The Scientific Status Of Sociology Flashcards
(33 cards)
What does a sociological theory do?
A theory tries to explain something
Sociological theories try to make generalisations about social life, attempt to explain patterns in the world around us
They should be capable of testing so others can discover weaknesses and build upon strengths
What is the enlightenment project?
PIVOTAL POINT: an intellectual movement also known as the age of reason, beginning in Europe and spreading to america
Illuminated human reason and culture after the dark Middle Ages
Science and reason over faith and superstition
What were the two key features of the enlightenment project?
- The power of human reason: would enable understanding of the world by providing knowledge and evidence (faith in people rather than god)
- Human progress: knowledge gained through reason and science would enable creation of a better world, progression ( natural science cure disease/ social science tackle poverty and crime)
When did sociology emerge?
19th century rapidly developing modern industrial societies of Europe
Followed enlightenment project to develop theories in order to improve society, first inspired by scientists
Multiple modernist theories of what kind of society is desirable and how to achieve it
Why was science influential on early sociology?
It was central to the enlightenment project as it could explain and control nature
E.g. Comte, Durkheim, Marx, desire to copy its success by producing a science of society
Borrow methods of natural sciences
LED TO FUNDAMENTAL DEBATE AS TO WETHER SOCIOLOGY IS A SCIENCE
What is methodology?
E.g. positivism, interpretivism
Refers to research methods through information is collected and general philosophies of data collection and analysis
What is the major methodological disagreement in sociology?
Whether sociology should adopt the same or similar methods to those of natural sciences
Origins within distinct historical, intellectual and social context
So this was in response to the enlightenment project and impacted the subject development
What is the Context behind the emergence of sociology?
Emerged second half of 19th century due to enlightenment project (revolution of ideas/rationality) and industrialisation ( agricultural to industrial, towns and cities built around industry, rural became urban)
At the time natural sciences made great progress in knowledge ( EMPIRICAL AND OBJECTIVE to solve and understand issues)
Science as methodology to progress an understanding of society, application to produce similar advances
What are the three things early sociologists were influenced by?
- Changes in the patterns of life they saw around them
- Major advances with science and tech
- New systems of knowledge to understand society and individuals
What do positivists believe?
POSSIBLE AND DESIRABLE TO APPLY THE LOGIC, METHODS AND PROCEDURES OF THE NATURAL SCIENCES TO THE STUDY OF SOCIETY
This would bring objective knowledge ( fact based)
- reality exists outside of the human mind:
Nature made of objective observable facts e.g. atoms and plants
Society similarly factual and objective (social facts) existing independently and influencing human behaviour
How do positivists see society as top down/ patterned?
They rely on external empirical stimuli for explanations
Believe the social world has the same laws of cause and effect like the natural world, sociological job to discover the laws that determine how society works
All patterns can be explained in the same way ( finding the fact causing them)
Laws used to generalise and predict future events
Why do positivists favour macro/ structural explanations of social phenomena?
See society and its structures as social facts which exist outside of us and share our behaviour
Use quantitative date and scientific methods to conduct research to uncover patterns, rigorous hypothesis testing in a controlled way
Should remain detached and objective for the most reliable data
What is inductive methodology?
Evidence is collected and theories are induced from it (ANALYSE THEORIES FOR DATA TO EMERGE)
Positivists use the inductive approach
If a theory is repeatedly tested and confirmed as correct, positivists assume they have discovered a law of human behaviour (COMTE)
-data collection—>analysis—>theories emerge
What is deductive methodology?
An alternative scientific methodology supported by POPPER
Proposed a deductive approach which starts with a theory and tests it against evidence
From a theory one can deduce hypotheses and make precise predictions, a theory can be PROVISIONALLY accepted with possibility of falsification.
Do not have the permanence of the strict positivist approach, cannot ever be sure you have found the truth
How did DURKHEIM try to establish sociology’s status as a science?
Wanted to prove that even a highly individual act has social causes (SUICIDE)
Found this supposedly highly individual act was patterned through analysis of the suicide rate across European countries.
Consistently higher in some countries and within certain social groups—>reflecting social causes as external to the individual (can be observed measured and quantified)
How did data allow DURKHEIM to study suicide?
Quantitative data of official statistics could explain causes and effect
E.g. suicide rates were higher for Protestants than catholics
Concluded patterns due to social facts not the motives of individuals—> concluded the social facts were levels of integration and regulation that were specific to religions, catholics less likely as more integrated into community
-claimed to have discovered a ‘real law’ that these factors produce different rates of suicide
What are the criticisms of DURKHEIMS study of suicide?
-not all suicides recorded/ documented e.g. crime statistics lack validity
-possibly unethical as a very personal subject
-does not take failed attempts into consideration
What are the criticisms of positivism?
(From interpretivists)
-sociology never can nor should try to be a science
-can rarely produce the controlled conditions for study like a science lab
-research findings unverifiable and cannot be precisely replicated
-impossible to quantify like natural phenomena
-humans conscious so may react differently
-human action depends on individual interpretation
-hypotheses testing imposes view of the researcher
What do interpretivists believe?
Sociology is not a science
Study of social phenomena must begin with the subjective states of mind of the social actors—> meanings and motives direct their actions not external causes
Sociology is about internal meanings
-natural sciences study matter which has no consciousness, explained externally
-social actors are conscious, actions understood internally as world constructed through their attached meanings
How do interpretivists see society as bottom up?
Individuals are not puppets on strings but autonomous beings who attach meaning to the social world, rejecting logic of natural science
Validity of research dependent on accurate interpretation of the social actor—> positivists see as an obstacle which distorts social behaviour
VERSTEHEN (Weber) should put ourselves in the place of the social actor, abandon detachment/objectivity
Emphasise qualitative research methods to breakdown barriers between the sociologist and individual—> more humanistic personal and detailed
How does DOUGLAS criticise the positivist view of suicide?
Sociologists must uncover the meaning for those involved instead of imposing external meanings
-critiques durkheims reliance on OS quantitative data which are not objective facts but social constructions of coroners labelling
ATKINSON further rejects Durkheim—> the only things we can study about suicide is the way the living make sense of deaths
Uncover how coroners arrive at a verdict with taken for granted assumptions of a typical suicide
What do realists believe about science?
IT IS BOTH POSSIBLE AND DESIRABLE FOR SOCIOLOGY TO BE SCIENTIFIC, physical and social sciences are similar
SAYER: many sciences operate in open systems where all variables cannot be controlled/measured e.g. meteorology (weather prediction)
-REJECTS poppers view that a scientific theory must make precise predictions
-impossible to make precise predictions as society is a complex open system, but can still explain human behaviour through underlying structures
-rejects positivist view of only studying external
Why would sociologists wish to claim scientific status?
It is a way of proving their research is valid
May influence funding bodies to back them and further their research
CRITIQUE: companies funding it may influence research, make them change approaches to be more quantifiable
How do some sociologists critique science?
-it does not follow a single methodology
-research takes place within context and doesn’t always involve an objective search for the truth
-KAPLAN illustrates that science cannot always be objective knowledge through 1.reconstructed logistics (methods scientists claim to use) 2.logics in use (actual methods used)
-LYNCH: shows how scientists studying rats brains ignored slides which contradicted their theories
