SUMMARY:

• Should Sociology adopt the methods of the natural sciences?
  • Positivists -- YES
  • Interactionists -- NO
  • Realists -- SOME, YES
  • Postmodernists -- NO

--

• Is Sociology a science?
  • E. Durkheim -- Yes, TECO (theoretical / empirical / cumulative / objective).
  • K. Popper -- Yes, except Marxism; Principle of Falsification.
  • E. Goffman -- No, social world ≠ natural world.
  • H. Becker -- No, values are relevant; Sociology should not be value-free.
  • T. Kuhn -- No, unlike the natural sciences, Sociology does not have a uniform/single paradigm that is agreed upon.
  • A. Sayer -- Yes, Sociology is similar to the open sciences (e.g. meteorology); not definitive, only predictable.
  • I. Lakatos -- Yes, both don't have a uniform paradigm; sciences, too, are a social construction.
  • R. Keat + J. Urry -- Yes, both Sociology and the natural sciences study observable and non-observable phenomena.

--

POSITIVIST APPROACHES:

The idea that sociology can follow the model and adapt to the methods of the natural sciences comes about from positivist tradition. The founders of Sociology wanted it to be the science of society. Comte wanted Sociology to be as 'prestigious' as the natural sciences. He suggested that the SYSTEMATIC COLLECTION OF FACTS and the SEARCH FOR LAWS should be applied when exploring the social world.

• Positivists see human behaviour as predictable, because they claim that human nature is passive and is hence controlled by social forces. Durkheim identified social facts that controlled human behaviour in the case of suicide -- moral regulation and social integration.
• Scientific principles that Durkheim discovered to study human behaviour are as follows:
  • Theoretical refers to the attempt to discover causal relationships.
  • Empirical refers to the attempt to measure or quantify relationships.
  • Cumulative refers to the idea of building up a body of knowledge that is shared by researchers; single paradigm.
  • Objective refers to the need for researchers to separate their personal values in order to avoid bias in data collection.
• In order to apply these principles, natural scientists use the hypothetico deductive model; they first develop a hypothesis, seek to test it using empirical research, remaining strictly objective throughout the whole process.
• For positivists, good sociological information is reliable; meaning if the research were to be repeated, the same results would be obtained. The research process needs to be standardised and replicable.

--

INTERPRETIVIST APPROACHES: