Assess the view that a sociologist's perspective is the most important factor in their choice both of research methods and topics to investigate ( 33 marks )
Discuss issues regarding their choice of research methods ⚠
Practical issues of time and cost - positivists would favour the less costly and time consuming research methods; they wish to discover patterns not meanings.
Ethical issues of confidentiality, informed consent, protection from psychological and physical harm, deception and so forth. Issues such as these commonly appear with the more interpretivist type research methods e.g. unstructured interviews, observations and so on.
Representative issues relating to if your research/sample size can be generalised to the general population. For example, research focusing purely on males and crime rates cannot be generalised to the entire population for obvious reasons.
Example - e.g. Durkheim's research surrounding suicide.
Reliability issues relating to if your research can be repeated in different situations, meaning the same method is used, same questions, but just with a different sample perhaps. This also is more of a prominent issue when related to methods that interpretivists favour.
Theoretical issues relating to whether the research method used is favoured by positivists or interpretivists. Quantitative or qualitative data.
P.E.R.V.E.R.T
A prime example of the difference between interpretivists and positivists 🎌
Durkheim was a French sociologist and a positivist. Positivists believe that society can and should be studied scientifically and that sociology should model itself on the logic and methods of the natural sciences. By doing so, they are able to observe patterns and produce laws of cause and effect to explain said patterns in human behaviour.
Durkheim's aim, through studying suicide using positivist methods, was to prove that sociology was a distinct and genuinely scientific discipline. He also wanted to show that human behaviour is caused by social facts, which are social forces (features of society that affect an individual and how they act etc.)
In order to study suicide and what causes it, Durkheim studied the quantitative data of official statistics to identify patterns. (could speak of the ads and disads here.)
Interpretivists disagree with Durkheim and argue that suicide rates are social constructs because a suicide is interpreted by the coroner. Douglas argues that using qualitative data would be more beneficial than the use of quantitative data e.g. suicide notes, diaries, interviews of survivors and relatives. He sees suicides as being classed based around meanings. (could speak of the ads and disads here also.)
It is through this study that we can assume that Functionalists base their target topics on ones that focus on social facts. For example, the Sex Role Theory based on the assumed shared socialisation of females and males.
Sociological research and its influence on social policy ❗
Electoral Popularity - It must appeal to the general population when voting occurs.
Policy Differences of Governments - Research must reflect the values of the government in power e.g. whether they value science or perspective.
Globalisation - International organisations sometimes influence policies of other countries.
Critical Sociology - Marxists are not very likely to influence social policy because they are against capitalism and therefore, the government.
Cost - Governments don't always have the funds.
Functionalism and Positivism - Scientifically investigate the social problems, which offers them objective information about the extent and explanation of said problems and the potential cure in the form of policy recommendations.
Marxism - The answer to society's problems is to abolish capitalism as policies created benefit the ruling, powerful classes, not the working classes.
Feminism - Claim that the state perpetuates women's subordination through their policies. Despite this, according to Liberal Feminists, some created have began to create an equal society for men and women e.g. anti-discrimination act. Radical Feminists claim that some policies they created have allowed women to escape patriarchal control and the threat of domestic violence e.g. women's refuges.
Postmodernism - Claim it is impossible to discover the objective truth with all research findings being uncertain, so they see it best not to get involved.