Positivism Flashcards

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1
Q

What do positivists like?

A

Methods that are detached and scientific

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2
Q

What do positivists believe?

A

Believe that sociology should be studied like a science.

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3
Q

What do positivists like to use?

A

Statistics, generalisations and hypothesis.

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4
Q

Which methods do positivists prefer?

A

Quantitative methods.

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5
Q

Why do positivists think researchers should be detached?

A

Do they don’t influence results.

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6
Q

What are generalisations?

A

When you draw conclusions and create laws about human behaviour from research that applies to large groups of society.

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7
Q

What is reliability?

A

Research that can be repeated

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8
Q

What is representativeness?

A

If the research reflects characteristics of wider target population which is being studied.

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9
Q

What are some studies positivists conduct?

A

Experiments, comparative methods, social surveys, structured questionnaires, structured interviews and non-participant investigation.

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10
Q

What is a macro approach?

A

Focusing on society as a whole

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11
Q

What are the pros of closed questionaires?

A

Ethically good- anonymous
Consensual
Can be done in own time
Less pressure

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12
Q

What are the cons of closed questionnaires?

A

Not everyone may respond
May feel uncomfortable
People may lie to produce socially desirable answers
May misunderstand
May just tick anything

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13
Q

What is the imposition problem?

A

The researcher has decided questions not letting answers say what they feel.

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14
Q

What happened during the video nasties research?

A

They asked primary school children which horror movies they’d seen and they ticked all boxes. So they showed them a list of fake horror movies and they still ticked all movies.

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15
Q

What are some advantages of questionnaires?

A

They are detached so don’t impact answers.
They are reliable as they can be repeated.
They are representative as they can collect data from lots of people.
They can test a hypothesis.

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