Objectivity and values in sociology Flashcards
What do all members in society have ideologically?
Is it possible to remove these when completing research? Why not?
What is an alternative approach useful for analysing the use of values for research?
-Beliefs, opinions and values.
-Some argue it is possible for researchers to detach subjective values out of their research.
-Others argue that staying value-neutral is impossible, because sociologists are humans studying other humans.
-Alternatively some argue that it is desirable for sociologists to use their values to improve society.
Who are the classical sociologists?
What did they argue is the job of sociologists? Marx?
-Comte, Durkheim, and Marx.
-For early positivists Comte and Durkheim, sociology’s job was to discover the truth about how society worked and to improve human life.
-Sociologists would be able to say with scientific certainty what was best for society.
-Marx saw himself as a scientist. He believed he had discovered the truth about society’s future and the inevitability of classless society. Science would be needed to show the proletariat how to achieve this.
What does Weber argue regarding judgements and facts? Despite this according to Weber do values have a role in research?
-Weber distinguished between value judgements and facts.
He argued a value can neither be proved nor disproved by facts- they belong to different realms.
-However, he still sees anessential role for values in sociological research.
What 4 uses do values provide in sociological research according to Weber?
When choosing research? When studying?
-Values act as a guide to research. We can only select areas of study in terms of their value relevance to us.
-Data collection and hypothesis testing. Sociologists must be objective as possible when collecting facts, e.g. not asking leading questions, the hypothesis must stand or fall solely on whether it fits observed facts.
-Values in interpretation of data= facts need to be set in a theoretical framework to understand their significance. This is influenced by the sociologists values, which must therefore be stated explicitly.
-Values and the sociologists as a citizen- Scientists and sociologists are also citizens. They cannot dodge the moral issues their work raises or the uses it is put by hiding behind ‘value freedom’.
What do modern positivists argue?
Who argued that by the 1950s American sociologists had become ‘spirited technicians’? Explain this.
-20th century positivists argued that their own values were irrelevant to their research because science is concerned with matters of fact, not value, so sociologists should remain morally neutral.
-Gouldner.
-This is when sociologists hire themselves out to organisations such as government and the military.
What did Gouldner call previous sociologists?
What do modern sociologists do today?
Why are modern positivist approaches to values in research criticised by Weber?
-‘Problem makers’ who defined problems themselves and acknowledged their own values.
-He argued today modern sociologists make a ‘gentleman’s promise’ by trying to please their paymasters and not criticising them.
-Weber argues objectivity is actually a rejection of moral responsibility. Detachment causes sociologists to not recognise the implications for their own research.
What question does Becker ask regarding values in sociology?
Whose side have functionalists and positivists taken traditionally?
Who’s side does Becker advocate sociologists to take?
What can sociologists show in the case of mental patients?
-Becker argues: if all sociology is influenced by values, ‘whose side are we on?’
-Functionalists/positivists have taken the viewpoint of the powerful: the police, psychiatrists etc.
-Becker argues that we should take on the side of the underdog: criminals, mental patients etc.
-Sociologists can expose the hidden rationality of behaviour psychiatrist deem irrational.
How does Gouldner develop Becker’s advocation?
What did he say we should do instead of supporting the ‘man on his back’?
Why does Gouldner criticise Becker?
-Gouldner agrees with Becker that sociologists should take the side of the ‘underdog’ but he adds that it is not enough sociologists should be committed to ending their oppression.
-Instead of supporting the ‘man on his back’ we should support the ‘man fighting back’.
-Gouldner criticises Becker for romanticising underdogs- misunderstood, negatively labelled, ‘exotic specimens’ of deviant behaviour.
Where do most sociologists receive funding from?
What may sociologists want to use research for?
How might this alter the quality of their research?
-Most research is funded by government, business etc, and who pays for research may control its direction and questions it asks.
-Sociologists may want to further their careers. This may influence their choice of topic.
-They also may censor themselves for fear of harming their career.
What view do postmodernists take when reviewing the relationship between values and research?
What does this mean for the value of truth?
What does this make any perspective which claims to have the truth?
Why are postmodernists criticised?
-Postmodernists take a relativist view- there are no ‘privileged accounts’ of society that have special access to the truth.
-From a relativist standpoint, there is no single absolute or objective truth. What you believe to be true, is true for you.
-Any perspective which claims the truth is therefore just one meta-narrative based on values and assumptions.
-Critics argue that postmodernism is itself a meta-narrative about what society is like and so we shouldn’t believe what postmodernism says either.
