Sociology And Science - done

Question 1

positivism

Answer 1

positivists believe they can apply logical methods of the natural society to explain society - this knowledge will be true and objective as its sceintific- reality exists independently outside of the human mind

Question 2

positivism on patterns laws and inductive reasoning

Answer 2

reality has patterns and is random. Durkheim - real laws can explain these patterns done thru induction - gathering data through careful observation and measurment. once enough data is gathered we can form a general law (verificationism) - these laws can predict future events

Question 3

positivism and objective quantitative research

Answer 3

pos use quantitative data to uncover and measure patterns of behavior - mathematical precise statements about their research. researchers should be detached and objective, since water boiling is effected by scientists feeling neither should the researcher on the people

Question 4

Durkheim and suicide

Answer 4

used OS to research suicide determined that it is not the result of motives but of social facts acting on other social facts. protestants killed themselves more than Catholics as catholicism was more successful in the integration of individuals

Question 5

interpretivism

Answer 5

society should not model itself on natural science - unsuited to studying human beings, we should abandon detachment and objectivity - we must put ourself in the place of the actor
- favour participant obs, personal documents, unstru interv

Question 6

interpretivism and the subject matter of sociology

Answer 6

natural science studies matter which has no conscious and sociology does the opposite as people have free will. Mead says we choose how to respond to external stimuli rather than automatically responding - humans are not puppets on a string but construct society through meanings they give

Question 7

types of interpretivism - interactionalist

Answer 7

interactionists - we can have casual explanations - Glaser and strauss are against using hypoythesis as it may influence our view of what’s important, instead favour bottom up approach which is when our ideas emerge as we go along

Question 8

karl popper

Answer 8

falsificationism
criticisms and the open society

Question 9

falsification

Answer 9

a good theory is falsifiable but when tested stands up to all attempts to disprove it, it is bold in the sense that it makes large generalisations that predict precisely big amounts of events or cases

Question 10

criticisms and the open society

Answer 10

for a theory to be falsifiable it must be open to critisims - sciene is a public activity - this is so flaws can be fixed rapidly and make the theory better - favoured in open societies where opinions matter unlike closed ones