Sociology And Science

Question 0

Do positivists favour a macro or micro perspective of social phenomena?

Answer 0

Macro

Question 1

What do positivists believe about patterns?

Answer 1

They believe that reality is not random or chaotic but patterned which means we can observe, identify, measure and explain patterns by finding the facts that cause them

Question 2

What sort of research do positivists favour to uncover and measure patterns of behaviour?

Answer 2

Objective, quantitative data

Question 3

Which positivist studied suicide to show that sociology could be a science and how did he do it?

Answer 3

Emile Durkheim, used quantitative data from official statistics

Question 4

What did Durkheim discover from his research into suicide?

Answer 4

He found patterns in suicide rates and he claims to have discovered a ‘real law’ that integration and regulation affect the rates of suicide

Question 5

What do interpretivists believe about the subject matter of sociology?

Answer 5

They believe that the subject matter of sociology is meaningful social action and that we can only understand it through understanding meanings

Question 6

What distinction do interpretivists make between sociology and the natural sciences?

Answer 6

Interactionists believe that natural sciences study matter and can be explained in a straightforward manner, whereas sociology studies people who do have consciousness which means they are not just puppets and cannot have facts made about them

Question 7

What does verstehen mean according to interpretivists and why do they favour qualitative data?

Answer 7

Interactionists believe that we must put ourselves in the place of the actor so they favour qualitative data because of this

Question 8

What are the two types of interpretivists?

Answer 8

Interactionists and Phenomonologists and Ethnomethodologists

Question 9

What do interactionists believe?

Answer 9

They believe that we can have causal explanations

Question 10

What do phenomenologists and ethnomethodologists believe about society?

Answer 10

They argue that society is not an external force but only exists in consciousness

Question 11

Why do postmodernists reject sociology as a science?

Answer 11

Because science sees itself as a meta-narrative

Question 12

Why do feminists reject sociology as a science?

Answer 12

They argue that a quest for one theory excludes many groups of women

Question 13

What theorist believes in the fallacy of induction, falsificationism?

Answer 13

Karl Popper

Question 14

What is the Fallacy of induction, according to Karl Popper? What example did he give

Answer 14

Popper rejects the view that science lies in inductive reasoning and uses the example of swans. We cannot prove all swans are white. So we cannot prove a theory is true simply by producing more observations of it

Question 15

What does Karl popper believe about scientific statements?

Answer 15

That they are capable of being falsified or proved wrong and we must be able to say what evidence would count against it if we put it to the test

Question 16

According to Popper, which two features makes a good theory?

Answer 16

Can be falsified but stands up to any attempts
and…
If it is bold - explains a great deal and makes big generalisations

Question 17

What are Karl Poppers beliefs about sociology as a science?

Answer 17

Popper believes that sociology is unscientific. For example, Marxism is unfalsifiable

Question 18

What theorist believes in the idea of paradigms, normal science and scientific revolutions?

Answer 18

Thomas Kuhn

Question 19

What is a paradigm?

Answer 19

A basic framework of assumptions, principles, methods and techniques within which members work. It is a world view

Question 20

What does Kuhn argue about the importance of shared paradigms?

Answer 20

He believes that science cannot exist without a shared paradigm

Question 21

How does Kuhn describe ‘normal science’?

Answer 21

In a ‘normal science’ Kuhn says that the paradigms go unquestioned and working in it is like working with a jigsaw

Question 22

According to Kuhn, what is a scientific revolution, and how does it occur?

Answer 22

A scientific revolution occurs when not all the puzzle solving goes right and they find something contrary to the paradigm and science enters a period of crisis. A paradigm eventually wins out and becomes accepted by the scientific community

Question 23

What are Thomas Kuhn’s beliefs about sociology as a science?

Answer 23

Kuhn believes that sociology could only become scientific if basic disagreements were resolved and a single, shared paradigm was established

Question 24

What do postmodernists believe about paradigms?

Answer 24

Postmodernists argue that a paradigm would not be desirable as it sounds like meta narrative

Question 25

What does Atkinson argue about social facts?

Answer 25

He rejects the idea that social facts determine behaviour and argues that statistics are socially constructed

Question 26

What do realists such as Keats and Urry stress the similarities between?

Answer 26

Sociology and the natural sciences such as the degree of control for the researcher

Question 27

What do Keats and Urry distinguish between?

Answer 27

Closed and open systems

Question 28

What are closed systems?

Answer 28

Closed systems are where the researcher can control and measure all the relevant variables and can make precise predictions

Question 29

What are open systems?

Answer 29

Those where the researcher can’t control and measure relevant variables and thus cannot make precise predictions

Question 30

What reason do sociologists give for why sociology is not scientific?

Answer 30

It tends to study open systems where the processes are too complex to make exact predictions