Download File - Ms. Feller Sociology

Sociology as a Science
Key Terms
 Reliable
 Valid
 Objective
 Methodology
 Replicable
 Hypothetico-deductive method
 Hypothesis
 Falsification
 Researcher bias
 Positivism
 Interpretivism
 Value free
 Feminism
 Gender
Sociology as a Science
One way sociologists try to develop factual
information is to adopt a scientific approach to
data collection, testing and analysis.
Science is a way of producing a particular kind
of knowledge, one that is factual and objective
rather than based on opinion, guesswork, or
faith.
Science “involves identifying a problem to study,
collecting information, about it and offering an
explanation of it” (Popper 1934)
Methodology
Methodology- a way of producing knowledge
that has 2 main qualities, reliability and validity.
Reliability- checking the accuracy of a piece of
research by repeating (replicating) to see if you
get the same or similar result.
 Valid- Data is only useful if it actually measures or
describes what it claims to measure or describe.
Procedural Rules
Hypothetico-deductive method positivist research
design based on the development and systematic
testing of hypotheses.
Hypothesis- research question that can be tested or
answered by the systematic collection, presentation,
and analysis of data.

Scientific Procedure
Any conclusions drawn from scientific research
have not been disproven or shown to be false in
the course of testing them against the available
evidence.
Procedure gives scientific knowledge greater
plausibility because it is based on tested facts
rather than untested opinions
Scientific knowledge means we can say with a
level of certainty that something will happen in
the future.
Test Yourself
Suggest one reason why testing is important for
the generation of scientific knowledge.
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Ethical Rules
To ensure that people follow a scientific method
Merton (1942) argued that a scientific ethos
(ethics) is required.
There must be some general guidelines that
research must satisfy in order to both attain and
maintain scientific status
Scientific Status
1. Universal: knowledge is evaluated using objective,
universally agreed upon criteria.(personal opinion is
removed)
 Falsification- the principle that scientific theories should be
framed in such a way that they can be disproved
2. Communal: scientific knowledge is public knowledge
that must be shared freely
3. Disinterested: scientists should be responsible for
knowledge and should not have a personal stake,
financial or otherwise, in the outcome of their research
 Researcher bias- condition in which the presence or behavior
of the researcher introduces uncontrolled variables into the
research making it unreliable or invalid
4. Skeptical: the scientific community must continually
evaluate knowledge because this questioning process
contributes to the development of human
understanding
Positivism
Positivism- based on the idea that it is both possible
and desirable to study the social world in mostly the
same way as natural scientists
Knowledge is created by constructing and testing
hypotheses (questions which require an answer)
The purpose of science is to discover objective
knowledge
 Value-free sociology- general principle that the conduct
and findings of the research process should not be
influenced by the values of the researcher
Postivist Approach
Scientific Knowledge
 Factual
 Objective
 Evidence-based
 testable
Non-Scientific Knowledge
 Opinion
 Guesswork
 Untested assumptions
 faith
Primarily use quantitative data- data that involves numbers and statistics
Interpretivism
Interpretivism- methodology based on the principle
that social behavior can only be understood
subjectively, by understanding how people interpret
situations and, by doing so, give them meaning.
 Argue that different people in different situations
interpret the social world in different ways
 Sociologists can only describe reality from the
viewpoint of those who create and define it
Interpretivist
 Argue that people are different from innate objects because they
have consciousness- an awareness of the themselves and the way
they live.
 The study of living things requires a more subtle and flexible
approach, in which social behavior is described in terms of the
meanings and interpretations people give to behavior.
 Believe sociologists should take advantage of the human ability to
empathize
 Argue that sociology cannot predict the behavior of a conscious
human in the same way that natural sciences can predict changes to
inanimate objects
Interpretivists
 Focus on qualitative data collection- information that tells the
researcher about the experience and feelings of the people
being studied
 Less reliable because it is difficult to replicate
 Potentially greater validity because it can reveal much more
about how and why people live their lives.
Activity
 Part 1
 Imagine a positivist, and an interpretivist researcher, each of whom is going to conduct
a study of training courses in a college for new recruits to the police.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
What differences would there be in how they approached this task?
