Values in Research

Subjectivity, Objectivity and Value Freedom 

Subjectivity is when you make a judgment based on your own personal bias. Objectivity is associated with scientific disciplines. Value free sociology is championed by positivists.

Subjectivity

Subjectivity is when you make a judgment based on your own personal bias.
Sociologists are part of the society they study and are therefore involved with their own values and beliefs.

Subjectivity in sociology

Subjectivity is often associated with feminists and interpretivists who believe that it is important to have interaction and personal involvement and closeness to those being studied.

Objectivity

Objectivity is associated with scientific disciplines.
To be objective means the researcher has removed all personal bias and opinions from their sociological research.
Associated with positivism and the use of quantitative methods.

Value free

Value free sociology is championed by positivists.
They argue sociology should be totally value free.
This means that your own personal views and bias should not enter your research at any stage instead, sociology should study observable facts just like the natural sciences.

Emile Durkheim

Positivists, such as Durkheim, believed that sociology was the science of society and therefore needed to follow scientific principles in order to gain credibility.
It was the job of sociology to identify social problems in society and cure social ills with scientific research. 
Durkheim believed his study of suicide was value free because he found trends within official statistics that were gathered in a scientific way.

Value Relevance

Max Weber didn’t believe that sociology could be completely value free, instead, he discusses the approach of value relevance. To explain this, he breaks the research process down.

Value relevance

Weber didn’t believe that sociology could be completely value free, instead, he discusses the approach of value relevance.
He argued sociologists will use their subjective feelings to identify a research topic and the concepts they feel are relevant.
However, sociologists must be objective in how they carry out their research.

Choice of topic area

When selecting a subject to study a researcher chooses an area that they are interested in and therefore using their values.
- This aspect of all research is subjective.

Data collection and hypothesis testing

Data collection and hypothesis testing:
- This is the area of research that can remain objective should the researcher want to do so.
- Weber agreed with positivists that this stage should remain as objective as possible.

Interpretation of findings

Interpretation of findings:
- It is inevitable that they will be adapted to fit a particular value-based theoretical perspective and is, therefore, once again subjective.

Value Laden and Value Committed

Value laden means that the researcher is weighed down by their values and cannot escape them. Value committed is using our values to improve the society we live in.

Value laden

Another approach to values in research is value laden.
This means that the researcher is weighed down by their values and cannot escape them.
This can be for many reasons.

Funding

Those who fund the research usually have an agenda.
These people are referred to as paymasters and project their values onto the research.

Alvin Gouldner

Gouldner argues that research can often be for career progression for the sociologist.
They will pick a topic to research that will get them noticed in the sociological community.

Plummer

Ken Plummer argues our personal beliefs can never be removed from our conscience.
We are often drawn to a topic as we have a desire to explore something important to us.
Plummer argues this was crucial to his research as he investigated his own sexuality through the development of ‘queer theory’.

Value committed

Finally, Howard Becker argues that all sociologists should be value committed.
In this instance, sociologists will use their positions of power and insight to give a voice to the deprived and in doing so we can bring about social change.

Using values for better

Becker believes we should always side with those who are less fortunate and are therefore the ‘underdog’.
Therefore we should be committed to our values and use them to improve the society we live in.

