Theory and Methods Transcript PDF

Theory and Methods 1 video transcript:-welcome to this chapter tu sociology topic video on theory and methods focused on feminism we've looked at feminism throughout the specification where it's been applied to certain areas of study such as crime education family and beliefs among dollars but it's...

Theory and Methods 1 video transcript:-welcome to this chapter tu sociology topic video on theory and methods focused on feminism we've looked at feminism throughout the specification where it's been applied to certain areas of study such as crime education family and beliefs among dollars but it's worth reminding ourselves of some of the key ideas behind feminism before looking at the approach in more depth feminism is a conflict theory that suggests that power in society is divided on the basis of gender they suggest that patriarchal oppression of women exists in all sections of society in employment at home education and media they also suggest that the study of sociology has enlarged being male stream in other words male theorists focusing on the issues that are of concern to males and certainly early feminism focused on the study of female issues and the representations of women in society however feminism has evolved over time to deal with contemporary issues surrounding gender differences and has a particular focus in contemporary society on the intersectionality of women's experiences examining differences based upon social class ethnicity sexuality disability age religion and geographical location which gives feminism a broad appeal into looking it are gender differences in the 21st century feminism as an approach has consistently evolved to tackle the issues that women face in contemporary society the first wave of feminism was concerned with the political equality of women and their rights for representation in society from writers such as Mary Wollstonecraft and Harriet Martineau through to the suffragettes and suffragists the first wave of feminism consistently fought over a period exceed in a hundred years to gain universal suffrage the right to vote for women which came about in 1928 the second wave of feminism commenced in the post-world War two period and was focused upon the social and economic equality of women in society it championed equal rights and equal pay for women in the workplace and addressed issues of female emancipation from social norms of what of women being the housewife or mother leading figures in the second wave feminism what Ann Oakley who examined gender differences at home and the philosopher Simone to move wire this is also the period associated with women's liberation movement in the late 1950s and early 1960s which typifies the attitude of social change in post-war USA in Europe however critics of second wave feminism stated it did not do enough to address the differences of all women often ignoring those of lower social classes minority ethnic backgrounds or LGBTQ women from the criticisms rose third wave feminism examining the different experiences that women face globally whilst in Europe this was focused on changing social perceptions of women in areas of the developing world this was focused on giving women reproductive rights and tackling issues such as female genital mutilation and forced marriage more recently fourth wave feminism has emerged focusing on the empowerment of women using digital technologies and social media to encourage and support female achievements perhaps the most notable movement of this era has been the hashtag me to campaign tackling historical sexual abuse of women there are different branches of feminism and each takes a different approach to the issues that women face in society liberal feminism looks to address gender inequality by utilizing the existing systems and structures in place and pressing for legal changes to address inequality in society this approach has been successful in introducing legislation such as the Equal Pay Act the sexual Discrimination Act the legalization of abortion availability of contraception on prescription the removal of the marital rape exclusion clause and the Equality Act to name but a few it is also addressed issues such as educational underachievement breaking down barriers to education for girls particularly in male-dominated domains and influenced girls to aim higher and pursue careers that were once seen as reserved for males this has had numerous impacts on gender equality in society addressing education family life work and social stratification whilst liberal feminism has had notable success critics would suggest that inequality remains but for liberal feminists there is a march of progress towards equality and this continues with liberal feminists tackling newer forms of exploitation such as media representations of women being challenged Marxist feminism examines the dual exploitation that women face in society both from males and from capitalism much of our understanding of Marxist feminism has come from examining gender roles at home particularly when discussing the domestic division of labor and that is one of Marxist feminist lasting contributions Benson's description of women being kept out of the job market so they may be used to the reserve army of labour taking on in times of economic growth and let go in times of recession highlights difficulties that women face in employment finances colorful descriptions of the way that women absorb the frustrations of workers highlights the dual exploitation of women by men and capitalism a further contribution comes from Delphian Lanyrd who suggested the unpaid labor women to at home greatly benefits capitalism and their husbands Marxist feminism also looks at the patriarchal nature of employment and the assumptions made about women's ability and commitment to their careers Marxist feminism as a challenge the notion that women should stay at home and look after the family and examine concepts in employment such as a glass ceiling in the gender pay gap however critics would suggest that there have been changes in women's employment with a decline of traditional manufacturing growth industry such as a service sector have become feminized as as the workplace however Marxist feminist would suggest that the existing wage gap and the under-representation of females and positions of power would suggest there is still some way to go a third branch of feminism to consider is radical feminism and this is perhaps the most maligned in society often parodied and linked to negative stereotypes of feminism radical feminists suggest that the patriarchy is present in all aspects of society and is so ingrained into the consciousness of society that the only solution is to restructure in a bid to gain equality they protest that many of the recent developments in employment education and home life are merely token gestures and superficial in comparison to the oppression of women that is still carried out there are more extreme branches of radical feminism such as female supremacy and female separatism that advocate lack of contact with males and political lesbianism in order to create a society that puts women's needs at the forefront radical feminism had a huge influence on our understanding of society with theorists such as Millett suggesting that males will use physical psychological and ideological force to keep women in a position of subservience and with the emergence of alt-right of men's rights groups it can be suggested that Millett is correct so too with the negative stereotyping of feminism in the media the little in an ideology that promotes equality as radical and dangerous critics of radical feminism would suggest that they often neglect the progress that has been made and they have been criticized for ignoring the intersectional nature of women's experiences one of the contributions of families and that often goes unnoticed is their contribution towards the methodology that is used in social research feminists have often rejected the cold and objective nature of Maelstrom sociology suggested that it shows a lack of empathy for those that it studies treating them little better than Lab Rats Oakleigh in her research suggested adaptation of interpretivist ideas to create feminist methodology using unstructured interviews that focused on empathetic understanding of the lives of the women they studied as well as offering practical advice in dealing with their issues locally contended that the role of a sociologist is to offer help when needed rather than the detached role of positivist methods tended to convey furthermore feminist interviewing encourages those who were interviewed to move the conversation forward and to engage in the issues present this form of interview then becomes a call to action which some sociologists will criticize for its objective nature and potential for interviewer bias when evaluating the impacts of feminism a simple evaluation is the extent to which feminism has been effective the primary aim of feminism has been to tackle inequality but inequalities between women's experiences on a global scale remain whilst progress has been made in the West the position of women in the developing world remains precarious with patriarchal oppression lack of control over reproductive rights inability to choose a partner or display sexual preferences come in place the intersectional nature of women's experiences are not always address with critics stating that the needs of Western middle- class women are given precedence in the media over those in the developing world while women in the West are fighting for a seat in the boardroom women in the developing world are fighting for their lives a further criticism is that feminism can be seen as quite fragmented approach there are many examples of disagreements within the feminist movement that detract from the progress that has been made recent examples of disagreements over the position of trans women have highlighted some of these ideological differences and led to different branches of farrell ism being in conflict with one another however there is much evidence to suggest that feminism has made a huge contribution to the field of sociology it's introduced a greater understanding of the gender differences that exist in society and introduce new perspectives that have challenged the boys club of mail stream sociology home and family life women's experiences of crime religion education and poverty have all been illuminated by feminist thought whilst closer analysis of media stereotyping of women has been advanced by the feminist movement unlike some other theories feminism has and continues to evolve to meet the contemporary challenges including postmodern and post-structuralism