Sociology as a Science

The definition of Sociology itself refers to the systematic study of societies and human populations. There have been many debates about whether sociology is a science and influential sociologists such as Durkheim have attempted to demonstrate it as such. However with the numerous amounts of conflicting approaches that developed in the way sociology was studied have not led it to this classification. It is believed the earlier sociologists adapted methods that were regarded as more scientific, however the influence of Weber’s ideologies lead to further debates. For example interpretivists like Douglas regard individuals as choosing their behaviour not merely acting out what is expected by them due to official statistics.

DURKHIEM (Positivism and Suicide Verification) – Taking a positivist approach to the study suicide between Catholic and Protestants helped observed direct patterns. Used official statistics to explain it’s a social fact that if you are a Catholic, you are more likely to commit suicide than a Protestant. Why? Because of the rate of social integration intertwined with both religions. (For Science)

KARL POPPER (FALSIFICATION) – The philosophical scientist’s notes that what makes science unique is that it’s that it’s governed by the principles of falsifications which mean all knowledge can be tested and disproved. In case of his explanation of all swans’ being white, a single observation of a black swan would destroy this theory. Thus knowledge is temporary and provisional not necessarily fixed.
Looking at the case of sociology as a science, the subject itself has adapted to various methods and styles over the years. New methodological approaches to studies have revealed flaws in previous dominant methods of study proving better for evaluating certain situations and opportunities for research. This is why it makes it a subject where the research methods are falsifiable supporting it as a science. (For Science)


DOUGLAS (Interpretivism and Suicide) – Disagree with the sociological model being placed as a natural science. He argues that “social facts” don’t necessarily have to determine behaviour but rather individuals have free will to choose how they act out the basis of their meanings. (Against it as a Science)

THOMAS KUHN (Scientific Paradigms) – His studies revealed that science follows the rules of a Paradigm. A paradigm is a set of shared beliefs that provide a basic framework of assumptions, principles and methods used to obtain data. This is because it tells scientists what and how they should perform a study. It’s hard to have a subject that has many conflicting agreements without a shared agreement to be declared as a science.
For example, different type of sociologists such as positivists and interpretivists favour different types of methods. Depending on what perspective they view society and support according to Mydral’s theory of committed sociology will largely contribute to the way they study it. (Argue against it, as a Science.)

KEAT AND URRY (REALISM- OPEN AND CLOSED SYSTEMS) – Similar to Horton’s studies of open and closed systems, Realists Keat and Urry explain that sociologists study open systems where the processes are far too complex to make exact predictions. In their explanation, they stated predicting the crime rate is impossible as there are too many variables involve which are too complex to measure. (Argue against it as a Science.)
Using methods such as experiments favoured by positivists would attempt to study a closed system where variables are controlled and known. However society is far too complex to study it through the variables noted by the researcher. There are so many variables to explore and one person may interpret such variables differently or in a different manner.

SOCIAL POLICY AND SOCIOLOGY

In a state, there are laws that govern the people in order to keep them under control, protected and for the benefit of the economy. Sociology has influenced many theories that emphasize the nature and role of the state differently. In order to perform such roles, the state needs to use social policies that members of society can relate too. Worsley notes that a social problem is a piece of social behaviour that causes public friction. Thus social policies are there to prevent that behaviour from causing public friction and private memory. It also calls for collective action to solve these societal problems.


Positivism and Functionalism (DURKHIEM)
Functionalists like Durkheim argue that sociology will strive to fix problems through scientific solutions. The state is there for the interests of the whole and the policies should help run society more smooth and efficiently. It’s a sociologist’s job to find data to enable these interventions which will help to keep society stable.
However functionalist views towards social policy could be criticized for being too deterministic by postmodernists. Critical theories like Marxism also argue against it as it doesn’t point out how the state uses policies to keep the R/C in power and the W/C exploited.
· Bowlby- The functionalist elaborates the advantage of sociologists for having direct influences on policy making. John Bowlby’s idea was that young people’s relationships with their mothers was crucial to their development and had become widely accepted by many people in society. When this occurs, it influences the climate of opinion in favour of policies that reflect socially derived ideas.
-NHS Policies
-Working Tax Allowance

