3

Socio as a science
A science is any practice that uses a systematic method of observation to gain knowledge.

The Scientific Method

Gathering empirical evidence, that is verifiable information that’s collected in a systematic
way.
The scientific method is rooted in the philosophy known as positivism. Positivism was first
talked about by August Combte. Positivism argues that phenomena can be studied through
direct observation, and that these observations can be pulled together into theories or facts
that can help us understand how the world works.
A positive theory is one that’s objective and fact based, whereas a ‘normative’ theory is
subjective and value based.
Three types of Sociological Enquiry:
1. Positivist Sociology

Positivism says that social phenomena should be studied only using the method of the natural
sciences- like empirical observation.
The study of society based on systematic observations of social behavior.
Key word- being objective. As scientific researchers, sociologists must set aside their own
values and beliefs to approach their work as neutral observers and use empirical evidence to
answer questions about how the social world works. Uses quantitative evidence.
Quantitative Data can be used as Descriptive data: for ex, the distribution of household
income in different states.

Another type of evidence used is qualitative data- not In numerical form. Quantitative data-
measure. Qualitative- illustrate or characterize.

Limitation to sociology as a positivist discipline- not everything you want to knpow about
society is going to fit into observable, measurable categories. Also, humans are unpredictable.
In natural sciences, the environment in which research is done in is completely controlled by
the scientists. Human behavior in the society, however, keeps changing.

However, you might not want to control the kind of environment in which sociologists
observe the society. If youre interested in how humans behave in the real world, you don’t
want your reseatch methods to make them act differently than they otherwise would.
Because the subjects might change the way they behave if they know theyre being observed.

Hawthorne effect: the influence of an observer on the behavior of her participants. For ex, if
the subjects know they’re being observed, they’ll act differently.

Another problem with positivist sociology: not all social facts can be applied to all people, in
all time periods. In other words, truth is not always objective.
Even though subjective experiences keep changing, sociologists hold it in great value. This is
because we might be interested in how patterns in people’s subjective experiences form the
structures that make up our social world.

2. Interpretative Sociology

The study of society that focuses on the meanings that people attach to their social world.

While positivist sociology is more interested in whether a person acts a certain way-
something you can see as an outside observer- interpretative sociology asks: why this
behavior?

Interpretative Sociologists approach their subjects with the aim of seeing the world from their
subject’s perspective, rather than through quantitative data. Hence, less statistics, and more
of face to face interviews with the subjects.

3. Critical Sociology

The argument for value driven research, rather than value free research is one of the origins
of critical sociology. For ex, race and poverty connection in USA. The researcher might be
interested in that. So he’ll study this area, in order to understand and break the connection.
Critical socio- the study of society that focuses on the need for social change.

Sociology Research Methods

Research Method- a systematic plan for gathering and analyzing observations about the
world.

Research starts with a question. So, you have to define your concepts, and make sure that
both you and your audience agree on what those concepts mean. For ex, one person’s
definition of poverty might be different than another person’s definition.

Next step- stating a hypothesis- a statement of a possible relationship between two variables.
Before you can assign a value to a variable, you have to operationalize it: that is, you have to
define the exact variable youre going to measure and exactly how you will measure it. For ex,
relationship status. 0- married. 1- divorced. 2- never been married. Etc

The value a variable takes on is called its measurement. Once you now how you want to
measure your variables, your hypothesis will be an educated guess about how theyre related-
often using an if-then statement. For ex: If someone lives in a city, then they are less likely to
refer to themselves as middle class. In this case, geographic location is the independent
variable- the variable that we think is affecting the change in how people describe
themselves. The other one- dependent variable. Dependent changes when independent
changes.

Correlation- not always equal causation.

For example- it has been noticed that when ice cream sales are high, there are more murders.
However, it is ridiculous to conclude that ice cream sales cause more murders. The underlying
reason can be temperature, that when temp is high, ice cream sales are high, and when temp
is high, more murders are committed.

Correlation- what happens when two variables move together.

Third step- collecting your data.

4 ways: Experiments, Surveys, Participant Observation and Existing Resources.

In an experiment, if the change you predicted occurs for the experimental group but not for
the control group (control group is the group whose environment is not changed), then your
experiment supports your hypothesis.

In a survey, you cant reach the whole population, so you survey a sample- a smaller group
that represents the whole larger one.

Participant observation: observers join the participants in their daily routines. It is a less
controlled environment.

Final Step- turning that data into information that helps answer your question of interest.

