(c)Write short notes on ‘Objectivity’ as a sociological goal
Model Answer:
Objectivity is the goal of scientific investigation. It is a ‘frame of mind’ so that the personal prejudices or preferences of the social scientists do not contaminate the collection and analysis of data.
Sociology being a science aspires for the goal of objectivity. Thus, scientific investigations should be free from the prejudices of race, color, religion, sex or ideological biases. The need of objectivity in sociological research has been emphasized by all important sociologists. For example, Durkheim, in this ‘Rules of the Sociological Method’ stated that ‘social facts’ must be treated as ‘things’ and all preconceived notions about the social facts must be abandoned.
Even Max Weber emphasized the need of objectivity when he said that sociology must be value-free. According to Radcliffe-Brown, the social scientist must abandon or transcend his ethnocentric and egocentric biases while carrying out researches.
However, objectivity continues to be an elusive goal at the practical level. In fact, one school of thought represented by Gunnar Myrdal states that complete objectivity in social sciences is a myth. Gunnar Myrdal in his book ‘ Objectivity in Social Research’ argues that total objectivity is an illusion which can never be achieved. Because all research is always guided by certain viewpoints and viewpoints involve subjectivity. Myrdal argues that subjectivity creeps in at various stages in the course of sociological research.
How personal preferences influence the choice of topic of research can be illustrated from a study made by Prof. Schwab. In his study he analyzed 4000 scientific papers produced over a span of centuries. He found that the choice made by scientists in pursuing their research was based on their personal preferences as determined by personality factors and social circumstances. Besides personal preferences, the ideological biases, acquired in the course of education and training also have a bearing on the choice of the topic of research. The impact of ideological biases on social research can be very far reaching as can be seen from the study of Tepostalan village in Mexico.
Robert Redfield studied it with a functionalist perspective and concluded that there exists total harmony between various groups in the village while Oscar Lewis studied this village at almost the same time from Marxist perspective, and found that the society was conflict ridden. Here we can see that how the differences of ideological perspectives had a bearing on the research findings even though the society studied for example, the very choice of topic of research is influenced by personal preferences and ideological biases of the researcher.
Despite this subjectivity that creeps during the: study of any social phenomenon there is the need for the objectivity as a sociological goal which is free from the personal values, prejudices and belief system for the scientific study of society and make it distinct from the study of other sciences.