Value free Flashcards
1
The ‘founding fathers’ believed that sociology can be ‘value free’ as they believe in an objective truth. Comte, Durkheim and Marx all believed that sociology can be value free as the subject involves the study of groups of people, not individuals, and groups are predictable. In this way sociology will discover the truth about how society works and will be able to offer solutions to social problems. Sociologists would be able to say objectively and with scientific certainty what was best for society
11
Positivists support the view that sociology should be ‘value free’ as they believe that if all bias is eliminated from research it can be objective in its findings.
However, interpretivists argue that sociology cannot be objective or value free because the subject matter of sociology is fundamentally different to that of the natural sciences. People are ‘social actors’ and have subjective motivations which cannot be value free.
2
According to Layder, the use of quantitative methods will result in objective findings and so sociology can be value free as long as methods such as questionnaires, official statistics, etc. are used.
Researchers may have political bias and political opinions, but this is irrelevant as long as quantitative methods are used. Quantitative methods can be used to collect objective data about society and the validity and reliability of this data can be checked. In this way sociologists avoid bringing their own prejudices to research
22
Therefore, sociology can be value free as facts can be separated from values. Positivists argue that such an approach to research increases the status of sociology as an academic study.
In contrast to this view, Becker believes that it is impossible to carry out research that is not influenced by personal and political beliefs. Value freedom is not possible but sociologists should still aim for validity.
