Earl R. Babbie是社会科学界的泰斗，他在Survey research methods一书中总结的社会科学特点包括（懒得翻译了，直接抄写在这里）：
Logical: Scientists use inductive and deductive logic to achieve their goals. Theories must not contain logical inconsistencies.
Deterministic: Scientists assume that events happen for reasons. Things do not "just happen."
General: The aim is to understand overall patterns of events. The larger the scope that is explained, the more useful it is.
Parsimonious: The aim is to gain the greatest amount of understanding from the smallest number of variables.
Specific: The scientist must be specific about the methods of measurement used to investigate a given phenomenon.
Empirically verifiable: Propositions and theories must be testable in the real world.
Intersubjective: Descriptions of observations are sufficiently detailed that other scientists should be able to replicate the observations.
Open to modification: As time passes, new evidence may be expected to revise existing ways of thinking about a phenomenon.
这里（http://www.china-socialwork.org/socialSencise.htm）有一篇北大邱泽奇博士翻译的Earl R. Babbie的文章“社会科学研究的价值目的”，文章不错，但乱码较多。当然，国内也翻译了不少Earl R. Babbie的经典著作，还是直接看书比较过瘾。