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Sociology summary. In-depth and complete knowledge of the basics of Sociology. Includes positivism, interpretivism, functionalism and its problems.
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Positivism:- Positivists say it is both possible and desirable to study social behaviour using scientific methods
(sociology is also a science).
- There are general laws and rules guiding human behaviour, just as there are laws in the sciences,
e.g. Newton’s laws of motion. These laws are reliable and always applicable. Similarly sociology
should try to find these laws in human behaviour as well.
- Just as natural scientists have observed the effects of unseen forces such as gravity or electro
magnetism, social structures are unseen forces whose effect can be observed by positivists using
similar techniques to those used in physics, chemistry, biology, etc. through observation, testing,
and quantitative measurements that create reliable knowledge.
- Institutions represent behaviour at the macro level of society. Individuals and their actions are
guided and limited by these social structures, and thus it makes sense to study causes of
behaviour: the structural forces that make people choose one action over another, rather than
studying their effects—the choices themselves.
- For example, Durkheim’s study of suicide. Instead of studying the act of suicide itself by going
and interviewing suicidal people, he looked at official quantified statistics and broader general
research as to what institutions in society such as family, religion, economy, etc. could cause
people to commit suicide. He studied social facts and external influences that influence suicide,
not suicide itself.
- Positivists are concerned with value-free sociology, i.e. objective sociology—what is, rather than
what things should be. They believe researchers should be personally objective, and their
personal views must not participate in or interfere with research, so they prefer quantitative not
qualitative methods.
- These include questionairres, structured interviews, experiments or comparative and
observational studies. None of these methods contain any emotional or personal attachment
between the researcher or the subject of study, therefore are more objective.
- Positivists value reliability.
- Marx’s study of human history as a class struggle was postivist: he used facts and historical
evidence to prove his point and complement his study. He saw the transition from capitalism to
communism as written in the laws of society, and inevitable.
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