Sociology Introduction

Vocab in the Introduction of Terrible Magnificent Sociology by Lisa Wade (Second Edition)

Sociology

The science of society.

Social Facts

Products of human interaction with persuasive or coercive power that exist externally to any individual.

Examples of Social Facts being external

Laws, Religious Beliefs, Education systems and money.

An example of a Social Fact being constraining

Being forced to be quiet in the Library

An example of a Social Fact being general throughout society

Wearing clothes

Durkheim’s Study of Suicide

Suicide is connect to social factors

Degree of Social Integration

How connected we feel to society

Degree of Moral Regulation

The level of moral reasoning we use to navigate social situations.

Empirical Inquiry

Looking to the world for evidence with which scientists can test their hunches.

Data

Systematically collected sets of empirical observations.

Research Methods

Scientific strategies to collect data.

Research Questions

Queries about the world that can be answered empirically.

Sociological Research Methods

Scientific strategies for collecting empirical data about social facts.

Qualitative Research Methods

Tools of sociological inquiry that involve careful consideration and discussion of the meaning of nonnumerical data. (OBSERVATIONS BASED ON SOCIAL CONTEXT)

Three Characteristics of Qualitive research

1: Focus on meaning, concepts definitions and descriptions

2: Study Phenomenons in their natural setting.

 3: Values the voices and perspectives of those being studied.

Quantitative Research Methods.

Tools of sociological inquiry that involve examining numerical data with mathematics.

Five Characteristics of of Quantitative Research

1: Objective

2: Structured

3: Usually Faster

4: Statistical

5: Generalizable

Sociological Sympathy

The skill of understanding others as they understand themselves

Research Ethics

The set of moral principals that guide empirical inquiry.

Sociological Theory

Empirically based explanations and predictions about relationships between social facts.

Social Patterns

Explainable and foreseeable similarities and differences among people influenced by the social conditions in which they live.

Standpoints

Points of view grounded in lived reality.

Public sociology

The work of using sociological theory to make society better. (Democratic data and social change)

Sociological Imagination

The capacity to consider how people’s lives including our own are shaped by the social facts that surround us.

Personal Troubles

Problems that affect individuals, biography.

Public Issues

problems that are either historical or social.

Emile Durkheim

Founding father of sociology. Coined the term social facts.

C. Wright Mills

Coined term Social Imagination.