Solution
David answered on
Dec 31 2021
Answer 2: Deviance has been defined by sociologists as a behavior violating any social
ule provoking disapproval, anger or indignation and sometimes it has been defined as a physical
or mental disability (Thio, 2010). To analyze the real nature of deviance two primary approaches
have been adopted by sociologists, viz. positivist approach and interactionist approach. There are
some primary differences between these two approaches and these differences are noteworthy in
espect of understanding the concept of deviance. According to the positivist perspective
deviance is absolutely real and is an observable object because an act of deviance can be studied
and observed thoroughly (Thio, 2010). Moreover, according to the positivist perspective
“Humans have some free choice but are influenced by social environmental features such as
oken homes and social class” (Thio, 2010). It should be mentioned that modern day positivists
consider their subjects as human beings with feelings but still for them deviance is objective and
hence, the positivists are always in the look for causes of deviant behavior beyond the individual
(Thio, 2010). Furthermore, based on the reports of surveys and studies, the positivists tend to
elieve that deviant individuals possess some common and specific traits and by understanding
these traits sociologists and psychologists can understand the causes of deviance (“Positivism”,
n.d.). The interactionist perspective of deviance, on the other hand, is anti-positivist and this is
ecause according to this perspective “there are no behaviours that are intrinsically deviant.
Instead deviant actions are simply those, which are defined as deviant within a particular setting
or culture” (Covington, 2000). Unlike the positivists, the interactionists believe that there can be
no intrinsically deviant individuals (Covington, 2000). More specifically it can be stated that
while positivists rely more on stats collected from surveys, the interactionists “are usually the
cool professors and they like to hang out and observe behavior and don’t usually use stats”
(“Chapters 1 and 2: The Sociological Perspective, Deviance and Medicalization”, n.d.).
There are some basic advantages of both the approaches towards analyzing deviant
ehaviors. In respect of the positivist approach it can be said that through such perspective
deviance can be analyzed through three angles; from the angle of empiricism which states that
“seeing, feeling, hearing, tasting, and smelling are capable of conveying meaningful
information” (“Goode Chapters 2, 3 & 4”, n.d.), from the angle of objectivism which conveys
that “phenomena in the material world are objectively real and means that they possess certain
objective internally consistent characteristics that distinguish them from other phenomenon”
(“Goode Chapters 2, 3 & 4”, n.d.), and from the angle of determinism, a concept that is meant to
seek the “causes of deviant beliefs, or conditions”...