Sociology Should Be A Science

Question 1

Positivists

Answer 1

Durkheim study has faults but there are strengths to using positivist methods. True objective data can be gained similar to the sciences as it follows a structure. This will slow the sociologists to use the objective information to solve social problems and achieve progress. By using official statistics, Durkheim was able to make comparisons of suicide statistics across Europe which was very representative. We can adopt the same scientific principles to sociology to establish cause and effects relationships

Question 2

Objectivity

Answer 2

Positivist sociologists value objectivity. This means they keep their own personal opinions out of the study. Sociologists should not be able to impose their own values into the study so it is not clouded by judgment and has a higher validity. By doing this sociology could be consisted a science as it is unbiased and truthful. In order to gain valid results the researcher should be value free and objective

Question 3

Paradigm shift

Answer 3

Sometimes science goes through a paradigm shift where is moves away from the shared set as assumptions. As confidence in the existing paradigm shifts, scientists seek for new answers. Paradigm shifts have also occurred in sociology such as functionalists and Marxists believing we are in modern society but postmodernists believes we have shifted away from modernity

Question 4

Some sociology can be falsified

Answer 4

Some aspects of theories can be falsified and proven wrong by others. For example we have falsified the new right belief that single parent families lead to a life of crime and meritocracy. Other sociological theories have also proved the new right view.