intersectional feminism and female empowerment movements such as digital feminism of all evolved with society and feminism has changed the lives of many women both in the UK and globally through legal changes access to education greater employment opportunities and allowing women to have control over their reproductive rights while some may criticize feminism for not going far enough the scale of gender equality means that feminism will remain relevant for many years to come that concludes his 230 u sociology topic video on theory methods focused on feminism thanks for watching 2.welcome to this tutor to you sociology topic video on research methods looking at positivism positivism is a methodological approach to research in society that was developed amongst others by emil durkheim positivism approaches the study of society in a systematic and scientific way and the argument of early positivists was that individuals could be studied in a similar way to the natural sciences because behaviors could be observed and recorded in a scientific way these behaviors or social facts could be measured and quantified to allow researchers to study cause and effect relationships between social institutions and individuals in society by using a scientific approach sociologists would be able to test theories through repeating research and checking the findings to make sure that they were consistent with sociological theories of behavior one of the key ideas of positivism is that society is shaped by social institutions and that these institutions things like education family religion work shape the behavior of individuals positivists therefore take a more structural view of society looking at the bigger picture rather than the interactions between individuals positivism is a form of macro sociology concerned with the impact of social forces and how these shape individual behaviors as a consequence positivists generally look to collect quantitative data that is data in numerical form because they see it as being more objective and scientific rather than relying upon a researcher's interpretation of events by doing so they believe that society can be studied in the same way as the natural sciences and that sociology can be used to predict social behaviors as positivists prefer objectivity they tend to select methods that will provide researchers with quantitative data that can be analyzed and trends established and predictions made as they view the scientific method as key they use both lab and field experiments in their research both of these methods can provide causal relationships between factors although to different degrees based upon the control over variables lab experiments have more control while field experiments are more open to being influenced by external variables another method used by positivists is the comparative method this involves comparing data usually official statistics over time different locations and different social groups to analyze trends and patterns and behavior the most notable example of this was durkheim's research into suicide across western europe in the late 19th century other methods used by positivists are surveys but surveys that have a more rigid structure such as closed questionnaires and structured interviews this is because these methods can be easily quantified and replicated which gives them more reliability finally positivists would prefer non-participant observations as they are more detached than participant observations and behaviours can be observed from a distance without researcher interference of course this is not an exhaustive list of methods that positivists use but these are some of the more common methods we'll look first at some of the strengths of positivist methods they can provide a cause and effect relationship between events and behaviors most likely in lab experiments or correlations between two factors this is a feature of scientific research positivist methods also produce quantitative data that is data in numerical form and this is seen as being more objective than qualitative data because it does not require value judgments to try and analyze it it's also seen as being more scientific which means it may be more likely to be generalized to the population and this gives positivist methods a further advantage it's preferred by governments and non-governmental organizations as its large-scale applications means it can be used to help formulate social policies and decision-making a final strength is that positivist methods are able to be reproduced by other researchers and results can be checked to ensure they are correct they are also able to be disproved something which is referred to as the falsification principle a key element of scientific research positivist methods though do have their limitations they often lack validity they might demonstrate changes in behavior but often don't provide a rationale behind those changes with judgment being subjective and imposed upon those being studied which means it may not be representative of the views of all of those being studied it also focuses too heavily on structural elements of society and can be seen as deterministic it ignores the agency and free will of individuals to choose how they react to social forces something that is becoming more relevant in contemporary society he has very fixed approaches to research that don't always reflect the diversity and fluidity of contemporary society partly because it searches for a one-size-fits-all theory to understand human behavior and it fails to gain an insight into the lives of those being studied people's attitudes and opinions are often reduced to numerical values which do not demonstrate the importance of the meanings and motivations of why people do things finally we'll look at some examples of positivist research the most famous probably is durkheim's study of suicide where he compared suicide statistics across european countries and across time have found that suicide was influenced by the level of integration and regulation individuals were subjected to in both crime and education we've come across a lot of research based upon positivist ideologies particularly looking at the rates of offending achievement and how factors such as social class ethnicity and gender impact on those and in social attitude surveys how labor is divided in the home consumer purchasing habits social media usage and of course the census possibly the largest piece of social research conducted in the uk every 10 years are all based on positivist ideologies that concludes this tutor sociology topic video on research methods focusing on positivism thanks for watching 3.welcome to this tutor to use sociology topic video on research methods looking at interpretivism interpretivism is a methodological approach that differs from positivism in that it examines the individual interpretations that people have about their social behaviors it is based upon trying to understand the meanings people give and the motivations people have to act in specific manner in different contexts rather than developing a formulaic understanding of society as positivists attempt to do interpreted his focus on trying to gain an insight into the unique experiences of individuals and groups rather than approaching social issues objectively interpretivists suggest that researchers need to develop empathy or as weber stated vashtayan with the subjects of the research in order to better understand the social location of these people one of the key ideas of interpretivism is that society is constructed of individuals and that the decisions and behaviors of these individuals then shape social institutions such as education family religion and media well positivism focuses on structural explanations and tries to develop a one-size-fits-all approach interpretivism looks at microsociology the meanings that individuals prescribe to events rather than society's meta-narrative interpretivists also favor qualitative data that is more subjective because individuals will have their own opinions on events finally interpretivism suggests that due to individuals having free will and being able to act differently albeit within the confines of social structures that humans cannot be studied scientifically put simply different people will react in different ways interpretivists prefer more qualitative methods of research than positivists methods such as observations either participant or to a lesser extent non-participant give them a first-hand account of human behaviors participant observations also allow researchers to experience the activities of the group which heightens their understanding of the group's experience secondary sources such as personal and historical documents also give a greater insight into the lives of others while the use of surveys focuses on gathering written and verbal accounts of meanings and motivations through open-ended questionnaires and unstructured interviews that allow those being research the voice interpretivist methods have certain strengths they are higher in validity than positivist methods as they probe deeper than the surface of social facts that positivists prefer they uncover the meanings and motivations of people's actions whether this is observed verbally or in writing they produce qualitative data which helps researchers to uncover hidden meanings they may not have understood typically researchers are more likely to come from middle class backgrounds and by utilizing qualitative data they have the ability to understand the views of those outside of their social class or ethnic group furthermore they champion the underdog in society providing a voice to those that often go neglected in other forms of research or in the media and finally they can gain an insight into hard- to-reach groups as interpretivist research into deviant subcultures and feminist research into the lives of women who are abused and oppressed has demonstrated of course there are limitations to using interpretivist methodology they're difficult to replicate particularly methods such as participant observations and unstructured interviews which means they can lack reliability critics will also suggest that too often the researcher can have too much of an influence in the research interpreting actions that will fit in with their theoretical position or the aims of their research examples of this are leading questions or over recording of behaviors that fit in with their hypothesis rejecting secondary sources that contradict their findings are possible when used in interpretivist methods a further limitation is that due to the in-depth nature their research tends to be small scale and focused on groups that may be seen as atypical therefore