T1 - Sociology as a Science Flashcards
(35 cards)
Summarise Positivism
Seek to discover patterns of behaviour.
Quantitative data.
Close ended questions, structured interviews, and lab experiments.
Functionalists and Marxists are positivists.
Summarise Interpretivism
Seek to understand meanings.
Qualitative data.
Interactionists and Feminists are interpretivists.
Who believes sociology IS a science?
Positivists!
Why is sociology a science?
Positivists believe it is as they believe that sociology should take the experimental methods used in natural sciences as the model for research, as it allows researchers to test hypothesis in a systematic and controlled way.
They are seeking to establish cause and effect relationships.
What is inductive reasoning?
Accumulating data and patterns in research - Functionalists and Marxists (positivists) believe this is the first step that should be taken in the process of research.
What is verificationism?
Verifying the theory when there is enough evidence to prove it - second step that should be taken in research, believed by positivists.
What does putting research through the processes of inductive reasoning and verificationism create?
Creates social facts, like scientific facts, according to LUKES.
What did Comte say about ‘the institution’?
Deemed the institution as a way of approaching studying the social world.
Who believes sociology cannot be a science?
Interpretivists
What theories use interpretivist methods?
Interactionists (like social action theories), and feminists because they believe women cannot be studied like scientific objects.
What does science study?
Things that are unconscious, using methods such as inductive reasoning and verification.
What does Sociology study?
People who do have consciousness. They make sense of and construct the world around them by attaching meanings.
What do we need to do to understand behaviour?
We have to understand the individual meanings attached to people’s consciousness.
What do interpretivists need to do in order to understand the world around us?
Must put ourselves in the position of the social actor (VERSTEHEN).
What research methods need to be used to produce the results of Interpretivist research?
Subjective research methods
Who believes sociology is NOT a science but could be if it changed?
Popper, Kuhn, Realists
What is falsification?
Used in science, and it sets out to disprove ideas and if they cannot be disproved, they are accepted as the best versions of the truth at that time.
This constant exposure to public criticism means that flaws in scientific theories can be readily exposed and better theories developed.
Why can’t sociology be a science according to Popper?
Because it cannot be falsified.
Marxism example of why Soc can’t be a science? (Popper)
They say the working class WILL rise and overthrow capitalism, but if we said “why hasn’t this happened yet”, they would have a get-out clause by arguing that the working class are in a false-class consciousness.
How can sociology be a science according to Popper?
By allowing for theories to be falsified
Why is inductive reasoning a myth?
Because we cannot say something is true or a fact simply because there hasn’t been enough observations for it.
Example - if we had a hypothesis that all swans were white, we might make 100 observations of this and could prove it correct by positivist standards. However, if we saw a black swan, the theory would be disproved.
What does Popper say we must attempt?
Must attempt to falsify instead of verify.
Why does Kuhn disagree with Popper on?
On what makes a science, but agrees that Sociology is not a science yet.
What is a paradigm?
A paradigm provides a framework of assumptions, principles, methods and techniques within which members of the scientific community work.
