Value Freedom Flashcards
positivists
Argued that sociological research should be value free and come to objective conclusions. The researchers religious, political, or philosophical beliefs are
irrelevant to the findings, Auguste Comte/Durkheim Sociology can be scientific and impartial, Research will give us our values not the researcher, Karl Marx/Friedrich Engels, Sociology was scientific, could deliver truth and a better society - Method of dialectics
Sociology should reveal the correct society, this gives sociologists a crucial role which is discovering how society worked.
interpretivism
Scientific facts and value judgements cannot be separated, Functionalists uncritically accept official statistics because they want to maintain the status quo, Marxists want to see how lower classes are exploited to create a classless society. The researcher’s personal values and understandings are vital to
sociological research. But personal values should only enter the research process at specific times
values as a guide for topics to research
Weber argues that we must choose social facts to study, social facts that we regard as important based on our own values or their relevance to us. Values are thus essential in enabling us to select which aspects of reality to study and in developing concepts from which to understand. E.g feminists
values should be removed from data collection
We must be objective and unbiased as possible when we are actually collecting the facts - should be ask leading collection designed to give the answers that we want to hear - the questions should aim to get respondents to give us their view not our own.
values should play a role in interpreting the data
Values become important when we come to interpret the data we have collected. The facts need to be set in a theoretical framework so that we can understand their significance and draw conclusions from them
values and the impact of research
Weber argues that scientists and sociologists should take responsibility for the harm of their research may do.
values of the research and financial funding
Goudlner argues that research is funded by someone other than sociologists themselves. Funding sources include government departments and businesses. All research, therefore, reflects the values of their paymasters, the body that pays for the research controls the direction it takes and the kinds of questions it asks and fails to ask. Sociologists’ work is likely to embody the values of their funding body. Some sociologists may censor themselves for fear that being too outspoken will harm their career prospects or even cost them their job. For Goudlner, all research is inevitably influenced by values whether it is the values of the sociologist or those of the funding body that pays for the research.
sociology should be on the side of the oppressed.
Becker argues that values are always present in sociology, and they should take the side of the oppressed. Positivists ignore the influence of powerful groups in society – police, psychiatrists, politicians etc.
Sociology should see things from the perspective of powerless groups– criminals, and patients, by using qualitative methods which will give a voice to these groups
socio can be value free
Positivists believe that Sociology can be value free because they are uncovering the ‘objective’ laws of how social systems work – these laws exist independently of the researchers observing them. All the researcher is doing is uncovering ‘social facts’ that exist ‘out there’ in the world – facts that would exist irrespective of the person doing the observing.
