Lesson 4.1.3.3

4.1.3.3 Positivism, interpretivism and social facts Quiz: AQA Sociology, Unit 1

20 questions

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Lesson 4.1.3.3, Positivism, interpretivism and social facts: 20 multiple choice questions for the AQA Sociology (7192), Unit 1: Education with Theory and Methods, written with Revision Ninja.

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The 20 questions

  1. In Durkheim's terms, which characteristics define a 'social fact'?

    • It is external to the individual, general across society, and exercises constraint over behaviour
    • It is a biological instinct that is shared by all human beings regardless of their social setting
    • It is internal to the individual, unique to each person, and freely chosen with no outside influence
    • It is a personal belief that changes entirely with each individual's own interpretation of events

  2. Durkheim's study of suicide in 1897 is used to illustrate which argument?

    • That suicide is a free personal choice that can only be understood through the diaries of those who died
    • That suicide rates vary with social integration and regulation, which are social facts rather than individual psychology
    • That suicide is caused entirely by individual mental illness, with no relationship to social factors at all
    • That suicide rates have no relationship with the level of social cohesion within a society or group

  3. Which statement best describes positivism in sociology?

    • The view that sociology should use scientific methods, testing hypotheses through observable and measurable data
    • The view that sociology should focus on the subjective meanings that individuals attach to their actions
    • The view that social life is too complex to be studied scientifically, so only literature can capture it
    • The view that society is entirely shaped by personal beliefs, which cannot be measured by any method

  4. Which concept is most closely associated with Max Weber's interpretivist approach?

    • Functional prerequisites, the needs that society must meet in order to survive and remain stable
    • Verstehen, the attempt to understand social action from the point of view of the social actor
    • Symbolic violence, the imposition of dominant cultural standards that are accepted as legitimate
    • Anomie, the breakdown of norms that occurs when society undergoes rapid and disruptive change

  5. Which assumption is most characteristic of positivism?

    • That social phenomena are constructed entirely by individuals, with no shared patterns across them
    • That social phenomena can only be understood through the subjective meanings held by the researcher
    • That social phenomena are too unique to be compared, so generalisation is impossible in every case
    • That social phenomena can be studied in a value-free way, with the researcher remaining objective

  6. Which criticism of positivism is most often made by interpretivists?

    • It only studies individuals who are unusual or extreme, so the findings are never representative of society
    • It ignores the meanings people give to their actions, which are central to understanding social behaviour
    • It relies too heavily on personal reflection, so the findings cannot be replicated by other researchers
    • It is always too expensive to carry out, which makes it impossible for most researchers to undertake

  7. Which term is associated with the view that people's actions are shaped by the way they interpret and define situations?

    • Functionalism, which studies how each part of society contributes to the stability of the whole system
    • Interactionism, which studies how meanings are created and negotiated through social interaction
    • Positivism, which studies the regularities in social behaviour through the testing of hypotheses
    • Marxism, which studies the relationship between social classes and the mode of production in a society

  8. Which statement best describes an 'ideal type' in Weber's work?

    • A type of experiment in which social actors are placed in an artificial setting to test their behaviour
    • A conceptual model that highlights the essential features of a social phenomenon, used to compare real cases
    • A perfect description of a social institution that exists in every society without any variation at all
    • A statistical average of all real cases of a social phenomenon, used to set policy targets for government

  9. Which evaluation of positivism is most consistent with sociological debate?

    • It is useless for sociology, because quantitative data can never say anything about social relationships
    • It is always the best method for every research question, regardless of the topic or research aims
    • It can produce valuable, comparable data, but it may impose researcher categories that miss subjective meanings
    • It produces completely objective knowledge of society that is free from all bias and personal values

  10. Which sociologist is most associated with the claim that society should be studied as a set of social facts that can be measured like things?

