theory and methods - can sociology be a science?

Question 1

What are the three main arguments on whether sociology can be a science?

Answer 1

• YES
• NO
• Is science as scientific as it claims?

Question 2

Who argues that YES sociology can be a science?

Answer 2

Positivists

Question 3

What do positivists claim?

Answer 3

• we should study society using scientific methods
• must look for empirical evidence
• objective and value-free
• we should study social facts
• use quantitative methods

Question 4

What did Auguste Comte argue?

Answer 4

• sociology should be based upon the same methods as natural science
• if we can find ‘facts’ about society we could then identify a cause and effect relationship and laws in society

Question 5

What did Emile Durkheim argue?

Answer 5

• social facts can be objectively measured
• society can be measured in the same way as the natural world
• he used the comparative method to study suicide

Question 6

How can Durkheim be criticised?

Answer 6

• he claimed to use positivist scientific methods BUT also linked to the idea of social integration and moral regulation which aren’t quantifiable

Question 7

Who argues that sociology isn’t a science?

Answer 7

Interpretivists

Question 8

What do interpretivists claim?

Answer 8

• people cannot be studied in the same way as the physical world
• the problems with studying people:
• prediction - Can we predict human behaviour?
• artificiality
• ethical issues
• Hawthorne effect
• validity
• empirical observation

Question 9

What does Karl Popper introduce?

Answer 9

• the falsification principle
• we need to take the approach of falsifying our findings in sociology

Question 10

How does falsification show that sociology can’t be a science?

Answer 10

• Popper suggests sociology isn’t a science as it’s very difficult to falsify in society due to the number of variables that can’t be controlled

Question 11

What does Thomas Khun introduce?

Answer 11

paradigms = set ideas and values that scientific research is based within
- science only moves forward when one paradigm is replaced with another

Question 12

How does paradigms show that sociology cannot be a science?

Answer 12

• sociology can’t be a science because there are a range of different sociological perspectives or different paradigms

Question 13

What does the realist perspective question?

Answer 13

• whether science is really as scientific as it claims to be

Question 14

How does the realist perspective challenge the criteria of science?

Answer 14

• not all phenomena can be observed - even scientists cannot observe everything
• Popper is wrong to claim that science is simply limited to the observable

Question 15

What is meant by open and closed systems?

Answer 15

• not all scientific experiments take place in ‘closed systems’, such as the weather and other environmental issues
• therefore researching the natural world and the social world = not all variables can be controlled
• scientists are wrong to discount sociology just because it doesn’t operate in closed systems

Question 16

What is the argument of the postmodernists?

Answer 16

• sociology cannot be a science

Question 17

What do postmodernists claim?

Answer 17

• science is just a metanarrative
• research is a social construction created by the researcher
• claims of objectivity and value freedom are untrue
• critical of the