will help you make a compelling case

to a larger, possibly skeptical audience (Glod, 2016).(3) Better normative work. Scholars who do

normative ethics and political philosophy stand to benefit by inquiring into the tradeoffs for any

principles or proposals they advocate for as real-world policy. Does giving massive aid transfers

to poor nations tend to benefit the poor in those countries or tend to perpetuate institutions that

keep people stuck in poverty? That requires some knowledge of comparative politics.

Economists who defend markets as being efficient can benefit by looking at efficiency and

economic growth against moral values such as justice, equality, and respect for liberty. Questions

about how to deal with climate change requires to look at the nature of harm, which is a

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