Round 1
What are the two core principles of positivism?
What analogy is used to help us understand positivism?
The way to understand this is in the same way you might look down a microscope to objectively study some red blood cells what you see has no bearing on the gender, sexuality, age etc of the observer looking down the lens of the microscope – the observer is detached from what they see
What do positivists seek to falsify? Why do you think they do so?
Positivists seek to falsify any hypothesis they are examining, which entails looking for any evidence which will undermine a theory. Karl Popper argues why the principles of falsification are important.
What are two core principles of interpretivism?
What data can qualitative methods reveal?
Intrepretivists prefer small scale research methods which get to understand (verstehen) the feelings and experiences of individuals as opposed to the large scale research undertaken by positivists.
What is the primary approach in positivism?
look for cause and effect (patterns of behaviour) in order to uncover universal laws about the social world
What do positivist use to examine society?
Positivists prefer to collect quantitative data. For example:
Can you name two more core principles of positivism?
What do interpretivists reject?
What are of some interpretivist methods? Why do these use them?
unstructured interviews the flexibility of the method & ability to build a rapport
participant observation enables researcher to observe behaviour in natural setting & gain empathy
Why do some sociologists prefer qualitative data?
The reason some sociologists prefer qualitative data is it gives an account of how people see the world (interpretivism argue the structural nature of positivism imposes the sociologist's view about what is or isn’t important on the respondent, this is because for example structured interviews are created by sociologists views on what are the important questions which need answering).
What quantitative methods do positivist use to collect reliable data?
Do you think positivism would prefer primary data or secondary data? Explain?
Answer will vary...
What is Weber's position in sociology?
Weber’s position is sociology is a science which attempts to interpret how people behave (social action) in order to understand an individual’s motivations for their actions.
List two primary and two secondary interpretivist methods?
Interpretivist primary methods include:
Interpretivist secondary methods include:
What does Marxism argue?
He argues that modern industrial societies are based on a fundamental conflict between different social classes.
What are the name of the two main classes according to Marxism?
The owners (bourgeoisie) and the workers (proletariat)
Where do Marxists and functionalists disagree?
They disagree completely about their interpretations of society, whereby functionalists see it as harmonious, and Marxists see it as an unfair and unequal system.
What political movements did Marxism inspire?
Socialism and communicsm
What do functionalists compare society to? Explain...
Like a human body (organic or biological analogy) - the different parts of the body all have jobs to keep you alive. In the same way, each part of society is seen as having a function to keep society alive.
What is functionalism often referred to as?
Structural functionalism
What is social consensus?
When people generally share values and there are no major disagreements between the main groups.
What is consensus theory?
Consensus theory is a social theory that holds a particular political or economic system as a fair system, and that social change should take place within the social institutions provided by it.
What are the main differences between structuralism and interpretivism?
Structuralist approaches focus on large-scale (macro) social structures and institutions rather than the individuals, whereas interpretivists start with the individual rather than society and focus on the micro rather than the macro scale.
Name 6 different research methods?
....