SOC 2106 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Twinkie Defense, The American Soldier, Falsifiability

• School: University of Ottawa
• Department: Sociology
• Course: SOC 2106
• Professor: Sam Alvaro

Document Summary

Theories of deviance: pre/classical theories, positivist theories, constructionist theories. A theory is a set of interrelated propositions, constructed and fitting together logically, which claims to explain one or more aspects of the world around us. It is important because explanations can be described as the stories we tell each other in attempts to produce some order in our lives. Theories outline paths that lead to particular outcomes. They allow us to feel that we know why something happened, and whether, or not under what conditions, it is likely to occur again. Logically sound (a to b to c) Sensitizing ability (look at everything and conclude of what has been ignored) Popularity (popularity does not mean validity, ex twinkie defense) Scope (the range of phenomena that a theory can explain) Accuracy (does the theory match empirical reality; do we have correlation without causation) The simplest explanation is the most correct explanation) Theories must be falsifiable or they would be law)