Values in Research
Sociology: AQA A Level, topic 1.2.5
Subjectivity, Objectivity and Value Freedom
Subjectivity is when you make a judgement 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 judgement 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.
Test yourself on Values in Research
Which of the following is subjectivity associated with?