Human Society: Common Sense And Sociological Approaches Flashcards
What are common-sense explainations?
Common sense explanations are non sociological. They are opinions, which may be held by many but are not based on evidence
What may common sense opinions be?
Naturalistic, or individualistic
What do naturalistic explanations assume?
That there are ‘natural’ (sometimes God-Given) reasons for behaviour
Why do people assume that there are natural reasons for behaviour?
Because people are viewing the behaviour through their own cultural norms and so it appears ‘natural’.
What is an example of a naturalistic explanation?
It is only natural that two people fall in love, then get married, live together and raise a family.
However, in other cultures marriage may come first and love grows afterwards.
What are individualistic explanations based on?
The person involved and their own experience, and are therefore biased to their point of view.
The experience may not even be real, but rather based on what they are told by the media.
What do individualistic people not attempt?
To understand a situation in terms of wider social forces
What is an example of an individualistic explanation?
That a person may believe that unemployed people are lazy, without understanding any of the wider social and economic forces that can lead to unemployment.
What are sociological explanations?
These are explanations that attempt to understand social behaviour in terms of wider social forces, processes and structures.
What do sociological approaches use to support them?
Evidence from objective research
What is an example of a sociological explanation?
An example would be poverty: sociologists look at the economic and policy decisions that lead to increases or decreases in poverty over time by analysing trends and systems.
What is the difference between how sociological and common sense approaches are based?
Sociological approaches are based on particular theories that have been tested through research whereas common sense approaches are bases on personal opinion
What are the differences between sociological and common sense approaches?
Sociological approaches are based on particular theories that have been tested through research whereas common sense approaches are bases on personal opinion.
Sociological approaches challenge taken-for-granted assumptions whereas common sense approaches may be individualistic or naturalistic.
Sociological approaches attempt to be objective and see the whole picture whereas common sense approaches are subjective and based only on the beholder’s own point of view.
Sociological approaches acknowledge bias and attempt to be value-free when formulating theories whereas common sense approaches do not acknowledge bias, and carry notions of being factual and true.
Sociological approaches are bases on evidence and research that aims to be objective whereas common sense approaches assume things, and are not bases on research or evidence.
