Unit 2

Question 1

What is quantitative data?

Answer 1

Numerical data that can be collected and interpreted on a large scale.

Question 2

What is qualitative data?

Answer 2

Non-numerical data such as words, opinions and images. Smaller in scale, it cn be analysed to reveal people’s motivations.

Question 3

What is ethics in social research?

Answer 3

Strict moral codes and guidelines to ensure research is conducted responsibly, with integrity and without causing harm to participants or the wider community.

Question 4

What are some examples of safeguards?

Answer 4

Informed consent, integrity, protection from harm, right to withdraw, confidentiality and anonymity , privacy and extra care when researching vulnerable groups.

Question 5

What is positivism?

Answer 5

Positivism is the view that society and human behaviour can be studies scientifically. Looks to provide solutions to social issues through using scientific research methods to find patterns in behaviour. Believes that human nature is predictable.

Question 6

Explain the positivist belief that human behaviour is predictable.

Answer 6

Behaviour can be directly observed - therefore it can be recorded and analysed. Social structure shapes an individual’s behaviour - issues such as poverty or isolation will lead to people acting in a certain way. If we can predict behaviour, we can provide solutions or prevent behaviour from occurring.

Question 7

Are positivists concerned with macro sociology or micro sociology?

Answer 7

Macro sociology.

Question 8

What is a macro approach?

Answer 8

A wider approach, looking at society as a whole.

Question 9

What is a micro approach?

Answer 9

Looking at small groups of people.

Question 10

How do positivists conduct research?

Answer 10

Usually using large-scale research methods. They prefer quantitative data and like methods that are high in reliability.

Question 11

What is reliability?

Answer 11

How easily replicable your research is.

Question 12

What are some methods commonly used by positivists in research?

Answer 12

Questionnaires (particularly with close questions), structured interviews, official and non-official statistics, structured observations, experiments (both lab and field), and content analysis (a way of converting qualitative data to quantitative).

Question 13

What is functionalism?

Answer 13

Functionalism is a view of society that is concerned with understanding social order and social organisation. It is based on the view that society can only exist if people share values and culture; this is called a consensus view of society. People and social institutions such as the family, education and politics all contribute to the smooth running of society because values are shared.

Question 14

What aspects do functionalists look into?

Answer 14

Family and socialisation, education and transmission of culture, legal and political systems and social control, economic systems maintaining the whole of society.

Question 15

Issues with functionalism.

Answer 15

• Suggests we already live in the best possible world.
• Does not explain why and how societies change.
• It overlooks the effects of major social inequalities. It tends to view individuals as being governed by social rules and overlooks the extent to which people choose how they act and think.
• Despite it claiming to be scientific, there is not much research evidence to support functionalism.

Question 16

Marxists critique of functionalism.

Answer 16

They think it supports capitalism and overlooks alternative ways of organising society.

Question 17

Strengths of functionalism.

Answer 17

• Suggests how people are socialised into the values of their culture.
• It is apparent that people do appear to share values and idea much of the time.
• It provides a starting point for other theories to develop from.
• It explores the roles of important social institutions.

Question 18

Recognising functional thinking.

Answer 18

• Functionalist writers tend to talk in terms of values, organisations, and institutions.
• Look at society as a whole, not individuals.

Question 19

Emile Durkheim (1858-1917)

Answer 19

Best known for creating the earliest rules for studying society in a scientific fashion, by looking at government statistics. His main interest was exploring the ways that society held itself together and what joined people together. He identified religion in traditional societies and education in modern societies. He was a functionalist.