SOCIO THEORY

• Positivists

  Only recognises information that is scientifically verified or can be logically proven.

  Believe that sociology is a science
• Positivist sociologists prefer what type of data?

  Quantitative data

  Prefer methods such as Experiments, questionnaires, structured interviews, non-participant observation and statistics.
• Macro

  The sociological study of large scale social systems and long term patterns and processes
• Interpretivists

  The study of human society must go beyond the 'natural' sciences and must include subjective views, opinions, emotions and values.

  Believe that sociology is not a science
• Interpreting and responding to the world in different ways

  People have free will and can exercise choice, rather than responding automatically to what is going on around them they interpret situations and choose how to respond to them

  EG: red traffic light - the driver must interpret this to mean stop, even then they could choose to either drive through or stop
• Weber - Verstehen

  Gaining an empathetic understanding of someone's thoughts, feelings and perspective.
• Interpretivist sociologists prefer what type of data?

  Qualitative data

  Use: Unstructured interviews, participant observation and personal documents.
• Durkheim (Positivist)

  Society should be studied scientifically by observing patterns of behaviour and establishing cause and effect to explain them

  He used quantitative data from official statistics

  Studied suicide rates
• 4 Patterns Durkheim noticed in his research

  Suicide rates remained constant over time

  When rates did change, it coincided with external changes - war, prosperity, economic depression

  Different societies have different rates

  Suicide rates amongst catholics was lower than amongst protestants
• What were the 2 Social facts Durkheim established

  Too much or too little social integration causes suicide

  Too much or too little moral regulation causes suicide
• Too little social integration

  Most common type of suicide

  Caused by excessive individualism and lack of social ties / obligation to others
• Too much social integration

  Altruism is the opposite of individualism - involves putting others needs before your own
• Too little moral regulation

  Anomic suicides happen when societies norms become unclear due to rapid social change

  EG: Economic booms and busts
• Too much moral regulation

  EG: Slaves and prisoners who have no control over how they live their lives
• Douglas (Interpretivist)

  Interested in the meaning that suicide has for the deceased and in the way the coroner labels the death as suicide
• Douglas's 2 Criticisms of Durkheim

  Criticises that the suicide statistics Durkheim uses are inaccurate - when a death is labelled as a suicide it reflects the view of the coroner whose perspective may be inaccurate

  Criticises Durkheim for ignoring the meanings of the act (assuming that suicide has a fixed or constant meaning)
• What is Verificationism?

  Where a theory is proved by collecting evidence
• Karl Popper

  Rejects the view that science is based on verificationism

  EG: generalising that 'all' swans are white because we see more white ones but cannot be proven as one observation of a black swan disproves the theory
• Falsificationism

  All knowledge is provisional until it is falsified

  EG: A test would disprove the law of gravity - if when we let go of an object and it did not fall
• 2 examples of why Popper says most sociology is unscientific

  Marx's prediction that there will be a revolution, if there is - Marxism is correct. If there isn't Marxism is still correct

  Functionalists seeing deviants as dysfunctional and functional. If deviance is both - the theory cannot be disproved and it is unscientific
• Thomas Kuhn

  There is no one shared paradigm for the science of sociology - it is not consistent enough or well defined enough to have a paradigm therefore it cannot be a science
• Realism

  Realists reject the positivist view that science is only concerned with verificationism
• Keat and Urry

  Science often assumes existence of unobservable structures

  EG: Physicists cannot observe the interior of a black hole in space
• Can sociologists keep their own values out of their research?

  Positivists say yes - sociology is a science and scientists aim to work objectively to discover the facts

  Interpretivists say no - people have values, beliefs etc which have been influenced by experiences, upbringing etc. It is impossible for sociologists to be objective
• What did Comte and Durkheim believe? (positivists)

  sociology’s job was to discover the truth about how society works, uncovering the laws that govern its proper functioning
• Weber - 4 stages of research

  Values as a guide to research

  Data collection and hypothesis testing

  Values in interpretation of data

  Values and the sociologist as a citizen
• Values as a guide to research

  Sociologist must select which aspects of reality to study, values play an important part in the selection process and in developing concepts with which to understand these aspects

  Values should play a part
• Data collection and hypothesis testing

  Weber believed these should be collected objectively and when testing a hypothesis this should be value free too
• Values in interpretation of data

  Values are important, it is important sociologists are explicit about their values so that others can detect potential unconscious bias in their results
• Values and the sociologist as a citizen

  Research findings have very real effects on people's lives, sociologists choose to ignore the uses to which their work is put - hiding behind a veil of objectivity.

  Sociologists must take moral responsibility for the work they do.
• Howard Becker

  Values are always present in society - consequently sociologists must take sides, with the underdogs in society eg: criminals, mental patients etc. Gives them a voice and a previously hidden side of society can be revealed.
• The organic analogy - Functionalism

  Regard society as a system made of different parts/institutions that depend on each other to keep society healthy; eg the family, education system, economy, NHS, religion etc.

  If one institution in society starts to fail it has an impact on the wider 'health' of society. Exactly how in the body if one organ starts to fail, so will all the others slowly.
• Parsons - Value consensus and social order

  Argues it is possible through the existence of a shared culture or a central value system. Culture = set of shared values, beliefs and goals shared by members of a society. Social order only possible so long as members agree on the shared norms and values. A value consensus.
• Parson - 2 ways for ensuring individuals conform to the value consensus

  Socialisation - the family, education system, media and religion

  Social Control - criminal justice system and law enforcement agencies
• What were Merton's 3 criticisms of Parson

  Indispensability

  Functional Unity

  Universal Functionalism
• Indispensability

  Merton argues Parson presumes that all institutions in society such as the family + religion are indispensable in their existing forms. Merton argues this is a presumption and there might be alternatives. EG: Parson presumes nuclear family is essential for primary socialisation of the child BUT it might be that one parent families do this as well, if not better.
• Functional Unity

  Parson presumes all parts of society are tightly integrated and if one institution fails it will impact all the others. Merton argues that not all institutions or structures are as reliant on each other as Parsons believes.
• Universal functionalism

  Merton argues that Parsons assumes all structures in society perform positive functions for society as a whole. Merton says no - some groups may have power to keep arrangements in place that benefit them at the expense of others eg: marxists would say the ruling class have power to create laws that put them at an advantage.
• Marxist critique of functionalism

  Argue that society is not a harmonious whole. Rather, it is based on exploitation and divided into classes with conflicting interests and unequal power. Shared values are merely a cloak concealing the interests of the dominant class.
• Action perspective critique of functionalism

  can be critiqued for it's deterministic view of the individual. Functionalists see individuals as having no choice or free will - socialised into behaving as the system needs to like puppets on strings. Action approach takes an opposite view - individuals create society by their actions and interactions.