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Teaching ‘Is Sociology a Science? Written by Jonathan Blundell Key terms Positivism – These are approaches which have tried to make sociology as close to a science as possible because it is believed that sociologists can establish laws of human behaviour in the same way that scientists have established scientific laws. This perspective is typical of Functionalism and of Marxism Anti-positivist or interpretivist – These approaches suggest that sociology cannot be scientific, nor should it try to be scientific because we should look for the meanings that people apply to the world. This perspective is typical of symbolic interactionalism and phenomenology. Quantitative – This is the type of sociology that is concerned with the collection of numbers. Qualitative – This type of sociology is concerned with gathering information about meaning and emotions. Validity – This term refers to the success of the methods in accurately measuring or describing what they are intended to measure. Reliability – This term refers to the extent to which research can be repeated in the same conditions and the same results be obtained. Social construct – Something socially invented to which we attach a meaning. Many phenomena which at first seem natural can be said to be social constructs. For example, childhood is a biologically defined period of immaturity, but it is also a social construct because what it means to be a child is different in different cultures Arguments used in favour of the view that sociology should be scientific. Modern society arose out of a series of changes in the way that people looked at the world at the middle and end of the C18th and through the start of the C19th. This was a social and historical period known as the ‘Age of Enlightenment’. Before that time, religion had been the dominant force in society. People moved from having a sense of faith, to a spirit of enquiry, questioning the world about them. Out of this period came the view that the key to understanding the world is science. Key positivist ideas · The methods of natural science can be transferred to social science. · We should only study what we can see, measure and observe. · The purpose of science is to discover what causes things to happen (causal relationships). · Facts exist and should not be influenced by the person doing the research. Why do Interpretivists disagree with the above views? Interpretivism comes from a different tradition, that of idealism. We can only understand the world by using social and mental constructs (ideas). We cannot know the world as it really is, because we all have personal viewpoints about what is happening and what we can see. Interpretivists say that positivists are incorrect because: · The world has to be interpreted to understand what is happening. · Qualitative methods and data are essential for a full understanding of social reality · Reality is too complicated to understand through using numbers to explain events. · No-one can be truly scientific because we all have viewpoints that affect what we discover. · People are part of the society that they study and so they bring their own ideas to what they see. |
