Any social sciencey people around? Help me win an argument...

Trouble is, politicians tend to run with ideology over any kind of science, be it 'hard' or social. Look at the whole issue over drugs and Professor Nutt, for example.

Surely, though, if you wanted to prove (say) that the majority of children brought up by gay couples are happy and balanced, statistics would be hugely helpful. You could then say (I'm making these up) 95% of such children have 2 or more A-levels, that 96% did not drop out of school early, that 76% are in long-term relationships etc etc. You could also compare these statistics to those of children brought up by heterosexual parents and children brought up by single mothers. How else could you measure such a claim as "most children brought up by gay couples are happy and balanced"? Can your opposition provide what they would consider to be a good way of measuring this without using 'surveys and statistics'?

Also, I suspect you need Enterflora. Where has she disappeared to?

He argues this, and also that social scientists have political agendas and ideologies that are far easier to succumb to than with a natural science (which should be free of any ideology whatsoever).

Your suggestion is perfect, has been studied widely for a variety of outcomes and combined in some fabulous meta-analyses, to show that children of homosexual parents suffer no extra negative outcomes.

His way of measuring involves personal observation and anecdote. But still he dismisses studies, pah.

I was going to suggest the welfare state as a major triumph of social science but suspect it's too political for him and, given his post history, he's a conservative living in a country currently arguing against a national health service....

Communism and capitalism? Karl Marx and the Bourgouesie(sp??)/Proletariat ?

About the only thing I can remember from A Level Sociology.

Because this is REAL science?! ?

Will have a think for you tonight!

Law and order. Judicial system, police, social order and governance I remember writing about.

Agreed. I don't really understand his argument, personal observation and anecdotes are way more open to subjective interpretation than the social research he dismisses.

Ugh. I hate getting into these arguments, I believe there's a fairly recent study done by a Professor of Paediatrics at Boston University in the US, I used it as a source for my Gender coursework last year. I'll have a gander to see if I can find it.

EDIT/UPDATE: https://www.webmd.com/balance/what-to-know-about-emotional-health

not the original article I had but it covers the findings and key points to the study. The tudy was carried out in Tufts University School of Medicine, so if anyone wants to argue Physical sciences then there you go lol.

Lots from the area of feminist studies: equal pay, enormous changes in our understanding of sexual offences and how to investigate & prosecute these and of course our studies of feminism have also led to people considering how men experience things (e.g. how having to act like a 'man' in certain situations changes behaviour).

I think the problem is here is that often people don't like qualitative research as its primarily about emotions. I disagree because how feel regulates how we behave, experience things, and interact with others. So understanding that is essential to changing anything in society. At the same time there is tonnes of research which is based on quantitative data which I think has more appeal to those who have issues around 'proper science'.

My own work relates to policing and the some of the key research in that found that there is a very specific culture in the police and that explains things like why they used to treat domestic violence/sexual offences as 'rubbish work', why they use extreme violence in riot situations, why they used violence in interview situations, why they are generally conservative, homophobic and why they tend to protect each other. By understanding this some changes have been made in each of these areas for the betterment of society. This has been through changes in the law and police policy (I can cite research if you need).

Thanks all, that should give me some ammo!