Sociology as a Science - Theories Flashcards
What does science aim to do?
- Discover cause and effect relationships
- Aims to be objective and value free
How does positivism suggest that sociology can be a science and that this is desirable?
Objective knowledge gained in a scientific way provides the basis for solving social problems and achieving progress
What is the inductive approach taken by early positivists?
Whereby theories develop from observations and then further observations are used to verify theories
What methods do positivists use?
Those allowing for maximum objectivity and detachment such as quantitative methods
What are they key assumptions behind positivism?
- Individuals are constrained by social forces
- Durkheim: social facts
- Sociology should aim to discover cause + effect relationships
How do interpretivists suggest that sociology CANNOT be a science?
The subject matter is fundamentally different, people have free will and can exercise choice
- Job of sociology is to uncover the meanings people give to the social world + focus on how individuals interact with one another
How do interpretivists suggest people are not ‘puppets on a string’?
They are not manipulated by external ‘social facts’ but are autonomous beings who construct their social world thought the meanings they give to it
What are they key assumptions of interpretivism?
- Humans have consciousness
- Humans interpret meanings to make sense of the world
- Society is the product of human interaction
Why is the objectivity demanded by scientific methods hard to achieve?
- Scientists are human so will have values and make assumptions
- Funding impacts research
- Have their status and social standing to consider
How does Popper suggest that sociology could be a science?
If it follows the deductive method rather than the inductive method
= researcher starts with a hypothesis or theory and tests its
- scientists should look for evidence to support a theory but should try to falsify it
What is a paradigm?
A framework which sets out appropriate methods for study and specifies what questions a scientist should ask
What does Kuhn suggest that paradigms cause? (Cannot)
Suggest scientists are ‘blinkered’, they don’t see alternative views and reject evidence that does not fit the paradigm
What does Kaplan suggest? (Shouldn’t)
Makes the distinction between the methods scientists claim to use and the methods they actually use
- illustrated by scientists who dismiss evidence from experiments which contradict their hypothesis e.g the Thalidomide scandal
What does Gomm argue? (Cannot)
Science itself is relative:
- Darwins theory was only accepted in England because it fitted ideas at the time - survival of the fittest and natural selection helped to explain why Britain ruled the world
What do Realists argue?
That while there are differences between the social and natural world a social science is possible
What does Bhaskar suggest? (Should)
That in the social and natural world there are underlying structure and mechanisms = the aim of realism is to under and explain these
What does Sayer suggest? (Can)
There are open and closed systems:
- Open - where all variables cannot be controlled and therefore precise predictions cannot be made
- Closed - where all variables can be controlled and measured
What do Postmodernists regard science as?
A ‘meta-narrative’ calming to have the monopoly of the truth
- knowledge is socially constructed as relative = there are only ‘truths’
Why are feminists critical of science? (Shouldn’t)
Argue that it is patriarchal upholding male stream values
- quantitative methods are oppressive and cannot capture the reality of women’s experiences
What does Beck argue? (Shouldn’t)
Science hasn’t always led to the progress that positivists believed it would
- ‘risk society’ = witnessed scientifically created dangers
What does McNeil suggest? (Can)
The debate to whether sociology should be a science depends on the definition of science
- if we accept the realist definition then a lot of sociology is in fact scientific
