Theory

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  • Created by: Sarah
  • Created on: 10-06-13 12:17
Who were the three main functionalist sociologists?
Durkheim, Parsons and Merton
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What type of sociologist was Durkheim and what were hisn main concerns?
He was an early positivist concerned with rapid change within society
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What does rapid change do?
Gets rid of old norms without creating new ones creating normlessness
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He identified two types of society, what were they?
Traditional- strong collective concscience Modern-individualistic division of labour
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What is a social fact?
Something that exists above and beyond the individual shaping behaviour
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What did Parsons think society functioned like and what was this called?
Like an organism- ORGANIC ANOLOGY
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According to Parsons through what two devices does integration occur?
Through socialisation and social control
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Parsons sees society as a separate system with its own needs, what are they?
AGIL - Adaption, Goal attainment, Integration and Latency
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What were Mertons internal critiques of functionalism?
He said society wasn't as smooth and parsons thought and that society doesn't always have functional unity, isn't always universally functional and often has manifest and latent funtions
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What are the logical criticisms?
Teleology and the fact that some theories are unfalsifiable (cant prove or disprove them)
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What do conflict views say about functionalism?
It is an ideology
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What do post-modernists say about functionalism?
It is a meta-narrative
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Who was the Marxist front runner and what did he believe?
Karl Marx (19 century), believed the root to understanding society comes through a conflict view that Capitalism and the ruling class are continually exploiting the working class.
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What is historic materialism?
Marx's view that humans work to meet basic material needs, over the centuries a division of labour occurs people are defined by class
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What does capitalism do to small businesses and their own workers?
It polarises the small businesses by becoming too hard to compete with then polarises their workers by paying the lowest wages possibel.
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How do Marxists say we can end the exploitation of Capitalism?
State revolution and communism- by becoming aware of the exploitation and overthrowing capitalism creating a classless society
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What are two criticisms of Marxism?
Status and power also play a large role in inequality (Weber) and Marxism places too much on economic determinism (we can bring about change through out conscious efforts)
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What are the two types of Marxism?
Humanistic (Gramsci and Hegemony) and Scientific (Althusser ISA + RSA)
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What do some feminists criticise sociology as being?
Malestream
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Whats do liberal feminists want and how to they say this is achievable?
They want equal rights and believe in progressive change to get there
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According to feminists sexist attitudes about gender are...
Gender and culturally constructed
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What do radical feminists believe?
All men oppress all women and patriarchy is universal
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What are personal relationships?
Political because men still dominate
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In what ways can women overcome patriarchy and be liberated?
Separatism, conscious raising and political lesbianism
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What do Marxist feminists see women as doing?
Being the reserve army of labour, absorbing mens anger and reproducing labour through unpaid domestic work
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What are the two ideologies in Marxist feminist's eyes?
The ideology of Familism (Barrett) and Femininity
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Dual system feminists take on which two views?
Patriarchy and Capitalism
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What is difference feminism?
Feminists who accept every woman's experience is different so we cant classify all into one group
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What do post-structuralist feminists believe in?
Believe in the power to define and anti-essentialism
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What is Weber's social action theory?
Level of cause- structural factors shape behaviour + Level of meaning- the meanings we attatch to actrions
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What are the types of social action?
Instrumentally rational, value rational, traditional and affectual
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What is Mead's symbolic internationalism?
The idea that we attatch meaning and symbols to things that are significant and we take the role of the other
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What 2 processes do we undertake according to Goffmans dramaturgical model?
Preservation of self and impression management + using props for roles
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What do phenomenologists think about the world?
All we can know is what the mind tells us and we can only make sense of it by constructing mental categories
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What does Schutz add to this argument?
He says the meanings we apply vary according to context and we organise these typifications with teh rest of society and that we follow a recipe knowledge
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Who is the main ethnomethodologist?
Garfinkel
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What does he think about the objective structure?
He rejects it
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What is indexicality?
Meanings are always potentially unclear
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What is reflexivity?
Use of commonsense knowledge
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What do ethnomethodologists often get accused of ?
Only studying trivial matters where the outcome is no great surprise to anyone
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What does Giddens say?
We can and should combine action and structural to create a duality structure
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How can we make a change?
By reflexively monitoring our actions and sometimes our actions have unintended consequences
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What is the main project to do with globalisation and what is it?
The enlightenment project- the idea that we can discover true knowledge of our society through reason and science
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Do Post-modernists subscribe to it, why?
No- because no theory has absolute truth and the media produce images so our identity is disabled
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What are the criticisms of this?
It is wrong to assume people cant distinguish from what is real and the media
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What is TLM and do they subscribe to EP?
Theories of late modernity and yes
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What are the Marxist theories of post modernity?
They believe in EP and say that the new society is just the most recent stage of capitalism
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What does Max Weber say about the importance of values in society?
They can never be proved or disproved
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Where should values be present in research?
As a guide and in hypothesis testing but not present in actual process of gathering data
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What do 20th century positivists think about values?
They should be kept kept out of research and are irrelevant- we should remain morally neutral
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What do committed sociologists thinks about values?
We should openly take sides and it is undesirable to be value neutral
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Who's side should we take?
Becker says we should take the side of the underdog as too many studies are carried out on big powers such as police
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If all perspectives involve values, what are findings?
Just a reflection of one persons values: not objective facts so there is no way of judging if one view is truer than the other
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What is the Positivist perspective on whether sociology can and should be a science?
They believe it is desirable to apply the methods of natural sciences to sociology to solve problem
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What types of methods do they use to achieve this?
Quantitative e.g. questionnaires
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What is the Interpretivist view on how society should be measured and should it be scientific?
It should be about peoples internal meanings and should not be scientific because sociology studies humans with a concsiousness
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What methods do they use?
Qualitative methods e.g unstructured interviews
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What are the 2 versions of internationalists?
Phenomenologists and ethnomethodologists
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What do post-modernists think of science?
That it is just someones truth and shouldn't be used as a model
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What does Karl Popper say makes a good theory?
One that is falsifiable but when tested stands its ground and explains a lot
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What are the implications of this?
Some predictions such as Marx's prediction there will be a revolution can never be proved
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What is Kuhn's scientific paradigm?
A shared framework of beliefs like like the world once was believed to be flat
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What are the stages involved with creating a new paradigm?
1. normal anomalies 3.crisis 4.scientific revolution
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Realists identify two types of scientific systems, what are they?
Open and Closed
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What is the difference between a social problem and a sociological problem?
A social problem causes public misery and calls for action to solve, a sociological problem calls for a sociological explanation
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What are sociologists influence on social policy?
there is no guarantee governments will take action on their findings as they have to have electoral popularity
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What are functionalist perspectives on social policy?
They promote a value consensus and are for the good of all
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What are the post modernist views on social policy?
No one findings can benefit the whole of society
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What are the Marxist views on social policy?
They give the state a human face and help maintain exploitation
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What are the feminist views on social policy?
They benefit men and maintain patriarchy
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What are the New Right views on social policy?
The state should have limited involvement e.g Murray and the underclass
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Card 2

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What type of sociologist was Durkheim and what were hisn main concerns?

Back

He was an early positivist concerned with rapid change within society

Card 3

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What does rapid change do?

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Card 4

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He identified two types of society, what were they?

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Card 5

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What is a social fact?

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