Sociology as a Science

Question 1

There are two related debates:

Answer 1

Can and should sociology be a science?

What is natural science and what implications does this have for sociology?

Question 2

Positivism

Answer 2

Positivists believe that it is possible and desirable to apply the logic and methods of the natural sciences to the study of society to solve social problems and achieve progress.

Question 3

Social facts

Answer 3

For positivists, society is constructed of an empirical reality of patterns (or social facts) that are waiting to be discovered, to explain social life

Question 4

The positivist methodology- Observations and inductive reasoning

Answer 4

This involves accumulating data about the world through careful observation. For example, in the natural sciences we may observe what happens to objects when they are dropped.

Question 5

Theories and Verification

Answer 5

As our knowledge grows we begin to see the general patterns. from this, we can develop a theory that explains our observations. After many more observations, the theory will be confirmed and verified.

Question 6

Patterns and causes

Answer 6

When theories are verified, we claim to have discovered the truth in terms of a general pattern, e.g. objects dropped always fall to the earth with the same rate of acceleration. These patterns can all be explained in the same way, by observing their causes.

Question 7

Universal laws

Answer 7

Like the natural sciences, positivist sociologists aim to produce universal laws about how society works, such as the universal law of gravity.

Question 8

Positivist quantitative methods

Answer 8

Positivists believe sociology should take the natural science experimental as the model for research because the investigator can test a hypothesis in a systematic and controlled way.
Positivists use quantitative data to measure patterns of behaviour (e.g. suicide rates) This allows them to produce statements about the relationship between the facts they are investigating and thereby discover laws of cause and effect

Question 9

Objective research methods

Answer 9

They believe that researchers should be detached and objective. They should not let their own subjective feelings, values or prejudices influence how they conduct their research or analyse their findings. In the natural sciences, it is claimed that the scientists values and opinions make no difference to the outcome of their research. However, in sociology we are dealing with people and there is a danger that the researcher may contaminate the research.

Question 10

Positivism and the study of suicide

Answer 10

Durkheim chose to study suicide to demonstrate that sociology was a science with its own distinct subject matter. He believed that if we could show that even such a highly individual act had social causes, this would establish Sociology’s status as a distinct and genuinely scientific discipline.

Question 11

Patterns in suicide- social facts

Answer 11

Durkheim observed that there were patterns in the suicide rate. For example, rates for protestants were higher than for Catholics. He concluded that these patterns could not be the product of the motives of individuals, but social facts.

Question 12

Causes of patterns in suicide rate

Answer 12

According to Durkheim, the social facts responsible for determining the suicide rate were the levels of integration and regulation. Thus, for example, Catholics were less likely than Protestants to commit suicide because Catholicism was more successful in integrating individuals. They have a stronger sense of solidarity in catholic communities than in protestant communities.

Question 13

Real law of suicide

Answer 13

Thus Durkheim claimed to have discovered a ‘real law’: that different levels of integration and regulation produce different rates of suicide. He claimed to have demonstrated that sociology had its own unique subject matter- social facts- and that these could be explained scientifically.

Question 14

Interpretivism and science

Answer 14

Interpretivist sociologists do not believe that sociology should model itself on the natural sciences. Interpretivist criticise positivism’s ‘scientific’ approach as inadequate, or as completely unsuited to the study of human beings.

Question 15

The subject matter of sociology: meaningful social action

Answer 15

Interpretivists argue that the subject matter of sociology is meaningful social action, and that we can only understand it by successfully interpreting the meanings and motives of the individuals involved. Interpretivists say sociology is about internal meanings, not external causes. In their view, sociology is not a science, because science only deals with laws of cause and effect, and not human meanings.

Question 16

Interactionists completely reject the use of natural science methods

Answer 16

They argue that there is a fundamental difference between the subject matter of sociology and the natural sciences.
Natural sciences study matter, which has no consciousness. As such, its behaviour can be explained as a straightforward reaction to an external stimulus. For example, an apple falls to the ground because of the force of gravity. It has no consciousness (no choice about its behaviour). Sociology however studies people who do have consciousness. People make sense of and control their world by attaching meanings to it. Their actions can only be understood in terms of these meanings because they are internal to people’s consciousness not external stimuli.

Question 17

Mead- free will

Answer 17

Unlike matter, people have free will and can exercise choice. As GH mead suggests, rather than responding automatically to external stimuli, human beings interpret the meaning of a stimulus and then choose how to respond to it.

Question 18

Not puppets on a string

Answer 18

For interpretivists, individuals are not puppets on a string, manipulated by external social facts, as positivists believe, but autonomous beings who construct their social world through the meanings they give to it.

