Topic 3: examining sociology and science

Question 1

what is a key feature of the positivists approach

Answer 1

Reality exists out of the human mind, society is an objective factual reality made up of social facts

Question 2

what do positivists believe in Durkheim’s words

Answer 2

in his words they believe ‘real laws are discoverable’ just like it was discovered that water boils at 100 Celsius. sociologists can discover laws that determine how society works. This is called induction - accumulating data through observation and measurement

Question 3

what is verificationism

Answer 3

from induction we can develop the theory of verificationism. This means the patterns we observe can be explained by finding the cause. eg apple falling = gravity, educational failure= material deprivation
positivists seek to discover causes in order to predict future events and guide social policies. also favour macro explanations as structures shape our behaviour

Question 4

what do positivists argue about quantitative research

Answer 4

• believe that the experimental method should be used as a model of research
• use quantitative data to measure patterns of behaviour and by analysing this data, seek to discover the laws of cause and effect that determine behaviour
• researchers should be detached and objective, may ‘contaminate’ research

Question 5

positivism and suicide

Answer 5

• Durkheim studied suicide to show that sociology was a science with own subject matter.
• wanted to prove that it had social causes and establish sociology as a scientific discipline
• looked at suicide patterns, concluded suicide patterns were social facts
• discovered a law of ‘integration’ and suicide

Question 6

what do interpretivists argue about sociology

Answer 6

• argue that sociology is about unobservable internal meanings, not external causes. sociology is not a science only deals with laws of cause and effect, and not human meanings
• fundamnetal differences about natural science (studies matter with no consciousness) and sociology (studies people who do have consciousness)

Question 7

what does mead argues (interpretivism)

Answer 7

humans do not respond automatically, they choose how to respond to it eg when motorist must interpret the mewing stop, but they must still choose to obey the signal or jump the light
for interpretivists humans are autonomous beings who construct their world through their meanings

Question 8

what do interpretivists argue about verstehen and qualitative research

Answer 8

interpretivists believe we must discover the meanings people give to their actions, we need to see the world from peoples view point. This means abandoning detachment
put our selves in the place of the actor, weber calls this verstehen (empathetic understanding to grasp their meanings)
for this reason favour qualitative methods and rich data

Question 9

what are the types of interpretivism

Answer 9

• interactionists= believe we can have casual explanations but reject the positivists view that we need a hypothesis eg Glaser and strauss favour ‘bottom up’ approach (grounded theory)
• phenomenologist’s= society is not a ‘real thing’ only exists in peoples consciousness. no possibility of cause and effect

Question 10

what do Douglas and atkinson argue about suicide

Answer 10

• Douglas rejects the positions view of external social facts determining our behaviour but argues that individuals have free will. rejects Durkheim’s study of suicide and proposes qualitative research from case studies of suicide
• agrees we will never know the ‘real rate’ of deceased, only thing we can study is how we can classify death

Question 11

what do postmodernists argue

Answer 11

science is dangerous because it has a ‘monopoly’ of truth and excluded other points and excluded other points of view. Science can also lead to a ‘risk society’ eg nuclear weapons

Question 12

what does popper argue about the fallacy of induction

Answer 12

rejects the positivist view that science lies in the induction reasoning/ verificationism
his main reasoning for this is for ‘fallacy (error) of induction’= we cant infer that all swans arwe white by observing them.
never any proof that nay knowledge is true

Question 13

what is falsificationism

Answer 13

popper proposes this instead of verificationism in which has the ability to be proven false.
in his view a good theory is one that with stands attempts to falsify it

Question 14

what does popper argue about science

Answer 14

• science is a ‘public activity’ - open to criticisms and flaws
• science thrives in open and liberal society’s

Question 15

what does popper argue about sociology

Answer 15

• sociology is unscientific because it consists of theories that cannot be falsified
  + it can be scientific because it produces hypotheses that can be falsified
  +untestable ideas are still valuable

Question 16

what does Kuhn argue about paradigms

Answer 16

• shared by members of a given community, provides framework of assumptions, methods, norms etc
• a science cannot exist without a paradigm until sociology has a paradigm, it will just be be rival schools of thought

Question 17

what occur during normal science

Answer 17

in normal science, scientists engage in puzzle solving. this means the paradigm defines the questions and answers. Scientist’s are left to figure this out.
Kuhn sees science as ‘puzzle solving’ whilst popper sees it as falsification

Question 18

how do scientific revolutions come about

Answer 18

sometimes science enters a period of crisis as pieces of the puzzle doesn’t add up. science formulate rival paradigms, eventually one does win and is accepted by the scientific community.
Kuhn compares this to a religious conversion
popper believes that the scientific community is open and original. Kuhn believes that they are conformists

Question 19

what are the implications of sociology: paradigms

Answer 19

• sociology is pre - paradigmatic divided so pre scientific, divided into competing schools of thought
• sociology can only become a science if basic disagreements are resolved eg conflict and consensus
• even within perspectives there are disagreements
• impossible for a unified paradigm

Question 20

how do realist distinguish between open and closed systems (keat and Urry)

Answer 20

c- researcher can control and measure all relevant variables therefore make precise predictions
o- cannot control all variables so cant make predictions
realist argue sociologists study open systems which are too complex to make exact predictions

Question 21

what do realists argue about sociology as a science

Answer 21

• reject interpretivists view as we cannot observe the mind
  + sociology is a science however because we can observe the effects of people. Only difference is neutral science can observe closed systems

Question 22

summary of sociology and science

Answer 22

+ positivists: study of causes: social facts to individuals that cause them to behave the way they do. This approach is the same approach as natural science
- interpretivist’s: sociology study of meaningful social action. Not governed by external factors the same way as science
- popper rejects verificationism in favour of falsification. sociology is unscientific but possible
- kuhn: only a science if sociologists adopt a paradigm
+ realists: scientists also studies unobservable phenomena, on this it may be seen as scientific