Читать книгу Our Social World - Kathleen Odell Korgen - Страница 100

Theories serve as lenses to help us create research questions and to make sense of the data we gather using various research strategies. The data themselves can be used to test the theories, so there is an ongoing reciprocal relationship between theory (the lens for making sense of the data) and research (the evidence used to test the theories). The most important ideas in this chapter concern what sociology considers data or evidence and how sociology is a science. These ideas form the framework for the content of sociology.

The core features of scientific research are (a) a commitment to using the scientific method to collect, analyze, and understand data through systematic processes of testing using the five senses (sometimes enhanced by scientific instruments); (b) allowing ourselves to be convinced by the evidence rather than by our preconceived ideas; (c) absolute integrity and objectivity in how we conduct and report on our research; and (d) continual openness to having our findings reexamined and new interpretations proposed. We must always consider the possibility that we have overlooked alternative explanations of the data and alternative ways to view the problem.

Science—including social science—does not consist of just facts to be memorized. Science is a process made possible by a social exchange of ideas, a clash of opinions, and a continual search for truth. Knowledge in the sciences is created by vigorous debate. We hope you will engage in the creation of knowledge by entering into these debates.