it's difficult to generalize interpretivist research to the wider population finally their approach is seen as being unscientific particularly by the scientific community as it is not able to be falsified this means it's often rejected for the purposes of decision and policy making however interpretivists would suggest that sociologists should be independent of government and that the role of sociology is to act as a commentary on society some examples of interpretivist research from across the specification are willis's learning to labour which utilized a range of interpretivist methods to investigate the experience of education that working class boys had jack young's research into deviancy amplification looked at the process of labeling and cracking down on marijuana uses notting hill leading to further deviance and a range of sociologists have utilized interpretivist methodologies in education fuller archer mcengile to name but a few examining the impacts of education on different social groups that concludes this cheetah to use sociology topic video on research methods focusing on interpretivism thanks for watching 4&5. welcome to this tutor to you sociology topic video on therian methods looking at marxism before we look at the contributions of marxism it's worth recapping on some of the key concepts associated with marxism that you may have covered earlier on in the specification marxism is a conflict theory and one that suggests that in a capitalist society there exists a class conflict between the ruling class the bourgeoisie and the subject class or the working class the proletariat over competing interests and resources according to marx the ruling class exploits the labor of the subject class in order to gain as much profit as possible this includes paying them low wages making them work long hours giving them no holidays or sick benefits and stopping them from challenging their authority by threatening them with unemployment they can do this because they own the forces of production the factories machinery and materials that needed to produce goods for people to consume in contrast the subject class only have their own labor and they want to be able to afford the goods that they produce and so look to earn as much money as possible but the more they are paid the less profit there is for the ruling class and that is where the conflict between the ruling class and the subject class exists of course class conflict is not as simple as one side wanting profit and the other side wanting higher wages and in this video we're going to examine some of the more subtle forms of exploitation and alienation that exists according to those from the marxist tradition when we think about marxism inevitably we focus on the works of karl marx and despite marx's ideas being over 150 years old marx remains highly influential to those that follow his ideologies in a-level sociology we have come across marks in some of the units stratification beliefs work poverty and welfare but his legacy stretches beyond those topic areas especially given his influence on the work of neo-marxist theorists many might see neo-marxism as a separate perspective to marxism but essentially neo-marxism is a more contemporary update on marxist ideas maintaining the focus on inequality between the social classes but utilizing the work of other theorists rather than adhering solely to the ideas of marx there are two key theories we're going to look at in this video alongside marx and they are antonio gramsci who is present in beliefs and stratification and put forward a version of humanistic marxism and louis althusa who we've come across in education and crime and to a lesser extent in family life and his concepts of structural marxism as an extension you could also look at the work of the frankfurt school the likes of adorno and marcus whose combination of psychoanalysis and philosophy shifted marxist ideas away from the traditional interpretations of marx towards a more novel understanding of inequality in society but first we'll look at the work of karl marx now it's difficult to try and explain all of marx's ideas in a 10 minute video but some of the key concepts that marx introduced with the conflict between the two social classes the bourgeoisie and the proletariat and detailing the conflict between those at the time of the industrial revolution across europe one of marx's concepts that has been explored throughout the specification is the concept of the infrastructure and the superstructure and this has influenced many different theorists mark suggested that the bourgeoisie had economic control over the proletariat but they were also able to control their behaviors in a more subtle way than withholding wages or denying them access to goods marx argued that because the bourgeoisie controlled the economic base society's infrastructure work the economy banking etc they were also able to control the superstructure of society that is the social cultural and political institutions and this helps to keep the proletariat from revolting for example education is controlled by the state which teaches students not to question authority the newspapers are owned by the ruling class which teaches subservience and deference to those in power laws are made in the interests of the ruling class who make up the majority of the government even the family reinforces the ideas that they have been fed by institutions such as religion education and media our arts and culture are based upon the tastes of the elite rather than those of the subject class and this theory arguably influenced other thinkers for example borgio and his ideas on cultural capital we can argue that concepts such as the ethnocentric curriculum are rooted in marx's ideas of the superstructure while representations of the elite in the media are another example of this in action a further concept defined by marx was that of alienation mark suggested that people drew meaning from work and felt a sense of accomplishment from seeing the finished product they worked so hard to create marks argued that the process of industrialization removed that sense of accomplishment from workers and alienated them from any joy of achievement marx also argued that under capitalism the bourgeoisie wielded more power and eventually society would become more polarized and inevitably when the proletariat realized their exploitation and alienation at the hands of the bourgeoisie they would revolt while many things marx argued came to pass one major criticism remains is that capitalism has yet to be overthrown antonio gramsci built upon marx's work by suggesting the concept of hegemony gramski suggested that the ruling class maintained its dominance in society through passing on hegemonic ideas through the institutions they controlled these ideas justified the control of the ruling class had over the subject class ideas such as the ruling class were better educated had more moral fiber burn were paternalistic towards the masses gramski in contrast to marx believed that many of the subject class were aware of this what he referred to as a dual consciousness and argued that through education a new generation of intellectuals would rise to challenge the hegemonic ideas of society and the subject classes would revolt we can see evidence of gramski's idea in contemporary society with challenges to the dominant ideologies of neoliberalism coming from left-leaning academics and writers we can also apply these ideas to our understanding of education and the need for increased social mobility of minority ethnic groups and working class pupils i further near marxist thinker and one we've come across several times is louis althuza althus's concept of structural marxism can also be seen to be heavily influenced by the traditional marxist view he argued that the ruling class uses different methods to control the populace the ruling class are heavily outnumbered by the subject class and so need to instill structural methods of control so their position at the top of the social hierarchy goes unchallenged although suggested the ruling class utilized two different apparatuses in order to achieve this firstly they control the way people act and the way people think through the ideological state apparatus this is a subtle method of using social institutions to alter the way people think so they do not challenge those above them in education this is achieved through the myth of meritocracy simultaneously encouraging children with opportunities whilst denying them equal access to education due to material deprivation this can also be seen in media religion and family with norms and values being passed on by those in those in control of the institution if you behave you are rewarded you go to heaven people will like you the role of the ideological state apparatus is to make people conform however if people do not conform then the ruling class utilize the repressive state apparatus the use of coercion and physical control by institutions such as the police the military and the judiciary the more effective the isa performs the less the rsa has to do and this can be evidence in education crime and other areas of the specification marxism and neo- marxism have been criticized by others for being deterministic both socially and economically marx's ideas have been criticized for assuming people are cultural dopes unaware of their exploitation but more recent theories such as elliot suggest that people are aware of their exploitation but choose to conform all the same marx is also criticized for being economically determinist stating the economy and capitalism were the key factors in exploitation rather than examine other aspects of exploitation such as social location gender and ethnicity however it can be argued that neo-marxism sought to address some of these claims there is also a long-standing debate in sociology between weber and the ghost of marx weber criticized mark's idea of polarization instead suggesting that the ruling class would expand the middle classes by giving them limited access to wealth in return for being compliant this can be evidenced by the expansion of the middle class in the uk however despite these criticisms marxism remains an incredibly relevant social economic and philosophical ideology he has strongly influenced democratic socialism in south america and sections of europe and has evolved to try and adapt to the crises of capitalism that the world has faced in the 21st century part of this is because mark's ideas of polarization and capitalism reaching the point where surplus value can no longer be expanded have proven to be correct this is no more evident than the polarization of political ideologies in the uk in recent years