Is Sociology a Science

Is Sociology a Science

1. Why is it important for sociology to be seen as a Science?

   • Greater credibility and potential funding
   • It is possible to apply natural science procedures to the study of society
   • It is possible to have an objective and value-free science of society

2. Positivism

   • Durkheim- Functionalism
     • Deliberately studied suicide to show how a personal, individual act can be studied in a scientific way
   • Researchers should only study what they can objectively see, measure and count, value-freedom
   • Research subjects should be exposed to standardised stimuli under controlled conditions
   • Prefer quantifiable or statistical data
   • Correlations can be established to establish cause and effect relationships
   • Social facts used to explain and predict human behaviour
   • Aim to verify a theory to produce social facts
   • Use an Inductive methodology
     • 1. Observation of social pheonomena
     • 2. Hypothesis formulated
     • 3. Method devised and implemented in which key variables are controlled
     • 4. Evidence is collected and measured in a systematic, objective and reliable way
     • 5. Hypothesis is accepted or rejected, if sufficient evidence supports the hypothesis, it become a theory and eventually a social fact