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What do positivists generally believe about sociology as a science? [2]
They believe it is possible to apply the same logic and methods of the natural sciences to sociology.
In doing so, we’ll obtain a true understanding of society, allowing us to solve social problems.
Why do positivists believe it is possible to study sociology as a science? [3]
Positivists believe reality exists outside and independently of the human mind.
Similarly, nature comprises of objective and observable factors external to our minds.
Society is an objective reality made up of social facts that are independent of us.
What type of reasoning to positivists use?
Inductive reasoning
What is inductive reasoning?
Accumulating data about the world through careful observation and measurement to generate a conclusion.
What is verificationism?
The idea that a theory can be proven true by gathering data.
Which type of explanations explain do positivists favour?
Structural explanations.
Which type of data do positivists prefer?
Quantitative data
Which sociologist attempted to prove that sociology was a science through study suicide?
Durkheim (1897)
How did Durkheim (1897) use his study of suicide to prove sociology was a science? [6]
By showing that personal acts had social causes, he could prove that sociology was a science.
He used quantitative data from official statistics to highlight patterns.
He found that there were higher suicide rates among protestants than Catholics.
He concluded that these patterns had to be a result of social forces acting on people.
He argued that the social facts responsible for this were varying levels of integration.
Durkheim then claimed to have discovered a real law.
What do interpretivists generally believe about sociology as a science? [2]
They believe that sociology cannot and should not mirror the natural sciences.
This is because the subject matter of sociology is meaningful social action, not social facts.
Why do interpretivists not believe sociology can be studied as a science? [2]
They believe that sociology is about unobservable internal meanings, not external causes.
Sociology is not a science because science only deals with cause and effect, not human meaning.
According to interpretivists, what is the difference between sociology and the natural sciences? [2]
Natural sciences studies matters without consciousness and, therefore, no choice about its behaviour.
Sociology studies people who do have consciousness so attach meanings to the world around them → their actions can only be understood in terms of these meanigns.
Who said that humans interpret meaning and then choose how to respond to a stimulus?
Mead (____)
Why does Mead (____) believe we can’t study sociology as a science?
Because humans, rather than responding immediately to external stimuli, we interpret the meaning of a stimulus and then choose how to respond to it.
Who said that we need to favour methods that put the researcher in the shoes of the social actor?
Weber (____)
What did Weber (____) say sociologists should do when researching?
Pick methods that put the researcher in the shoes of the social actor in order to develop verstehen.
What type of data do interpretivists prefer?
Qualitative data
Which type of interpretivism believes that there can be causal explanations for for social phenomena but reject hypothesis testing?
Interactionism
What do interactionists believe about the positivist approach to sociology?
There can be casual explanations for human behaviour, but they reject the creation of hypotheses before beginning research.
Who said that creating a hypothesis before hand leads to the researcher imposing their own views onto the research?
Glaser and Straus (1968)
What did Glauser and Straus (1968) say about hypothesis testing?
Creating a hypothesis before beginning research leads to the researcher imposing their own views onto the research.
What do phenomenologists and ethnomethodologists believe about the positivist approach to sociology? [4]
They completely reject their casual explanations for human behaviour.
They take a radically anti-structuralist view as they believe that society is not a real thing that determines our behaviour.
They believe social reality isn’t real, just shared meanings or knowledge among people.
This means that society isn’t an external force, but something that exists in people’s consciousness.
What type of interactionism completely rejects the positivist approach to sociology?
Phenomenologists and ethnomethodologists.
Who criticises Durkheim (1897) and his study of suicide, saying that social factors don’t determine human behaviour?
Douglas (1967)
How did Douglas (1967) criticise Durkheim’s study of suicide? [4]
As an interactionist, he rejects his belief that social factors determine humans as we have free will.
To understand suicide we have to uncover the meanings of those involved, rather than imposing our meanings.
He believes that official statistics are a social construct formed as a result of the way coroners label certain deaths.
Douglas favoured the use of qualitative data to better understand the actors meanings → a better understanding of the rate of suicide.
Who criticises both Douglas (1967) and Durkheim (1897) by saying we will never know the true rate of suicide as we can never understand the meanings of social actors?
