Chapter 3 - Methodology

Question 0

What is quantitative methodology?

Answer 0

Concerned with the collection of numbers and is scientific, a macro sociologist method. Auguste Comte says it should be confined to observable and directly measurable phenomena.

Question 1

What is methodology?

Answer 1

It refers to the way of producing and analysing data. So that theories can be tested.

Question 2

What is qualitative methodology?

Answer 2

Concerned with gathering information about meaning and emotion. A micro sociology perspective. It’s a humanistic approach.
Interprets meaning behind social action.

Question 3

What is positivism?

Answer 3

It’s closely related to natural sciences, in carrying out research.
Reality can be explained by observation and evidence.

Question 4

What does Comte say about methodology?

Answer 4

He is the founding father of positivism.
Scientific knowledge can improve man existence, and sociologists should not be concerned with internal meanings, but rather measure society in a objective way.

Question 5

What does Durkheim say about methodology?

Answer 5

He believes society should study social facts specifically.

He defined the proper method of studying social facts.

Question 6

Durkheim identifies 4 types of suicide in his study. Mention them.

Answer 6

Altruistic - Excessive integration. Eg: Sacrificing themselves with a sense of duty for others. Tribal/religious.

Egoistic - Lack of integration. Eg: Lack of acceptance from social groups. School shootings.

Fatalistic - Excessive regulation. Eg: Society restricts the individuals too much. Communist Russia.

Anomic - Lack of regulation. Eg: Lack of norms and values. Secularisation, abortion and divorce.

Question 7

According to Durkheim, what are social facts?

Answer 7

They should be considered as things, such as belief systems, customs and institutions which are intangible.
He saw them as existing beyond individual consciousness. They cannot be changed at well, and this determined how people behaved.

Therefore becoming social facts (lack of free will)

Question 8

Was Durkheim technically a positivist?

Answer 8

Although he used to quantitative and scientific methods, due to the fact that he used social facts, which are intangible he is not technically a positivist.

Question 9

What do interpretivism say about methodology.

Answer 9

Sociology should interpret the meanings behind social actions.
No need to be objective.
Meaning should be applied to the social world.

Question 10

What does Weber says about methodology?

Answer 10

It is important to be concerned with social actions.

An action is social when taking into account the behaviour of others.

Question 11

What is verstehen? - Max Weber

Answer 11

Understanding behaviour by placing yourself in someone else’s shoes. Eg: The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. Where he interprets the beliefs and motives of Early Calvinist.

Question 12

Who is Karl Poppers?

Answer 12

He believes in a scientific method, but he is not a positivist, because you cannot provide an ultimate truth as the theory may be falsified.

Question 13

What is the deductive approach?

Answer 13

Making predictions and attempting to falsify.

Theory -> Hypothesis -> Observation -> confirmation.

Question 14

What is the inductive approach?

Answer 14

Observation -> Pattern -> Tentative hypothesis -> Theory.

Question 15

What does Thomas Khun say about Methodology?

Answer 15

He wrote about paradigms and scientific revolution.
He claims that scientists tend to stick to the paradigm and ignore evidence that goes against it.

His point of view says that sociology cannot be seen as a science since there is no accepted paradigm, it can only be a science if there is an agreed paradigm.

Question 16

What does Andrew Sayer say about methodology?

Answer 16

The realistic view of science.
This is the belief that social reality, social structures and social currents have an existence over individuals. He believes that it is possible and desirable for sociology to be scientific, but should not leave out human behaviour and confine itself to observable fact.

Question 17

What is critical social science?

Answer 17

Being critical of society to facilitate change.

It is not about finding objective knowledge that is gathered through a mechanical process. Researchers believe that knowledge is a process, knowledge can never be separated from values and research aims at revealing oppressive structures so that structures may be changed.

Question 18

What do Feminists criticise in terms of methodology?

Answer 18

Male stream research for ignoring women’s issues.
Focusing in men and using male samples.
Disregarding gender variables.

Question 19

What do Feminists argue in terms of methodology?

Answer 19

They argue that they have an advantage on male researchers, as they have a better understanding of the social world because they are a repressed group.
Male dominant research puts emphasis on detachment and reliability.
People are treated as mere sources of data.

Question 20

What is a research method?

Answer 20

They are the tools used in order to conduct research.

Question 21

What is the law of human behaviour?

Answer 21

Receiving the same results when a research is repeated, according to Comte.

Question 22

What is a scientific law?

Answer 22

Something which is true in all circumstances.

Question 23

What is the multivariate analysis?

Answer 23

Durkheim uses this approach, to isolate the effects of a particular independent valuable upon the dependent variable.

Question 24

What is a dependent variable?

Answer 24

The thing that is caused. Eg: Crime

Question 25

What is correlation?

Answer 25

Is from a positivist stand point, and is the tendency for 2 or more things to be found together.
Eg: in Durkheim’s study, a correlation happens between Protestantism and high suicide rates,

Question 26

What is causation?

Answer 26

From a positivist point of view, in the search of causal connection one might suspect that one phenomena is causing another to happen.
Eg: Secularisation is raising suicide levels.

Question 27

What is an indirect phenomena?

Answer 27

In positivist methodology, it occurs when 2 or more phenomena are found together but have no direct connection to each other. One does not therefore cause the other.

Eg: Gender may be associated with both class and crime, however, class and crime may not be directly linked together. The correlation maybe one of any factor.

Question 28

What is the Hawthorne effect?

Answer 28

Occurs when subjects awareness of their participation in an experiment, effects their behaviour and therefor effects the results of the experiment.

Question 29

What is the comparative method?

Answer 29

Collects various information, and compares them to identify similarities and differences between them.
Eg: Durkheim used this method, in his study of Suicide. He checked the suicide rate of Protestant regardless of nationality.

Question 30

What is phenomenology?

Answer 30

Is the study of lived, human hoe omen within everyday social contexts in which the phenomena occur from the perspective of those who experience them.
Phenomena comprise anything that human beings live/experience.

Question 31

What is a primary source?

Answer 31

Information consist of data collected by researcher themselves during the course of their work.

Question 32

What is a secondary source?

Answer 32

Consists of data that already exists.

Eg: Official statistics, diaries and letters.