Sociology as a Science

* Something is scientific when it uses EMPIRICISM (knowledge gained from actually experiencing and / or observing something) AND * OBJECTIVITY where the research does not involve opinions, or bias or prejudice.

Objectivity & Subjectivity.

The Aim of Sociological Research 1. Introduction to Social Research The Aim of Sociological Research To move from subjective to more objective knowledge of something: Subjective knowledge Objective knowledge An individual’s everyday understanding that comes from their values, experiences and beliefs. Knowledge that is independent of opinion, prejudice and bias. © onlineclassroom.tv 2007

Interpretivism POSITIVISM Watch– don’t judge. * Sociology should be totally value-free. * Sociology should study observable stuff: social facts, that can be recorded as quantitative data so correlations can be identified between variables. * Sociology should be value relevant, but cannot be value-free. * Sociologists will use their subjective feelings to identify a research topic & the concepts they feel are relevant. * But sociologists can be objective in how they carry out their research, once they’ve identified concepts. Watch– don’t judge.

CORE DEBATE: Can or should Sociology be value free? Should all bias be removed from Sociological research? What if you were going to do some feminist research on women wearing Burkas?

Values in the research process: Operationalising key concepts. Choosing which topic to research. Choosing a research method. Getting funding. Interpreting findings. Selecting appropriate questions. Recording responses. Selecting which findings to include in the report. Deciding what report will be used for. Deciding where report will be published.

All these values and considerations make it very hard for Sociologists to remain objective. They’re conservative. Civitas are funding my research. My research will have to agree with them. So, I’ll have to focus on how absent dads create deviant sons.

This is HOWARD BECKER. He says it’s impossible to study anything without using your personal and political beliefs to understand and judge it.

Some Sociological theories are clearly allied to a particular political leaning. For instance, Marxism is a conflict theory which sees capitalism as problematic for human happiness and fairness. Marxism is therefore left wing. Feminism also, is a conflict theory which sees patriarchy as problematic for women’s happiness and fairness. Feminism also, is therefore left wing.

POSITIVISM – The Scientific approach uses comparative and experimental methods

1. Our knowledge about the social world starts with the collection of facts – For example, the crime rate, the divorce rate and the number of men that are victims of domestic violence.

2. The facts are classified & identified objectively – without using opinion, and statistical relationships established. Eg. Children from low income households are more likely to become criminal.

3. Once classification has been done, we can look for (study) correlations – where two or more things happen at the same time between different social facts. For example, a correlation between women being in care and becoming deviant.

4. If positive correlation is found, a cause and effect relationship can be established. For example, educational failure causes greater likelihood of criminality.

5. Once we’ve sorted out positive correlations and cause and effect relationships, we can develop theories that explain the relationship between different facts. Eg. Having insufficient integration into society explains why some commit suicide.

6. Once we have a theory – test it further 6. Once we have a theory – test it further. If nothing happens to disprove the theory, we have discovered a universal law of human behaviour.

7. Once a law is identified in human behaviour, we can incorporate it into social policy – we can organise people through laws & legislation that will engineer the best results for society.

Criticisms of Positivism There is a problem with correlations and cause and effect. Can we really study humans in the same way as natural phenomena like plants? Can any scientists, especially sociologists really be objective and value-free? Individual experience is part of what makes us human and should not be ignored.

Interpretivism – the not-so scientific approach

Starter What method would Atticus Finch think is the best for researching society based on the below quote? "You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view - until you climb into his skin and walk around in it." spoken by Atticus Finch, To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee

Interpretivism is THE alternative, THE total opposite of Positivism. * People like Weber say Sociology should study society from the perspective of other people to understand how and why things happen. * Using Weber’s perspective of verstehen requires subjective understanding which draws on people’s opinions. * Science is strongly objective and does not allow opinion to influence research. * For this reason, Interpretivists argue Sociology cannot ever be a science.

Verstehen Weber’s term for studying human behaviour German word for “to understand”, “to grasp by insight” Best interpreter of human action is “someone who has been there”  Someone who can understand the feelings and motivations of people they are studying- empathy

Interpretivism and Symbolic Interactionism Blumer (1969) argued sociologists need to immerse themselves in the lives of those they study. It is necessary to understand the meanings created by individuals and groups. An example is Paul Willis – Learning to Labour See film.