Atkinson (1978)
How did Atkinson (1978) criticise both Durkheim’s (1897) and Douglas’ (1967) takes on suicide? [4]
He rejects the idea that we will never know the true rate of suicide as we can never truly understand the meanings those people held.
The only thing we can study is the way living people make sense of their deaths.
Ethnomethodologists believe that people have a group of taken-for-granted assumptions that they use to make sense of situations.
The job of sociologists is to uncover what this shared knowledge is and how coroners use it to come to the verdict of suicide.
Do postmodernists believe sociology is a science and why (not)? [3]
Postmodernists do not believe sociology is a science/
Science is another meta-narrative that doesn’t have a view of the world that is any more valid than other theories.
Therefore, there is no reason why sociology should mimic the natural scienes.
Why do postmodernists believe sociology should not mimic the sciences? [5]
Postmodernists believe that there is not an absolute truth in our society.
Taking a scientific approach runs the risk of claiming a monopoly on the truth.
This leads to the exclusion of other perspectives.
Science has not always made progress for the better → the emergence of our risk society.
Science hasn’t always benefited society, but the role of sociology is to do just that.
Why do postructuralist feminists believe sociology shouldn’t mimic science? [2]
A single form of feminism would exclude the experiences of many women.
Some also believe that quantitative methods also fail to capture women’s experiences.
Which theory believes that sociology taking the form of science wouldn’t accurately capture the experiences of many women?
Poststructuralist feminists
Who rejects the idea that sociology is a science because it relies on inductive reasoning and verificationism?
Popper (1965)
Why does Popper (1965) reject the idea that sociology is a science? [2]
Sociology relies on verificationism and inductive reasoning.
This results in the fallacy of induction.
What analogy does Popper (1965) use to explain the fallacy of induction? [5]
The analogy of swans.
After observing a large number of swans, one may generalise that “all swans are white”.
It would be easy to verify this statement by observing more swans.
However, we can’t prove this theory by finding more white swans as a single black swan would disprove it.
This means that we cannot prove a theory by finding more evidence to support it.
What form of collecting data is unique to science, according to Popper (1965)?
Falsificationism and deductive reasoning.
According to Popper, what are the two features of a good theory? [2]
A principle that can be falsified but stands up to all attempts to disprove it.
A theory that is bold and can make big generalisations.
Who said that “all knowledge is provisional, temporary, capable of refutation at any moment”?
Popper (1965)
What did Popper (1965) say about knowledge? [3]
That “all knowledge is provisional, temporary, capable of refutation at any moment.”
This means that there can never be absolute proof that any knowledge is true.
A good theory =/= a true theory.
Why does science grow so rapidly according to Popprt (1965)? [3]
It is an open system that welcomes criticism, allowing it to be falsified.
Popper argues that science thrives in liberal societies.
Whereas closed systems stifle the growth of science.
What is an example of when science couldn’t progress because of the closed society it existed in?
Galileo was punished as a heretic by the church for claiming that the Earth revolved around the Sun, when it was believed otherwise.
What is a closed society?
A society dominated by one belief system that claims to have the absolute truth - e.g. religion, Marxism, Nazism.
When can sociology be scientific, according to Popper? [3]
Sociology can be scientific as it is capable of creating falsifiable hypotheses.
E.g. Ford (1969): hypothesised that comprehensive schooling wouldn’t produce more social integration.
She was then able to test this hypothesis.
Why does Popper (1965) not see all untestable ideas as worthless? [2]
They may become testable at a later date.
They can still be examined for clarity and logical consistency.
What is a paradigm?
A basic framework of assumptions, principles, methods and techniques shared by members of a given scientific community that defines their science.
Who suggests that sociology is not a science because there isn’t a shared paradigm?
Kuhn (1970)
Outline how science grows according to Kuhn (1970)? [7]
Paradigms create set of norms and values for scientists that they do not question.
Scientists who conform to the paradigm are rewarded, and those who don’t are sanctioned.
Most of the time, paradigms are unquestioned and scientists engage in normal science - problem-solving and filling in the gaps.
Anomali→ decline in confidence in the paradigm.
This leads to a period of crisis.
This causes the formation of rival paradigms → a scientific revolution.
When one paradigm is accepted over another, it becomes part of normal science and everything continues as normal.
