Sociology and Science Flashcards
Positivism
● Positivists believe that it is possible to use methods of natural sciences to understand society
● Argue that using scientific methods with yield true and objective knowledge about society
Key features of positivism
● Reality exists outside the human mind e.g nature made up of physical, objective facts external of our minds
● Reality is patterned job of sociologists to verify the patterns in societyPatterns observed in society explained by finding the facts that caused them
● Aim to produce general statements or scientific laws about how society works used to inform social policy
● Macro/structural explanations of social facts are favoured emphasize power of societal structures to shape behaviour e.g functionalism and Marxism
Quantitative data
● quantitative data - uncover and measure patterns of behaviour to be able to test a hypothesis i the most systematic and controlled way
● Allows them to produce mathematically precise statements about relationships between facts
● Detached researchers - not let own subjective feelings influence how conduct research
Durkheim’s study of suicide
● Study suicide to show that sociology was a science with own distinct subject matter
● Using official stats observed patterns in suicide rate in Catholics - product of social facts (integration and regulation)
● Durkheim claimed to have discovered real law- different levels of integration and regulation produce different rates of suicide.
Interpretivism
● Scientific approaches are inadequate on their own for collecting and analysing data
Key features of interpretivism
● Sociologists should be concerned with interpreting meanings and motives of social actions, internal meanings are more important
● Fundamental difference between natural sciences and sociology
● Consciousness - humans construct own world and create meanings that reflect internal ideas
● Free will - doesn’t respond to stimuli but interpret stimuli and choose how to act
● Individuals are not puppets manipulated by social facts
Qualitative research
● Reject logic and methods of natural sciences
● To discover meanings people give to actions, need to see the world from their viewpoint
● Verstehen - Weber states we need empathy the understand meanings given
● Qualitative methods preferred - much richer greater depth and more likely to present true picture of experiences
Types of interpretivism
Interactionists -
● Favour ‘bottom up’ approach -ideas emerge gradually from the observations we make during the course of the research itself
Phenomenonologists and Ethnomethodologists -
● Completely reject interactionists views
● Radically-anti explanations of human behaviour
● Society is not a real thing out there determining their actions
● Social reality is the shared meanings of its members
Postmodernism, feminism and scientific sociology
Postmodernists:
● Regard natural science as a meta-narrative science is one big story with account of world is no more valid than any other
● Many different truths scientific approach dangerous as it claims monopoly of truth
Post structural feminists:
● The questfor a single,scientific feminist theroy is a formof domination since it excluded many groupsof women
● Quantitative research favoured by positivists oppressive towards women
Karl Popper – fallacy of induction and falsificationism
● Illustrated by swans - all swans are white easy to make further observations to verify this as plenty white swans out there but cannot prove that all swans are white as a single observation of a black swan destroys this
● Good theory is:
○ Principle falsifiable but when tested stands up to disprove it
○ Bold claims to explain a great deal big generalisations that predict large number of events
Criticisms
● Theory must be open to criticism by other scientists in order to be falsifiable.
● Science is a public activity with a community that is open to criticism so that flaws of a theory can be exposed
● Science thrives in open/liberal societies free expression and right to challenge ideas
Thomas Kuhn – paradigms
Paradigm: Shared by members of a given scientific community and defines what science is by providing a basic framework of assumptions, methods, principles which scientists can use.
● Set of norms tells scientists how they ought to think and behave
● Accept paradigms as a result of their socialisation - conformity rewarded with publications and career success
Realism, science and sociology
Closed systems:
● When the researcher can control and measure all relevant variables to make precise predictions
● Typical research methods is lab experiments
Open systems:
● When researcher cannot control and measure all variables so predictions are not precise
● Realists - sociologists study open systems where the processes are too complex to make exact predictions
