SOCY1050 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Antipositivism, Participant Observation
Lecture 8 - Asking and Answering Sociological Questions
different toolkits/ways of looking at the world
mutable phenomena - the world/society continues to change, therefore the ways it is
studied must change
sociological problems are more broad, complex, and sometimes unsolvable
Qualitative
written notes
voice recordings
drawings
photos
interviews - groups and individuals, different demographics
look for themes that go across different communities, link to other research, etc.
Interpretivism
a reaction against the scientific project of positivism
reality exists in the ways that social actors understand the world - there is no objective
reality waiting to be discovered
people have agency and can create their own worlds - they make choices about how
they act
values form an integral part of research, including the values of the researcher
Interpretivist researchers are interested in social processes, meanings, and reasons
for action
Qualitative methods
participant observation
visual histories - look at peoples photos, ask them to talk them through their
experiences, etc.
interviews
focus groups
biographical research - take peoples stories as a complete history rather than pulling
out individual themes
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Qualitative written notes voice recordings drawings photos interviews - groups and individuals, different demographics look for themes that go across different communities, link to other research, etc. Interpretivist researchers are interested in social processes, meanings, and reasons for action. Qualitative methods participant observation visual histories - look at people(cid:1685)s photos, ask them to talk them through their experiences, etc. interviews focus groups biographical research - take people(cid:1685)s stories as a complete history rather than pulling out individual themes. Ethnography - looking at cultures + habits, mutual differences, etc. Quantitative about quantities, things that can be quantified pose hypotheses statistics causality expressed as probability explanations given as quantities (post) positivism. We are self aware and have agency, this creates bias methods: Surveys population census - gold standard social network analysis - counts strength and number of relationships between people they require: accurate sampling. Reliability - can i replicate it? the research process define the problem review the literature.