How do Kuhn’s (1970) and Poper’s (1965) views on science contradict each other? [3]
Watkins (1970): whilst Popper believes falsification is what makes science unique, Kuhn believes that puzzle solving within a paradigm is what distinguishes science.
Popper believes scientists are open, critical and constantly seeking to falsify existing theories.
Kuhn believes scientists are conformists who don’t question the core ideas of their paradigm.
According to Kuhn is sociology a science and why (not)? [3]
Sociology is not a science as there isn’t a single paradigm yet.
There is no agreement on fundamentals such as what to study or how to study it.
Sociology can only become a science once these disagreements are resolved.
What do realists focus on in terms of sociology and science?
They place an emphasis on the similarities between sociology and parts of natural science.
What is a closed system (according to realists)?
Where the researcher can control and measure all the relevant variables, allowing them to make precise predictions.
What is an open system (according to realists)?
Where the researcher cannot control and measure all the relevant variables so that they cannot make precise predictions.
What type of system is sociology studied in? [2]
Sociology is studied in an open system.
This means that the processes are too complex to make exact predictions.
What did Keat and Urry (1982) say about sociology and science? [5]
As realists, they reject the idea that science only measures observable phenomena.
This is because science often assumes the existence of unobservable structures.
This makes interpretivists wrong for assuming sociology can’t be scientific.
This is because both sociology and science try to explain unobservable, underlying structures through examining their effects.
This makes sociology scientific.
What is the early positivists’ opinion on values in sociological research? [4]
Comte and Durkheim believed that improving society was the aim of sociology.
This should be done regardless of the sociologist’s personal opinions.
They take the Enlightenment view, seeing sociology as the science of the people.
By being value-free, sociology can uncover the truth about how society works.
Who said that value judgements and facts can’t be derived from one another?
Weber
What did Weber say about value judgements and facts? [3]
He makes a clear distinction between the two.
Value judgements and facts can’t be drawn from one another.
E.g. the fact that divorcees are more likely to commit suicide, does not mean that divorce should be harder to obtain.
What are the stages of sociological research Weber identifies? [4]
Deciding on a topic
Data collection and hypothesis testing.
Interpretation of the data.
Deciding what to do with your findings.
According to Weber, which stages should be influenced by your values? [3]
When selecting what to research.
When interpreting the data.
When deciding what to do with your research.
Why does Weber believe your values should be a guide to your research? [2]
There is a “meaningless infinity” of facts.
Therefore, researchers have to select a few things to study based on their interests.
Why does Weber believe our values should influence our interpretation of data? [3]
The facts collected needed to be put into a theoretical framework.
This helps understand their significance.
Sociologists should be explicit about their values so that others can identify any bias.
What does Weber say about the sociologists being a citizen? [2]
Sociologists should not ignore how their research is being used.
They should challenge the moral and political issues being raised by their research.
What is committed sociology?
When the sociologists spells out the importance of their values to the research.
Why do modern positivists believe that their values are irrelevant to their research? [2]
They desire to appear scientific.
The social position of society.
Why does the desire to be scientific → sociology being value free? [3]
Science is concerned with facts rather than values.
So sociologists should remain neutral and objective.
This makes sociology a more respected field of study.
How does the social position of sociology make the sociologist’s values irrelvant? [4]
Sociology is no longer a discipline that challenges the status quo.
Sociologists just examine the problems their paid to research, rather than finding problems to study.
This means that sociologists are making a “gentleman’s promise” to not stir up trouble, discarding their own values in the process.
Gouldner (1975): this has turned sociologists into spiritless technicians.
What did Gouldner (1975) say about sociologists in modern America?
They have become spiritless technicians just obeying the requests of their paymasters.
Who said that sociologists had become spiritless technicians?
Gouldner (1975)
Who argues that sociologists should openly take the side of a specific group?
Myrdal (1969)
What did Myrdal (1969) say about values?
They argued that sociologists should openly take sides and espouse their values and interests of a specific group.
How does Gouldner see value-free sociology? [2]
Impossible because the values are bound to be reflected in the work regardless.
Undesirable since without values to guide research, sociologists just sell their services to the highest bidder.
What does Becker (1970) say about committed sociology? [4]
He argues that values always exist in sociology.
By not picking a side, we are actually taking the side of the more powerful.
