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Theoretical issues in sociological research - Coggle Diagram
Theoretical issues in sociological research
Interpretivist methodology
Verstehen:
must achieve this with humans, listen and engage to understand
sociology cannot be science as human beings cannot be treated the same way particles do, we create subjective meaning, not automatic predictable responses, all interpret stuff differently
Rapport:
connect with people
Grounded theory:
go in blind, find stuff you weren't looking for
Ethnographic research:
go out among real people, live and breathe their lives, find out what its like
Macro-scale approach
Preferred methods:
unstructured & group interviews
observation & participant observation
personal documents
Data:
qualitivative
valid
Interpretivist studies of suicide:
official statistics is just human interpretation, some countries define suicide differently, Jack Douglas looked at this
coroners, cause of death not objective, 'common sense knowledge', many leave cause of death as open verdict, Maxwell Athinson looked at this
interviews, apply interpretivist method asking why people attempted suicide, majority of men interviewed said it was due to identity issues, Michel Dovais did these interviews
Positivist methodology
the "scientific approach", looks at causation, hypothesis testing, trends and patterns to find causation, eliminate and test independent variables until you find independent variable of causation, macro-scale approach
Preferred methods:
experiments
questionnaires & structured interviews
official statistics
Data:
quanitative
reliable and representative
Positivist study of suicide:
Emile Durkheim (1897), 'le suicide'
wanted to prove suicide is a variable impacted by social causes even if it seems personal
gathers official statistics on suicide at macro scale
multi-variate analysis (eliminates what cannot prove cause)
finds patterns that Northern-European countries higher than Southern
he said cause for this was religion of Roman-catholic emphasis on community, but protestant focus on individuality of religion
countries with higher suicide rates have higher emphasis on individuality
casuation = amount of social regulation & social integration
Reliability:
standardised, replicated precisely when repeated same results should be produced
only certain methods
positivist
Validity:
true, genuine and in-depth picture of the subject matter
verstehen
interpretivist
Representativeness:
extent a sample reflects a typical cross-section of group or society
allows generalisability
positivist
Objectivity:
unbiased, impartial and value free basis
without prejudice or subjectivity
data processing and conducting
impossible to get both reliability & validity