Is sociology scientific???

Question

Is sociology scientific???

Answer 1

No, not in the strict sense of the word. However they do use some statistical evaluation & try hard to use science... when it does not contradict some of their long held opinions.  Sociology is still mired in political correctness & it is not likely they will extricate themselves in the near future.

Answer 2

No, but it is surely incoherent.

Answer 3

it is caused by confusion, abot how many letters it takes to form words,., no one ever remembers how many letters are in every word,., and when you go to school to study peoples thougths, the one thing you know would be the first thing we had in common we could all talk about was that one, so they are trying to figure it out?

Answer 4

it depends on the kinds of methods you use to study it

Answer 5

It is very scientific because it takes in account  all the sciences in that data that is collected. Example population and how it grows and what happens to people as it grows.  All of this was done in a lab before it started to collect data from the real population. So yes it is very scientific.

Answer 6

Like any subject, you have to be more specific...But an interesting anecdote...I had an ecology professor of mine point out how in sociology texts, competition is mentioned in about 1-2% of the pages; whereas in an human ecology or economics text competition will be found mentioned in 30-60% of the pages.  I have a leaning that the ecologists and economists are hitting the buck a little closer!

I've also met too many sociologists comment on scientifically related things without really understanding any of the science (but then again, there are plenty of scientists who comment on things without considering the sociological or economic aspects!).

Answer 7

Yes! But...

Sociologists have spent the best part of a century inventing methods that are unbiased and record data about our social world. Examples of sociology science include opinion polls. questionnaires, interviews, the Census, in fact any human 'statistics' about life. The trouble with social sciences in general is that it is difficult to remove all the variables that natural scientists find they are able to. You can't study a family in a vacuum for example, it just can't be done, however, sociologists are able to reduce the effects of these confounding variables by using huge samples (for eg by studying 1000's of families instead of only a few).

Because the technique of using a large number of 'samples' there is often an adverse side affect of the method affecting the results. So if your interviewing techniques biased the results then the effect would be multiplies by 1000's of times possible skewing your data. For this reason Sociologists are fastidious about improving their techniques and being careful about their research methodology.

You could say they are excellent scientists as they have the hardest things to study. Sadly, many sociologists openly admit to having a political agenda (eg, Feminists or Marxists). It is important to be aware of WHO is doing the research and who is interpreting it to get the most objectivity from sociological research.

(Posted by a friend of Gribbling:)

Answer 8

Sociology is scientific in the sense that it relies on observation and experimentation to get its results but it also a philosophy in that it can use the same results to examine many different theories and models of behavior.