1. Is Sociology a Science?

2. What have these got in common?
Biology
Geology
Psychology
Ecology
Sociology
They’re all sciences, right?

3. This is what we’re going to do:
Look at the evidence that suggests Sociology is a science.
Look at the counter-evidence that says there’s no way Sociology is a science or should ever try to be one.

4. 1. Let’s clear-up what’s meant by science.
* it’s a set of principles that tell us how to produce valid knowledge.
* it aims to base laws and theories on objective facts gained through observing phenomena.

5. * Something is scientific when it uses EMPIRICISM (knowledge gained from actually experiencing and / or observing something)
AND
* OBJECTIVITY where the research does not involve opinions, or bias or prejudice.

6. * To come up with empirical knowledge, experiments are carried out to test relationships between variables.
* Theories and laws that are tested over and over again by replication become accepted as scientific knowledge.

8. EVIDENCE THAT SUPPORTS SOCIOLOGY AS A SCIENCE.

9. 1.It’s possible to discover the laws that control and shape the behaviour of people in society.

10. 2. Science isn’t there to tell us why something came into being.
3. Science is there to explain how things relate to each other, using laws. So, Asian lads and the Police don’t relate well because of a social fact called racism (Yes, I know that’s up for debate).

11. Laws of succession: what are the laws that govern social change?
4. The main task of Sociology is to discover general laws of social development;
Laws of co-existence: looking at the relationship between parts of society;
Laws of succession: what are the laws that govern social change?

12. All the apples I’ve ever eaten were SO tasty! This one will be, too…
Inductive Logic is a big part of Positivism, like narcissism, is a big part of Big Brother.
Inductive logic is a type of reasoning about something that involves moving from a set of specific facts to a general conclusion.
All the apples I’ve ever eaten were SO tasty! This one will be, too…
It uses premises from objects that have been examined and experiments that have been conducted to establish a conclusion about an object that has not been examined.

13. Seven steps of Inductive Positivism:
1. Our knowledge about the social world starts with the collection of facts –
For example, the crime rate, the divorce rate and the number of men that are victims of domestic violence.

14. 2. The facts are classified & identified objectively – without using opinion, and statistical relationships established.
Eg. Children from low income households are more likely to become criminal.

15. 3. Once classification has been done, we can look for (study) correlations – where two or more things happen at the same time between different social facts.
For example, a correlation between women being in care and becoming deviant.

16. 4. If positive correlation is found, a cause and effect relationship can be established.
For example, educational failure causes greater likelihood of criminality.

17. 5. Once we’ve sorted out positive correlations and cause and effect relationships, we can develop theories that explain the relationship between different facts.
Eg. Having insufficient integration into society explains why some commit suicide.

18. 6. Once we have a theory – test it further
6. Once we have a theory – test it further. If nothing happens to disprove the theory, we have discovered a universal law of human behaviour.

19. 7. Once a law is identified in human behaviour, we can incorporate it into social policy – we can organise people through laws & legislation that will engineer the best results for society.

20. Durkheim thought Comte had failed to establish Sociology as a science.
Durkheim thought, instead, that Sociology should study social facts as things to observe and measure. So, things like the suicide rate.

21. Karl Popper thought that all academic subject areas that wanted to be called a ‘science’ should subject themselves to a process of falsification.
To test itself, therefore, Sociology must come up with testable hypotheses, such as; suicide is caused by insufficient regulation and integration.
Karl Popper rejected Marxism as a pseudo-science, because its concepts, such as false class consciousness, were too abstract to be seen and measured.

22. Deductive method Inductive method
This starts with a theory.
Then the theory is bombarded with challenges to its hypothesis in order to see if it stands up to its claims.
This starts with a theory.
Then finds loads of evidence to prove itself right.

23. How Sociology is absolutely NOT a science…

24. Interpretivism is THE alternative, THE total opposite of Positivism.
* People like Weber say Sociology should study society from the perspective of other people to understand how and why things happen.
* Using Weber’s perspective of verstehen requires subjective understanding which draws on people’s opinions.
* Science is strongly objective and does not allow opinion to influence research.
* For this reason, Interpretivists argue Sociology cannot ever be a science.

