Objectivity and values

Question 1

Who believes Sociology should be value free?

Answer 1

Positivists - Comte and Durkheim

Question 2

Why do Positivists believe Sociology should be value free ?

Answer 2

• Science doesn’t involve values, experiences or emotions so neither should sociology
• If we keep values of of sociology then it leads to progressivism which means that through processing research we become closer to testing hypothesis
• If we mimic science then sociology will be seen as more of a respectable and academic discipline
• They share the same goal as Modernists - wants to understand the social world
• If we solve problems then human life can be improved

Question 3

Who believes that sociology should be both value free and value laden ?

Answer 3

Weber - Interpretivist

Question 4

Why does Weber believe sociology should be both value free and value laden ?

Answer 4

Different parts of research should be value free and others should be value Laden -

Values as a guide to research - Yes
- When sociologists choose the area of society that they want to study which id guided by their values

Data collection and hypothesis testing - No
- Should be value free to remove all bias and it may be unethical and end up with false data being received if values are involved

Values in the interpretation of data - Yes
- Drawing conclusions depends on the theoretical position of the sociologist interpreting the data

Values and the sociologist as a citizen - Yes
- The researcher must be morally accountable for the uses that their research is put to

Question 5

What is the group of sociologists called who believe that Sociological research should be value Laden ?

Answer 5

Committed sociologists

-Gouldner
- Myrdal
-Becker

Question 6

Why do committed sociologists believe that research should be value Laden ?

Answer 6

• They want to conduct research to help better society and values are enforced
• This is either through funding body’s (government) or values being instilled to represent the underdog

Question 7

Who are the ‘Overdogs’ in society ?

Answer 7

The powerful -

The government, police

Question 8

Who are the ‘underdogs’ in society ?

Answer 8

Those who are powerless

Criminals, working class, ethnic minorities, women, disabled

Question 9

Why does Gouldner believe we should be value laden?

Answer 9

• Prior to 1950 sociologists would use their values to investigate problems that they could find which often threatened the status quo and therefore, disrupted the social order
• However, during the 20th century gouldner claims that these sociologists became PROBLEM TAKERS who work on behalf of organisations to take on and solve their problems. Problem takers do not rock the boat and therefore maintain the status quo

Its impossible to be value free for 2 reasons
- IMPOSSIBLE - either the sociologists or paymasters values are bound to be reflected in the work
- UNDESIRABLE - Without values the sociologists are merely putting their disposal at the highest bidder (doing research for money)

Question 10

Why does Myrdal believe we should value laden ?

Answer 10

Its nor possible or desirable to keep values out of research and instead we should use our values and TAKE A SIDE

Question 11

Why does Becker believe we should be value Laden ?

Answer 11

• Sociologists always take sides which traditionally used to be the side of the powerful
• Becker argues that we should take the side of the underdog rather than the overdog

Goffman backs this up -
we should use qualitative methods to seek verstehen

Question 12

AO3 for sociology being value free or value laden

Answer 12

• Research is expensive so it’s funded by agencies meaning that the funders values become part of the research as they will only fund research that they’re concerned over.
• Government bodies can also become influential in terms of ‘relevance’ that the research might hold. EG the conservative government publish the black report which was about class inequality on a bank holiday so that less people would read it

Question 13

What does relativism and postmodernism say about sociology being value free or value laden ?

Answer 13

Relativism says that there are plural truths within society and neither are more credible than the other

This coincides with Postmodernists who claims all theories are meta-narratives

However, Postmodernism in itself is a self-defeating theory so becomes a meta-narrative