Sociology as a science Flashcards
(19 cards)
What is a science?
Pursuit and application of knowledge and understanding of the natural and social world following a systematic methodology based on evidence
What is positivism according to Comte?
Base ideas on true objectivity of knowledge
Concerned with solving problems and achieving progress/end result
Belief society is make up of objects, observable features and a factual reality
What do positivists see sociology as?
Based on objective observation and statistics which search for correlations and laws of the social world.
Can be done without the researchers personal beliefs or values being influenced on the data or research process
Quantitative data
Why do patterns exist in society according to positivism?
Society exerts influence over its members
Shaping their behaviours in various ways
What is inductive reasoning?
Sociologists discover laws of cause and effect that explain social patters
What is verificationism?
When the theory is developed, many more observations must occur to confirm or verify the theory
What level of society do positivists favour?
Macro level of research/structural explanations of society
How can science explain the universe?
Hypo-deductive reasoning and falsification
nothing can be proven to be 100% true but theories and ideas can be proven false
What do interpretivists argue?
Study of human society must go beyond empirical and supposedly objective evidence
Research cannot really establish social facts
Sociology is not a science
Trying to make everything measurable and reliable, they stop it from being real
Why do interpretivists argue sociology isn’t a science?
World is socially constructed
Knowledge itself is whatever we agree it to be
Science is not valid as it removed context and interferes with the subject matter
Use qualitative data
What does Weber argue as an interpretivist?
Sociology is the study of social action and requires verstehen
What does Giddens argue as an interpretivist?
Structuration theory
Influence that structures have on individuals
Whilst understanding meanings in which they attach to them and their choice of accepting or rejecting such an institution
What does Douglas argue as an interpretivist?
Rejects positivist view on suicide
Rejects the use of offical stats on suicide
Coroners views are not objective facts
What does Kuhn argue?
Paradigms - scientific measures
Created which forms the framework in which all future scientific research is conducted
Blueprint in which to hold methods and research against
Usually any information or data from outside the paradigm will be dismissed
What does Popper argue?
Rejects that varificationism is what defines science
The fallacy of induction - we cannot simply produce more observations to verify something
Falsification is what makes something a science
What is realism according to Keat and Urry?
Finding similarities between sociology and some sciences
Sociology uses open systems where processes are too complex to predict
What is an open system?
Researcher cannot control or measure all variables
What is a closed system?
researcher can control and measure variables
What do realists argue?
Reject positivist views and interpretivist views
Concerned with observable phenomena and underlying structures and processes
