Is sociology a "hard" science?

Question

why or why not?

Answer 1

No. Sociology and any of the sciences that deal with people, either as individuals or in groups, communities, nations, etc., are called "soft" sciences. This is probably because they are treated as not having specific, replicable laws that can be used in studying their subject matter. Such soft sciences tend to be general in their methods and applications.

These sciences study people (sociology, psychology, anthropology, ethology, etc.) who tend to change of their own accord depending on such circumstances as politics (hence political science), economics, geographical movement, aging, cultures, parenting, and the rest. These things are very "slippery" and hard to pin down.

In "marital relationships" studies, the question of "marital happiness" has occupied many researchers (especially grad students!) for more than 30 years. This "soft" science has not yet settled on a single acceptable definition of "marriage," of "a relationship," or of "happiness."

Hard sciences have specific laws, axioms, rules, etc., that are used to make them "work." Thus there are all the forms of mathematics, physics, astronomy, etc., that depend on specifics. 1 + 1 ALWAYS = 2. Light ALWAYS moves at 186,000 miles per second.

Sociology is a soft science. That does NOT make it less of a science! In fact, anyone who knows about such things knows that because of the slippery nature of the soft sciences, they are much harder (in the sense of more difficult) than the "easy" hard sciences, that always result in the same outcomes when the immutable laws and rules are applied.

Hope that helps...and sorry about misspellings...the spell checker isn't working. -- Dr. Bob

Answer 2

Traditionally, physics and chemistry, sometimes biology are considered hard scieinces, meaning both that they are difficult to learn, require higher level math, and that their answers are more dependable.

Psychology, sociology, social psych, political science are treated as soft sciences. but the distinction is sloppy.

But which is easy to learn? that depends on what you are interested in.

Answer 3

No. I passed it quite easily.