    • Max Weber, who argued that sociologists should seek to understand the meanings of social action
    • Erving Goffman, who argued that social life is a theatre in which individuals perform roles
    • Herbert Blumer, who argued that meanings are created through symbolic interaction between individuals
    • Emile Durkheim, who argued that social facts should be treated as things in the research process

  11. Which statement best reflects the interpretivist view of social structure?

    • Structures are physical objects that can be measured precisely, like buildings or roads in a city
    • Structures exist only in so far as people produce and reproduce them through their meanings and actions
    • Structures are irrelevant to social life, because individuals are free to act in any way they choose
    • Structures are fixed and external to individuals, and they determine behaviour in every case without exception

  12. A researcher studies why a group of teachers interpret a new policy in different ways. Which approach is most consistent with this aim?

    • A positivist approach, using a laboratory experiment to test the effect of the policy on teachers' behaviour
    • A structured survey with only closed questions, which records teachers' answers in fixed categories
    • An interpretivist approach, using interviews and observation to explore the meanings teachers attach to the policy
    • A functionalist approach, measuring how the policy contributes to the stability of the school system

  13. Which concept is associated with the idea that everyday common sense is a product of social processes that sociologists must examine?

    • Functionalism, which studies the contribution each part of society makes to the stability of the whole
    • Ethnomethodology, which studies the methods people use to make sense of and produce social order in everyday life
    • Structural Marxism, which studies the economic base of society as the cause of all social institutions
    • Positivism, which studies the regular patterns of social behaviour through statistical analysis of data

  14. Which view best summarises the central difference between positivism and interpretivism?

    • Positivism and interpretivism both reject the use of any empirical data in the study of social life
    • Positivism and interpretivism both assume that the researcher's values have no influence on the research
    • Positivism seeks understanding of meaning, while interpretivism seeks general laws through the use of statistics
    • Positivism seeks general laws through measurement, while interpretivism seeks understanding of meaning from the actor's point of view

  15. Which argument would a positivist use to defend the study of social facts through large-scale data?

    • Large-scale data can never reveal patterns, because social life is too unpredictable to be measured in general
    • Large-scale data is always biased in favour of the researcher's values, so it should be avoided completely
    • Large-scale data always reflects the subjective meanings that individuals hold about their own lives
    • Large-scale data can reveal patterns and regularities that show how social structures shape behaviour

  16. Which concept refers to the idea that social facts exist independently of any single individual's perception of them?

    • Subjective meaning, which is the personal interpretation of an action by the individual performing it
    • Objective reality of social facts, which constrain individuals even when they are unaware of them
    • Reflexivity, which is the researcher's consideration of how their values shape the research process
    • Symbolic interaction, which is the process by which meanings are negotiated during face-to-face contact

  17. Which criticism is most often made of Durkheim's notion of social facts by interpretivists?

    • It treats social structures as external forces that constrain action, while neglecting how people create and interpret them
    • It treats social structures as entirely created by individual choice, with no constraint on individual behaviour
    • It argues that social facts are biological, so they cannot be explained by sociological theory
    • It argues that social facts are too few in number to be studied in any scientific way at all

  18. Which statement best describes the positivist view of the role of values in research?

    • The researcher should avoid all measurement, since numerical data always distorts the meaning of social life
    • The researcher should use research to promote the interests of the oppressed groups in society
    • The researcher should openly express their values, since all research is inseparable from political commitment
    • The researcher should remain value-free, so that the research is objective and unaffected by personal bias

  19. A study of suicide uses official death registration data to identify patterns across regions. Which sociological approach does this most closely reflect?

    • An ethnomethodological approach, which studies the everyday methods used by coroners to classify deaths
    • A positivist approach, which uses statistical data to identify patterns that reflect social facts
    • An interpretivist approach, which uses personal diaries to understand the meanings of the individuals who died
    • A feminist approach, which studies the experience of women in relation to their domestic roles in families

  20. Which statement best reflects Durkheim's claim that sociology should explain social phenomena by other social phenomena?

    • Explanations of social facts should be sought in other social facts, not in individual psychology or biology
    • Explanations of social facts should be sought in the biological needs that all human beings share in common
    • Explanations of social facts should be sought in the personal motives of individuals, which are unique to each person
    • Explanations of social facts should be sought in the random events that shape each individual's life history

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