while the collapse of businesses and the growth of multinational corporations suggests that wealth is being concentrated into fewer hands than ever before this is in part due to the impacts of globalization and cultural imperialism which fit neatly into marx's explanation of the infrastructure and the superstructure marxism remains incredibly relevant in the 21st century as a critique of the failings of capitalist society that concludes this tutor to you sociology topic video on ethereum methods looking at marxism thanks for watching. welcome to this tutor to use sociology topic video on research methods looking at observations observations are a research method where a researcher observes the behavior of a group or of individuals in order to witness first-hand their social behaviors it gives the researcher a far more in-depth look at how people demonstrate behaviors and uncovers other behaviors and motivations that might not be witnessed through other sociological methods observations involve the development of an observation schedule a set list of times that the researcher will observe the behaviors of a group or individuals in some observations this is more flexible than others for example covert participant observations where researchers may have to take whatever opportunities they can to observe social behaviors observations are usually preferred by interpretivist sociologists and particularly by those who look for an ethnographic approach to study in society however some positivists will use observations but they tend to be more structured and non-participants in nature there are two main types of observations participant where the researcher is up close with those being studied and taking part in their activities this gives them an insight into the world view of those people in its higher invalidity the second form is non-participant and this method involves researchers observing the behavior whilst detached from the actions of the group which makes the research more objective and less open to observer influence both of these methods can be conducted either overtly with those being researched aware of the presence of the researcher and possibly the aims of the research or covertly where those being observed are unaware they are being observed and so act more naturally covert observations particularly are useful in accessing hard-to-reach groups however this method is far from simple to undertake observations have several key advantages over using other methods they allow the researcher to witness behaviour first hand including the interactions between individuals which may give them clues to the meanings and motivations behind those behaviors that would not be disclosed in other formats they also allow the researcher to observe people in their natural environment which increases the validity particularly covert observations if people do not know they're being researched they will act more naturally observations are also a useful method to research hard-to-access groups such as subcultures and criminal gangs these groups are less likely to take part in questionnaires and interviews and observations while small scale can be useful in expanding the knowledge of a subject area in preparation for further research into the social issues that are uncovered however there are many practical ethical and theoretical issues with observations gaining access to groups is one particularly if the researchers intend for a covert observation this would require the researcher to develop a persona to fit in with the group being studied dressing differently speaking differently and potentially changing their appearance and identity a second practical limitation is how they will record information having to record what people say or video and behaviors to look back over could put the researcher at risk even if the research is over recording information and asking for clarifications on points made could lead to frustration if it is too intrusive a researcher should blend into the background without disturbing the activities being undertaken maintaining cover is another issue with some groups if they found out they were being researched it could endanger both the aims of the research and the researcher themselves and finally observations can be costly the use of specialist equipment gaining additional qualifications or skills changing your appearance to get into a group can all impact on the cost of conducting the research there are lots of ethical issues with observations covert observations with a participant or non-participant involved a degree of deception to those being researched who may develop bonds with the researcher informed consent is another issue people may not be aware that they are being observed or the reason why and if this is the case they're not consenting protection from harm if researchers are undercover with gangs they may face threats and intimidation if uncovered even in over observations such as conducted by venkatash there is a potential for harm venkatashi studying chicago drug gangs was kidnapped as it was believed he was a rival gang member finally observers may witness illegal or immoral activities which provide them with ethical dilemmas should they inform authorities and if they do do they run the risk of losing their research and their connections with the group that they are studying theoretical issues with observations include reliability observations can be difficult to replicate given the nature of human beings and how their behaviors differ researchers can also lose objectivity if they form attachments to groups and come to empathize with their position overt observations also run the risk of having less validity as people may act differently than normal if they know they're being observed what sociologists refer to as the hawthorne effect and finally the small scale of the research means they are less likely to be representative of wider society and researchers are unable to generalize the findings to the rest of the population however some sociologists such as ethnographers would suggest that being able to generalize to the population is not the aim of their research rather it is to tell the story of those in society that do not have a voice some examples from across the specification keddie completed non-participant observations into teachers attitudes to students by attending staff meetings and listening into staffing conversations winlow worked undercover as a bounce over several years when investigating the nighttime economy and discovering links to organized and disorganized crime networks while venkatash spent several years working overtly with drug dealing gangs in chicago to see how they operated in what is seen as being a seminal piece of research that concludes this cheated to you sociology topic video on research methods focusing on observations thanks for watching 6.welcome to this T to you sociology topic video on Theory and methods looking at the theoretical approach of functionalism for those who studied some sociology functionalism is one of the key theoretical approaches that is discussed on the a level specification but what are the key concepts of functionalism and what are the key contributions of functionalism to our understanding of society functionalism is a structural consensus Theory one that believes that social institutions such as education media family and religion shape the behavior of individuals in society through passing on society's norms and values they suggest that in doing so this makes Society more harmonious as everybody is aware of the shared norms and values of society or what we call the value consensus and subscribes to society's moral codes or the collective conscience in return for Conformity social institutions ensure that the members of society have their basic needs or functional prerequisites Met food shelter and emotional support education and the ability to fulfill their own potential functionalism has been discussed throughout the specification in education crime family beliefs and many other areas is generally considered to be quite a conservative approach that looks to maintain the status quo however some theorists in the functionalist tradition focus more on the gradual evolution of society in response to significant social changes some of the key sociologists that F in the functionalist tradition we have seen across the specification namely EML durkheim tlot Parsons and Robert K Maron and in this video we will explore their ideas a little more and look at some of the applications of their ideas to contemporary Society durheim have come across an education with his ideas on the teaching specialist skills and social solidarity in crime Durham looked at some of the positive functions that crime performs for society such as boundary maintenance and the adaptation to social changes while we've also encountered durkheimian beliefs and his work on positivist methodology Parsons is another functionalist whose work we have Revisited several times in education looking at concepts of the universal and particularistic standards ascribed and achieved status the functions of family and the evolution of the nuclear family as a response to industrialization he also wrote on issues of Health Global development and social stratification amongst others finally we will look at Robert K Merton whose strain theory explained the reason people turn to Crime as a reaction to society's unequal structure mer is like other functionalists and even criticize the likes of Parsons for ignoring dysfunction in society and what's referred to as Merton's internal critique of functionalism there are other functionalists that you could study Davis and Mo and their work on education stratification or earlier theories such as August comp and Herbert Spencer who helped Define the functionist approach to studying social behaviors the first function we'll look at though is Emil durkheim who advanced the idea of the scientific study of society forming some of the foundations for sociology by using positivist methodology durine was writing at a time of great social change and suggested that by directly observing measurable social behaviors what he called social facts that sociologist could understand what the impacts of social changes such as industrialization and urbanization would be durkheim also suggested some of the key tenant of functionalism that social order could be maintain through Conformity and similarity in society offering structural explanations for social behaviors he also suggested that social order could be maintained through strengthening the social bonds or social cohesion between people suggesting that the mechanical solidarity of the past was now more organic and