Three approaches in social science

Is social science the same as natural science? Can social science be studied as a natural science? What really "science" means? ....all these questions seem to be asked over century, especially on the mythology of sociology. There are three approaches that one can conduct social science research:-

1. Positive social science

This is the approach of natural sciences. They assume that positive approach is "science".

Positivism arose from a 19th century school of thought by the Frenchman who founded sociology- August Comte. Classic French Sociology Emile Durkheim also outlined the same school of thought in his "Rules of the sociology method." (1895). essentially, they believe there is Law governing the social life, and the task of social science researcher is to find such Law. By using scientific observation, positivists hope to give scientific explanation to discover and document universal laws of human behaviour and society. It also assumes that knowledge can be used as tools to predict or control social environments.

The basic assumption of positivism is just like physical world, social reality is "out there" and waiting to be discovered. They also assume that human beings are self interested, pleasure seeking and rational individuals. People operate on the basis of external causes with the same cause having the same effect on everyone. Human events are not randomly happening, but in a stable pattern following "causal law". They also emphasize the value free science, i.e. observers agree on what they see and that science is not based on values, opinions or attitudes or beliefs. Positivist sees science as a special distinct regime of free from personal, political and religious values.

Quantitative research method, in some ways, resembles this approach. By first defining the concepts, variables, quantitative researches develop certain hypothesis, collect data then analyze about the casual relationship among variables. Testing hypothesis is one of main tasks.

2. Interpretive social science (ISS)

ISS can be traced back to Max Weber. For interpretive researchers, the goal of social research is to develop an understanding of social life and discover how people construct meaning in natural setting. They want to learn what is meaningful or relevant to the people being studied. The researchers must take into account the social actor’s reasons and the social context of action. They note that human action has little inherent meaning. It acquires meaning among people who share a meaning system that permits them to interpret it as socially relevant sign or action. Human social life is intentionally created out of the purposeful actions of interacting social beings. The social world is largely what people perceive it to be. Social life exists as people experience it and give it meaning. It is fluid and fragile. People maintain it by interacting with others in ongoing processes of communication and negotiation. They operate on the basis of untested perception and taken-for-granted knowledge about people and themselves.

This approach holds that social life is based on social interactions and socially constructed meaning systems. The social reality is also based on people’s definition of it. Positivists assume that everyone shares the same meaning system and that we will experience the world the same way. The interpretive approach says that people may or may not experience the same way. Human behaviours may be patterned, but it is not due to pre-existing laws, but evolved from shared meaning system through social interactions.

Positivist usually uses deductive axiom, and causal effects in explaining and predicating the world, interpretive researcher, on the other hand, uses ideographic and inductive. Interpretive approach does not using the same procedure to test hypothesis, for ISS, a theory is true if it makes sense to those being studied and if it allows other to understand deeply or enter the reality of those being studied.

Interpretive research does not try to be value free, in fact, ISS doubt it would even achievable. What positivist calls “value free” is just another meaning system and value.

3. Critical social science (CSS)


This approach is traced to Karl Marx, was elaborated by Theodor Adorno. CSS thinks positive science is narrow, non-humanist in tis use of reason. CSS defines social science as a critical process of inquiry that goes beyond surface illusions to uncover the real structures in the materials world in order to help people to change conditions and build a better world for themselves.

It adopts historical realism in which reality of social world is shaped by social, political, cultural and similar factors. Society reality evolves over the time. CSS focuses on changes and conflicts, especially the paradoxes of inner conflicts or contradiction that brings about changes. (dialectic)

CSS thinks the initial knowledge and observation about social life may not be true reality, because human senses are limited and misled by the illusions and myths. The goal of social study is to uncover social reality through these myths. There are many layers of social reality, beneath the immediately observable surface reality lie deep structures or unobserved mechanism.