methods in context topic 2 Flashcards
Values
Important beliefs that often guide our actions
Who believes sociology should be value free? (Objective)
Positivists:
Comte
Durkheim
Progressivism
Comte and Durkheim believe in creating a better society through progressivism, being objective in research
Enlightenment
Aims to solve social problems and improve human life
Value laden
Values should be included in research
Who believes in sociology being value laden? (Subjective)
Interpretivists:
Weber
Weber
Critical of modernist thinkers and believes that values do and should have a presence in research sometimes
Weber: steps of research
1 Values should be included when decided the topic of research
2 Values should not be included when collecting data and hypothesis testing
3 Values should be included in the interpretation of the data
4 Values should be included when publishing their research
Committed sociologists
Believe values will make up part of the research due to funding bodies instilling their values to represent the ‘underdog’)
Gouldner
Sociologists became ‘problem takers’ in the 20th century aiming to solve people’s problems
Gouldner believes it is impossible to be value free for two reasons:
-Impossible: either the sociologist or the funding body will instil their values into the research
-Undesirable: without values to guide research, sociologists are putting aside their own values just for the money
Myrdal
Sociologists should take sides as it is neither possible nor desirable to keep values out of research
Becker (interactionist)
Sociology always takes sides, eg. Traditionally sociologists took the side of the powerful (‘overdog’) but now they take the side of the ‘underdog’
Goffman
Agrees with Becker and says sociologists should use qualitative methods to seek verstehen
Relativism
There are plural truths within society and neither is more credible than the other
