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Unit: I. The Sociological Perspective
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Instructional Ideas for Teaching the Distinction between Normative and Empirical Statements
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Theme: 1 The Sociological Perspective
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Description
Normative statements contain value judgments. Often they contain words like should or should not, better or worse. Empirical statements describe what is in the social world, without evaluating it. They are statements that can be measured empirically.
Beginning students come in unaware ofthese different types of statements that they are making, but with some practice they can learn to tell the difference.
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Learning Goals
To help students understand the difference between empirical and normative statements, and to be able to apply that understanding to what they hear and read.
An important feature of sociology is the way it tries to distinguish between two types of statements: Normative statements and Empirical statements.
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ActionsStudents could be asked to look at the “Examples of Normative and Empirical Statements” and identify which ones are normative and which ones are empirical, and what leads them to think that way.Back to top
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Creator/SourceRobert Jackson, Professor of Sociology at New York University, first told Caroline Hodges Persell, Professor of Sociology at New York University, about this important distinction he tried to teach to students in introductory courses.