Sociology As A Science

Sociology As A Science

1. INTERPRETIVISTS

   • Glaser + Strauss: It is not desirable for sociology to be a science - it could rise imposing our own view of whats important, rather than taking the views of an actor.
   • GARFINKEL: It is not possible for sociology to be a science, as it completely rejects the possibility of a causal explanation of human behaviour. It is also not desirable, as peoples actions are governed by external causes, there is no possibility of cause and effect explanations.

2. POSITIVISTS

   • Comte + Durkheim: a lot of sociology is already scientific as it is based on social facts and focuses on finding the causes. It is possible for science to be sociological as society is made up of observable, measurable individuals.

3. REALISM

   • Bhaskar: sociology is quite scientific, although cannot see or observe structures like social classes, belief systems, etc.
   • Sayer, Keat and Urry: sociology is very unscientific, as it is unable to produce / predict human behaviour and shouldn't aim to copy natural scientific methods.
     • it could be possible for sociology to be scientific, as there are similarities between natural sciences and social science - both study unobservable phenomena.

4. SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIVIST

   • it is possible for sociology to be scientific, as hypotheses and experiments are pitted into an existing platform / paradigm, so it can be argued that scientific methods and knowledge and socially constructed products.
     • but it is not desirable - sociologists may spend a lot of time trying to decide on the significance of observations and their interpretations of them.

5. sociology can be scientific by using the HYPOTHETIC - DEDUCCTIVE METHOD and then applying it to society - it can also be scientific by applying INDUCTION then DEDUCTION to find about patterns, These patterns then allows theories. to be formed that can hen help predict future behaviour.

   • SCIENCE: a particular body of knowledge obtained by systematic, objective observation and testing.
   • SOCIOLOGY: the study of social behaviour, especially in relation to the development or changing of societies and social institutions.

6. POSTMODERNISM:

   • it is not possible for sociology to be scientific - sociology does not provide a factual description of life; research is only a social construction created by sociological researchers - sociology is not scientific.