methods of sociological enquiry- experiments

sociology and science

key ideas of positivism

• human behaviour comes from a response to observable facts
• this allows cause and effect statements
• direct observation should be used to study society
• production of quantitative data allows measurements and provides evidence for theory
• need to loock for social causes of events
• focus on social institutions
• this means sociology can be a science and can be value free
• scientific models of research can be followed

key theorists

comte

• sociology is a positive science of society
• application of natural scientific methods

durkheim

• social facts are things
• sociologists can be objective and value free

marx

• theories based on cause and effect models
• empirical data used to determine the effects of capitalism on social classes

critics of positivism

popper- hypothetico-deductive model

• cumulative knowledge
• sociological theory cannot be falsified by empirical research
• hard to find evidence for abstract ideas and concepts
• no hypothesis can be finally proven to be true
• there is always a chance of an exception
• exceptions are used to disprove an hypothesis
• aim of a researcher is to disprove their hypothesis
• the more an hypothesis can stand up to tests, the more likely it is to be correct
• hypothetico- a predicted answer to a research question
• deductive- hypotheses are drawn from a number of resources, including observation and previous research, process of working something out from the general to the particular

kuhn- paradigms

• science is a social construction
• limited ability to claim value freedom
• a paradigm is a set of values, ideas, beliefs and assumptions about a topic or phenomena
• paradigms are learned by scientists in their training, and they come to accept them as the norm
• if the weight of evidence becomes too much a paradigm shift may occur
• this is regarded as a scientific revolution- new ideas replace old ones but all evidence is again made to fit the new over-arching idea

the experiment- laboratory and field

• giddens (1989) - an experiment can be defined as an attempt, within artificial conditions established by an investigator, to test the influence of one or more variables upon others

lab experiments

• method associated with the natural sciences
• used to test hypotheses, in a situation where variables can be controlled
• important variables can be manipulated in order to measure the impact on the object/subject under study
• lack of a natural setting
• how do experimenters find their participants

field experiments

• method- carried out in a 'natural' setting; 'everyday situations'
• e.g. on the street, in the classroom
• less ability of the experimenter to identify and control all variables in the field
• seen to be closer to 'real life' and therefore people will behave 'naturally'
• e.g. garfinkeland his disruption of 'social order'

variables (independent and dependent)

• variable- social phenomenon that changes in response to another phenomenon
• dependent variable changes as a result of the independent variable being changed
• independent variable can be changed by the researcher to discover the impact of change on the dependent variable

strengths and limitations of experiments

lab experiments

strengths

• variables can be controlled 
• …