Criticisms of Interpretivism Research carried out on a micro scale is high in validity but low in representativeness and reliability therefore lacks scientific rigour Is qualitative research on low numbers of participants meaningless? Ignores the existence of social norms and a basic order of things and sometimes focuses too heavily on deviant groups.

Feminist Methodology Reinhartz (1992) Women’s ways of knowing. Grounded in Feminist Theory and moving away from Malestream Uses various methods and mixed. Aims to bring about social change Researcher builds rapport with participant and is included as part of the research. Reflexivity is important

Criticisms Critics say feminist research is not objective since it is grounded in feminist theory Feminists argue that reflexivity is a strength since it allows them to be open about their values from the start – therefore they do not falsely claim to be value-free but state how their values have influenced their research. See handout -Do you think these reflections improve the objectivity of the study? Do you think Feminist research is still relevant?

Realist Methodology Realists distinguish between ‘open’ and ‘closed’ systems of causality. Natural sciences work within closed systems where predictions can be made and empirical data collected. They refer to society as an open system. This means being realistic and accepting that humans and society are fluid and changeable and subject to countless causal mechanisms. Phenomena are subject to predictable, discoverable causes but these are difficult to identify because they change rapidly. Realist accept the important of subjective experience and are not committed to quantitative or qualitative methods. It is widely used as a perspective which can transcend social structure and social action.

Plenary Identify some criticisms of Realist Methodology.

Key words Empirical Objective Comparative method Verstehen Reflexivity Causal mechanisms

Organise these words into groups INTERPRETIVIST REALISM POSITIVIST FEMINISM Quantitative malestream Objective Open Systems Labelling Theory Verstehen Qualitative Functionalism Patriarchy Subjective reflexivity Causal mechanisms Official Crime Statistics

Ways of collecting Data Quantitative data – based on numbers and statistics – Objective and goes with Positivist Qualitative data – based on rich descriptions of events – Subjective and goes with Interpretivist Primary data – collected direct from participants by the researcher Secondary Data – are data which already exist in form of statistics, diaries, personal documents etc. Mixed Methods – mixing two or more methods

Research Design Aim, a statement about what your overall aim is Hyposthesis (If quantitative) a prediction about what you think will be found Operationalisation (how are you measuring/defining the concept e.g class inequalities) Sampling method (how will you get access to your participants and select them?) Method used (primary or secondary data collection and actual method) Procedure used, how you would actually carry it out Analysis of the data, how would you analyse it and what you might expect to find. Evaluation. A couple of paragraphs at most explaining any problems you might anticipate with data collection e.g time, cost, access to sample, and problems with the design itself in terms of GROVER, see above. A way to remember order of above list:- A Hippo Only Smells Monkeys Properly After Eating.  

Research Design As an A level Sociologist, you have been asked to research whether young single mothers become pregnant in order to avoid work and gain benefits.   Suggest a simple research design and justify your choices. Explain the difficulties that you might experience in carrying out your design and suggest how you would avoid them

Starter How would you go about researching the extent of poverty amongst children in UK society? What problems would you have to overcome?

Key concerns in research Key concerns in research. When we evaluate how well a piece of research has been carried out we consider the following things. Generalisation Representativeness Operationalisation Validity Ethics Reliability GROVER

Generalisation Can the results of the study be applied to wider society? E.g if you studied knife crime in Torquay could you apply the findings to the whole of UK? Likewise if you only studied use of kitchen knives as a weapon you could not gain generalisable results.

Representativeness Does the sample of people you studied accurately represent the population. E.g If you are studying anti-social behaviour of young people but only studied boys, your sample would not represent ‘young people’

Operationalisation Has the study correctly defined what they are studying. E.g If you wanted to study happiness but defined this as having Sky television it would not be a very accurate study!

Operationalising concepts How would you go about measuring the following concepts? Family income Sexual orientation Ethnicity Social class Happiness Which concepts are objective and which are subjective?

Validity This is related to the accuracy and truthfulness of your findings. E.g If you went to lower school and asked everyone whether or not they smoked you would probably find that 100% said no! BUT…..