1Theory & Methods

2Education with Methods in Context

2.1Role & Function of the Education System

2.1.1Introduction

2.1.2Functionalist Theories

2.1.3Marxist & Feminist Theories

2.1.4The New Right

2.2Educational Achievement

2.2.1Social Class: Internal Factors

2.2.2Social Class: External Factors

2.2.3Social Class: Attitudes to Education

2.2.4Social Class: Difference in Achievement

2.2.5Gender

2.2.6Ethnicity

2.3Relationships & Processes Within Schools

2.3.1Processes

2.3.2Labelling

2.3.3Categorisations

2.3.4Student Experience

2.3.5End of Topic Test -Education with Methods

2.4Educational Policies

2.4.1Equality

2.4.2Privatisation

2.4.3Marketisation

2.4.4Government Policies by Party

2.4.5Globalisation

2.4.6End of Topic Test- Educational Policies

2.4.7Practice Exam Question - Social Policies

3Option 1: Culture & Identity

4Option 1: Families & Households

4.1Families & Households

4.1.1Definitions

4.1.2Functionalist & New Right Perspectives

4.1.3Marxist & Feminist Perspectives

4.1.4Postmodernist Perspective

4.1.5End of Topic Test - Families & Households

4.1.6Practice Exam Question - Function of Family

4.2Changing Patterns

4.2.1Marriage

4.2.2Divorce

4.2.3LAT Relationships

4.2.4Child-Bearing

4.2.5Lone Parenthood

4.2.6Diversity

4.2.7The Sociology of Personal Life

4.2.8Government Policies Post-WW2

4.2.9End of Topic Test - Changing Patterns

4.3The Symmetrical Family

4.3.1The Symmetrical Family

4.3.2Evaluation

4.4Children & Childhood

4.4.1Childhood

4.4.2Childhood in the UK

4.4.3Childhood as a Social Construct

4.4.4The Disappearance of Childhood

4.4.5Child Abuse

4.4.6Domestic Violence

4.4.7End of Topic Test - Family & Childhood

4.5Demographic Trends UK

4.5.1Introduction

4.5.2Birth Rates

4.5.3Death Rates

4.5.4The Ageing Population

4.5.5Studies on the Ageing Population

4.5.6Migration

4.5.7Globalisation

4.5.8End of Topic Test - Demographics UK

5Option 1: Health

5.1Social Constructions

5.1.1The Body

5.1.2Health, Illness & Disease

5.1.3Disability

5.1.4Models of Health & Illness

5.1.5End of Topic Test - Social Constructions

5.2Social Distribution of Healthcare

5.2.1Social Class

5.2.2Gender

5.2.3Ethnicity

5.2.4Regional

5.3Provision & Access to Healthcare

5.3.1The NHS

5.3.2Inequalities in Provision

5.3.3Sociological Explanations

5.3.4Inequalities in Access

5.3.5Inequalities in Access 2

5.3.6End of Topic Test - Distribution Health

5.4Mental Health

5.4.1The Biomedical Approach

5.4.2Social Patterns

5.4.3Social Constructionist Approach

5.5The Globalised Health Industry

5.5.1The Functionalist Approach

5.5.2The Postmodernist Approach

5.5.3The Globalised Health Industry

5.5.4End of Topic Test - Mental Health & Globalisation

6Option 1: Work, Poverty & Welfare

6.1Poverty & Wealth

6.1.1Types of Poverty

6.1.2Types of Poverty 2

6.1.3Distribution of Wealth UK

6.1.4Sociological Theories

6.1.5Sociological Theories 2

6.1.6Distribution of Poverty UK

6.1.7End of Topic Test - Poverty & Wealth

6.2Welfare

6.2.1The Welfare State

6.2.2Theoretical Approaches to Welfare

6.3Labour Process

6.3.1Nature of Work

6.3.2Technology & Control

6.3.3Work & Life

6.3.4The Effects of Globalisation

6.3.5Globalisation & Worklessness

6.3.6End of Topic Test - Welfare & Labour

7Option 2: Beliefs in Society

7.1Ideology, Science & Religion

7.1.1Types of Religion

7.1.2Ideology & Belief Systems

7.1.3Social Stability & Religion

7.1.4Social Change & Religion

7.1.5End of Topic Test - Ideology, Science & Religion

7.2Religious Movements

7.2.1Religious Organisations

7.2.2New Religious Movements

7.2.3New Age Movements

7.2.4Practice Exam Question - Growth of NRMs

7.3Society & Religion

7.3.1Social Groups & Religion

7.3.2Gender & Religion

7.3.3End of Topic Test- Religious Movements & Society

7.4Contemporary Religion

7.4.1Secularisation UK

7.4.2Against Secularisation

7.4.3Secularisation US

7.4.4Fundamentalism

7.4.5Economic Development & Religion

7.4.6End of Topic - Contemporary Religion

8Option 2: Global Development

8.1Development, Underdevelopment & Global Inequality

8.1.1Development

8.1.2Underdevelopment & Global Inequality

8.2Globalisation & Global Organisations

8.2.1Globalisation

8.2.2Transnational Corporations & International Agency

8.2.3Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs)

8.3Aid, Trade, Industrialisation, Urbanisation

8.3.1Development: Aid & Trade

8.3.2Development: Industrialisation & Urbanisation

8.3.3Development: Environment & War

9Option 2: The Media

9.1Contemporary Media

9.1.1New Media

9.1.2Control of the Media

9.1.3Sociological Approaches: New Media

9.1.4Globalisation

9.1.5News Selection

9.1.6Moral Panics

9.1.7End of Topic Test - Contemporary Media

9.2Media Representations

9.2.1Age

9.2.2Social Class & Ethnicity

9.2.3Gender

9.2.4Sexuality & Disability

9.2.5Practice Exam Questions - Presentation of Women

9.3Audiences

9.3.1Media Theories

9.3.2Media Theories 2

9.3.3Media Representations & Audiences

10Crime & Deviance

10.1Crime & Society

10.1.1Functionalism

10.1.2Subcultural Theory

10.1.3Marxism

10.1.4Realism

10.1.5Other Approaches

10.1.6End of Topic Test - Crime & Society

10.1.7Practice Exam Questions - Social Construction

10.2Social Distribution of Crime

10.2.1Ethnicity

10.2.2Gender

10.2.3Globalisation & Crime

10.2.4Media & Crime

10.2.5Types of Crimes

10.2.6End of Topic Test - Social Distribution of Crime

10.3Prevention & Punishment

10.3.1Surveillance

10.3.2Prevention

10.3.3Punishment

10.3.4Victimology

10.3.5End of Topic Test - Prevention & Punishment

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