needed to be manipulated by institutions such as education and religion and that this would maintain the equilibrium in society but Durk also acknowledged change in society particularly through deviant by rejecting norms and values deviant behaviors drove Society forward as evidenced by his ideas on the adaptation to deviant behaviors many of durkheim's ideas remain incredibly relevant to contemporary Society particularly Concepts such as boundary maintenance which can be witnessed in the aftermath of terrorist acts a society comes together to condemn the acts and reaffirm their commitment to society's norms and values the second key functionist is tolot Parsons we've discussed Parson's ideas before and seen a lot of Parson ideas throughout the specification but one of his lasting contributions to functionalism and sociology is a description of how Society works as a system of interconnected institutions that fulfill the functional prerequisites of society Parson suggest that social institutions fulfill four functional prerequisites firstly goal attainment in a complex modern Society resources need to be organized so they can reach those that need them the most and often this is the function of politicians ensuring that the needs of the many are met the second functional prequisite is adaptation which Parson saw as the ability for the economy to provide for the material needs of the popul ation through providing meaningful employment and controlling the prices of resources by ensuring there is adequate Supply a third function is integration this is how the population comes to understand the norms and values of society which are usually transmitted through education family religion and media we can see this through the study of Education passing on the value consensus and ensuring social solidarity in society the final functional prerequisite is latency and that's separated into are two subprocesses firstly patent maintenance which prepares people for their future roles in society and promotes ideals such as meritocracy and secondly tension management the ability to release tensions and if we think back to Parson's idea of the stabilization of adult personalities or Davis and psky and and the role of prostitution and pornography in deviant we can see evidence of their functionality in par and system Parson's argument states that social changes in one part of the system will inevitably lead to changes in other sections of society or what he referred to as universal functionalism for example if politicians introduce a new initiatives such as British values this then leads to further changes across Society with funds being allocated to schools and media promoting these values and a general acceptance of those changes in wider Society however Parson's system has come under heavy criticism from another functionalist Robert K Merton meron's view is often described as the internal critique of functionalism in part because Merton identified with some of the Core Concepts of functionalism Merton was a student of Parsons at Harvard but was also inspired by the ideas of Max vber which marked him out as being somewhat different to other functionalists he criticized the concept of universal functionalism has he suggested that functionist such as Parsons ignored the dysfunction in society Merton's own strain theory suggested that there was structural inequality in society which was the root of criminal Behavior while functionally see inequality is inevitable Merton saw this as a sign of a dysfunctional Society rather than a healthy one he also criticized Parson's ideas of social institutions being interconnected suggesting that instead social institutions had functional autonomy just because attitudes to religion changed it did not necessarily mean the attitudes to education would for example meron also suggested that social institutions were not irreplaceable in the way that Parsons had suggested in his biological analogy family religion and and education were not indispensable to Merton and to a certain extent time has proved Merton correct with variations on Family Life increased secularization and homeschooling all proven his point Merton whilst nomally a functionalist often seems to contradict the ideas of Parsons who suggested a functional Utopia based on the harmonious interconnection of social institutions whereas Mery Society is being slightly more dysfunctional other criticisms of the functionalist approach focus on its iological nature Parson explained the existence of social institutions based upon their functions and this suggests that the effect is present before the cause rather than looking to prove a hypothesis that explains social behaviors functionalists are working backwards and finding explanations for something that has already happened for example durheim approach suicide based upon the effects that is the act of suicide and not the cause Durham's assertions that integration and regulation responsible for suicide and not falsifiable and this makes them unscientific had durkheim have identified the causes first then measured the effects this would have been more scientific however using that example it would have been also highly unethical functioning is also seen as being highly deterministic assuming that human behavior is stable and that people will react in similar ways to the pressures of external forces in an age of late modernity and people reflecting upon their actions can we say that this is still the case and finally it ignores much of the conflict in society while it suggests that norms and values keep Society in equilibrium it doesn't answer the question of whose norms and values are being acknowledged of course Marxist would suggest the norms and values are of the C of the capitalist elite while feminists would suggest they serve the needs of men however functionalism has made significant contributions to our understanding of society it was the first Grand narrative an attempt to understand and observe human behavior in a scientific manner in order to change society for the better it still has relevance in contemporary Society with Concepts such as boundary maintenance and social solidarity having utility in contemporary Society it also Advanced the study of society by using positivist methodologies to observe social facts it's not an overreaction to State without the likes of durkheim and Spencer sociology wouldn't have developed into a scientific discipline in the social sciences and finally whilst it may be SE is outdated and based upon Western Norms of 1950s America it still has an influence in the new right through the ideologies of right realism and neoc conservativism while it may be unfashionable and inflexible functionalism has contributed greater understanding of the roles of the family education media religion and crime to our overall understanding of society that concludes this tor to you sociology topic video on Theory and methods focusing on functionalism thank thanks for watching. 7.hi there and welcome to this a level sociology topic video on the question of whether sociology is a science some students are scared of this question either because one of the reasons they chose sociology was because they wanted to get away from science or because it seems a rather philosophical question and some resources overcomplicate it a bit so let's break this down into a few clear chunks first we can't determine whether sociology is a science or not without knowing what a science is not everyone agrees about what constitutes a science but here are some thoughts it's an organized systematic and cumulative pursuit of knowledge in which hypotheses are rigorously tested it is often suggested that scientists seek proof that their research is based on empiricism gaining knowledge through observing it and experiencing it themselves rather than just through theorizing as such science is said to be objective and neutral scientists talk about the scientific method which goes something like this pose a question you conduct some background research and then create a hypothesis test that hypothesis with experiments analyze the data and reach a conclusion these conclusions are then and results are peer reviewed and then published so that's stage one what is science now we need to consider whether sociology is like this it is positivist sociologists who argue that it is more than it should be they say that it is possible to establish objective social facts by using scientific research methods the thorough collection of empirical evidence they argue that good sociology does follow this scientific method that we've just outlined they identify a social problem or question they formulate a formulator hypothesis and that's based on research well they rarely if ever use laboratory experiments they do prefer what they consider to be reliable methods that produce quantitative data which they can analyze and that allow them to reach conclusions and those conclusions are peer-reviewed and published in academic journals so sociologists like compton durkheim were of this view durkheim's famous study on suicide was in part at least designed to establish that sociology was indeed a science and one that could explain all human behavior he approached the topic like a natural scientist testing his hypothesis that suicide rates were linked to levels of social control or social cohesion against a number of variables such as religious belief durkheim did reach conclusions supporting his hypothesis and published them in a very influential essay however his methods have been extensively criticized um even uh positivists or the positivists have criticized durkheim's study they've asked about how we can really operationalize concepts like social cohesion and social control that means how can you measure them if you're going to produce quantitative data you have to somehow measure these things and also questions about the reliability of his suicide statistics this raises the suggestion that perhaps sociology should be a science but rarely is karl popper thought that positive is sociology generally failed to be scientific that is karl popper by the way not prince philip popper argues that scientific reasoning is deductive where sociologists tend to use inductive reasoning that is popper says that scientists engage in falsification they try to prove that their hypothesis is false and if they cannot then it's the best hypothesis we have until future research inductive reasoning is trying to find evidence to prove that hypothesis is true and he argues that this is what sociologists tend to do he uses the analogy of the black swan if you had a hypothesis that all swans were white using inductive reasoning you would find lots of evidence to prove your