Theories Topic 5 : Methodology Flashcards
(41 cards)
Positivists about society
There are social facts independent of the individual which constrain / determine behaviour
= behaviour is a reaction to external forces (institutions)
They believe that social behaviour can be measured / explained OBJECTIVELY
They believe we can and should use the same methods used in natural sciences
Hypothetical-deductive model
(Positivists approach)
An approach to research that begins with a theory and derives testable hypotheses from it
Begins with general assumptions / ideas and works from them to develop more particular statements
The hypotheses are then tested by analysing data and the theory is then either supported or refuted by the results
Positivists and quantitative data + benefits
Positivist research involves macro research on large numbers of people
= associated with structural theories
Quantitative methods:
Official statistics
Experiments
Comparative method
Surveys
Structured questionnaires
Formal / structured interviews
Non-participant observation
Benefits of quantitative data:
Representative - can be generalised to whole of society
Reliable - research can be replicated by other researchers
Objective methods (value free) - no influence on findings
Establishes a cause-and-effect relationship of human behaviour, and predict possible future scenarios
Comte - founder of sociology
Sociology should be treated as a science and should use the same methodology
External forces affect behaviour in society (cause and effect)
Behaviour must be observed in a measurable way - free from bias and value
Durkheim - another founder of sociology
Social facts should be treated in the same way as natural world factors
= they exist EXTERNAL to us and influence us on a daily basis
They can be quantified and measured
Durkheim - study of suicide
Examined suicide rates across Europe - he found rates were constant + certain groups in society were more affected (Protestants, unmarried, married without children)
WHY? - integration
= Durkheim believed that his research PROVED that scientific methodology was appropriate for the study of society because it shows cause and effect relationships
Strengths of positivist approaches
Can establish cause and effect relationships between events
Produce quantitative data which is more objective
Preferred by governments to advise on social policy, as macro scale research allows for generalisations of different groups
Reliability - can be replicated and results are checked
Criticisms of positivist approaches
Interpretivists - suggest their methods don’t produce a valid account of society
They give little opportunity for people to explain what they think and feel
Detachment of the researcher means they don’t develop the empathy needed to understand the meanings people hold
Statistics are social constructs created by the questions positivists created themselves
= EG suicide stats are a just record of coroners’
decision-making in classifying unexplained deaths
Interpretivists, their view on society and qualitative data
Understanding meanings that individuals give to situations - using scientific methodology is inappropriate (society is different from the natural world)
= peoples meanings cannot be measured by quantitative methods
They adopt an inductive approach to form theories (rather than the hypothetico-deductive model)
Inductive approach - begins with a set of observations, seeking patterns in those observations, and then theorising those patterns
Interpretivists + examples of qualitative data
Why do they prefer to use qualitative methods
Personal documents - diaries
Unstructured questionnaires
Unstructured interviews, focus groups / group interviews
Small scale studies
Participant observations
WHY?
Researchers should adopt VERSTEHEN (Weber)
= this is the best way to understand motives behind actions
Qualitative methods give an indepth description of meanings and values of people
The only way to gather a valid understanding of society
Examples of interpretivist research (AO2)
Learning to Labour (Paul Willis)
Hippie marijuana users (Jock Young)
Interpretivism and suicide
Douglas - interactionist approach - interested in meanings behind suicide and the way coroners label deaths as suicide
Suicide stats are a social construct - decision to classify a death as suicide is taken by a coroner and influenced by other social factors - produces bias in decision
Douglas - suicide verdicts are the product of negotiations between those involved (family, police) and factors such as integration influence these negotiations
Also rejects durkheim’s aim to categorise suicides in terms of their social causes - instead we must classify the death according to its actual meaning for the deceased (through qualitative methods)
Strengths of interpretivist approach
Higher validity - they uncover meanings and motivations behind peoples actions
Produce qualitative data which reveals hidden meanings
Gains an insight into hard-to-reach groups
Criticisms of interpretivist approach
Positivists - interpretivist methods lack reliability and are of subjective nature
Positivists - interpretivist research depends on the researcher’s own interpretations of the meanings / answers people have
Close involvement of the researcher - findings are invalid because of interviewer bias (lacks objectivity)
Hawthorne effect may change participant behaviour
Small scale nature of methods means it’s unrepresentative
Feminist methodology : male stream research examples
Female police officers wear stab vests that are designed for the male body
11% of participants in studies to find a cure for HIV are female
How do feminists criticise positivist research?
Excludes women / issues of concern for women:
Mies - positivist research produces a male view of life and ignores experiences of women (EG when examining work, unpaid domestic work is ignored)
Treats women as extensions of men:
The findings from research on men are generalised to women, despite the differences and inequalities women face
Uses male stream methods to research experiences of women:
EG structured interviews - detachment is an aspect of power relationships which are a feature of male stream sociology
Oakley - women cannot open up
Why are feminists more aligned with interpretivist methods when researching the lives of women?
Verstehen is needed to explore women’s lives
Unstructured, informal interviews - provides valid, in-depth accounts of women’s lives
Encourages them to open up (as the researcher isn’t dominating)
Feminist methodology - Anne Oakley AO2
Studied first time motherhood and the experience of being a mother
Used unstructured interviews - equal relationship
Oakley shared her own experiences of motherhood to relate to the participants
= this helped them feel at ease, which drew out their feelings
Produced valid and detailed data about their lives
Mies - feminist methodology must have what 7 things
Conscious partiality - researchers should positively identify with women they study
View from below - researcher must understand the women, not be above them
Action research - researcher should be active in women’s struggle
Changing status quo - challenging patriarchy, getting involved
Raising consciousness
Individual and social history
Collectivising experience - women must work together
Postmodernist methodology
Sociological research is a social construct
Society - fluid, no single reality - world is ambiguous, no subcultures, no social roles
= cannot create order when none exists
Objectivity is a myth
Relativism - everything is in relation to time, space and culture
= there is no absolute truth - we see things through our own lens
Defamiliarisation - we should see the social world as fragmented, fluid and irrational
No one person is right
Who says sociology SHOULD be value free
Comte and Durkheim
Objectivity is key - more valid
These facts can then influence social policy
Sociology CAN be value-free
Positivists
Society is made up of social facts that exist independently to us and can be separated from the values of the researcher
They can be studied in the same objective way as natural sciences are
Quantitative data, hypothetico-deductive method to test theories
Durkheim did this in his study of suicide / Marx did this in his studies of capitalism
= AO3 - but didn’t they have values?
Sociology CANNOT be value-free
Interpretivists favour qualitative methods to research society - their research is open to interpretation and is subjective
Values allow interpretivists to gain insight into the rationale behind behaviour
Weber - rejects value freedom:
Sociologists are human and they must not avoid the moral issues their work raises
Values are RELEVANT - when choosing what to research, when interpreting data etc.
= however, values must be kept out of the actual process of gathering data
Research is based on the researcher’s assumptions – so how can it be value free?
= Marxists see society as unfairly divided and see social change as necessary – their methods will try to prove this
The ASSUMPTIONS of all sociologists – which are subjective – guide their selection of topic, the questions to be asked, the research methods used
Sociology SHOULD NOT be value-free, even if it were possible
Gouldner
Gouldner - sociologists should not try to be value-free, but value committed.
= They have a responsibility to improve the lives of others, especially those oppressed.
1950s - sociologists had started to ‘hire themselves out’ to govts to take on and solve their problems
= began working without values – selling themselves to protect their careers
Gouldner - by leaving their own values behind, sociologists were making a promise that they would not criticise their paymasters.
Because sociologists were simply hired, they saw their own values as irrelevant to their work
