Tubergen Key Words 1

chapter 1

individual perspective

type of explanation of human behavior which focuses on individual causes

sociological imagination

type of explanation of human behavior which focuses on social causes

social contect

social environment in which people are embedded

social phenomena

collective human behaviorpr

proximate causes

factors that are close to the phenomena to be explained

ultimate causes

factors that underlie proximate causes

micro level

the level at which individuals operate

macro level

social contexts that are broader than meso level units, e.g. nations, groups of nations, continents

meso level

social contexts at the intermediate level, e.g. families, neighborhoods, schools, organizations

social problem / public issue

goes beyond the personal troubles of the individual, is an issue about which many people are concerned

personal trouble

problem related to the personal life of an individual

social intervention

social policy measure

societal relevance

relevance of sociological work for the understanding of social problems

normative question

does not entail value judgements

scientific questions

question that does not entail value judgements. three types: descriptive, theoretical, application

descriptive question

scientific question targeted towards describing phenomena

theoretical question

scientific question targeted towards understanding phenomena

application question

scientific question targeted towards applying scientific knowlegde

ill-defined question

scientific question that entails value judgements

precise question

has clear interpretation

question ingredients

elements of a question which can be specified; behavior of interest, social contexts, period, and interpretation

scientific relevance

relevance of sociological work for the accumulation of sociological knowledge

literature review

systematic overview of the theories and observations that are known, typically in certain specialized field of research

false theoretical question

theoretical question which aims to explain something that does not exist

comparative-case question

question which includes some comparison of cases, e.g. multiple contexts, multiple moment in time, multiple populationsaimed at understanding differences and similarities between them.

common sense

everyday thinking, intuitions, beliefs, and perceptions

private sociology

The way human beings, in daily life, make sense of the social world (as such they are prone to, among other things, intuitive thinking, implicit reasoning, development of incoherent and vague ideas, keeping knowledge private and searching for confirmations)

academic sociology

the way academic institutions describe and explain the social world (systematic way of gathering knowledge, making explanations public and subject to criticism, the development of coherent theories and rigorous testing)

cumulative science

the practice that theories and observations of earlier studies are incorporated in the work of successive studies

background knowledge

the theories and observations that are known before the study commences