Emile Durkheim on Suicide and Society

As Durkheim lived in france when it was dealing with major economic, technological and
cultural changes, as industrialization took hold and the traditional authority of the Catholic
Church weakened, Durkheim was concerned with the question of what kept societies
together, so he could make sure that his society didn’t fall apart.
Durkheim decribes socio as a science of society, with which we could understand its normal
and abnormal functioning, and we could diagnose how it was changing, and deal with the
consequences.
Durkheim thought of society as a kind of organism, made up of different parts, which all had
to function well together in order for that organism to be healthy. (structural functionalist
paradigm)
Durkeheim’s book “Suicide” is the first piece of Sociological work to use statistical methods
as its primary mode of argument.

If socio is a science, what does it study?

Any well defined science needs an object of study, according to Durkheim. And the object for
Durkheim was the Social Fact. In his book, “Rules of Sociological Method”, he defines social
facts as “consisting of manners of acting, thinking and feeling external to the individual, which
are invested with a coercive power by virtue of which they exercise control over him.”

First, this is a very broad definition. Social facts include everything from political systems, to
beliefs about right and wrong, to suicide rates, to holiday celebrations, and architectural
styles. Second, the social facts are external to the individual. (How can a way of thinking be
external to a person?) What Durkheim means is that social facts have a life outside us. For
instance, we give gifts at Christmas. However, this concept of giving gifts isn’t something we
have come up with on our own. Giving gifts is a social fact, with an existence that’s external
to us. The idea is that social facts are powerful, and coercive and they can make you do thigns
you otherwise wouldn’t.

Durkheim’s answer to the question of social cohesion (the society staying together ieven
though it is diverse) is what he called the common or collective consciousness. The common
consciousness is basically the collection of all the beliefs, morals, and ideas that are the social
facts in a given society.

What is social dysfunction? For Durkheim, if society is an organism, then dysfunction must be
thought of as a disease. We might think crime is a dysfunction. But, by durkheim’s thinking,
crime cant be a disease, because every society has it. So we might not like crime, but some
amount of crime is normal. For example, we might not like sleep, but we have to sleep,
because that’s how the body works. And just like sleep, Durkheim argued that crime serves a
purpose. For example, he said that crime helps strengthen the common consciousness.
To him, crime and punishment were a kind of public lesson in right and wrong: When
someone is judged and punished, that shows us both society’s morals and how strong these
morals are. Crime can also point to possible changes in the common consciousness. For ex,
when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat, she committed a crime, but her crime set off a
city-wide bus boycott that resulted in the law being struck down.

Hence crime in itself isn’t necessarily a dysfunction, but just like how sleeping 18 hours in a
day, every day might be a sign of disease, if the level of crime in a society becomes excessive,
it would eventually stop serving these functions, and the society would no longer function
normally.

This is what social dysfunction is for Durkheim: something that impedes the normal
functioning of the society. Since Durkheim is a structural functionalist, social dysfunctions
always have larger structural causes- they’re created by some underlying problem with the
social organism. Durkheim applied this idea in his famous book on suicide. Durkheim argued
that there was actually a very strong link between societal structure and people taking their
own lives. He found this link in a dysfunctional aspect of his society: namely, in a lack of social
integration. After looking at the statistics on suicide in Europe over the 19 th century, he saw
a massive increase, one that coincided with the shift from traditional to modern society. He
argued that traditional societies like feudal Europe were highly socially integrated. However,
modern society, over the preceding century, had suffered from a loss of social integration.
The decreasing importance of religion, and of other traditional ways of thinking resulted in a
smaller, weaker common consciousness and a less intense communal life. Hence, people
were less connected to society and didn’t necessarily feel they had a place in it and couldn’t
understand how they fit. Even though suicide is a personal act actuated by personal feelings,
Durkheim showed how these personal feelings were not purely personal, and that they were
influenced by the structure of society. He argued that the values holding societies together
were being pulled apart, and so people lost their sense of place. Feelings of isolation or
meaninglessness could be traced back to large social changes.
His solution: If s high suicide rate was a disease, Durkheim’s prescription was to strengthen
social organisations- especially those based around the workplace, because that’s where
people were spending more and more of their time. He figured that these organizations could
help provide people with that sense of place that they were lacking.

*society is composed of social facts, and bound together by common consciousness. This
normal functioning can evolve, but can also be disrupted by rapid change. This, acc to
Durkheim, is where Sociology steps in: by studying socio scientifically, and understanding
social facts, sociologists can diagnose the disease and prescribe the cure.