Approaches to sociological research — practice questions

Positivist case: Durkheim — social facts external to individuals (suicide rates); quantitative methods detect patterns/laws; objectivity possible with careful design.

Anti-positivist case: Weber — need Verstehen; humans have free will; Hawthorne effect — subjects react to researcher; concepts like suicide socially constructed (Douglas).

Middle positions: Kuhn — paradigms in sociology too; realism — unobservable structures exist though hard to measure.

Evaluation: Sociology can use scientific methods for some questions (large-scale trends) but not fully replicate natural science — values enter at topic choice and interpretation.

Conclusion: Partially scientific — rigorous but not value-free.

Step 1: Identify the formula for inter-rater reliability. A common method is: (Number of Agreements / Total Number of Observations) × 100.

Step 2: Substitute the given values into the formula. Number of Agreements = 45 Total Number of Observations = 50 Calculation: (45 / 50) × 100

Step 3: Calculate the result. 0.9 × 100 = 90%

Step 4: Explain the significance. The inter-rater reliability is 90%. For a positivist researcher, this is a very positive result. It demonstrates high reliability, meaning the research tool (the observation schedule) is consistent and produces similar results even when used by different researchers. This strengthens the claim that the research is objective and scientific, as it minimises the subjective interpretation of individual researchers. High reliability is a key goal for positivists who aim to uncover objective social facts, similar to methods in the natural sciences.