Social Democratic Perspective (TOWNSEND)
A theory that believes the redistribution of wealth from the rich to the poor through social policies run by the state will serve to benefit and keep society stabilized.
Sociologists adopting this perspective such as Peter Townsend argue that sociologists should be involved in researching the social problems in society. Townsend did studies on poverty making recommendations for policies that supported higher benefit levels, increased spending on education and welfare services.
The government also reacted to this through the Black Report which set out to improve standards that effected class inequalities. Free school meals were provided for all children, improved working conditions and better benefits for the disabled and more spending to improve housing quality.
-Free School Meal Policies
-Health and Safety Regulation's Policies
-Student Grants

Marxism
A theory that sees society as divided into 2 classes, the capitalist class and the working class. Also taking a structural approach, Marxists views criticize functionalist views that state policies are for the benefit of society and used to better it. Rather Marxists believe the structure of society and the way the state uses laws is for serving the interests of the capitalist class and to keep the W/C exploited. They way this is done can be divided into 3 main categories:
· They provide ideological legitimisation; this keeps the W/C in a false class conscious state of mind allowing them to be exploited.
· They maintain the labour force for further exploitation. For example, the NHS serves capitalism by keeping workers fit enough to work. Educational system without proceeding to university provides the basic knowledge in our technologically advanced society.
· The policies are a means of preventing revolution. When class conflict intensifies and threatens the stability of capitalism they are used as a way to buy off the W/C. For instance, this occurred when the welfare state was created after the Second World War to buy off the opposition to capitalism.
Marxists recognise that social policies sometimes provide real if limited benefits to the W/C. However, such gains are constantly threatened with reversal by capitalist tendencies to go into a periodic crisis of profitability leading to cuts in welfare spending. Thus, Marxists realise that policies used within a capitalism system will never solve problems such as class inequality.
However this conflict and macro approach can be criticized for being deterministic. The role of sociologists is impractical and unrealistic. Social democrats criticize them for rejecting the idea that the policies can help bring out benefits to all members of society. For example poverty researchers have at times brought out a positive impact on state policies.
-Student Loans
-Cut's in EMA


Feminism
A theory that believes society is patriarchal, unequal and subordinating towards women. It argues that state policies are based around the assumptions of patriarchy. Feminists like Hilary Land argue that such policies encourage women to conform to certain roles that are deemed feminine or nurturing rather than aim for career success. For example state policies assume the neo conventional family must be nuclear. This is why it offers benefits to married couples but not cohabiting ones. The research feminists have performed has had an impact in a number of policy areas.
· Liberal feminists support that in education for instance it has influenced learning materials promoting more positive images of women and teacher training to sensitise teachers from being gender bias.
· Impact of equal opportunities legislations largely due to feminist movement throughout wider society.
· Radical Feminists would argue that policies have led to establishment of women’s refugees.
(Sex Discrimination Act) (Equal Opportunities Policies)


New Right Perspective (MURRAY)
A theory that believes the state should have minimal involvement in society which opposes using welfare solutions to social problems. This is because society has become too dependent on the state and there is now a dependency culture. Charles Murray a key New Right thinker illustrates how benefits from the state offer perverse incentives for lone parents that create this dependency culture. This leads to the creation of an underclass. The state policies should be there to restore an individual’s responsibility for their own family’s welfare. Thus, it is for helping people to help themselves. This had had a major influence on the conservative and New Labour government parties.
However, such views can be criticized for being too harsh. Not everyone can help themselves and need benefits to survive in a society that is capitalist. This applies to lone parents who can’t find employment to meet the schedule of looking after their offspring or the sick and disabled. The perspective is seen to be biased produced by political thinkers rather than independent sociological research. Social Democrats would argue that this allows the rich to keep all the wealth in society and the poor to suffer and continue suffering because it makes social mobility much more difficult.
-Jobseekers Allowance Policy
-Marketisation Policies and influence of Academies
-

OBJECTIVITY AND VALUES IN SOCIOLOGY

Objectivity means not letting personal views get involved in research. In the 1850’s early sociologists took a more scientific approach to study the factors that affect society and how it works. They were the positivists who believed it was more necessary in order to obtain reliable data not letting the researchers influence or values affect the data. However over time, more recent sociologists influenced by Max Weber’s work have realised that methods that are objective tend to gather statistical data that creates social constructions.

