Positivism Flashcards
Who are the Positivists?
Influenced by natural sciences.
Believe there are natural laws governing the behaviour of these natural phenomena’s around us.
What is a Phenomena?
A fact or circumstance to study.
What do the Positivists believe?
Some laws are the product of the society we live in, it’s a social structure ‘organisation’.
People are objects who’s behaviour can be directly observed.
Make particular assumptions about the social world/how society is organised and use appropriate ways to study it.
What is the Hypothetico-deductive theory?
Explores how the social structure shapes people’s behaviours and actions. It also suggests positivists make observations about the world.
How do Positivists use a hypothesis?
They come up with a hypothesis which is an informed guess about how and why social situations come about.
What do positivists use patterns and trends?
Whole groups of people behave in various patterns or a similar way as a result of the social structure.
In human behaviour patterns and trends can be seen and catalogued.
What is validity?
Whether the research gives a true picture of what is being studied.
What is reliability?
Replication of the research ensures there’s reliability in the research method and the process taken during the research.
What does it mean to be objective and value free?
This ensures neutrality and the scientists personal/political views don’t affect the research method.
What is a representative?
Researcher aims to select a representative sample of the age, ethnicity, and gender of a group they’re studying.
What does it mean to generalise?
Based on data collected from the sample to conduct what was actually studied?
What is quantitative data?
Data expressed in numerical form (e.g. statistics)
