Is sociology a science? (Part 1)
- Created by: Emily~99
- Created on: 24-05-17 14:45
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- Is sociology a science?
- Science as a product of modernity
- Empirical evidence - Observable evidence collected in the physical or social world
- In modernity, rational scientific explanations were based on empirical evidence
- The scientific method
- Popper - Science involves the hypothetico-deductive model, which draws upon a scientific question, idea or hypothesis that is based on previous research, observation or hunches
- Popper - Features of the scientific process include...
- Hypothesis formation - Forming ideas or informed guesses about the possible causes of some phenomena
- Falsification - The aim of testing the hypothesis against the evidence is to try to prove it wrong, as 1 exception can prove a hypothesis false
- The use of empirical evidence - No hypothesis can be seen as scientific unless it can be falsified by testing against empirical evidence derived from systematic observation and/or experimentation
- Popper - Features of the scientific process
- Replication - Testing against empirical evidence is capable of being checked by other researchers who can repeat the research to verify the accuracy of the findings
- The accumulation of evidence - Scientific knowledge is cumulative and builds up through a constant cycle of hypothesis formation, falsification and new hypothesis formation, until the hypothesis seems to be robust/accurate
- Prediction - Through establishing cause and effect relationships rooted in evidence, precise predictions of what will happen in the same circumstances in future can be established
- Theory formation - If the hypothesis can be tested against evidence and not shown to be false, there can be some confidence that it's true. This may then become part of a scientific theory
- Scrutiny - Scrutinised by other scientists and will only stand until new evidence shows it to be false
- Popper's principle of falsification
- A hypothesis can never be proven true as there is always the possibility of some future exception
- A hypothesis can easily be proven false as just 1 observation on the contrary can disprove it
- Illustrated his idea with the case of the 'white swan'; he argued that the hypothesis of 'all swans are white' can never be proven true as it could be proven wrong by finding just 1 non-white swan (researchers should aim to falsify their hypothesis, not be counting all the white swans, but by looking for a non-white one)
- Objectivity and value freedom
- Objectivity - Approaching topics with an open mind, avoiding bias and being prepared to submit research evidence to scrutiny by other researchers
- Value freedom - The beliefs and prejudices of a researcher should not influence the way research is carried out and evidence interpreted
- Objectivity involves 3 main aspects...
- Open-mindedness of the researcher, with a willingness to consider all possibilities and evidence and demonstrate 'fair play'
- Value freedom
- Findings should be open to introspection/criticism by other researchers
- Positivism
- The logic, methods and procedures of natural sciences can be applied to the study of society with little modification and this enables the study of society to be objective and value free
- Human behaviour is a response to external forces (e.g. the agencies of socialisation)
- Comte - Applying natural science methodology to the study of society, based on empirical evidence and objectivity would produce a 'positive science of society', showing that behaviour in the social world is governed by laws of cause and effect in the same way as the behaviour of objects in the natural world
- Positivism - Social facts
- Social facts - Phenomena that exist outside individuals and independently of their minds, but which act upon them in ways which constrain or mould their behaviour
- There are social facts that cause events in the social world
- Durkheim - The aim of sociology should be to study social facts that, in most cases are observed and measured quantatively
- Society has a reality external to individuals and social facts limit options for people
- An example of a social fact is social class as it exists independently from individuals
- The main features of positivism in sociology
- Social integration - The integration of individuals into social groups, binding them into society and building social cohesion
- Moral regulation - The regulation or control by social values of the actions and desires of individuals
- Human behaviour is a response to observable social facts and can be explained in terms of cause and effect relationships
- Direct observation and use of quantitative methods should be measured from observable data
- The focus of sociology is on the study of social institutions and the social structure as a whole as these external structures shape and mould individuals
- How is sociology unscientific?
- The problem of prediction - In natural science, lab experiments can test ideas and isolate causes, allowing researchers to accurately predict what will happen in some circumstances in the future. HOWEVER, humans may behave differently in an experiment if they know they're being observed, meaning their behaviour cant be predicted with certainty. Different people may react differently in the same circumstances (e.g. not everyone facing the same issue will commit suicide)
- Artificiality - Sociology aims to study society in it's normal state (not in the artificial conditions of a lab experiment)
- Ethical issues - People may not want to be interrogated or observed in laboratories
- The Hawthorne effect - In natural sciences, the presence of a researcher doesn't impact the behaviour of chemicals/objects, BUT, in a sociological study, people may alter their behaviour if they know they're being watched
- Validity - Natural sciences don't have to persuade objects, chemicals or animals to participate, BUT, people may distort/conceal the truth
- Empirical observation - Popper says that a scientific hypothesis must be capable of being tested against evidence derived from systematic observation/experimentation. BUT not all social phenomena are quantifiable (e.g. motives for people's behaviour), HOWEVER, the realist view of science suggests that tis is also true for natural sciences
- Interpretivism
- Sociology is NOT a science as people don't simply respond to external forces; they interpret and give meaning to a situation before responding to it
- It's impossible to predict human behaviour or establish cause-and-effect through simple observation, experimentation or the use of empirical, quantitative data
- Weber - Verstehen (understanding)
- Meanings don't exist independently of people; social phenomena (e.g. suicide/crime/social class) aren't social facts, but social constructions that have no reality outside the meaning given to them by people (e.g. an unnatural death is only a murder if it is defined as such)
- Definitions can change from place to place and person to person
- The realist view of science
- Realism - The view that events in both the social and natural worlds are produced by underlying structures and processes, which may be observable
- Bhaskar (1998) - The underlying structures that cause events are a feature of both the natural and social world and the positivist view is based on an incorrect assumption that natural scientific method is based only on that which can be observed (e.g. germs haven't been directly observed)
- We can discover structures by their effects (e.g. empty churches)
- Durkheim (positivist) used social integration and moral regulation to explain suicide, even though these concepts aren't quantifiable or observable
- The realist view of science - Open and closed systems
- Prediction is often not as precise a process in natural science as Popper claims
- Sayer - Natural science has an advantage over social science in predictive powers when it can study events in closed systems (when all the potential causal factors are under the control of the researcher and precise measurements are possible - i.e. the closed environment of a lab experiment)
- Much natural scientific research (like sociological research) takes place in open systems where these factors can't be controlled, meaning prediction is less precise
- From a realist view, sociology is a science and both positivists and interpretivits misunderstand what natural science is really like
- Science as a product of modernity
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