Question 19

Interpretivist qualitative methods

Answer 19

They argue that to discover the meanings people hold, we need to see the world through their viewpoint using what Weber calls ‘verstehen’. For this reason, they favour the use of qualitative methods such as participant observation, unstructured interviews or personal documents.

Question 20

Two versions of Interpretivism

Answer 20

All interpretivists seek to understand ‘actors’ meanings. However, they are divided about whether or not we can combine this understanding with positivist-style causal explanations of human behaviour. The two types are Interactionists and Phenomenologists and Ethnomethodologists.

Question 21

Interactionists

Answer 21

believe we can have causal explanations, but through a ‘bottom-up’ approach, or grounded theory. Rather than entering the research with a fixed hypothesis, as positivists do, ideas emerge gradually from the observations made.

Question 22

Phenomenologists and Ethnomethodologists

Answer 22

such as Atkinson completely reject the possibility of causal explanations of human behaviour. Their radically anti structural view argues that society is not a real thing ‘out there’

Question 23

Postmodernism and Feminism

Answer 23

Postmodernists also reject natural science as a model for sociology, because they see it as a merely a meta-narrative- not as the truth.
Science’s account of the world is no more valid than any other, so there is no reason why science should be the model for sociology. Furthermore, a scientific approach is dangerous because it claims to have a monopoly of the truth and excludes other points of view- it is a form of domination. Poststructuralist feminists share this view of scientific sociology. The quest for a single, scientific, feminist theory is a form of domination, since it excludes many groups of women.

Question 24

Some other writers conclude that science is an undesirable model of society - RISK SOCIETY

Answer 24

because, in practice, science has not always led to the progress that positivists believed it would. e.g. the emergence of ‘risk society’, with scientifically created dangers such as nuclear weapons and global warming, has undermined the idea that science inevitably brings benefits to mankind. Is science produces such negative consequences, it is argued, it would be inappropriate for sociology to accept it as a model

Question 25

Karl Popper the fallacy of induction and falsification

Answer 25

Popper rejects the positivist view that science is based on verificationism: the idea that we can prove a theory true by gathering evidence that supports it. Instead, what makes science unique Is the opposite: the principle of falsificationism. This is the idea that a statement is scientific if it is capable of being falsified (disproved) by the evidence.

Question 26

What is a good theory for Popper

Answer 26

A good theory is therefore one that

• is in principle falsifiable, but when tested, in fact stands up to all attempts to disprove it
• explains a great deal

Question 27

All knowledge is provisional

Answer 27

there can never be absolute proof that any knowledge is true. A theory that appears true is simply one that has withstood attempts to falsify it. For a theory to be falsifiable, it must be open to criticism from other scientists so that its flaws can be exposed and better theories developed.

Question 28

Implications for Sociology

Answer 28

Much sociology is unscientific because its theories could not under any circumstances be proved false, e.g. Marx’s prediction that there will be a revolution (some day)
However, sociology can be scientific by producing hypotheses that could be tested and in principle falsified. Popper acknowledges that sociological ideas may be of value because they may become testable at some later date and meanwhile can still be examined for clarity and logical consistency.

Question 29

Thomas Kuhn: scientific paradigms

Answer 29

A paradigm is a common accepted theory held by members of a given scientific community- a kind of shared culture. Science is a paradigm; there are a set of shared ideas about the natural world shared by all scientists. It is a basic framework of principles, theories and methods. A paradigm is a world view. Science has its own distinct world view about objectivity, observation, empirical data…

Question 30

There is no shared paradigm in sociology

Answer 30

Sociology is divided into competing perspectives. There is no shared paradigm and no agreement on the fundamentals of what to study. Therefore, the only way sociology could become a science is if such basic disagreements were resolved, though whether this is even possible is open to doubt.

Question 31

A paradigm may not even be desirable In sociology

Answer 31

Postmodernists might argue that a paradigm is not desirable, since this would be a meta narrative- a dominant view of what reality is like. This would silence minority views and falsely claim to access the truth.

Question 32

Realism: Keat and Urry- Closed and open systems

Answer 32

Keat and Urry distinguish between closed and open systems. Closed systems are those where the researcher can control and measure all of the relevant variables, and therefore can make precise predictions. (lab experiment) Open systems are the those which the researcher cannot control and so cannot make precise predictions. Realists argue that sociologists study open systems where the processes are too complex to make exact predictions.

Question 33

Underlying structures

Answer 33

Keat and Urry argue that science often assumes the existence of unobservable structures. This is because they produce observable effects. Realists, therefore, would argue that Marxism is scientific because it sees underlying structures such as Capitalism producing effects such as poverty.