Quantitative Methods in Sociology: 1920-1960

Quantitative methods in sociology have been under serious development chiefly during the four decades 1920–1960, which corresponds roughly to the professional career of William F. Ogburn. The principal issues regarding quantitative methods which engaged sociologists during that period were: (1) philosophical controversy arising from the assumption (a) that some phenomena are intrinsically and inherently quantitative (e.g., such as most of the subject matter of demography), while (b) other phenomena are intrinsically qualitative. The contrary view regarded quantitative and qualitative aspects of phenomena not as a characteristic of phenomena but purely a matter of what method of observation and recording is adopted. Another issue was (2) the controversy over the relative merits of the “case study” versus the statistical method, especially as regards objectivity, prediction, and other purely scientific objectives, as contrasted with diagnostic and therapeutic objectives. Perhaps the principal problem of quantification was reflected in (3) the controversy over attitude scales and techniques of studying verbal behavior and public opinion, and the relationship of such data to other types of social behavior. All of these developments greatly stimulated interest in sampling techniques, mathematical models, information theory, and machine techniques of processing data. The implications of these developments for sociology as a science are impressive.