1. What place does sociology occupy among the other social sciences?

Sociology occupies an important position among the disciplines, usually called the social sciences. These include sociology, anthropology, psychology, economics, political science, history and human geography. These disciplines are sometimes also referred to as behavioral sciences, as they study the principles governing human social behavior. How is sociology related to other sciences? What are the similarities and differences? These are important questions. Sociology is similar with all other sciences in that it employs the scientific methods and its major aim is production of scientific knowledge. Sociology is related to other social and behavioral sciences in that all of them have more or less similar subject matter; they all in one way or another study society, human culture, social phenomena; and aim at discovering the laws that govern the social universe.

However, sociology differs from other social sciences in terms of its focus of study, approach of study, and the method of study. The closest discipline to sociology is social anthropology. The two share concepts, theories and methods, and have similar historical background. However, they are different in that sociology is primarily interested in the problems of modern society, whereas anthropology is primarily interested in the problem of traditional, non-western society. (It should be noted here that this conventional distinction between the two is now disappearing.) Further, sociology focuses mainly on quantitative techniques where as anthropology on qualitative research techniques. Perhaps, the methods of research are more important in differentiating the two.

Anthropology's heavy focus on qualitative method and sociology's on quantification are still persistent natures of the two disciplines. Further, one point of difference worth mentioning is that sociology is narrower in scope than anthropology, which has four sub fields; and anthropologists tend to stay in the field for long period (several months to few years) while sociologists prefer brief stay (weeks to few months).

2. What is meant by 'control' as a goal of sociology?

In science, as in other areas of life, there are things upon which reasonable men can agree and there are areas where they differ. Reasonable men generally agree upon understanding and prediction as goals of sociological inquiry. Some sociologists would add a third goal - control - while other scholars believe that the problem of control is not a scientific one and that it must be left in the hands of policy makers - administrators, governors, politicians, and the like.

It probably is safe to say that before World War II most sociologists believed that their search for objective knowledge of human relationships demanded absolute neutrality on social issues. It was during this period that the stereotype of the ivory-tower scientist, safely locked away from contamination by the problems of the real world, became popular.

Such a period in the development of social science may have been necessary because science was still trying to separate itself from its roots in social philosophy. There was a strong tendency to moralize on questions ranging from divorce to crime to war. Scientists, if their studies were to be unbiased and their findings trustworthy, had to assume the position that their task was to collect and analyze facts, regardless of whether those facts supported or subverted established beliefs. The task of using research findings to alter the society — to improve it — was to be left strictly to others.

In sociology, the trend toward the position that scientists should assume responsibility for control of how their findings are used was foreshadowed in an article by Alvin Gouldner who argued that value-free sociology was a myth, and that value assumptions are inherent in the process of doing research. Much more explicit statements of the necessity for sociologists to take value positions have been published since and, ironically, one of Gouldner's most recent publications finds him arguing against the extreme commitments to value positions of some of his younger colleagues.

Here the argument stands. Virtually all sociologists agree that the intrusion of values into research poses a serious threat to the integrity of the research. They agree further that bias must be constantly guarded against. It is on the question of how this may be done that they part company. One group argues that the only way in which bias may be eliminated from research is for researchers completely to disclaim responsibility for how their findings are used. This group denies that control, or directed social change, is a legitimate goal of sociological inquiry.