Sociologists- Theory and Methods

Question 1

Quantitative Research

Answer 1

Durkheim ( Funct)
- Used the comparative method in his study of suicide which relied on analyzing official statistics.

Question 2

Quantitative Research

Answer 2

Oakley( Fem)
-The positivist approach is a masculine approach – regards science as more important that furthering the interests of the people it researches.

Question 3

Quantitative Research

Answer 3

Graham
-Questionnaires and Interviews give a distorted and invalid picture of women’s experience.

Question 4

Qualitative Research

Answer 4

Douglas ( interpretivist)
-criticized the research carried out by Durkheim as he argued official statistics are not objective facts. He suggested the official statistics were instead social constructs

Question 5

Qualitative Research

Answer 5

Glaser and Strauss
-Reject the positivist idea that research involves a beginning with a fixed hypothesis. They argue research should begin with an open mind, not a set idea.

Question 6

Qualitative Research

Answer 6

Oakley ( fem)
-Feminist approach to research – value committed, researchers involvement, aims for equality and collaboration

Question 7

Qualitative Research

Answer 7

Willis (neo-marx)
-Use of observation to study the lads from a neo-Marxist perspective.

Question 8

Functionalism- Durkheim

Answer 8

Mechanical solidarity – society had a strong collective conscience

Question 9

Functionalism- Parsons

Answer 9

Value consensus, social order – society must have socialisation and social control. There are societal needs – adaption, goal attainment, integration, latency.

Question 10

Functionalism- Merton

Answer 10

– assumes everything is functional, may not all work together well, some things may be functional for one group and dysfunctional for another.

Question 11

Marxism- Marx

Answer 11

Class conflict – owners of means of production (bourgeoise) vs. class of labourers (proletariat). Bourgeoise exploit proletariat to make a profit. Ideology of the upper classes is transmitted in society. Proletariat becomes alienated. Eventually, proletariat will realise their exploitation, rise up and overthrow capitalism in a communist revolution.

Question 12

Marxism- Gramsci

Answer 12

Hegemony – ideology of the upper, dominant class. For revolution to happen, the proletariat need to develop dual consciousness – they need to develop a counter hegemony

Question 13

Marxism- Althusser

Answer 13

Ideological State Apparatus – institutions in society spread the ideology of capitalism. Repressive state apparatus – armies of men who coerce the working class to accept capitalism.

Question 14

Feminism- Oakley

Answer 14

Liberal feminists distinguish between sex and gender. There are cultural differences in the understanding of gender. Sexist attitudes are socially constructed. Therefore social action can bring about change in ideas of gender roles.

Question 15

Feminism- Firestone

Answer 15

Patriarchy develops due to women’s biological capacity to bear children, so they become dependent on men for support.

Question 16

Feminism- Greer

Answer 16

Radical feminists believe in separatism – there needs to be a new culture of female independence. We should have matrilocal households, as heterosexual households leads to sleeping with the enemy.

Question 17

Feminism- Barrett

Answer 17

In order to overthrow capitalism, we must overthrow the ideology of familism which encourages traditional gender roles.

Question 18

Feminism- Butler

Answer 18

We need to embrace post-structuralism to help understand that all women are different and have difference experiences of oppression.

Question 19

Social Action- Weber

Answer 19

Different types of action – instrumentally rational, value rational, traditional, affectual. Wrote the ‘protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism’ using these ideas to understand their behaviour. Contrasted to Marx’s ideas about capitalism.

Question 20

Social action- Mead

Answer 20

Symbols help us to understand social behaviour. In order to know how to act we take on the role of the other we put ourselves in another’s shoes to see how they see us.

Question 21

Social action- Goffman

Answer 21

Dramaturgical analogy. We act in different ways depending on the situation – the front stage and the back stage through impression management.

Question 22

Social action- Giddens

Answer 22

Structuration theory – structure and agency comes together – structure changes based on action.

Question 23

Social action- Garfinkel

Answer 23

Created breaching experiments to understand the meaning behind social action. Developed the idea of reflexivity and indexicality.

Question 24

Globalisation, Modernity and Post-Modernity- Beck

Answer 24

We live in a risk society – post modernism brings fragmentation and risk with globalisation.

Question 25

Globalisation, Modernity and Post-Modernity- Lyotard

Answer 25

There is no such thing as real knowledge – post-modern society has many competing meta-narratives – we no longer know what truth is.

Question 26

Globalisation, Modernity and Post-Modernity- Baudrillard

Answer 26

We live in hyper reality. We can’t distinguish between media life and real life.

Question 27

Globalisation, Modernity and Post-Modernity- Foucalt

Answer 27

We now reject scientific knowledge as truth – we can’t judge what is true or not so we can’t use it to improve society. Other theories are meta narratives – just big stories that attempt to explain everything but they can’t so are unhelpful.

Question 28

Sociology and social policy- Murray

Answer 28

Believes policy to support families and welfare should be reduce as it creates social problems.

Question 29

Sociology and social policy- Wilson and Kelling

Answer 29

Production of zero tolerance policies to reduce criminal behaviour in society.

Question 30

Sociology and social policy- Worsley

Answer 30

A social problem is some piece of social behaviour that causes public friction and or private misery and calls for collective action to solve it.

Question 31

Sociology and social policy- Durkheim

Answer 31

Functionalist take a positive approach. They take a cautious approach to policy – believe you should fix one issue at a time.

Question 32

Sociology and science- Popper

Answer 32

Popper believes that lots of sociology is unscientific because it is unfalsifiable. It could be scientific if hypotheses were produced and they were tested.

Question 33

Sociology and science-Kuhn

Answer 33

Sociology doesn’t have agreed paradigms making it a pre-science.

Question 34

Objectivity and Value Freedom- Weber

Answer 34

Values should be used in research to guide the research, to interpret data. Recognises that sociologists are humans and can’t be fully objective.

Question 35

Objectivity and Value Freedom- Becker

Answer 35

Sociologists should take the stance of the ‘underdogs’. They should research less known groups and support groups whose voiced need to be heard.

Question 36

Objectivity and Value Freedom- Marx

Answer 36

Scientific in the sense he wanted to reveal the truth behind the exploitation and alienation in capitalism to help deliver a good society.

Question 37

Objectivity and Value Freedom- Gouldner

Answer 37

Sociologists should take the stance of those who are fighting back – it should be committed to ending oppression.