hypothesis true everywhere it's one that you see but if you find one blacks one you've proved it false popper argues that some sociological concepts cannot be falsified and therefore are not scientific concept he particularly criticizes marxism for this how could we falsify a concept like false class consciousness if you imagine an interview do you think you're being exploited by the bourgeoisie no ah that's because of false class consciousness no it's not well you would say that because of false class consciousness etc okay so moving on to the interpretivists then social action theorists tend to have a completely different view of what sociology should be like compared with positivists they're not seeking out universal laws or indeed establishing social facts they're interested in what people think and how they feel and they know that people are not like chemicals they have agency if you put potassium in water scientists can accurately predict how it will react but if you choose to label a school pupil as a high achiever we can observe how some children react in a particular situation we can't generalize or predict the interesting thing to study then is how people interpret situations and what they think and feel this is micro sociology as opposed to macro action as opposed to structure they also argue that sociology cannot establish social facts because concepts and institutions institutions are in fact socially constructed we mentioned um durkheim's famous study on suicide earlier interpretivist criticisms of durkheim question whether you can really quantify suicide because it is a social construction rather than a social fact the statistics that you can use are the product of coroner's reports and each incident is individual each means something different to the people who were involved a lot of textbooks now bring realism into this essay too now this isn't the same as the realism you've learned in about in relation to crime and deviance so don't try and make that link that link isn't there this is another well perhaps it is a science point it comes from andrew sayer and it's the idea that there are different types of science ones that are closed or ones that are open something like chemistry is a closed science it's possible to test how one thing reacts to another by controlling the other variables but meteorology is also a science and as weather forecasters are always telling us we can't make certain predictions about what will happen we can model likely developments but sometimes it snows when nobody was expecting it or everyone's expecting rain and it's fine all day because there are so many variables at work meteorologists are not able to control them the same is true with social science because we can't establish precise laws and predictions that will always be the case does not mean that we can't carry out valuable research establish trends and correlations nor does it stop social science from being science oh and just to really confuse us there's the question of whether science is a science or at least whether science really meets the criteria we set for it earlier in the essay thomas kuhn points out that science is not really entirely objective it works within what he calls paradigms there are a set of assumptions about the world and science and mainstream science operates within those assumptions within that paradigm science that challenges that is not welcomed like papa might suggest that it would be as a form of falsification but instead it is sidelined and assumed to be wrong if such radical science can eventually break through into the mainstream then there is a paradigm shift so for example establishing that the earth goes around the sun rather than the other way around in this way kuhn suggests that sociology is a young science that is yet to find a unifying paradigm if all sociology was functionalist for example it would then behave like a science with the other perspectives rejected until there was a future paradigm shift others point out that science is funded and who funds the research might impact their conclusions which challenges the idea that science is always neutral and objective so for example research funded by oil companies has tended to be less sure of man-made global warming than all of the other research on that subject post-modernists go further and criticize the very concept of science science is the ultimate meta-narrative just a big story that seeks to explain everything ultimately it's just that a story according to post-modernists other ideas and belief systems are available and people can pick and mix those that work for them this can provide you with something in the way of a conclusion although you should also look to directly answer the question whatever precise question you've been asked and you might also want to challenge the post modern view rather than give them the last word not sure i'd want to go to a post-modern doctor if i was feeling unwell just a quick look at some of the sort of questions you could be asked on this question um on this subject um evaluate the view that sociology is a science might just get that as a straightforward essay could come up as a ten marker something like outline and explain two criticisms of the view that sociology is a science or two ways in which it might be um and then there are related topics such as evaluate the view that sociology cannot be value free or questions about objectivity and subjectivity where a lot of this same content could be used i hope that's been useful keep a look out for more revision videos and resources from tutatu and best of luck with your exams thanks for thanks for listening 8.welcome to this tutorial sociology topic video on research methods looking at questionnaires questionnaires are a versatile research method they're often used by sociologists to assess people's attitudes behaviors and motivations there are a list of questions that are distributed by sociologists through a variety of different channels to people taking part in research called respondents these questionnaires can be used to measure many different social issues and ascertain people's opinions attitudes tastes and preferences some questionnaires are mailed out to respondents either through the postal service or via email or directing to an external website other methods of distribution include researchers completing the questionnaire with the respondent in a similar way to a structured interview a final way of distributing questionnaires is to allow respondents to take the questionnaire away and complete in their own time these are often referred to as self- completion questionnaires questionnaires have several different formats based upon the types of questions being asked closed questions are those with a fixed number of responses such as yes no or a leica scale which provides responses with a statement and asks if they strongly agree agree disagree etcetera others can be multiple choice but closed questions are usually pre-coded so that they can be turned into quantitative data to give an overview of people's responses these questionnaires are particularly useful for finding out people's attitudes to issues or their intended behaviors the second form of questioning is open questioning these questions are designed to allow the respondent to provide their own unique answer to a question one that produces more contextual qualitative data that explains the meanings and motivations of people allowing researchers to understand why people act the way they do in recent times there has been a trend for combining these two types of questions gathering quantitative data on opinions and asking follow-up questions to understand the motivations behind the response in the exams students are often asked about written questionnaires or self-completion questionnaires these descriptions are suitably vague to allow better students to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of using open or closed questions rather than making assumptions about what type of questions are used questionnaires are used regularly in the social sciences and have many advantages they're relatively cheap and quick to produce so they can be distributed widely with minimal costs they are less intrusive than other methods such as interviews and observations as they don't take up much of the respondent's time and can be done at their leisure the potential scale of questionnaires particularly if online can increase the representativeness of the method with large-scale distribution possible and finally questionnaires are commonplace in society being used frequently by businesses to gauge customer satisfaction so respondents have a good idea of what to expect and how to respond they're more familiar with this method than say interviews or observations however questionnaires do have practical ethical and theoretical issues that researchers have to take into account they have quite a low response rate which means they can become expensive and time consuming to administer if only a small percentage of questionnaires are being returned researchers also need to be careful in designing their questionnaires to make sure that the questions they write are not leading to a specific conclusion or too ambiguous for responders to understand this is particularly as a concern as often no research will be present to clarify any issues furthermore closed questionnaires have an imposition problem insofar as researchers decide the number of responses that a respondent can choose from limiting their voice conversely open questions can be incredibly time consuming to analyze and do not guarantee the researcher any useful data if the respondent has not understood the question ethically questionnaires do have a few issues but certainly less than other methods questionnaires could cause potential distress to respondents particularly if asking about socially sensitive topics such as parenting styles domestic violence or being the victim of crime a disadvantage of questionnaires is that there is usually no researcher present to show empathy or to develop a rapport with with or to help people affected by the questions that need to be asked many of the other ethical issues revolve around the recording of information in line with gdpr regulations questionnaires must be kept secure and away from potential exposure to others to protect the respondent's personal data the content of the questionnaire may be sensitive particularly if responses are disclosing sensitive information about others or their employers for example schools for some topics it is best to ensure that respondents are given anonymity which may also help them to be more open with their responses a final ethical issue is the questionnaires may