DURKHIEM (VALUE FREEDOM)
Positivists like Emile Durkheim emphasize the scientific approach to Sociology when its objective as it discovers the truth about how society works. Disregards the interpretivist ideas as improving society wouldn’t be a matter of opinions but about what was best. His view aims to discover society’s laws of behaviour and believes social facts can be discovered. (See study of Catholics and Protestant’s suicide rates, integration.)

MARX (HISTORICAL MATERIALISM)
Marx argued that values do not necessarily cause a comprehension problem because if it is present it is explained through analysis of the past. For example, divorcees are more likely to commit suicide but don’t necessarily mean we should make divorce harder to obtain because it’s a more likely fact. This is because there is nothing about a fact that compels us to accept the value. Values are argued from different points such as “marriage” “wishing suicide” and other numerous ones.

WEBER (SEPERATION OF FACTS AND VALUES)
Interactionists like Max Weber define sociology as being made up of a meaningless infinity of facts that make it impossible to study in totality. The best a researcher can do is selecting certain facts and study them. Thus we are able to select aspects of facts depending on our own values or in other world value relevance towards us.

MYDRAL (COMMITTED SOCIOLOGY)
Argues that its neither possible nor desirable to keep values out of research because value free sociology is pretty much:
· Impossible: This is because values are required to create conflicting arguments in sociology. Many theorists and researchers are committed or support a certain kind of theory so they aim to discover evidence related to that perspective. If they believe they have spotted something in society, they need to research evidence to support an aim or hypothesis before concluding it with findings.
· Undesirable: Without values, sociologists put their services at the disposal of the highest bidder. Arguing onwards, sociologists commit themselves to certain types of theories such as Functionalism, Marxism, Feminism, Interactionism and Postmodernism. All these theories argue against each other in some way or form. According to Thomas Kuhn it’s a subject that has no agreed paradigm or agreed set of perspectives about society itself.


BECKER (TAKING SIDES)
Becker argues that values are always present in sociology. Traditionally sociologists (especially functionalists and positivists) seem to take the viewpoint of the powerful so instead of seeing things from the perspective of the “over dogs” adapting more methods to adopt a compassionate stance and take more sides of the “under dogs” they would understand both sides better to outline more reasonable ways of improving society. For example, Functionalists are more likely to look for evidence to support society's function in through its social structure and value consensus.(However, Marxists are likely to do studies that look for evidence to support class inequality.)

BIOLOGY OF CRIMINOLOGY

Sociologists have done studies to note that sometimes criminals are not just nurtured but are likely to become ones due to biological traits/features they may possess. This biological view emphasizes crime as being to do with genes largely supporting right wing criminological views. The research obtained were all found from various sources such as newspaper articles.

Atavistic Man (Lombroso) - An Italian doctor Lombroso devised a theory of the criminal man and woman. He was studying the human skull of the human body and discovered the problem and nature of criminal behaviour. He explained that criminals are likely to have biological features inherited which enormous jaws, huge eye sockets and handle shaped ears. This is because these individuals with these biological features were more in their primitive form than other people in general.

Genes (S. Connor) - Supporting the biological view, S. Connor’s case study of Stephen Mobley reveals the Mobley family’s previous generations had been inexplicably violent, aggressive and criminal. This is why Connor agrees that you can inherit biological traits from ancestors such as violence and killing intent. For example, Stephen Mobley committed a unexpected crime when he shot a manager in a pizza store, robbed the till and joked about it. No one expected this because he was nurtured from a middle class family.

Psychopaths (Carter) – Agrees with the biological views of criminology. He argues that psychopaths who are potential killers having mental/personality disorders that are incurable are likely to wreak havoc in society. They are not to blame because many of them lack the ability to feel guilt or empathy also not knowing or understanding the morality.

He explains that the way to deal with these psychopaths is to install pacemakers to their brains using electronic magnetic technology to turn off and on different parts of the brain.

Delinquent Personalities (Eysenck) – Studies revealed that a large sample of delinquents demonstrate high levels of extroversion. He would argue that personalities and anti-social behavior are correlated. This means people will not necessarily become delinquents because of biological features or personality but it will rather depend on the interaction between them and the environment.