SOCIO AS SCIENCE

Question 1

What are the preconditions for science

Answer 1

1. ability to develop universal theories
2. empirical
3. high inter subjective relativity
4. quantifiable
5. Objectivity

Question 2

Wilhelm and Heinrickert ( limitations for sociology as science)

Answer 2

described social sciences as idiographic and sciences as nomothetic. Hence there is a huge difference between the methodologies.

Question 3

Karl Popper ( with respect to science as sociology )

Answer 3

1. Only positivism is not science rather it overlooks aberration and kills the spirit of science
2. science is a method of enquiry based on reason and evidence
3. Even natural sciences cannot fulfil all preconditions of science
4. Science is not a Body of Knowledge but a method of approaching and studying phenomena.

Question 4

Write the three basic steps that the scientific method involves according to George Lundberg

Answer 4

1. Systematic Observation
2. Classification
3. interpretation of data

Question 5

what are the 7 criteria positivism

Answer 5

testability 
empiricism 
use of Scientific Method 
theory Building 
Naturalistic 
cause and effect 
Deductions

Question 6

Favouring positivism

Answer 6

1. Auguste Comte: True knowledge is based upon thinking physical and social world as a causal relationship between realities which we can observe directly or indirectly. The search for laws for society uses reason as well as observation.
2. Saint Simon: Positivism was rooted in the science of society which is analogous to natural sciences.

Question 7

Criticism ( Positivism )

Answer 7

1. Phenomonlogists: facts don’t fall from the sky. Context is important.
2. Post Modernist: nothing is a complete truth.
   Things can be observed in many ways.
3. Theodore: reality has many layers, positivists only observe the upper one or two layers.
4. Weber : meaning attached to social action by actors
5. Paul Feyerabend: epistemological anarchy.
   6.Reflexive sociology: humans reflect upon their own actions and change from time to time. ( Alvin Gouldner)
6. Ethnomethodologists: Harold Garfinkel - reality be studied from people’s perspective, not researchers’
   Gunnar Myrdal: complete objectivity not desirable.
   Jurgen Habermas: humans studying humans
   subjectivity is obvious

Question 8

define fact, concept and objectivity

Answer 8

fact is an empirically verifiable observation
Objectivity - during sociological research the investigator should remain value-free, bias-free, unprejudiced and detached.
concept: abstractions depicting object or phenomena.

Question 9

VALUE NEUTRALITY

Answer 9

first used by Weber.
duty of sociologists to acknowledge his biases and overcome them during sociological research.
value-neutrality can be defined as indifference to the matter in hand.

Question 10

Jurgen Habermas critic of social facts

Answer 10

1. humans study humans. Difficult to maintain a distinction between value facts.
2. difficult to define and concretise social facts.
3. human consciousness is intangible

Question 11

William Whyte explains the bias using his study of Italian criminals

Answer 11

non-participant observer

participant non-observer

Question 12

criticism around objectivity

Answer 12

Gunnar Myrdal: complete objectivity is an illusion and it loses the reformist agenda of sociology.
Elvin Gouldner: fact and value are inseparable and value-neutrality is an elusive goal.
Wilhelm Dilthey: fact-based approach explores only one dimension.
Theodore Adorno: Positivism is negative dialectics.
Max Horkheimer: contemporary sociology demands plural theories.

Question 13

Hammersley in WHO NEEDS IT, 2011

Answer 13

the fallibility of knowledge is not ab excuse to abandon the search for knowledge

Question 14

Phenomologists / Gabriella Farina

Answer 14

study of phenomena in the society

style of thoughts and method by which investigator can have different experiences and results each time

Question 15

critic of phenomenologists

Answer 15

Oxymoronish
abstract
resembles to common sense
very subjective

Question 16

Ethnomethodology was given by?

What are the two principles of Ethnomethodology?

Answer 16

Harold Garfinkel ( American sociologist ) 
A mixture of Parsonian and Schutzian methodology
Indexicality and reflexivity ( sense of phenomena is context-specific | sense of order is a result of conversational processes)

Question 17

How ethnomethodology different from classical socio according to Harold Garfinkel

Answer 17

classical sociologists term human beings as cultural dope. But Harold argues that human beings do not act blindly but attach their own meaning to the situation.

Question 18

Critic of ethnomethodology

Answer 18

Giddens: they have no goal
Elvin Gouldner: they do not recognise the differential power relations in society that shape interactions.
Goldthorpe: they do not recognise the reality not accounted for by members. This cannot be true.

Question 19

Basics of Symbolic interactionism

Answer 19

Herbert Blumer termed it in 1937
other thinkers: Mead, Weber, Cooley, Irving Goffman
Principles: human beings attach meanings to interactions. Significant symbols, socialisation helps them to develop thinking. These small interactions impact the human mind and hence form a social reality.
Joel M Sharon: human beings are social and thinking beings and they perceive the environment subjectively.

Question 20

Critic( symbolic interactionism)

Answer 20

they only analyse the micro aspect.
they fail to analyse why people act in a certain way instead of all possible ways. - Skidmore
Biased by American values - Leon Shalkoky
studying emotions in a vacuum
emotional labour ( emotions are very fake ) considering the experiment of Arlie Hochschild “the managed heart” depicting the emotional labour of air hostess.
Marxists believe that behaviour is determined by external forces