disclose immoral or illegal activities it may also disclose concerns over the well-being of the respondent particularly if we look at mental health or pupils and education and these are considerations researchers may take into account when conducting research using questionnaires theoretical issues with questionnaires vary depending upon the types of question being asked closed questions are lower in validity because they have a fixed number of responses while open questionnaires may lack reliability because of the variety of responses people could potentially give meaning if they were repeated there is more chance of getting different results further consideration with questionnaires and validity is whether the researcher is actually getting the person's true opinion or are they responding in a way they think the researcher wants them to of course anonymity and the lack of a researcher present may encourage more honesty but there is less certainty over the responses in the questionnaire format and finally both positivists and interpretivists have used questionnaires but have preferences over the question types positivists prefer the quantitative data that closed questions provide whilst interpretivists favor the qualitative data gained from open questions probably the most famous example of a questionnaire is the census which is distributed to all households every 10 years and measures the social and economic background of the household it has a high response rate because of the legal necessity to complete it and this gives the census a prominent position in social research alice sullivan examined the levels of cultural capital in children and their parents using questionnaires in our education module another good example of a survey is the crime survey of england and wales distributed to around twenty thousand people each year is a victim report survey asking respondents if they have been a victim of crime in the past 12 months that concludes this due to you sociology topic video on research methods focusing on questionnaires thanks for watching 9..welcome to this tutor to you sociology topic video on theory and methods looking at social action theories in the theory method series so far we've looked at some of the contributions of the big structural theories function as a marxism and feminism to our understanding of society but today we're going to look at a different type of theory social action theories and this is part of a bigger debate in sociology as to what type of approach to study in society is best a structural one or a social action approach so in this video we're going to look at some of the social action theories we're going to apply those across the core modules and the specification and we're going to evaluate the usefulness of social action theories to study in contemporary society but first of all we need to explain what social action theories are social action theories differ from structural theories in that they take a bottom-up approach to society focusing on the meanings and motivations that individuals will assign to actions it's a form of micro sociology that assumes that individuals will have agency in their decisions or the free will to act and interpret the actions of others in alternative ways as a micro approach they see society as being constructed by individuals and less influenced by social forces than structural theories would suggest society is the sum of individuals behaviors rather than the individual behavior being the product of social forces now there are a range of different social action theories from the origins of social action and the work of max weber through symbolic interactionism and labeling theory that we're going to look at separately in another video particularly given their relevance to the a-level course other approaches that fall under the broad category of social action theories are phenomenology and ethno-methodology which we will discuss in this video but first let's look at the work of max weber and his social action theory weber's ideas focused upon the motivations behind social actions he saw people as being rational beings who were capable of drawing meanings from their beliefs and as such argued that belief systems such as protestantism were the driving force behind capitalism he also suggested that people acted based upon a series of factors which marked his work out as being different from more structural approaches that were more deterministic in nature weber suggested that people act based upon rationality tradition and their emotions effective action is based upon the emotional state of an individual at the time of the action which explains why some people act out a character at times based upon their emotional state traditional action weber saw as being actions were based upon customs and practices of individuals whilst rational action is seen as the individual's ability to assess the costs and benefits of an action and whether or not this benefited them this was also aligned to the values of the individual and the level of importance of their actions weber's ideas became highly influential particularly in looking at the methodology behind studying society focusing on individuals meanings and motivations and attempting to gain an insight of the stayin into their experiences weber's concepts of rationality were also influential in the field of employment with weber's work on bureaucracy still seen today as being seminal in understanding organizational management one of the latter discourse social action approaches on the specification is phenomenology now phenomenology is the study of structures of consciousness as experienced from a first first-person point of view it's drawn its roots from philosophy and theorists such as schultz suggested that individuals exist in a shared society that they make sense of through typifications of objects activities and ideas in a similar way a psychologist describes schemas we come to understand what objects and activities are because they've been part of our lives or life world in order to exist in society we develop a common sense understanding of this life world to learning new information which allows us to communicate with others and exist in society schultz argued that it is this common sense knowledge that we need to study in order to examine how we come to make assumptions about different social phenomena structures objects activities etc for example in suicide douglas suggested that suicide statistics were not adequate in assessing whether or not somebody had committed suicide instead we need to look at the way in which a coroner decides that somebody has committed suicide what influences their decision making in his research douglas found that decisions were often based upon common sense assumptions such as the presence of a suicide note or the history of a mental of mental ill health ethnomethodology is the study of people's actions and one of the earliest practitioners of this method was harold garfinkel he suggested that individuals make sense and order of the social world through what he termed the documentary method a psychological process that enables individuals to see patterns of behavior in a specific social context by analyzing this method garfinkel suggested a methodology of disrupting the social world through what were known as breaching experiments as individuals understand social situations through patterns of normal behavior in that situation garfinkel suggested by disturbing that pattern people's reactions could be studied now this is the methods often used in prank shows on tv where an individual will breach the social norms and conventions of a situation by doing or saying something unpredictable in order to elicit a reaction from an unknowing participant the most famous of these breaching experiments was garfinkel's lodger experiment where he asked students to alter their behaviors at home to mimic those of being a guest in a hotel rather than their ordinary role as somebody's son or daughter these experiments depend upon what garfinkel called indexicality the ability of individuals to draw meanings from social situations and store those behaviors or index them for future reference this approach demonstrates the importance of meaning and patterns to social behaviors as individuals look to make sense of society in evaluating the idea that social action theories are relevant in contemporary society we need to examine where in the specification we've come across them and be able to make a judgment on their usefulness in understanding society today weber in a social action theory has been used in beliefs looking at the protestant work ethic while his views on secularization and disenchantment demonstrate that social action theories have contributed to our understanding of belief systems and the links to capitalism faber's work on bureaucracy and the iron cage is pivotal to understanding the relationship between rationality and contemporary society with increased accountability and scientific approaches to all aspects of of social life vegas ideas can be argued to be highly relevant particularly to those that work in education we've also seen the impact of labeling theory in both education and crime in the course and this can be argued to have given us a greater understanding of our interactions with others and social institutions the impacts of labeling are arguably still evident in contemporary society with moral panics and folk devils being created at increasingly shorter intervals in society the contribution of social action theories to methodology cannot be understated in contemporary society approaches like phenomenology and ethnomethodology are more prominent in looking at social behaviors and the meanings and motivations behind them and of course weber's views of methods still remain important to this day particularly in relation to the stay in and the desire for objectivity in the research process social action theories have certainly made a huge contribution to our understanding society and the different experiences of people within it its application to contemporary society stretches beyond those already mentioned with perspectives on personal choice in family life rejection of educational norms and how identity is shaped and how our own motivations have influenced political discourse at the forefront of their accomplishments perhaps one of its most lasting contributions though is the way in which it has changed sociology from being a top-down approach looking on individuals or subjects to placing the life experiences of those often not represented at the center of debates in our diverse contemporary society this is what is needed to study social behaviors however there are criticisms