Theory and Methods

1. Theory and Methods www.educationforum.co.uk

2. Positivism • Positivists see sociology as a science • They seek to discover the objective social laws which cause patterns in social behaviour • Seek to establish correlations and causes • Prefer quantitive data so they can measure and test the impact of the variables • Build hypotheses from correlations and test them

3. Positivist Methods Prefer methods similar to those used in the natural sciences Surveys, cross-sectional surveys, longitudinal studies, experiments, field experiments, case studies Reliability and representativeness important concepts of positivists Using your A2 books and last years notes make sure you are able to describe and evaluate each of these methods

4. Interpretivism and Qualitative methods • Interactionists search for a subjective understanding actors meanings • Reject the idea of ‘scientific sociology’ – humans are seen as fundamentally different from the natural world • Therefore favour qualitative methods – observations, unstructured interviews, life documents – methods that will give the researcher access to how the social actor thinks and feels – ‘verstehen’

5. Methods • Ethnography – refers to methods which aim to immerse the sociologist in the lives of the people they are studying – therefore Participant Observation, open ended interviews and Focus Groups can be seen as ethnographic methods • Read pages 289-295 and pages 138-139 of the Revision Guide– make notes on the above citing advantages and disadvantages and also quoting actual examples of each method (try to relate to Strat and Diff where you can)

6. Action research ‘The philosophers have only interpreted the world the point is to change it’ K Marx Conflict theorists tend favour action research – research that is seen as part of a broader struggle. This may effect their choice of method and choice of research topic

7. Feminism • Feminism has tended to adopt one of two methodological approaches which have been categorised as The Weak Thesis and the Strong Thesis. • The Weak Thesis suggests that traditional methods are themselves essentially sound its just that their application is riven with sexism – the feminist researcher therefore has to purge her methods of such sexism before proceeding

8. Pawson and the Weak Thesis Pawson identifies 2 areas of sexism in research • ANDROCENTRICITY – which means seeing the world through male eyes. Men are seen as dominant and important whilst women weak and submissive. Research therefore tends to focus on ‘important’ men’s business and women are written out of history, literature the arts. • OVERGENERALISATION – Pawson suggests that often what is seen as valid research conclusions for men are over generalised to include women also – an obvious e.g. could be social class classifications which use the occupation of the head of the household as the determinant of social class Pawson suggests that the problems of androcentricity and overgeneralization can be overcome by appropriate topic selection, awareness of gender issues and differences on the part of the researcher, avoiding sexist assumptions and by using non sexist language

9. The Strong Thesis • A more fundamental approach which states that feminism needs its own distinct methodology • Anne Oakley says that traditional methods are fundamentally hierarchical, sexist and exploitative. She gives the example of the powerful and manipulative interviewer controlling and unequal respondent. Such models are seen by Oakley as essentially ‘male’ • Feminist methodology instead should be based on real relationships which are equal and compassionate

10. Mies and the Strong Thesis Mies takes this a stage further and issues a number of ‘guidelines’ for feminist research • Conscious partiality – feminist researchers are not objective – they are conscious of patriarchy and they identify with their respondents • Action Research – research seeks to change the world not just to understand it – research is part of a broader struggle • Research must take the ‘view from below’ and be non hierarchical • Research must be ‘consciousness raising’ for both researcher and respondent • Research must be for the good of all women

11. Marxism and Methodology • Similarly some Marxists favour ‘action research’, consciousness raising research and are heavily influenced in their choice of topic and methodology by their ideology • E.G. Paul Willis – ethnographic studied of the ‘lads’

12. Objectivity and Value Freedom Q. What is objectivity/value freedom? A. Keeping ones own values, subjective opinions, prejudices out of the research process

13. Perspectives on Value freedom • Early positivists and functionalists – Comte, Durkheim – believed themselves to be objective and scientific BUT clearly were not value free – favoured the norms and values of society and saw them as functionally important • Early Marxists – Marx and Engels – saw themselves as objective ‘scientific socialists but all their works very clearly imbued with the belief that capitalism was undesirable and anti social and that a better world could be achieved • Modern positivism seeks to exclude all value judgements from research conclusions and be completely morally neutral • Interactionsists like Howard Becker claim it is impossible to keep personal values, sympathies out of the research process – sides with ‘the underdog’ – those marginalised and negatively labelled in society • Feminists – action research so not value free – part of a broader struggle • Weber – sometimes values are relevant to research and sometimes they should be kept out of research. Important to be ‘value free’ and objective when testing hypotheses but at other times understanding ‘values’ and comparing values essential to understanding society