Is sociology a science? (part 2)
- Created by: Emily~99
- Created on: 24-05-17 16:31
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- Is sociology a science? (part 2)
- Social constructionist approach - Kuhn: The influence of paradigm and 'scientific revolutions'
- Paradigm - A framework of scientific laws, concepts, theories, methods and assumptions within which scientists operate and which provide guidelines for the conduct of research and what counts as proper evidence
- He questions whether scientists really do set out to collect evidence with the specific aim of trying to falsify their hypothesis; he believes that instead, they work within paradigms
- A paradigm works like a pair of coloured lenses, through which scientists look at the 'puzzles' they're investigating and these influence what they think they should look for
- The paradigm provides what is likely to be seem as a correct answer to the original puzzle being investigated
- Paradigms are learnt by scientists during their training; they're socialised into the accepted view of 'normal science', based on the values of the scientific community at the time
- The more the idea challenges a paradigm, the more likely it is that it will be blamed on experimental errors
- Most scientists rarely question the paradigm, which encourages scientists to try to fit observations into the paradigm, rather than attempting to falsify their hypothesis
- The paradigm will only change when there are many anomalies
- Science changes in dramatic leaps known as 'scientific revolutions'
- Social constructionist approach - Reconstructed logic and logic-in-use
- Kaplan (1973) - Scientists write up research using reconstructed logic (the formal scientific method they're meant to use) as this is essential for their findings to be accepted by the scientific community
- HOWEVER, in practice, scientists depart from these procedures and the research process is more haphazard and unsystematic than the ideal suggests (logic-in-use)
- Surveys show that only about 1/4 of scientists are willing to provide original data for checking by others
- Scientists may 'cheat' by re-running the same experiment until it produces the desired result
- British Medical Journal (1998) - Only about 5% of published articles reached the minimum standards if scientific soundness
- Social constructionist approach - Social influences on the nature and direction of scientific research
- A researcher's values and beliefs influence whether they think issues are important or not (worthy of studying)
- Scientists need money to fund their research, strengthening their desire to prove their hypothesis. This may also influence what they choose to research, limiting the objectivity of their work
- Science itself is a social product, produced within a set of agreed, taken-for-granted assumptions and methods (a paradigm)
- Postmodernism, sociology and science
- The debate between positivism and interpretivisim over whether sociology is a science is dismissed and seen as a waste f time
- Science is simply a metanarrative; it's a big theory that claims the monopoly of the truth (alongside similar theories like Marxism/functionalism). It regards other ways of seeing the world as inadequate/inferior
- Loss of faith in the modernist view that rational thought and the application of scientific methods can control and improve the world. Science has failed and created problems (e.g. climate change)
- No sociological research provides a factual description of social life and such research is a social construction created by sociological researchers. Concepts like social class and gender are simply frameworks imposed on the world
- It's pointless trying to find the social causes of behaviour. Social structures have diminished importance and society has become fragmented and chaotic. There is no longer anything called 'society', just a mass of individuals making separate choices. The causes of their behaviour are specific to each individual
- Claims of objectivity and value freedom by scientists (which some sociologists try to copy) are simply a pretence that aims to present their views as superior, even though all are equally valid as they're merely social constructions
- Social constructionist approach - Kuhn: The influence of paradigm and 'scientific revolutions'
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