Positivists And Interpretivists Flashcards
(24 cards)
What is Foucault’s surveillance theory?
Official statistics are for control; understanding the people allows for control over them.
What do positivists believe about science?
Science can explain the universe, world is full of concrete testable realities
Use quantitative methods to support theories
Scientifically backed theory far more valid than theory with no quality evidence
What is the hypothetico-deductive method?
An approach to research used by positivists that begins with a theory and derives testable hypotheses from it that is either supported or refuted by research results
Based on concept that nothing can be proven 100% true but theories can be proven false
What is proof of falsification?
Used by positivists, refers to testing theories for them to be scientific
Reasoned that if many prove a theory wrong it has an increased likelihood of being correct/true but its never 100% sure
What type of methods do positivists prefer?
Quantitative methods such as social surveys, structured questionnaires, and official statistics for good reliability and representativeness
Quantitative research important for an overview of society and uncovering social trends
How do positivists see society?
Society shapes individuals and believe social facts shape individual actions
Aim to uncover objective laws that govern societies and social behaviours as a whole
Who is considered the founder of positivism?
Auguste Comte: believed social phenomena and questions can be and should be studied like natural sciences
What is the primary means of researching society according to Durkheim?
The comparative method.
Comparing groups and looking for correlations or relationships between 2 or more variables
What did Durkheim’s study show?
His suicide study shown that a very personal act could be explained with social factors as he identified trends within official statistics between different countries, social groups and religious groups.
EG: countries with rapid social change had higher sucide rates
What is the definition of social facts?
Definable social characteristics that exist externally from individual social actors.
What did Durkheim say about social facts?
Social trends are social facts, these facts contrain individuals and help us to make predictions about changes and evolution of society
If sociology limited itself to studying social facts it could be more objective
Why is reliability important in data collection?
Unreliable data leads to useless conclusions as it cannot provide proper insight
What are the three key concerns regarding data reliability?
- Consistency of data collected: likelihood of producing the same result when standardised
- Precision of data collection: how systematic the form of data collection is
- Repeatability of the data collection method: likelihood of same results when repeated by someone else
What are the differing views for reliability?
- Intepretivists: see their research as reliable as its acccurate and precise
- Positivists: value consistency and repeatabiility more for scientific purposes
What is validity in the context of data collection?
The extent to which data collected gives a true measurement of ‘social reality’
Also needs to measure what it claims to be measuring
What are the differing views of validity?
- Interpretivists: validity is getting true, indepth real life experiences and meanings of people
- Positivists: validity is an accurate representation of an objective reality
What is the difference between validity and reliability?
Reliable data may not be valid, can make general statements that may not apply to any one social group
Valid data may not be reliable, cannot be used to make general statements about the world
What is the interpretivist view on positivism?
They are skeptical of positivists’ scientific claims.
What is the focus of interpretivism in sociology?
See the world as a mainly socially constructed place, reality exists because of agreed shared concepts
Focus on understanding social constructs and context
What do interpretivists use to study human interactions?
Qualitative research techniques such as ethnographic methods.
What do social action theoriests say about ‘scientific sociology’?
Criticised as many of statistics it relies on are socially constructed
What is ‘verstehen’ in social action theory?
Empathetic understanding required to comprehend human action.
Seeing the world through the eyes of the actors doing the acting
What is a risk associated with qualitative research methods?
The subjective views of the researcher could interfere with results, reliablity and validity
Can be time consuming and difficult with large samples
Why do interpretivists use qualitative research?
Allow respondents to speak for themselves = valid data
Tend to involve researcher getting more involved with respondents
