SOCI 210 Lecture 5: Methods
28 Nov 2017
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Document Summary
Some disagreement about whether sociology can be a science . Believe that there is one scientific method that can be used in all natural and social sciences to establish causation. Believe we can only use the scientific method on things that are directly observable: at the extreme, believe we can discover scientific laws, can make predictions. Interpretivism: suggests sociologists should shoot for interpretive understandings instead of laws. Extreme interpretivism: scientific method isn"t appropriate for social analysis. Subjectivity: difficult to have accurate data: all data must be interpreted: wink example. Promotes biased analyses of data: causal analyses are not possible, goal: get in-depth understanding and make interpretations. It can produce inaccurate results, so need to be critical. Some also claim that our understandings of human relations allow us to depend more on critical thinking. Believe we can get insight into causation, but difficult. Problem 1: as interpretivism note, our biases can affect our assessment of the evidence.
