SSCI 2900U Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Conditionality, Grounded Theory, Antipositivism
12 May 2016
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Lecture 1 introduction to research and social science inquiry may 10, 2016. Epistemology: a branch of philosophy nature and origin of knowledge what we know and how we come to know that. Ontology: the study of how we exist reality and existence. What is theory: an explanation of some observed regularities or patterns, interrelated and usually verifiable statements or propositions, i. e. police target poor people more; people act crazy on full moon; donald trump will make a horrible president; What is the purpose of theory: assess adequacy of a particular social theory, gather information to create social theory, understand pressing social problems, explore personal experience. Form of theory: predetermined theory that brings one to look at social interaction through a particular framework i. e. feminism, or no theoretical base observation of social interactions. If crime is key component need to define crime needs to be concrete: descriptions of the phenomena of interest. Outline characteristics of the phenomenon of interest: relational statements.