Ethics British Sociological Association have guidelines which must be followed. Informed Consent Privacy/confidentiality of participants Protection from harm caused by potential deception, embarrassment etc Right to withdraw from the study

You want to study children’s playground behaviour. You get a video camera and film the children secretly from the branches of tree outside the playground. You show the film to colleagues to analyse your results.

You want to find out attitudes towards underage drinking in your area You ask some year 10 and 11 students to complete a questionnaire. You ask them for their names and addresses so that you can contact them again if there are any problems with their responses.

You want to find out about empathy for snails You get consent from a number of students to take part in a study about snails. When they arrive you tell them that they have to step in a box of snails and crush them all so that you can monitor facial expressions. When they are finished you say thank you and ask them to leave.

Reliability This is about the way the data is collected. If it is a consistent measure such as a questionnaire with yes/no answers then another sociologists could repeat the study and get similar results. If is say an interview/conversation then another sociologists might get different results and the study might be unreliable.

A little Test In pairs test each other on the meanings of the terms in GROVER.

True/False Game

Non-Probability or Non-random Lego Demonstration - Copy this table out in your notes with a brief description of each type refer to page 51 Sample: a segment of the target population being studied. Probability or Random [reflects the population] Non-Probability or Non-random [does not reflect the population] Random Quota Systematic Snowball Stratified Purposive © onlineclassroom.tv 2007

Access Access to participants is a big deal in sociological research. Sometimes it can be difficult. Consider some of the difficulties you might find if you had to access these particpants Children under 3, Young Offenders, Mentally ill. Often there will be a person who will facilitate access, for example to school pupils, this person is referred to as a gatekeeper

Examples 40,000 homes in the UK are selected by a computer to take part in the British Crime Survey. 15 boys and 15 girls are to be selected from 3 different 6th form colleges. Researchers receive an alphabetical list of all people with alzheimer’s in a hospital to take part in research they must select 20 participants with no computer

Examples Researchers want to study the experiences single mums living in inner city areas. They need 20 women to take part. Researchers wish to study incidents of suicide amongst children under 16. They need 4 or 5 families to take part. A university needs 5 Asian, 5 Black and 5 white people under 21 to take part in research.

Quantitative methods include:- Social Surveys Questionnaires Structured Interviews Statistical data Content analysis Experiments

Quantitative Data Analysis Quantitative data consists of numbers, so we look for patterns and trends indicated by statistics e.g percentages, averages etc. In our research we are looking for the % of boys Vs girls choosing particular subjects. We need to know how many students in TOTAL chose that subject and then work out how many were boys and how many were girls to get a % for each. We then work out the difference between the two. E.g in 2011 22 students chose Physics, 13 were boys and 9 were girls = 60% boys and 40% girls.

Presenting descriptive statistics Table form e.g like the sheet with the subject choices data from last year. Graph form may include Bar charts Histogram Scattergraph for correlations These make the data easier to analyse for patterns.

Social surveys and Longitudinal Studies Social surveys are large scale quantitative studies with data collected wither through questionnaires or interviews with closed questions. Longitudinal studies are very good for measuring changes over time. However they have problems with participants dropping out and are very expensive. A famous study is the 7UP programme which followed children from age 7 to adulthood.

Pilot Studies Pilot studies are often used to check the methods being used. A small scale study can check the validity of questionnaires for examples before they are used on a wider scale. Pilots are usually only used in quantitative research since using a pilot in qualitative would be uneccessary.

Questionnaires Complete the self-report questionnaire What are the problems with this type of questionnaire? Make a bullet point list of advantages and disadvantages and some examples of research using pg 52.

Plenary Page 83 OCR Book – Activity 5.3 Identify problems with this questionnaire.

Starter – identify whether these are criticisms of quantitative and qualitative data Variables cannot always be isolated and cause and effect cannot be established Lacks scientific rigour Findings cannot be generalised so are of little use Researchers can never be value-free or completely objective Statistical analysis can lead to misinterpretation of the data Open to subjective interpretations of researchers Of little use to large-scale organisations like government. Numbers cannot provide explanations

Structured Interviews How would you go about obtaining quantitative data from an interview? What kind of questions would you ask? Sue Sharpe used structured interviews in her research. What was it about? Evaluate her research using GROVER.

