Sociology 2206A/B Lecture 2: Introduction & General Research Orientations
8 Oct 2018
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Document Summary
Assess the adequacy of a particular social theory. Driven by what is seen as a pressing social problem. Deductive method is most common: not always in this exact order. Epistemological assumption: notions of what can be known and how knowledge can be acquired. It is the role of social scientists to grasp the subjective meanings of people"s actions: people act based on meaning. Quantitative: uses numbers and statistics in the collection and analysis of data. Qualitative: relies mainly on word and other non-numerical symbols. Not as distinctively different as the definition suggests. Role of theory in research mainly deductive; testing of theory mainly inductive; generation of theory. Durkheim: social facts are objects whose study requires that all preconceptions must be eradicated . Values can intrude in these areas: choice of research area, formulation of the research question, choice of method, formulation of the research design and data collection techniques, data collection, analysis of data, conclusions.
