Is sociology a science ? Flashcards
Outline Positivists
- Quantitative data
- Look for trends and patterns
- Preferred methods: closed ended questionnaires, lab experiments, structured interviews
- Prefer practical methods as they’re cheap easy and quick
- Like secondary sources
- Functionalists, Marxists
- Top down approach - how structures affect behaviour
- Macro approach to studying sociology
- Prefer reliability and representativeness
Outline interpretivists
- Qualitative data
- Look at thoughts, feelings and meanings
- Preferred methods : Group/unstructured interviews, observations
- Like primary sources
- Interpretivists, feminists
- Bottom up approach
- Macro approach - focus on the individuals
- Seek verstehen - Putting yourself in the shoes of someone else to sympathise with them
- Prefer validity
Do Positivists see sociology as a science ?
Yes
Do interpretivists see sociology as a science ?
No
Who doesn’t believe sociology is a science but it could be if it changed ?
Popper
Kuhn
Realists
Feminists
Who doesn’t think it’s relevant whether sociology is a science or not ?
Foucault
What are Positivists views on sociology as a science ?
It should be seen as a science
Comte - Deemed the institution to be a scientific way of approaching studying the social world
- We should use experimental methods to test hypothesis is a controlled and systematic way
- We should seek to establish cause and effect relationships
- Believe sociological research should undergo inductive reasoning - where evidence is collected to prove the hypothesis true meaning patterns can be seen
- Then it goes through a process called verificationism which is when the hypothesis/ theory becomes verified (proven to be right) when there is enough evidence to support the hypothesis
- Lukes - Says that this produces social facts
What are interpretivists views on sociology as a science?
Sociology should NOT be a science
- Science studies unconscious beings where as sociology studies people who are conscious and have thoughts and feelings
- Humans try to make sense of the world and attach meanings to things
- So if we want to study behaviour we have to understand the meaning that they have attached to that behaviour
- We must put ourselves in the shoes of the social after - Vertehen
- We need to use methods like observations
Feminists - Women should not be studied as a scientific object
What are Popper’s views on sociology as a science ?
Sociology is not a science but it could be if it changed
- As sociology cannot be falsifies (proven wrong) it cannot be classes as a science
- There are too many falsifiable theories which all have reasons to explain behaviour that fits outside what they say. This means they can’t be proven wrong
- Sociology could be a science if it allowed theories to be falsified
- Inductive reasoning is a myth - We cannot say that something is true simply because we have found evidence to support what we are saying. We need to actively seek information that could prove our theory wrong to truly know if its true
- We should seek to falsify instead of verify
- Can use as analysis for Kuhn
What are Kuhn’s views on sociology as a science?
- For something to follow the scientific method then we must follow a single paradigm which provides a framework of assumptions, principles, methods and techniques.
- Sociology cannot be a science as there isn’t an agreed upon paradigm that all sociologists work from
- All the theories are meta-narratives - they are all competing for the truest version of society
- Can use as analysis for Popper
Why do Popper and Kuhn agree and why do they disagree?
Agree-
Both agree that sociology isn’t a science but it could be if something changed
Disagree-
On what needs to change in order for sociology to become a science
What are realists views on sociology as a science?
- In science there are both open and closed systems
open systems - researchers cannot control all variables so accurate predictions cannot be made
Closed systems - Researchers can control all the variables so accurate predictions can be made
- As society is so complex it operates as an open system so as variables cannot be controlled it means it isn’t scientific
- However the underlying structures in society such as capitalism can be measured to observe the effects they have. For example, we can see the effect of capitalism on class.
- However, we cannot make predictions on the specific individuals who will be impacted by this
What are Postmodernists view on sociology as a science?
- There’s no objective reality out there that is waiting to be measured.
- Therefore, modernist theories are no longer relevant to. postmodern society
- Truth is relative to the individual as society is now chaotic and fragmented
- All theories are Meta-Narratives as they are all another version of their belief of the truth and people can choose which one they believe to be true
- Science is simply another meta-narrative, a version of the truth, that people can chose to believe or not
Where about in an essay would postmodernism fit well?
Conclusion
