Discuss why sociologists do so much of their research outside the laboratory

Question

Sciences such as biology and chemistry confine their research to the laboratory. Discuss why sociologists do so much of their research outside the laboratory. Why is this type of necessary? What are the advantages and disadvantages of this type of research?

Sample paper

Sociologists

Considering that science is an intellectual and practical activity encompassing the systematic study of structures most of their studies should be confined to the laboratory. It is easier to confine biological and chemical studies as well as experiments in a laboratory because a laboratory presents a perfect platform where scientists can recreate many scenarios about these sciences. Also, a laboratory helps to protect the specimen and the results obtained by the scientists from unforeseen factors such as weather and environment that can contaminate the specimen and thus affect the final results. Besides, the scientists are in a position to control the reactions or results in a laboratory as compared to the open environment (Durkheim, 2014). However, it is worth noting that not all experiments that can be performed in the laboratory. Such experiments that cannot be confined to a laboratory include sociologists’ work that is conducted outside the laboratory.

Sociology despite being part of science cannot be confined in a laboratory because of the pure circumstances in sociology. Sociology widely focuses on human behavior that cannot be tested in a laboratory and thus, the sociologist is required to perform most of their studies outside the confinement of laboratories. Human behavior is a complex process that can never be duplicated in a laboratory because humans have emotions and feelings that are way beyond the knowledge and capability of a scientist. Unlike other sciences such as biology and chemistry, scientists have found it a hard time and again to get their way around human emotions and feelings to conduct a proper research in a laboratory (Lash, 2014). Research outside a laboratory is likely to give more accurate results leading to better conclusions. However, there is a chance that the researcher may take a longer time to get his results compared to a laboratory research.

References

Durkheim, E. (2014). The rules of sociological method: and selected texts on sociology and its                 method. Simon and Schuster.

Lash, S. (2014). Sociology of postmodernism. . Routledge.

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