Sociology as a discipline deals with subjects that are familiar to everyone, such as social groups, institutions, norms, and relationships. However, sociology is a scientific discipline that places great emphasis on method – the procedures used to gather knowledge. Unlike casual observations, sociologists aim to delve into the lived experiences of people. Objectivity can be understood as the direction given to the researcher to be unbiased and open to criticism. It means that evidences and facts need to be verified dispassionately and conclusions need to be drawn on the basis of facts without any value judgement or preconceived notions, free of the individual’s personal beliefs.

Challenges of Objectivity in Sociology

• • Objective vs. Subjective: In everyday language, ‘objective’ means unbiased and fact-based, while ‘subjective’ refers to individual values and preferences.
  • Striving for Objectivity: Sciences aim for objectivity in sociology, but it’s more challenging in social sciences compared to natural sciences.
    • Example: Geologists and botanists must avoid personal biases when studying rocks or plants, reporting facts impartially. 
    • They must report the facts as they are.
  • Unraveling Bias Challenges: However, social scientists study the social world they inhabit, leading to bias challenges.
    • Because sociologists are also members of society, they face bias issues due to their societal roles and personal experiences. 
    • Even without direct experience, societal values and prejudices can influence their work.

Ensuring objectivity in sociology

• • Embracing Self-Reflexivity: Sociologists employ self-reflexivity, where they continuously assess their own ideas and emotions regarding their research topic.
  • Adopting an Outsider’s Lens: They strive to view their work from an outsider’s perspective, examining themselves and their research through others’ eyes.
  • Fostering Perspective Diversity: This approach promotes the conscious adoption of different viewpoints, particularly those of their research subjects.
  • Transparent Research Practices: An essential aspect of reflexivity involves meticulous documentation. By documenting all procedures and formally citing sources of evidence, researchers demonstrate the transparency of their methods.
    • This practice allows others to replicate their process, and validate their conclusions and enable self-checking and refinement of their own thinking and arguments.

Despite a sociologist’s best efforts to practice self-reflexivity, the risk of unconscious bias remains. To address this concern, sociologists openly acknowledge aspects of their own social background that could potentially introduce bias into their research. This transparency informs readers about the potential for bias and enables them to consider and account for it when reviewing the research study.

Challenges to Objectivity in Sociology: Embracing Diversity

• • Navigating Subjectivity: In sociology, achieving objectivity in sociology faces several challenges due to the inherent subjectivity of the social world.
  • Diverse Realities: Different perspectives exist, leading to multiple interpretations of reality. 
    • Example:  Notions of “good” prices or “good” food can vary significantly among individuals.
  • Embracing Pluralism: Sociology aims to understand people’s beliefs and their reasons rather than determine a single correct interpretation.
    • Sociology itself comprises various conflicting schools of thought, making it a multi-paradigmatic science. 
    • These competing perspectives coexist within the discipline.
  • Beyond Absolute objectivity in sociology: Consequently, the traditional concept of absolute objectivity in sociology is considered outdated. 
    • Social scientists no longer believe in the possibility of an “objective, disinterested” social science, as it can be misleading.
    • Instead, objectivity in sociology is seen as an ongoing, continuous process, not a definitive endpoint.
    • While it is challenging, sociology still offers valuable knowledge, and objectivity in sociology is a goal that requires perpetual refinement.
• Durkheim while trying to develop the subject matter of sociology and its method propounded that “All preconceptions must be eradicated”. Durkheim took great pain in trying to rid sociology of preconceptions and to make sociology objective. In this endeavour, he put forward the first rule of sociological research. He observed, ‘Consider social facts as things’. Durkheim defined social facts as : A social fact is every way of acting, fixed or not , capable of exercising on the individual an external constrain; or again, every way of acting which is general 39 Objectivity in Social Sciences throughout a given society, while at the same time existing in its own right independent of its individual manifestation.
• Popper understood the social and human sciences to be inter-changeable. In Popper’s logic, three dominant concepts characterize the social sciences (a) scientific, (b) objective, and (c) empirical. Locating objectivity in an inter-subjective way he highlights the social world of science as necessary to ensure objectivity itself, since the exchanges that happen in such inter-subjective engagements as peer review and criticism, can filter out biases. Objectivity, then, is not a goal in and by itself, nor the achievement of an individual scientist, but a nest of autonomous, objective, and physical entities of the social world, namely: communities, groups, institutions, and venues that criticize the researcher’s proposed theories. Objectivity derives from the combination of these social and physical forces. In other words, objectivity is the by product of critical intersubjectivity such that the subject does not command on his/her own.