ontology and epistemology

Question 1

what are 5 possible sources of knowledge?

Answer 1

1. Common sense knowledge
2. Authority based knowledge
3. Experiential knowledge –
4. Traditional knowledge –
5. Non-rational knowledge

Question 2

what does common knowledge describe?

Answer 2

routine knowledge of the everyday world that ‘everyone’ knows which may not be entirely true

Question 3

what does authority-based knowledge describe?

Answer 3

comes from an established institution eg religion or science

Question 4

what does experiential knowledge describe?

Answer 4

knowledge you obtain through personal experiences

Question 5

what does traditional knowledge describe?

Answer 5

knowledge passed down from generation to generation eg about healing plants

Question 6

what does non-rational knowledge describe?

Answer 6

the subjectiveness of knowledge

Question 7

what are 3 key components of social research?

Answer 7

• Involves systematic and rigorous investigation

* Produces data of some kind Generates new knowledge and expands horizons of the known

Question 8

what assumption can be questioned about research?

Answer 8

by ‘new knowledge’, are social scientists just conforming to the general idea of the forward march of ‘progress’?

Question 9

what is the subject/object problem?

Answer 9

In social science, we are both the subject and object of our own knowledge as we aim to create explanations about society whilst we are part of society

Question 10

what is an example of the subject/object problem?

Answer 10

the family

Question 11

what did studies of families in the mid 20th century focus on?

Answer 11

the nuclear family

Question 12

what has now happened to the traditional family form? (3)

Answer 12

• Traditional gender roles have been challenged
• Family forms are now more fluid
• Family breakdown and divorce are a significant part of contemporary family life

Question 13

what were a lot of political articulations of the family based on?

Answer 13

functionalist ideology

Question 14

what did Parsons say about the family?

Answer 14

Family is a stable environment in which to socialise children to become acceptable members of society, so good for the individual and society

Question 15

what did John Major say about the family?

Answer 15

“it’s time to get back to basics: …for accepting responsibility for yourself and your family, and not shuffling it off on to the state” (address to the Conservative Party conference – 1993)

Question 16

what did Laing want to argue about the family in his book the Divided Self?

Answer 16

the family reproduces power relationships and distorts personality development

Question 17

who also criticised the functionalist depiction of the family?

Answer 17

feminists such as Millet’s Sexual Politics

Question 18

how can Laing’s own experience with schizophrenia be seen as a good thing for his research?

Answer 18

provided a unique insight

Question 19

how can Laing’s own experience with schizophrenia be seen as a bad thing for his research?

Answer 19

may have narrowed his analysis by ruling out alternative forms of schizophrenia

Question 20

why does the ontological and epistemological position of the researcher matter?

Answer 20

profoundly changes their perspective and thus what is seen

Question 21

what did Becker argue about scientific research?

Answer 21

impossible for the social sciences to be value neutral

“…the question is not whether we should take sides…but rather, whose side are we on”

Question 22

what are the two epistemological positions?

Answer 22

positivism and interpretivism

Question 23

what is positivism?

Answer 23

he application of scientific methods to study social reality, attempts to discover ‘scientific laws’ that can be tested and assessed

Question 24

what is interpretivism?

Answer 24

stresses the differences between the natural and social sciences, investigates the ways in which people understand and interpret the world

Question 25

what are the two ontological positions?

Answer 25

objectivism and constructivism

Question 26

what is objectivism?

Answer 26

“implies that social phenomena confront us as external facts that are beyond our reach or influence” (Bryman)

Question 27

what is constructivism?

Answer 27

social phenomena and their meaning is continuously being constructed and people construct meaning in different ways, no objective facts waiting to be discovered

Question 28

what ontological position can positivism be linked to?

Answer 28

objectivism

Question 29

what ontological position can interpretivism be linked to?

Answer 29

constructivism

Question 30

what is the method?

Answer 30

the techniques used to gather and analyse data

Question 31

what is methodology?

Answer 31

process lying behind the choice and use of a particular method and linking this choice to the intended outcome

Question 32

what are 3 positives of social research?

Answer 32

• Can provide explanations for issues that affect us both as individuals and as members of larger groups
• Help to develop as sociological imagination so we can start to make links between our personal troubles and public issues
• Findings can help fight prejudice that inform many common sense views such as poverty, immigration and gender inequality

Question 33

what did Howard Becker within ‘Whose side are we on’ highlight as a danger of research about deviants?

Answer 33

researcher may become sympathetic, and thus inadvertently distort their research

Question 34

how did Becker define bias?

Answer 34

‘the research gives credence to the perspective of the subordinate group in some hierarchical relationship’

Question 35

what is the hierarchy of credibility?

Answer 35

highest group possess credibility AND are in the position to ‘do something’ when what they do is inaccurate.

Question 36

how did Becker divided groups?

Answer 36

superordinates and subordinates

Question 37

what does Becker argue about the hierarchy of credibility?

Answer 37

We must implicitly accept the conventional hierarchy of credibility and therefore recognise the boundaries on our research

Question 38

what is a research paradigm?

Answer 38

an approach or a research model to conducting a research that has been verified by the research community for long and that has been in practice for hundreds of years