theoretical issues Flashcards
(25 cards)
feminist standpoint theory
dorothy smith
until recently sociological research has been malestream (all about men)
she argued for women to study womens issues –> greater research has been done in policy, womens work and employment, representation and families and households
more valid as women are able to to identify the right questions to ask and can draw on their own experience
feminists are critical of positivism
Oakley
critical because:
-excludes women and issues concerning women
-findings from research on men tends to be generalised to women
-methods are “malestream” - involve unequal power structures- researcher takes control - continues the patriarchy
-the approaches contradict the aims of feminist research which encourages women to open up
-need to understand experiences and womens feelings
feminists prefer interpretivism because
-verstehen provides more valid, in depth accounts of womens lives
-the methods allow feminist theory to emerge from the research itself (inductive approach) rather than being imposed by the theoretical framework of the researcher
evaluations of feminist standpoint:
-these research methods preferences are indicative of wider gender dichotomy- males= factual women =expressive
-some positivist research may be useful- large scale surveys and official statistics allow sociologists to understand the extent and scale of problems
evaluations of feminist standpoint: feminist issues may need a range of research methods
Westmarland
different feminist issues may need a range of research methods and therefore mixed methods approaches can be used to gain an in depth knowledge of womens issues
evaluations of feminist standpoint: less about the method more about what it’s used for
Kelly Et Al
“what makes feminist research feminist is less the method used and more how it is used and what it is used for” - a clear commitment to improving the lives of women
methods affected practically
-time and money
-personal skills and characteristics of the researcher
-who is paying for the research
-whether the area is easy to investigate
-pressures to publish books and articles and publishers deadlines
-ease of acces to the chosen group
-what is already known about the research area and the availability of secondary data and other primary research
methods affected ethically
-whether the research is ethical or not
methods affected theoretically
-positivist or interpetivist
-desire for promotion and career success
-personal skills and characteristics
-values of the researcher- whether the subject is seen as interesting and important or not
-the desire for the researcher to succeed in proving the hypothesis correct
-the usefulness of the research
-whether the research area is one of current interest or lucrative for financial backers
-whose paying
debate:is sociology a science?
it is
positivism- Durkheim, Popper
realism-Sayer, Bhaskar
debate:is sociology a science?
it’s not
interpretivism-Weber
social constructionism- Kuhn, Feyerabend
postmodernism-Lyotatard
debate:is sociology a science?
social facts
Durkheim
It IS a science
Positivist
the truth is out there- consistent, knowable, communicable
these facts are objective so should be studied using quantitative scientific methods
debate:is sociology a science?
falsification
Popper
it IS a science
Positivist
falsification using deductive reasoning- uncovering truths using the senses and empirical evidence
a hypothesis can never be proved 100% but it can be falsified
eg Swans
useful for cause and effect- patterns and trends
evaluations of debate:is sociology a science?- positivists
-no research methods can be truly objective, bias will inevitably shape the research
-it’s good at showing correlations but lacks the depth to find out why these patterns exist
-hawthorne effect- lacks validity
-empirical observation- not all social phenomena are observable and quantifiable such as meanings and motives and feelings
debate:is sociology a science?
verstehen
Weber
interpretivist
NOT a science
sociologists should work using verstehen-seeing the world as others see it
rich valid data
meanings are not social facts but social constructions which do not exist independently of people definitions
knowledge is therefore created by research- knowledge is developed and induced by the researcher itself (inductive approach)
evaluations of debate:is sociology a science? interpretivist
-more valid than positivist but still subject to bias dues to subjective nature of interpreting qualitative data
-methods tend to be smaller scale with small sample sizes –>less reliable and less representative
-bias may be created from the participants affecting the validity- people may not tell the truht may interpret the question wrong etc
debate:is sociology a science?
realism
it IS a science because it uses scientific methods
debate:is sociology a science?
closed and open systems
Sayer
Realist
there are two types of science: closed systems(variables always controlled), open systems (variables not always controlled)
sociology is and open system because society is too complex a system to lend itself to accurate predictions and experiments
debate:is sociology a science?
observing effects
Bhaskar
realist
believe that science is about observing effects.
events in both the social and natural worlds can be caused by underlying structures and processes which cannot be directly observed but we can recognise their effects
positivists focus on the observable and interpretivists on the unobservable but both are enganged in doing science as much as a natural scientist
evaluation of realism
it is a nice compromise between positivism and interpretivism
it is a science regardless of which methods it uses as it’s still observing effects like a science does
debate:is sociology a science?
social constructionism
not even science is scientific
debate:is sociology a science?
paradigms
Khun
science itself is a social construct
in scientific study scientists work within paradigms(an accepted body of knowledge)
these influence how they conduct research
these paradigms shift once newer ideas come along
big leaps of scientific progress come about when evidence which does not fit the paradigm builds up to the point where it cannot be ignored
then scientists come up with a new paradigm and a scientific revolution occurs(research begins to be done and theories are constructed using the new framework)
debate:is sociology a science?
lack of value freedom
Feyerabend
Social constructionist
argue that scientists cheat and that the scientific research process is much more haphazard and unsystematic than science would lead us to believe
lack of scrutiny: there is little prestige or career focus to be gained by repeating other scientists research for reliability and so scientific research is not really scrutinised as carefully as it should be
lack of value freedom: the values,beliefs and careers aspirations of researchers will influence whether they think issues are worth studying or not. Scientists struggle to get funding- determines what is researched. Pressure to publish may mean that data is misrepresented or that checks for reliability are not carried out
debate:is sociology a science?
no such thing as science
Postmodernism
