Soci Review 1

What is Sociology?

The scientific study of human activity – this includes social institutions, small groups, and individual interactions                    

What is society?

Made up of a group of people who live in a way that separates them from other societies. 

What is Social Sciences?

Sociology is a social science—in the sense that sociologists study human behavior by using scientific methods

( Social sciences are subjects that study people, how they live, behave, and interact in society)

Social Sciences (examples)

Sociology - society and human relationships

Anthropology - human cultures and history

Psychology - the human mind and behavior

Economics  - money, jobs, and how resources are used

Political science - governments, power, and politics

(sometimes)

history - past events and how they shape the present

geography - people and their environment (social geography)

Communication studies - how people use messages to share information

Social marginality 

People may feel like “outsiders” because of their race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, social class, disability. People who experience marginality may experience the world differently than those who do not.

Reasons for studying sociology

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1. Why is divorce so common today? 

A. During WWII, there was a shortage of labor in the US. Many women were encouraged to work. They were making their own money and had the freedom to leave bad relationships 

B. In 1969, California’s governor, Ronald Reagan initiated a “no-fault divorce” which made it easier to get a divorce. This meant that you did not have to establish that some was at fault. 

Reasons for studying sociology 2

2. Sociology allows you to see the “general in the particular.” In sociology, we look for trends in understanding human behavior 

Reasons for studying sociology

3. Sociology allows you to understand social marginality. People may feel like “outsiders” because of their race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, social class, disability. People who experience the world differently than those who do not. 

Reasons for studying sociology //

4. Sociology allows us to gain a “Sociological Imagination”. (Mills, 1959). C. Wright Mills wrote an essay with the same title that is foundational material for the discipline 

The significance of the Industrial Revolution (Why is this important for sociology?) 

England was going through an industrial revolution-machines were doing the work once done by man and animal. People could exchange their labor for pay-prior to the Industrial Revolution--cottage industries were the norm.​ (Major Social Change, Rise of Industrial Capitalism, and Creation of Modern Social Problems)

Sociological Imagination (C. W.  Mills) 

Mills described the sociological imagination as “the awareness of the relationship between personal experience and the wider society.”                                                                                 

Emile Durkheim and his suicide study       

Durkheim believed that suicide was not an individualistic phenomenon. As a sociologist, he believed that social forces played an important role whereas psychologists focused on individuals and their motivations.

a) studied death certificates to look for patterns of suicide.

b) He found that men, singles, wealthy and Protestants had high rates of suicide.​

• He found that women, married, poor, Jewish and Catholics had low rates of suicide. ​

Emile Durkheim and his suicide study is important because

• is the first scientific study conducted in sociology.​

• The results are still valid—even 100+ years later! ​

Auguste Comte (why is he important?) 

The Father of Sociology, stated that society could be studied with the precision of natural sciences. He felt that employing positivism could allow us to study society, felt that there needed to be a discipline where we could study society scientifically and deal with its problems.​

Positivism

The emphasis on science to understand and make sense of the social world 

Sociological Perspectives (theories) “The Big Three”

Structural Functionalism, Social Conflict, Symbolic Interactionist 

      

    Structural Functionalism (manifest and latent functions, dysfunctions)

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       He stated that most thing serve a number of functions 

Manifest functions – these are obvious or intended functions 

Ex. A car provides transportation 

Latent function – a hidden or unintended consequence  

Ex. As more people owned cars, cities grow outward 

Dysfunction – negative consequence 

Ex. Cars produce air and noise pollution 

     

Social Conflict perspective  

conflict is necessary because it promotes social change

  Symbolic Interactionist perspective –

  We attach meaning (symbols) to our social interactions 

Dramaturgy

Goffman saw human behavior as a theatrical performance. Actors in a play wear makeup, costumes and learn lines. He said we played roles in our many social interactions. 

Front stage behavior

This is referred to as impression management. You are playing a specific role. 

Back stage behavior

I often refer to this as the “real you”. This is how you may act around family or friends

Labeling theory –

Labels can serve as a source of identity.  

Ex. Children may be labeled as ‘gifted’ or a “troublemaker”. 

Negative labels – Stigma 

Looking glass self

Cooley stated that through social interactions, we gain our identity or sense of self. 

Ex. If a child is constantly told by parents that she is smart, this becomes apart of her identity 

We internalize these messages and they become a part of our identity 

Microsociology

Focus on small units- social interactions have a minimum of two people 

Macrosociology

large units of society 

Pure (basic) research

research that you are most likely to see that your professors are doing. They are conducting research in order to contribute knowledge to their discipline. 

Ex. A history professor may study and learn about some aspect of slavery. When people say “history never changes” that is simply not true. We are constantly learning new information about our past. 

Applied research

research that is conducted with the intent of studying a problem and proposing a solution. 