25. Thomas Kuhn is proudly sitting on the fence of the debate.
In answer to the question, “Is or can Sociology ever be a science?”, his answer is:
Well…yes and no.

26. Kuhn looked at the history of the natural sciences and argued that it’s not simply an accumulation of knowledge that ends up being the credible academic body we know as science, but that it went through a series of paradigm shifts or revolutions – a bit like a marriage.
Pre-science: period of discovery where there was no central paradigm.
Normal science: where scientists used an established paradigm, like the theory of evolution, to support theories.
Revolutionary science: where the paradigms are challenged.

27. Paradigm shifts take place when theories in normal science, such as the idea that the MMR jab is totally safe, are challenged by revolutionary scientists such as Andrew Wakefield, who argued it causes autism.
Paradigm shifts are when one (old) way of thinking is shoved away by a newer way of thinking.

28. Sociology, then, behaves like it’s in the pre-science stage: there’s no dominant perspective and there are lots of competing theories and perspectives.
It’s totally valid to refer to Sociology as a young science that still needs to find its unifying theory.

29. By saying that science is capable of disproving theories all the time, Kuhn seems to be implying that we’ll never get to the truth and that science isn’t as objective as we’d like it to be.
Science can actually cause harm by being used to damage humanity for the benefit of the few.

30. 1. Military harm

31. 2. Medical harm

32. 3. Political harm

33. Can science, either natural or social, ever actually be objective, truly behaving in the interests of humanity and leaving opinion and ideology out of it?

34. Objectivity & Subjectivity.

35. CORE DEBATE:
Can or should Sociology be value free?
Should all bias be removed from Sociological research?

36. Weber POSITIVISM Watch– don’t judge.
* Sociology should be totally value-free.
* Sociology should study observable stuff: social facts, that can be recorded as quantitative data so correlations can be identified between variables.
* Sociology should be value relevant, but cannot be value-free.
* Sociologists will use their subjective feelings to identify a research topic & the concepts they feel are relevant.
* But sociologists can be objective in how they carry out their research, once they’ve identified concepts.
Watch– don’t judge.

37. Values in the research process:
Operationalising key concepts.
Choosing which topic to research.
Choosing a research method.
Getting funding.
Interpreting findings.
Selecting appropriate questions.
Recording responses.
Selecting which findings to include in the report.
Deciding what report will be used for.
Deciding where report will be published.

38. All these values and considerations make it very hard for Sociologists to remain objective.
They’re conservative.
Civitas are funding my research.
My research will have to agree with them.
So, I’ll have to focus on how absent dads create deviant sons.

39. Don’t bite the hand that feeds you…

40. What did you look at me like that for, you silly sausage.
Interpretivists argue Sociology can’t be value-free because Sociologists are human beings studying other human beings.
What did you look at me like that for, you silly sausage.
They understand the social world through exploring the meanings and motivations of others, using their own experience & verstehen.

41. Different researchers interpret every scenario differently.
Briefly, churn out a sentence about what this fella’s doing here.
Would you go on holiday with him?

42. This is HOWARD BECKER.
He says it’s impossible to study anything without using your personal and political beliefs to understand and judge it.

43. So, researchers do need to state clearly which side they’re on, but it’s a big dilemma.
We can never avoid taking sides because you have to understand what life is like from the perspective of the actor involved.

44. Some Sociological theories are clearly allied to a particular political leaning.
For instance, Marxism is a conflict theory which sees capitalism as problematic for human happiness and fairness.
Marxism is therefore left wing.
Feminism also, is a conflict theory which sees patriarchy as problematic for women’s happiness and fairness.
Feminism also, is therefore left wing.

46. Postmodernists
There is no longer a unifying truth that we all believe…
There are just a number of ‘truths’ or theories for us to pick from.
Sociology can’t be value-free.
Sociology can’t be objective.

47. Summary of Theory and Method…

48. 1. Consensus theories see society as a functional unit.

49. 2. Functionalists neglect meanings that individuals give to social situations and don’t give a full account of social conflict.

