Sociological research is necessary because we need to get a bigger picture of society and this can only come from an objective methodology that involves researchers from the outside looking in.

Among other things, this means that personal experience, though important, does not provide us with sufficient knowledge of social phenomena. It can certainly be taken into consideration by researchers, but in order to make sense of it, it needs to be incorporated into a theoretical model that seeks to provide a general explanation as to how societies function the way they do.

If one accepts that sociology is at its most effective the more it approximates in its practice and in its methodology to natural science, then it is vital that the discipline strive for objectivity, however difficult that may be. Inevitably, that means that personal knowledge must be subordinated to a more general knowledge that constructs a theory capable of telling us something important about society as a whole rather than specific individuals who live in it.