Sociology as a science

What do positivists aim to find through their research?

law of society which can be used to create policy and predict the future, cause and effect

What methods do positivists aim to use?

experiments and official statistics with maximum objectivity and detachment

Why do positivists believe sociology can be a science?

they are studying social facts which are separate from individuals

Which type of data do positivists prefer?

quantitative

Why do interpetivists believe that sociology cannot be a science?

sociology should study people’s meanings which science does not study, people choose how to act through their own meanings and are not controlled by social facts

What do interpretivists believe is the purpose of sociology?

to find the meanings of peoples actions and how they interpret the world

What do interactionists aim to find?

a causal relationship through a bottom-up approach, creating a hypothesis as they go

What do phenomenologists and ethnomethodologists believe?

there is no causal relationship in human behaviour

What is a science?

systematic study of the structure and behaviour of the natural world through experimentation and observation

Why do postmodernists believe that sociology shouldn’t be a science?

science’s account is no more valid than any others, it excludes any other points of view, scientific sociology excludes groups of people

Why does Popper believe science is based on?

falsification

What is falsification?

the idea that something is scientific because it is capable of being disproved by evidence, with scientists who are open to criticism

What does Popper believe is a good scientific theory?

something that is falsifiable but stands up to attempts to prove it wrong and explains lots

What is a paradigm?

a shared framework held by members of a scientific community

Why does science require paradigms?

creates a set of basic assumptions, principles and methods which leads to a unified science instead of rival schools of thought

What does Kuhn believe about science and its paradigms?

science continues within a paradigm until enough anomalies occur that confidence in that paradigm declines until their is a crisis and new paradigms begin to develop until a new one is accepted

What are the 5 components of science?

empirical testing, testable, theoretical, cumulative, objective

What is inductive reasoning?

logic and structured, quantitative methods which allow us the discover patterns

What is verification?

trying to prove something right

What are the 2 factors which determine suicide according to Durkheim?

social integration and moral regulation

What is social intergration?

integration into social groups and building social cohesion

What is moral regulation?

guidance that a group or societies culture provides individuals through shared values

What is the evaluation of Durkheim’s study?

suicide stats are not reliable or objective because they are based on interpretation of the coroner therefore suicide is not a social fact it is a social construction

Who argues that sociology should be value free?

positivitsts

Why do our values influence sociology according to Weber?

it informs what we study, how we interpret facts will always be clouded by our opinions , sociologists shouldn’t avoid moral or political issues in their research through ‘objectivity’

What does Gouldner say about moral responsibility?

sociology should challenge authority and those who don’t and just carry out research for the highest bidder as ‘spiritless technicians’ this is not taking moral responsibility, sociologists should uncover how the powerful maintain their position

What does Becker say about sociologists responsibilities?

sociologists should take compassionate stance and be on the side of the underdogs in order to allow for their voices to be heard, involves qualitative methods and

What does Mead argue about how science differs from sociology?

in science they study matter with no free will however sociologists study humans who have free will

What analogy does Mead use to describe free will?

at a traffic light a person can choose to run a red light even if they interpret the light as meaning stop