Theory and research Flashcards
(22 cards)
What are the two things theory and ideology have in common?
Both contain a set of assumptions
Both seek to explain the social world
What are ideologies based on?
Political values and faith
What do ideologies offer?
Absolute certainties (they are closed systems)
What do ideologies protect?
Interests of a particular group
What do ideologies do?
Selectively present and interpret empirical evidence
What do social theories seek?
Logical consistency, to explain, is based on evidence
What are the 4 elements of Social Theory?
- Axioms (postulates)
- Concepts
- Classifications
- Hypothesis
What are axioms (postulates)?
In-built statements about the nature of concepts, ground for a theory
What are concepts? (2 elements)
They are used to explain observations, have various levels of abstraction.
What are classifications?
They organise concepts
What are typologies or taxonomies?
When you combine two or more concepts
What’s a hypothesis?
An empirically testable version of a proposition
What are the 3 steps to building a social theory?
- Look at concepts (dimensions)
- Build relationships
- Produce propositions that you can go out and test/measure
What are the 4 conditions a hypothesis must respect?
- Plausible
- Testable
- Specific (directional)
- Falsifiable
What’s a directional hypothesis?
Created to examine the relationship among the variables rather than to compare groups.
What are two ways of approaching the nature of explanation?
Idiographic
Nomothetic
What’s idiographic?
To explain one situation exhaustively
What’s nomothetic?
Look at key factors to understand/explain a phenomenon
What are the 3 main theoretical paradigms in sociology?
Functionalism, conflict paradigm and symbolic interactionism
What’s functionalism? (4)
Society as an organism, interdependence of roles and functions, stable patterns, equilibrium
What’s the conflict paradigm? (3)
Conflict as ongoing, conflicts about material resources, power/class relationship.
What’s symbolic interactionism? (2)
Creation of meaning, face to face interaction. George Mead
