A level Sociology year two: Unit One - Theory and ...

Students must examine the following areas:

• quantitative and qualitative methods of research; research design
• sources of data, including questionnaires, interviews, participant and non-participant observation, experiments, documents and official statistics
• the distinction between primary and secondary data, and between quantitative and qualitative data
• the relationship between positivism, interpretivism and sociological methods; the nature of ‘social facts’
• the theoretical, practical and ethical considerations influencing choice of topic, choice of method(s) and the conduct of research
• consensus, conflict, structural and social action theories
• the concepts of modernity and post-modernity in relation to sociological theory
• the nature of science and the extent to which Sociology can be regarded as scientific
• the relationship between theory and methods
• debates about subjectivity, objectivity and value freedom
• the relationship between Sociology and social policy.