Use LEFT and RIGHT arrow keys to navigate between flashcards;
Use UP and DOWN arrow keys to flip the card;
H to show hint;
A reads text to speech;
4 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
|
Introduction |
Sociology is the systemic study of human society, social interactions, and the meaning that people attach to these interactions, while science is a body of systematically arranged knowledge that shows the operation of general law. Sociology is indeed a science, and this is essay seeks to effectively evaluate the positions of why this is so. |
|
|
Major positions |
The two major positions are positivism and interpretivism. Positivism is the belief that sociology can be studied as a science. It is used by the Marxist and functionalist theories, with the macro approach. An example of positivism is Emile Durkheim's study of suicide, The opposite of this, Interpretivism is a belief that sociology should not and cannot be studied as a science. It is used by the Interactionist theory with the micro approach. An example of interpretivism is Positivists use quantitative methods while interpretivists use qualitative methods. The difference between these methods is that quantitative focuses on statistical information while qualitative focuses on the quality of information. Positivists use quantitative methods as they are reliable and representative while interpretivists use qualitative methods because of the assurance of a high level of validity in their research findings. |
|
|
Characteristics of sociology as a science |
Sociology possesses certain characteristics to be considered as a science. Two of these are theoretical and objectivity. The theoretical characteristic seeks to uncover casual relations between phenomena and objectivity does not use personal values, biases and attitudes. Similarly, in sociology reasons and answers are often sought by studying people and patterns, while sociologists do not use their personal opinions to draw conclusions. The scientific method is made up of observation - a problem is observed and needs to be explained; hypothesis - a possible explanation is given; experiment - hypothesis is subject to be tested; theorizing- a theory is formulated to either confirm or dismiss the hypothesis. This notion is criticized however, by the fact that science seems to predict and the nature of human beings make them unpredictable. |
|
|
Points on interpretivism |
Interpretivism is |
