positivist

• can and should sociology be science?


  yes
• what do they believe about society?

  -it's patterned & organised

  -there's social facts & laws just like in natural world
• what does applying scientific method to society help uncover?


  -patterns

  -predict social behaviour > allowing to solve social problems
• quantitative data

  -discover cause & effect

  -objective

  -avoid contaminating research with opinions
• methods used

  -experiments

  -questionnaires

  -structured interviews

  -official statistics
• case study : Durkheim's study of suicide AIM

  -show sociology was just like natural world

  -demonstrating how even highly individual acts were governed by laws of behaviour
• Durkheim's study of suicide research methods


  -quantitative data > official statistics

  -to uncover pattern
• findings of Durkheim's study of suicide

  -rates of protestant suicides were higher than Catholics

  -argued levels of integration & regulation were responsible

  -claimed he discovered law of cause & effect

  > showing society can be studied scientifically
• criticism of Durkheim's study of suicide : AO3


  -how can you operationalise the concepts?
• Karl Popper : AO3

  -sociology could be considered science if positivists abandon :

  > indictive reasoning

  > verificationism

  -scientific methods actually depend on opposite : deductive reasoning & falsification
• criticism of falsificationism & Popper

  -can't falsify sociological concepts

  -so is not scientific