sociology and science

Question 1

Keat and Urry

Answer 1

Realism - both natural and social sciences study the unobservable (atoms vs social norms) making them similar in that the unobservable can be equally studied in both open and closed systems

Question 2

Kuhn

Answer 2

sociology is pre-paradigmatic in that scientists work within one shared paradigm and experience scientific revolution when anomalies shift their paradigm entirely, whereas sociologists are in constant disagreements and critic each other rather than following a shared framework

Question 3

Popper

Answer 3

science works through falsification and the only parts of sociology that are scientific are the parts that can be falsified (i.e., Marxism is not a science because it is unfalsifiable - a revolution hasn’t happened both proves and disproves Marxism because it can just be argued that it hasn’t happened YET and we are still not class-conscious)

Question 4

Poststructuralist feminists

Answer 4

finding a shared scientific feminist theory is impossible because it is a form of domination that doesn’t include all women

Question 5

Postmodernism

Answer 5

Natural science is a meta-narrative - scientific sociology is a form of domination

Question 6

Atkinson

Answer 6

Ethnomethodologist - we’ll never know the real cause of suicide because we don’t truly know the meanings the deceased held

Question 7

Phenomenologists/Ethnomethodologists

Answer 7

we create society through our shared meanings and everyday actions - social reality only exists in our minds as something we control, it doesn’t control us

Question 8

Weber

Answer 8

Interactionist - ‘verstehen’ - we can’t just look at what people do, we have to truly understand the meanings behind their actions by putting ourselves in their shoes

Question 9

Mead

Answer 9

symbolic interactionism - people interact using symbols that have malleable meanings that change over time (i.e., a wedding band is a ring of metal, but connotes love and commitment) we have consciousness and autonomy, the natural world does not

Question 10

Interpretivist methods

Answer 10

interviews, observations, open questions

Question 11

interpretivism

Answer 11

human beings are too complex to be studied as a science, we need to understand people’s feelings not measure numbers and figures

Question 12

Durkheim’s study of suicide

Answer 12

quantitative data used to observe patterns between different religions (catholics and protestants) and suicide rates, (social facts caused by other social facts)

Question 13

Durkheim

Answer 13

functionalism - ‘real laws are discoverable’ - accumulating data through careful measurement will help verify theories about patterns, which can be explained by social facts

Question 14

Positivist methods

Answer 14

experiments (systematic and controlled), quantitative data (precise, studies cause and effect laws)

Question 15

Positivist views

Answer 15

possible to use methods of natural sciences, need to be objective / factual