50. 3. Conflict theories are based on ideology, capitalism and domination.

51. 4. Marxism is criticised for not providing a thorough enough account of social interaction and for having an overly simplified view of power.

52. 5. Conflict theories such as feminism divide into several branches; the key concept of feminism is patriarchy.

53. 6. Feminism has influenced a broad range of sociological research in areas such as the family and the workplace.

54. 7. Consensus and conflict theories explain how social structure shapes individual behaviour.

55. 8. Weber identified four types of action and was influential in the development of the sociology of everyday life.

56. 9. Microsociology is concerned with face-to-face social interaction.

57. 10. Microsociology is criticised for struggling to explain conflict and failing to explain the connections between individuals and society.

58. 11. The structure/action debate is an important debate in Sociology.

59. 12. Classic Sociologists propose concepts to understand the social processes involved in the transition from pre-modern to modern society: anomie, iron cage and alienation.

60. 13. Contemporary Sociologists suggest that the defining features of modernity have changed.

61. 14. Urry argues that the process of globalisation has generated a ‘post-societal stage of Sociology’.

62. 15. Positivism and Interpretivism are different theories of methodology that affect which research methods are used.

63. 16. The Sociology of suicide can be used to highlight the difference between Positivism and Interpretivism.

64. 17. Alternative theories of methodology make assumptions about society and how research should be conducted.

65. 18. Many Sociologists think the purpose of Sociology is to make policy proposals based on research.

66. 19. Some Sociologists are critical of the relationship between Sociology and social policy.

67. 20. Sociologists use a range of methods to do research.

68. 21. Sociological research can contribute to effective social policies.

69. 22. The different research methods produce different types of data with their own strengths and limitations.

70. 23. It is common for researchers to use a range of different data in their research.

71. 24. Sociologists who design research face issues about operationalisation of concepts, data sampling and data collection.

72. 25. Much sociological research involves distinct stages where the validity, reliability and representativeness can be questionned.

73. 26. The science debate divides sociologists and involves a broad range of ideas.

74. 27. Postivists argue that society can be studied objectively and empirically, like natural scientists study natural phenomena.

75. 28. Popper thought that if social sciences were based on falsification, sociology could be accepted as a science.

76. 29. Many sociologists contest the positivist scientific tradition.

77. 30. Sociologists disagree about whether sociology is value-free.

78. 31. Gomm argues that sociology cannot avoid values as society is made up of values, among other things.

79. SOME POTENTIAL QUESTIONS: all 33 marks.
Assess the usefulness of functionalist theory to an understanding of society as a functional unit.
Marxism is no longer relevant to an understanding of contemporary society. To what extent do sociological arguments and evidence support this view?
Assess the usefulness of feminism and feminist research to an understanding of society.
Assess the usefulness of microsociology to our understanding of society.
Assess the extent to which the structure / agency debate has been resolved.
Assess the extent to which theories of modernity are relevant to understanding contemporary society.

80. 7. Assess the extent to which sociological arguments and evidence support the view that society has entered a stage of postmodernity.
Assess the extent to which positivism can be seen as a useful theory of methodology in sociological research.
Alternative theories of methodology are far more useful for gaining an understanding of society today than those used by positivists and interpretivists. To what extent do sociological arguments and evidence support this view of sociological research?
Sociology is not very useful in informing social policy. To what extent do sociological arguments and evidence support this claim?
Assess the view that survey-based research does not produce a valid picture of social behaviour.
Assess the view that qualitative data is the most valid and reliable type of data.

81. 13. Assess the practical, ethical and theoretical factors that sociologists face in conducting research.
14. Sociology can be like the natural sciences. To what extent do sociological arguments and evidence support this view?
15. Assess the extent to which sociology can be value-free and objective.
16. “Sociology cannot and should not be a science.” To what extent do sociological arguments and evidence support this view?
This was the question from the January 2010 exam:
“Feminism has revolutionised sociology by placing women at the centre of its analysis of society. However, while all feminists share this starting point, there are now many different ‘feminisms’ within sociology.”
Assess the contribution of feminist theorists and researchers to an understanding of society today.