Interviews Identify the difference between structured and semi-structured interviews pg84-85 Which would you prefer to use and why ? List the advantages and disadvantages of structured interviews in your notes.

Secondary sources Official statistics are a major source of secondary data. O.S. Are collected by the state such as a Census. Unofficial statistics are collected by agencies such as pressure groups, or trade unions Examples of surveys include BSAS, BCS, Census

Evaluation Positivists believe providing O.S. Are accurate, they are a valid and reliable source of data Interactionists are very critical. For example, they argue Crime stats’ are socially constructed and probably tell us more about police priorities, rather then about the patterns of crime. Marxists argues that the state serves the ruling class. Therefore, anything published by the state is likely to give a distorted impression that serves capitalism.

The use of statistical data and content analysis Give a definition of these two types of research Give examples of where they might have been used List advantages and disadvantages of both types

Experiments http://www.educationforum.co.uk/experiments.htm Experiments are rarely used in sociology because it is difficult to control variables in a social setting. You can learn more about the use of experiments on the above link. Complete the exercises.

Experiments Laboratory experiments are conducted in a controlled environment where the relationship between two variables can be tested. E.g Bandura’s bobo doll experiment. They are highly scientific and reliable but also very artificial so may lack validity Field experiments are partly controlled but conducted in a natural setting e.g classroom, seeing if sitting at the back hinders learning.

Example of experiments Rosenthal and Jacobsen Pygmalion in the classroom. Jane Elliot brown eyes blue eyes. Bandura bobo doll Stanley Milgram – study on obedience Zimbardo – Standford Prison study. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QyqxkM_Z94 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7JneNPZltU&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=no1F-AMTnGg&feature=related

Quantitative research design questions As an A level Sociologist, you have been asked to design a quantitative study into the impact of student loans on graduates in your area. Suggest a simple research design and justify your choices. Explain the difficulties that you might experience in carrying out your design and suggest how you would avoid them. As an A level Sociologist, you have been asked to discover whether there is gender inequality in the behaviour and actions of the police in your area. Suggest a simple research design and justify your choices. Explain the difficulties that you might experience in carrying out your design and suggest how you would avoid them  

Qualitative Methods include:- Observation Ethnography Interviews Focus Groups Analysis of personal document

Analysing Qualitative Data Qualitative Data consists of rich data in the form of words i.e personal answers to open questions. This requires a degree of interpretation of written text. We need to look for emerging patterns or themes e.g many students might say that their parents influenced their choices of further education subjects. The key themes are identified and then included in our analysis.

Participant Observation (PO) Participant Observation is an alternative to asking questions; it involves getting involved, and experiencing first hand how the group live/ behave. Covert or Overt PO PO can be divided into 3 stages; getting in, staying in (without your cover being blown) and then, getting out. P.O is usually small-scale, and is hard to generalise has its unlikely to observe the same findings. Paul Willis found getting out an issue when he studied 12 working class males from a midlands school (‘Learning to labour) (overt PO) In Laud Humphreys study of ‘tearoom trade’, he breached serious ethical guidelines when watching homosexual sexual activity, and recording car registration of the people involved

Read pg 92-93 and answer the following:- What is the difference between participant and non-participant observation? What is the Hawthorne effect? What is the difference between structured and un-structured observation? List advantages and disadvantages of participant observation.

Case Study Case studies are research focused on individuals or small groups e.g one class in a school. They are high in validity but lack representativeness – Why is this?

The use of Mixed Methods. We have identified that there are various problems with both quantitative and qualitative methods So why not use both? The use of mixed methods can be referred to as methodological plurism or triangulation but these have different meanings – see pg 99 Identify advantages and disadvantages of using mixed methods and add to your notes. Complete activity 7.1 on page 100.

Qualitative research design question As an A level Sociologist, you have been asked to design a qualitative study into the impact of poverty on pensioners in your area.  Suggest a simple research design and justify your choices. Explain the difficulties that you might experience in carrying out your design and suggest how you would avoid them As an A level Sociologist, you have been to discover qualitative differences between how working class and middle class students see their class position.