He believes that sociologists should support the side of the “underdogs” in society.
This is because their experiences are more hidden.
Who said that sociologists should take the side of the underdogs in society?
Becker (1970)
How does Gouldner (1975) criticise Becker (1970)? [4]
He criticises Becker for romanticising his approach to disadvantaged groups.
Becker is only concerned with those who are “on their backs”.
Instead, he takes the Marxist view that would should take their side by trying to change society.
Sociology should do more than define their experiences but work to end it.
How does funding and careers influence values? [5]
Sociological research tends to be funded by someone else → the research reflects the values of the paymasters.
The paymasters may block the research being published if their disagree with the findings.
Sociologists may pick a topic that’s in fashion.
They may censor themselves to not be too outspoken.
Sociologists at a university may feel pressured to publish their findings, regardless of its quality.
How do perspectives influence what sociologists research? [5]
Different perspectives already embody different assumptions and values.
This influences what and how they research.
It can also influence the conclusions they reach.
Interactionists prefer qualititative methods as it helps them understand the underdogs better.
Positivsts and functionalists trust the establishment so they accept official statistics.
What do relativists and postmodernists say about values in sociology? [5]
If all perspectives involve values, there is no way of deciding which version is true.
Different groups have different views as to what is true.
There is no way of finding an absolute truth.
Postmodernists reject that there are any privileged accounts with special access to truth.
Any perspective that claims so is just a meta-narrative.
How can we criticise postmodernists take on values in sociology? [2]
Their claim that all theories that claim to have the truth are just meta-narratives.
This would mean that postmodernism is also a meta-narrative that we can’t claim is true, making it paradoxical.
What are the characteristics of functionalism? [3]
A structural consensus theory.
Social institutions shape the behavior of individuals by passing on shared norms and values.
This makes society harmonious by creating a value consensus.
What analogy do functionalists use to describe society?
The organic analogy
What is the organic analogy?
The idea that society functions like a biological organism.
Who identified the three similarities between society and a biological organism?
Parsons (1970)
What three similarities between society and a biological organ did Parsons (1970) identify?
System
System needs
Functions
According to Parsons (1970), what is the system?
Both organisms and society are self-regulating systems comported of different parts that are connected.
According to Parsons, what are the system’s needs?
Both organs and institutions have needs that, if are not met, will not function.
According to Parsons, what are functions?
The function of different institutions and organs is to ensure that the system’s needs are met.
According to Parsons (1970), what is the aim of sociology?
To answer the question “how is social order possible?”
According to Parsons (1970), how does social order occur? [4]
Through a shared culture or central value system.
This creates a framework that allows individuals to cooperate.
Social order only occurs when people agree on these norms and values.
This agreement is called value consensus.
What is a culture?
A set of norms, values, beliefs and goals shared by members of a society.
How does a value consensus ensure social order?
Value consensus integrates individuals into the social system by directing them towards meeting the system’s needs.
According to Parsons (1970), what are the two mechanisms that ensure people conform to society’s norms?
Socialisation and Social control.
What is socialisation?
When individuals learn to want to do what is required for the system’s needs to be met.
What helps the socialisation process?
Agencies of socialisation
What is social control?
When positive sanctions are given for conformity whilst individuals are punished for deviance.
How does the “building block” approach describe Parson’s (1970) model of society?
Individual actions > Norms > Status-roles > Institutions > Sub-systems > Social systems
Describe Parson’s (1970) model of society? [6]
The actions of individuals are governed by norms.
These norms come in clusters known as status-roles.
Statuses are positions that exist in specific social systems. Roles are the set of norms that tells us how people who hold a particular status should behave.
Status-roles also come in clusters known as institutions.
Institutions that are related to one another are known as sub-systems.
These sub-systems come together to make up the social system as a whole.
What are the four basic needs of the system according to Parsons (1970)?
Adaptation
Goal attainment
Integration
Latency
What is adaptation according to Parsons (1970)?
When the social system meets its members material needs through the economic sub-system.
What is goal attainment according to Parsons (1970)?
The setting of goals in society and the provision of the resources needed to achieve these goals. This is the role of the political sub-system.
What is latency according to Parsons (1970)?
The processes that maintain society over time.
What are the two latent functions?
Pattern maintenance
Tension management
