Human Sciences

Within the human sciences quantitative data has it's limits, this is because of the nature of humans being so unpredictable and therefore very difficult to place exact theories upon. The exception of this is of course Economics, in Economics quantitative data is recorded because it is commonly believed that within this field we act rationally. Therefore we are able to place expectations using the quantitative data recorded from experiments. If these assumptions that have been made in Economics become proved to be incorrect or not entirely correct to all situations limits and conditions are placed upon these rules and theories such as; that the consumer has full and complete knowledge of the market.

Economically developed societies apply considerable resources to collecting economic and social indicators to help policy makers in their applications about how to best increase quality of life. These measures have had notable successes, however they suffer from substantial limitations. The reasons that economic and social indicators cannot reflect the full range of factors that affect quality of life are described. For example, no complete list of factors affecting quality of life can be created, and the way people consider these factors differs. Also, it is often not clear which set of measures best reflects desirable states in various areas such as the economy. In the context of the economy, there is disagreement about which forms of goods and services need to be counted, for example whether housework should be part of the gross domestic product. Because of the shortcomings of economic and social indicators, additional information is required for wide policy making.