SOC150: The Study of Sociology

sociology

the scientific study of society and human behavior

society

a large group of people who live together in an organized way, who share customs, norms, and a territory

The Sociological Imagination

a way of studying the world that connects the individual experience to larger social, cultural, political, and economic forces

social forces

any human created ways of doing things that influence, pressure, or force people to behave, interact with others, and think in specified ways. Ex. ex. economic recession impacted availability of jobs for college graduates from 2008-2014

sociological perspective

seeing the general in the particular and seeing the strange in the familiar

structural functionalism

theoretical perspective based on the idea that society is a complex system whose parts work together to promote stability and social order, Durkheim

manifest functions

the functions of social structures that are known, obvious, and intended

latent functions

functional consequences that are not intended or recognized

credentialism

the idea that education provides a "receipt" that shows a future employer that a prospective employee is qualified for a job

conflict theories

a paradigm that emphasizes the role of political and economic power and oppression as contributing to the existing social order. Social order is understood to be maintained by domination, with power in the hands of those who hold the greatest political, economic, and social resources

Marxism

power, ideology, and conflict are always connected

Feminist theory

emphasizes the centrality of gender in analyzing the social world and explaining social inequality

race conflict theory

understands social inequality as the result of conflict between different racial and ethnic groups, originating with the work of W.E.B. DuBois

symbolic interactionism

a theoretical approach to sociology that emphasizes the role of symbols, language, and meaning as core elements of all human interaction. It understands society as the product of everyday social interactions, Max Weber

empirical method

things can be verified by observation through the use of physical senses like sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell, rather than through pure theory or logic

"inconvenient facts"

questions that may go against popular opinion or the challenge the political order

concepts

labels that are applied to things with similar characteristics or attributes

construct

the words used to describe things that exist analytically but are not directly observable. We must rely on a constructed measure to observe these things

variable

the concept or construct of interest. Something that is thought to be influenced by another thing

attributes

each variable has attributes, which are characteristics or qualities that vary

independent

variables that influence or affect other things; causes

dependent

variables that are influenced or affected by other things; effects

positive relationship

variables that vary in the same direction

negative relationship

variables that vary in the opposite direction

hypothesis

an educated guess or idea about a phenomenon or state of affairs, used as the basis for empirical testing

quantitative

for when you can observe or convert the information about the social world into numerical form

qualitative

for when you're interested in information about the social world that doesn't convert easily into numbers, like how people make meaning around events, actions, and phenomena or the mechanisms through which processes occur

surveys

most common source of data for quantitative research since results can often be generalized to the larger population; less detailed information, less description, and less nuance than other methods

standardized questions

respondent answers with yes/no or likely/unlikely

open-ended questions

questions allow respondents to provide more detailed information in their own words

Likert scale

spectrum used on surveys, like 1 to 10

sample

a small portion of a larger population

representative sample

a subset of the population that reflects the characteristics of the larger group

random sampling

a method of sampling in which every member of the population has the same probability of being selected to respond