theory and methods Flashcards
What are the key features of positivism?
- developed by COMTE who believes that society can be explained with principles based on objectivity, reliability and generalisability obtained from quantitative data.
- The main task of sociology is to discover laws of social development through:
- laws of co-existence: looking at the relationship between parts of society
- laws of succession: laws that govern social change
- It is possible and desirable to apply the logic and methods of the natural sciences to the study of society
- reality exists outside of the human mind
What is inductive reasoning?
Induction involves accumulating data about the world through careful observation and measurement.
What is verificationism?
The process of confirming a theory through multiple observations.
What are the positivist ideas regarding objective quantitative research?
- Positivists use quantitative data to measure patterns of behaviour and discover laws of cause and effect.
- They believe sociologists should remain objective and not let their subjective ideas influence the research. They prefer methods which emphasise detachment to collect reliable data.
Explain Durkheim’s study of suicide.
- He studied suicide to try to prove that sociology is a science.
- He used official statistics and found patterns in the suicide rate eg rates for Protestants were higher than for Catholics.
- He concluded that the patterns were social facts and claimed to have discovered a ‘real law’; that different levels of integration and regulation cause different rates of suicide.
What is the subject matter of sociology according to interpretivists?
They say that the subject matter of sociology is meaningful social action. We can only understand it by interpreting the meanings of social actors. Therefore sociology isn’t a science because it only deals with cause and effect and not human meanings.
Explain the interpretivist ideas about verstehen.
Rather than focusing on detachment and objectivity, we need to focus on the meanings people give to their actions by focusing on the world from their viewpoint. This is what WEBER calls verstehen ie empathetic understanding to grasp meaning.
What are the two types of interpretivism?
- Interactionists
We can have causal explanations but they reject the positivist view about having hypotheses. GLASER AND STRAUSS say this is because it risks researchers imposing their own viewpoints rather than taking the actors’ viewpoint. They take a bottom-up approach/grounded theory which means our ideas emerge as we do more observations rather than starting with a fixed hypothesis. These ideas can then form a hypothesis. - Phenomenologists and ethnomethodologists
eg GARFINKEL reject the possibility of causal explanations of human behaviour. They take a radically anti-structuralist view arguing that society isn’t a real thing out there determining our actions.
Explain Douglas’ views about suicide.
- He rejects the positivist views about external social facts determining our behaviour.
- To understand suicide we need to uncover the meanings for those involved.
- Rejects Durkheim’s use of official statistics because they are social constructions. He says we should use qualitative data like case studies to investigate suicide.
What are the ideas about postmodernism, feminism and scientific sociology?
- postmodernists reject the idea of scientific sociology because they regard natural science as a meta-narrative.
- a scientific approach is dangerous because it claims a monopoly of the truth and excludes other points of view like a domination.
- poststructuralist feminists argue that the quest for a single, scientific feminist theory is a form of domination because it excludes other women.
- ## science is an undesirable model for sociology to follow because it hasn’t always led to progress and has sometimes has negative impacts.
What did Popper say about the fallacy of induction?
We can never prove a theory is true simply by producing more observations that verify it. For example, after observing many swans we may conclude that they are all white. However we can’t prove this, for example one observation of a black swan will disprove this theory.
What is falsificationism?
The process of proving a theory wrong. Popper says a good theory is one which is falsifiable and makes big generalisations. For a theory to be falsifiable it must be open to criticism from other scientists.
What is the difference between open and closed societies?
Open societies believe in free expression and the right to challenge accepted ideas. Closed societies are dominated by an official belief system which claims to have the absolute truth. They stifle the growth of science.
Does Popper think sociology is scientific or unscientific?
He says it is both
- unscientific because it consists of theories that can’t be put to the test with the possibility that they might be falsified.
- can be scientific because it is capable of producing hypotheses that can be falsified.
What are Kuhn’s ideas regarding paradigms, normal science and scientific revolutions?
- a paradigm is shared by members of a scientific community which defines what their science is. Science can’t exist without it.
- while the paradigm goes unquestioned, scientists can engage in normal science where they do puzzle solving by finding the solutions to the questions asked by the paradigm.
- but if the puzzle solving isn’t successful then confidence in the paradigm declines and scientists form rival paradigms which mark the start of a scientific revolution. Eventually one paradigm wins and gets accepted by the scientific community, which resumes normal science but with a new set of assumptions.