of social action approaches they've been accused of failing to explain how society works often ignoring power structures or focusing on relationships between agents of the state for example the police and individuals rather than looking at where the real power lies they also underestimate the importance of structural factors in society concepts such as institutional racism influence the behaviour of individuals while our peers our family education and media all influence our behavior on a structural level their focus on small scale interactions often ignores some of the more pressing concerns of the time and can be argued to be trivial in response to issues such as poverty racism and sexism and finally the subjective nature of the research with interpretations drawn from individual experiences can be said to ignore the objective nature of scientific research and so is dismissed as less valid however the purpose of their research is not to appease science but rather to explore the lives of those who are the underdogs in society that concludes this tutor to you sociology topic video on theory and methods looking at social action theories thanks for watching 10.welcome to this cheetah to you sociology topic video looking at theory and methods focusing on quantitative and qualitative methods in this video we're going to look at the differences between quantitative and qualitative data including which methods produce which type of data and which groups of sociologists prefer which type of data and how useful quantitative and qualitative data are we'll also look at which form of data is the most useful in understanding contemporary society but first of all we need to define what is meant by quantitative and qualitative data quantitative data is data that is able to be presented in numerical form and is more objective in nature it can be analyzed in conclusions drawn that are more likely to be reliable and it can be repeated to see trends over time qualitative data is more contextual data and is often presented in written verbal or visual formats and therefore open to interpretation it offers researchers more of an insight or vish staying into the lives of others and has greater validity sociological researchers look to collect these types of data in their research but what type of data they require is often based upon their preferred methodology for conducting research positivists are more likely to use methods that generate quantitative data as this form of data is preferred in observing social facts and allows the research to establish trends and patterns of behavior methods that generate quantitative data can easily be replicated which means that researchers will be able to use the same methods to measure trends over time and across different cultures it tends to be used on a larger scale to look at wide-ranging social issues interpretivists on the other hand prefer the use of methods that collect qualitative data this is because they are looking for the meanings and motivations behind people's behaviors and these are more likely to be expressed in words and through images and symbols as it is relatively time consuming to collect and analyze the methods collecting qualitative data are smaller in scale due to the nature of individual responses being different it's unlikely that these methods will be able to be replicated with similar findings and instead these methods focus more on the experiences and perspectives of smaller groups and individuals rather than being able to be generalized to the entire population we'll look first at some of the methods that produce quantitative data these tend to be more structured in nature and often the researcher is detached from the research subjects to allow for an objective viewpoint approaches used in natural sciences such as experiments both lab or controlled and field experiments usually produce quantitative data in these experiments the independent variable is manipulated and the dependent variable measured they are also usually subjected to statistical tests to assess the probability of the results being achieved by chance questionnaires are another method to produce quantitative data if the questions have been pre-coded and have a finite number of responses or closed questions responses can easily be analyzed and trends and patterns organized into charts tables and graphs and the same is true of opinion polls and other surveys that can assess an individual's intended behaviors or past behaviors and these can be collated and represented through percentages in charts and diagrams non-participant observations do not exclusively produce quantitative data but they can be used in a structured manner to observe the frequency of behaviors over a period of time which produces quantitative data official statistics usually compiled from other quantitative methods and compiled by the office for national statistics in the uk is another source of quantitative data and finally content analysis while using qualitative data as an input images in magazines representations on television and movies it produces a quantitative data out let's look at some of the uses of quantitative data well they're widely used by governments in the reporting of social trends health education crime unemployment welfare and this data is then used for planning budgets for different governmental departments and for introducing new social policies to tackle any issues that might arise opinion polls predominantly used in political reporting show the voting intentions of the electorate or their attitudes to social issues such as brexit fear of crime health care in education we see lots of quantitative data used lead tables exam results university admissions broken down by gender ethnicity and receipt of free school meals and in the private sector and charities statistics are often referred to as unofficial statistics are used in marketing funding projects on specific areas or specific social issues or as a discussion point in the media looking at qualitative methods the methods that produce qualitative methods are participant observations whether these are covert or overt and some non-participant observations where people's actions opinions motivations and insights are recorded transcribed and analyzed unstructured interviews the flexible nature of these allows for a broader range of responses which are usually recorded by researchers then transcribed and analyzed questionnaires with open questions these are where the respondent can expand upon their opinions usually in written form providing a range of qualitative responses to researchers to analyze secondary sources those that are not produced with the intention of being researched such as personal documents things like reports diaries medical histories and historical documents which give us an insight into the lives of those in the past are two forms of qualitative data another method is case studies now these are usually a mix of data sources but take the form of an in- depth research into an individual or group usually a case that is seen as an anomaly it doesn't fit into the normal behavior patterns and the finding of these case studies are often presented in a qualitative format ethnographic approaches utilize quality of data photographs videos blogs as well as methods such as unstructured interviews and journals diaries and other forms of media such as tv websites films articles and documentaries produce qualitative data that researchers may use the main advantage of using qualitative data is the ability to gain an insight into the different perceptions of people and the meanings and motivations behind their behavior secondary sources particularly historical documents allow us to access views that other methods would not allow us to do these personal and historical documents can reveal interesting changes and attitudes over time and help us to understand the process of social change qualitative methods are also useful in gaining the views of those who are underrepresented in society or hard to access covert observations with criminals may reveal why people turn to crime while unstructured interviews with victims of crime might reveal the impacts of criminals actions a final use of qualitative research is in informing other research sociologists when they conduct research will look to other work in that field to inform some of their ideas and using articles books and journals written by others in that field are invaluable to moving forward on knowledge of society so which method is better for studying contemporary society the answer to that question depends upon your theoretical perspective as both have their uses structural theorists prefer quantitative data in their research as it allows them to see the big picture in society whereas social action theories prefer qualitative data as it offers them an insight into the experiences of those they are studying while a lot of research in contemporary society is focused upon the experiences of individuals there are still important quantitative research projects for example the census which informs governments of future planning and allows different departments to plan for the future as we've seen in families education and health care however quality of data is better suited to the diverse range of individuals in the late modern and post-modern society a greater focus on the individualism means that individual experiences will differ from one person to the next and qualitative methods often target those that are ignored in society bringing new voices to the discussion of social issues perhaps the most complete way of researching society is to combine these methods increasing the validity by using qualitative methods and the reliability by using quantitative ones this is referred to as methodological pluralism researchers will combine methods such as using official statistics to analyze areas of poverty and then conducting unstructured interviews with people in those areas to see how poverty impacts on on their lives willis's learning to labor is an example of this using a mixture of questionnaires observations and unstructured interviews he investigated the experiences of working class boys that were part of an anti-school subculture another example is the now common use of both open and closed questions on questionnaires collecting quantitative data that illustrates a person's preference or behavior then asking open questions to find out why that is the case and as with many aspects of research in sociology perhaps the best way of viewing society is through combining these approaches that concludes this cheetah to you sociology topic video on theory and methods looking at quantitative and qualitative methods thanks for watching