If a sociologist adheres to a paradigm, can he/she still remain objective?

Question

If a sociologist adheres to a paradigm, can he/she still remain objective?

Answer 1

A paradigm is different than a bias. The paradigm will give the sociologist a structure and context around which to center their research, but they're not going to force their data if it doesn't match. That would be an obvious manipulation and would never pass the peer-review process. But the paradigm helps them start somewhere, and it's based on research that's already been done.