Value relevant

You should study that which has meaning to you  

Value free

You should keep your feelings and opinions out of your research  

The eight steps of the research cycle- understand what is going on at each step

1. Choose a topic

2. State the problem that you wish to study

3. The researcher conducts a literature review

4. Form a hypothesis

5. The researcher chooses a research strategy or method to study the problem at hand

6. The researcher collect the data - This may, for example, involve interviewing people

7. The researcher analyzes the data - They are looking for trends or patterns in behavior. Are children more aggressive when they watch violent television shows?

8. The researcher shares finding with the scientific community

 Operational definition 

making a concept measurable so it can be studied in research. In sociology, an operational definition explains exactly how a researcher will measure an abstract idea—like "social class" or "crime"—so it can be observed and studied.

Reliability and validity/ replicability 

Reliability - getting the same results over and over again - shows consistency

Validity - Repeating a study in order to test the validity, or accuracy

Replicability - ability to repeat or replicate the research either by the same researcher or by others who are interested in the same topic.

Hypothesis

an “educated guess” ) - An accurate description since you have just conducted a literature review\ More official definition: A prediction of the relationship between two or more variables 

research strategies (methods): 

Observation, Interviews, Surveys, Questionnaires, Experiments, Social network analysis

survey research (interviews and questionnaires-what’s the difference?) 

Survey research is the most commonly utilized research strategy in sociology 

Interviews – Verbal-they can be face-to-face or over the phone (Zoom may work as well) 

Questionnaires – Usually written format (paper or digital) 

   Experiment – Creating an artificial setting where all aspects of the situation can be controlled and observed  

EX. Phillip’s Zimbardo’s Standford Prison Experiment (1971) 

(Qualitative research is based on subjective impressions – it's like reading a story) 

   Secondary analysis

The analysis of information that was originally collected by others 

EX. U.S. Census Data 

Ethnographic/People Observation

Advantages: Excels at telling richly detailed stories that contribute to our understanding of social life, can challenge our taken-for-granted notions about groups we thought we knew, not only reshape the stereotypes we hold about others but also influence social policy through the power of story telling, and many of the pioneering methodological innovations of the last half century come from ethnography

Disadvantages: Degree of representativeness — whether a particular study can apply to anything larger, resource-intensive method and it is costly of time, effort and personal commitment of the researcher,

Survey Advantages and Disadvantages  

Advantages: Best methods for gathering original material b/c they can be distributed widely and reach large numbers of people, relatively quick and economical and provide vast amount of data, strong on reliability, less concern about observer bias

Disadvantages: Can’t fully measure the social reality which can cause problem from validity, not all respondents are honest, problems with sampling, could be use to make a claim or support a point of view rather than for pure scientific discovery.

Interview Advantages and Disadvantages  

Advantages: Respondents speak their own words and help researchers dispel certain preconceptions and discover issues that might have been overlooked

Disadvantages: Responders may not be fully truthful in order to present themselves in favorable light and generalizability (if the research can be applied to larger groups).

Experiment Advantages and Disadvantages  

Advantages: Give way to sociologists a way to manipulate and control the social environment, best methods for establishing causality - whether a change in the independent variable causes a change in the dependent variable, highly controlled sociological experiments can be theoretically be repeated- they have replicability - so the findings can be tested more than once.

Disadvantages: Experiments are applicable only to certain types of research that can be constructed and measured in a controlled setting, and can be useful for testing theories but usually rely on some level of deception.

Existing Resources Advantages and Disadvantages

Advantages: Researches are able to work with information they could noy possibly obtain on their own (ex. U.S. Census), using sources such as newspapers, political speeches, and cultural artifacts, sociologists are able to learn about many social worlds and different time periods that they couldn’t before, can use the same data to replicate projects that have been conducted before (good way to test findings for reliability or see change across time).

Disadvantages: Researchers often seek to answer questions that the original author did not have in mind and content analysis can describe the messages inherent in the media, does not illuminate how such messages are interpreted.

Social Network Analysis

Advantages: Can trace the route of just about anything - an idea, disease, rumor or trend - as it moves through social group, community, or society and uses “big data” - data sets so large that typical computer and storage programs cannot handle them - which has become increasingly popular in both academic and the business worlds.

Disadvantages: Can often be quantitative, can gloss over important details and diversity in the experience of social actors and big data is expensive to collect and analyze, large social network data sets often come from sources that haven been assembled for other purposes (such as advertising) or that pose a threat to privacy

Hawthorne effect/reactivity 

The presence of researchers may affect human behavior

Limitations of social science research  

Limitations of social science research are the problems or challenges that make it hard to study people and society perfectly or get completely accurate results.

Ethics in research 

Set out principles to guide the researcher’s decision.

Why was “Tea Room Trade” so controversial?  

Violated some very important ethical codes 

 Because Humphreys would follow the men who engaged in these activities and collected personal information from them (traced their license plate numbers). In social sciences, we do not violate a person’s right to privacy, we protect people’s identities. 

Why is it important to replicate research?  How can successful replication be guaranteed? 

It is important to replicate research to know if it is reliable (getting the same results over and over again). Successful replication can be guaranteed by following the steps that the original researcher did in the same way and order based on their publishing.