is sociology a science?

Question 1

qualities of science

Answer 1

• objective
• value free - no opinions
• based on research - empirical evidence
• builds on existing knowledge
• hypothesis formation - carry out experiments and test them
• falsification - try to prove theories wrong
• predictions - produce cause and effect relationships
• scrutiny - a theory will be scrutinized by other scientists

Question 2

positivist view

Answer 2

• sociology should follow the methods and the ideas of the natural sciences
• e.g. sociology should explain educational behaviour in terms of social facts

Question 3

interpretivist view

Answer 3

• sociology should be to understand how people make sense of their experiences
• people cannot be studied in the same way as rocks and chemicals

Question 4

early positivist beliefs and founders

Answer 4

• AUGUSTE COMTE (1789-1857) - founding father of sociology
• the enlightenment brought about a huge interest in science which led to secularisation
• early positivists believed sociology would find out how society operated and then be able to create a better society
• only directly observable facts that can be counted and quantified can count as evidence
• it is then possible to identify cause and effect relationships, and discover the laws underlying social evolution

Question 5

DURKHIEM - comparative approach

Answer 5

• developed the positivist idea of ‘the science of society’ a stage further
• used the comparative approach - thought experiment using secondary sources
• positivists see this as the equivalent to an experiment

Question 6

DURKHEIM’s study of suicide conclusion

Answer 6

• suicide rates were caused by variations in levels of social integration and moral regulation - event to which individuals are part of the wider group
• DURKHEIM believed that his research on suicide proved that scientific methodology was appropriate for the study of society

Question 7

interpretivists against sociology as a science

Answer 7

• believe sociology should not model itself on the natural sciences
• the subject matter of sociology is meaningful social action
• humans have a consciousness - make sense of and construct their world by attaching meanings to it
• people have a free will and don’t simply react to external stimuli

Question 8

DOUGLAS - interactionist criticisms of DURKHEIM’s study of suicide

Answer 8

• DOUGLAS
• rejects positivism and the use of quantitative data
• to understand suicide, we must uncover the meaning
• official statistics are made from the subjective decisions made by coroners and other social actors - not social facts
• friends and relatives give evidence at inquests

Question 9

POPPER (philosopher) - falsification

Answer 9

• scientific knowledge is superior to other types of knowledge because it can be proved wrong - falsification
• he supported the deductive model for studying sociology as a science
• theories must be constructed in such a way that falsification is possible, or they are not scientific
• he believed much of sociology is not scientific because it consists of theories that cannot be proved wrong
• it could be scientific because it can produce hypothesis that can be falsified

Question 10

inductive approach to study - what positivists such as DURKHEIM and MARX used

Answer 10

1. gathering data
2. classifying and analysing
3. produce theories

Question 11

deductive approach - what science follows, POPPER argues in order for sociology to be a science it should adopt this approach

Answer 11

1. theory
2. use data to test the theory
3. the theorists must be open for falsification

Question 12

what is a paradigm?

Answer 12

• like a set of rules and beliefs that scientists follow when conducting research
• shapes how they understand and investigate the world
• when enough anomalies or inconsistancies, it can lead to a scientific revolution where the old paradigm is replaced by a new one

Question 13

scientific paradigms - THOMAS KUHN

Answer 13

• scientists have a tendancy to share certain assumptions, and conduct research based on these assumptions
• KUHN refers to these as paradigms
• a paradigm is shaped by the members of the scientific community. shapes the way they see things and carry out research
• scientists are simply problem solving within the existing paradigm

Question 14

KUHN - sociology can’t be a science

Answer 14

• sociology has a range of perspectives - no shared perspective (no paradigm)
• according to KUHN’s definition, sociology is in a pre-scientific situation
• it can only be a real science when all its differences are resolved

Question 15

postmodernism view - relativism - LYOTARD

Answer 15

• argues the idea of a scientific sociology is irrelevant
• natural science is a meta narrative (big stories) - LYOTARD
• there isn’t one dominant form of knowledge that society follows
• science is just another view of the world - no more valid than any other such as religion, sociology (relativism)

Question 16

realist approach to sociology as a science - SAYER

Answer 16

• accepts that there are differences between the natural sciences and social sciences, but sociology can still be categorized as a science
• some sciences operate in closed systems, where variables can be controlled
• also operates in open systems e.g. meteorology where things cant be controlled but you can measure the effects - similar to sociology
• both natural and social world are produced by underlying structures and mechanisms