The Impact of Sociological Methodology on Statistical Methodology

Abstract

Developments in sociological methodology and in quantitative sociology have always been closely related to developments in statistical theory, methodology and computation. The same statement applies if "methodology for social research" and "quantitative social research" replace the more specific terms in this statement. Statistical methodology, including especially the battery of methods used to estimate and evaluate statistical models, has had a tremendous effect on social research in the post-war period, particularly in the United States. What is less well appreciated is the influence of sociological methodology, or methodology for social research more generally, on modern statistics. I give a brief sketch of the linkages between methodology in social research and methodology in statistics. The focus is on areas where developments in sociological methodology, or at least the scientific contexts of social research, have brought forth new methods of general significance to the practice of statistics, in both theoretical and "applied" areas. These remarks should be taken as the impressions of someone who has tried to straddle the fence between statistics and social research throughout his career, not as a careful history of statistical ideas.