To identify these, outline briefly the:
type of research question that might be asked,
type of data that is needed to address them, and
methods that would allow that data to be produced.
 Part 2
 In taking up these different positions did you feel that your personal concerns and
interests about learning would lead you to align more with one paradigm than
another?Part 1 Imagine a positivist, and an interpretivist researcher, each of whom is
going to conduct a study of training courses in a college for new recruits to the police.
What differences would there be in how they approached this task? To identify these,
outline briefly the: type of research question that might be asked, type of data that is
needed to address them, and methods that would allow that data to be produced. Part
2 In taking up these different positions did you feel that your personal concerns and
interests about learning would lead you to align more with one paradigm than another?
AICE ESSAY Question
1. The interpretivist approach to how the social world should be
studied provides us with the most accurate sociological
understanding of society. Explain and assess this view.
 Complete on your own paper.
2. Which theory would claim that human sciences are fundamentally
different from natural sciences and thus must be studied different?
Post Modernism
 This is not a scientific methodology
 This is a world view based on the idea that people construct stories
through which to make sense of the world.
 These are neither true nor false they just are and can be revealed
through sociological work
 Of greatest interest are the metanarratives (big stories a society
constructs to answer its questions) Religion, political philosophies,
nationalities, and science
 Metanarratives change over time and place
 Postmodernism is not anti-science but believes that significance of
the metanarrative lies in how people view them
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oL8MhYq9owo
PostModernism Activity
 Postmoderists suggest that people no longer view science and
scientists as beneficial bringers of progress. In groups identify as
many positive or negative aspects of science as you can. Use these
ideas as a basis for arguing for and against the extent to which you
think people see science as a broadly beneficial or broadly harmful
enterprise.
Roles of Values in Research
 Sociology tries to deal in facts
 To establish sociological knowledge, data is collected and then
analyzed or tested objectively
 Value-free- it has not been influenced by the values, beliefs, or
prejudices of the researcher.
 Value-neutral- more accurate way to describe since it is impossible to
truly act without values
 Best we can do is recognize the points where values potentially
intrude and adjust the research strategy to limit or neutralize the
effects.
Research Considerations
1.
Researchers usual choose a topic that interests them.
 People are influenced by their values, what they consider to be dangerous, and
what they want to learn
2.
Funding
 Those paying for research may influence what and how something is studied
3.
Methodology
 The researchers values can influence how they conduct research because it
can influence what they believe will create valid and reliable data
 Positivists may prefer to limit respondent choice, closed questions
 Interpretivists may encourage a respondent to answer in their own words by asking
open-ended questions
4. Data analysis can also be influenced by values
 The research must take into consideration what data to include and what to
exclude
 Once a research has been started value neutrality involves the researcher
acknowledging their values and state them so they can be questioned by other
researchers
Uses of Sociological Knowledge
 In classical Sociology (the past), knowledge involved the
development of grand theories that sought to explain ideas such as
social order and change
 More recently, the focus has moved onto a range of social issues
 Feminism- (belief in equality between the sexes) highlighted the effects
of patriarchy on gender (the social characteristics of a gender being
masculine or feminine) relationships.
 This work indirectly led to the development of social policies relating to issues of
gender
 Poverty research changed the way governments defined poverty
 Globally research has started to focus on areas such as the social and
environmental costs of development.
 Contemporary research in sociology
Social Problem v. Sociological Problem
Social Problem
 Behavior seen to cause public
friction and/or private misery,
usually involving some form of
public outcry for action.
 Crime, poverty, unemployment
 Carter (2001) suggests that
behavior is only a problem
when it is defined as such by a
dominant or powerful group.
 This suggests that social
problems are a relative concept
Sociological Problem
1. The idea that societies have to
solve certain fundamental problems
(food, shelter, socialization) if they
are to survive
 Issues such as the nature of social order,
social control, and social change
2. A question that demands an answer
 In this definition social problems and
sociological problems can often be the
same
 Generally, sociological problems are
considered in light of how and why
behavior comes to be defined as a social
problem in the first place
Complete:
Social Problem
Sociological Problem