SOCI 1F90 Lecture Notes - Grounded Theory, Ethnography, Positivism
24 May 2014
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Document Summary
Quantitative sociology: definitions: operational definition, reliability and validity, relationships among variables, poverty and crime: spurious correlation, objectivity, errors and bias. Method: actual techniques and strategies for gathering data. Methodology: theory and analysis of how research does or should proceed (ex. ethnography, grounded theory, action research) Two broad methodological approaches: quantitative, qualitative. Involves converting aspects of social life into numbers. Analysis is accomplished by means of statistics. The belief in the unity of the scientific method -- the logic of inquiry is seen as the same across all sciences (social and natural) The goal of research is to explain and predict general behaviour develop the law of general understanding. Research can be proved only by empirical means (data produced by an experiment or an observation), not argumentations. The relationship between theory and practice must be objective. Social science research has its emergence in the nation state and the corporate elite.
