SOC-1000 TERM TEST #1

Sociology

Sociology

the systematic study of behaviour in social context

Social Structures

stable patterns of social relations, often elicited and/or reinforced by the organization of social institutions.

Eg. University is competitive system

Social Imagination

Connects the most intimate and private moments of our lives with the totality of the societies in which we live. (Individual Society)

Emphasizes the co-constitution of individual people and the societies on which they are embedded (people create societies; societies create people)

relationship between personal trouble sand public issues.

who coined the term “sociological imagination”?

c. wright mills

According to C. Wright Mills, if in a city of 5 million people, 500,000 of them are unemployed, what kind of problem is it?

public issue

Microstructure

patterns of intimate social relations formed during face-to-face interaction.

Mesostructures

patterns of social relations in organizations that involve people who are often not intimately acquainted and who often do not interact face-to-face.

Examples of Microstructures

Family and friendship cliques

Examples of Mesostructures

Colleges and government bureaucracies

Macrostructure

overarching patterns of social relations that lie outside and above one's circle of intimates and acquaintances (above and beyond mesostructures)

Example of Marcostructure

Patriarchy

patriarchy

a system of power relations and customary practices that help to ensure male dominance in economic, political, and other spheres of life

Examples of Global Structures

Economic relations among countries, patterns of worldwide travel and communication

What are the 4 levels of social structure

1) Microstructures

2) Mesostructures

3) Macrostructures

4) Global Structures

Which social structure do personal problems fall under?

All four structures.

Eg. finding a job, acting to end world poverty, keeping marriage intact

sociology is a science

true

sociologist do not study suicide

false

sociologists study social facts

true

there is no overlap between history and sociology

false

Which of sociologist is considered by most to be a "father" of sociology?

emile durkheim

according to the lecture material What type of solidarity was dominant before French Revolution?

mechanical solidarity

According to Max Weber, bureaucracies lead to iron cage of rationality.

true

What is the difference between a public issue and a private trouble?

Personal trouble occur on individual level (limited by the scope of one's biography)

Public issues transcend the individual and are collective interests or values felt to be threatened.

what are the major issue for publics and the key troubles of private individuals of our time?

to formulate issues and troubles, we must ask what values are cherished yet threatened, and what values are cherished and supported, by the characterizing trends of our period. In the case both of threat and of support we must ask what salient contradictions of structure may be involved

How is sociology different Anthropology?

Anthropology

• Concentrate on small societies

• directly go and live in the communities they study. use of direct observations

Sociology

• sociologist studies small and large societies.

• make use of observation, interview, social survey questionnaires and other method of technique in its investigations.

How is sociology is different to History

History

• A study of past, only on the past.

• interested in what happened at a particular time in the past.

• individualizing science

Sociology

• interest in present.

• sociology has thus to depend upon the history for its materials

• study various stages of human life

• generalizing science

Difference between sociology and political science

Political science

• science of state and government

• special social science b/c it concentrates only on the human relationships which are political in character.

• studies only the politically organized societies

Sociology

• a science of society

• studies all kind of societies organized as well as unorganized

• approach of sociology is sociological. It follows its own methods in addition to the scientific methods in its investigations.

Difference between Sociology and Psychology?

Psychology

• concerned with behavior of individuals

• studies behaviors of individual in society

• studies the individual's behavior form the view view point of psychological factors involved.

sociology

• studies society and social groups.

• Sociology analysis social processes.

• studies society form and sociological point of view.

Difference between sociology and Economics

Economics

• deal with only those social relationships which are economic in character.

• Economic is a special sciences

• Economics has attained an advanced degree of maturity

Sociology

• Studies all kind of social relationships

• Sociology is general social science

• Sociology is a science of recent emergence.

theory

speculation about the way observed facts are related

Scientfic Revolution

This revolution in thinking began in Europe around 1550. It promoted the view that conclusions about the workings of the world should be based on solid evidence, not just speculation

Democratic Revolution

the process, beginning about 1750, in which the citizens of the United States, France, started demanding an increased say in the way they were governed. By eventually achieving popular control of government, they demonstrated that societies dont have to be ruled by kings and queens who claim their authority is ordained by God. Instead, society can be organized and run by ordinary people. This idea prepared the ground for the notion that a science of society aimed at improving human welfare is possible.

Industrial Revolution

This rapid growth of mechanized industry began in Britain in 1780s. The application of science and technology to industrial processes, the creation of factories, massive migration from countryside to city and the formation of an industrial working class transformed society and caused a host of social problems that attracted the attention of social thinker.

research

the systemic observation of facts for the purpose of showing that a theory is false. when research fails to show that theory is false, investigators are obliged to conclude that the theory is valid—but only until further notice, that is, unless and until someone shows it is false

values

ideas about what is right and wrong, good and bad, desirable and undesirable, beautiful and ugly

social solidarity

a property of social groups that increases with the degree to which a groups members share beliefs and values and the frequency and intensity with which they interact

rate

the number of times an event happens in a given period per 100,000 members of the population

Experimental Group

that is exposed to the independent variable in an experiment

Control Group

that is not exposed to the independent variable in an experiment

Reliability

the degree to which a measurement procedure yields consistent results

Validity

the degree to which a measure actually measures what it is intended to measure

association

relationship between two variables if the value of one variable changes with the value of another

Field Research

the systematic observation of people in their natural settings

quantitative methods

A research method that analyzes numerical data statistically

eg. survey

Qualitative Methods

A research method that analyzes observational or speech data in narrative form

What is difference between quantitative and qualitative methods?

Quantitative Method

• research that translate the social world into numbers that can be treated mathematically; often tries to find cause-and-effect relationships

Qualitative Research

• research that works with nonnumerical data such as texts, field notes, interview transcripts, photographs, and tape recording; often tries to understand how people make sense of their world

detached observation

A type of field research that involves classifying and counting the behaviour of interest according to a predetermined scheme

Reactivity

tendency of people who are being observed by a researcher to react to the presence of the researcher by concealing certain things or acting artificially to impress the researcher

participant observation

A type of field research that involves carefully observing peoples face-to-face interaction and participation in their live over a long period, thus achieving a deep and sympathetic understanding of what motivates them

analysis of existing documents and official statistics

a nonreactive research method that involves the use of diaries, newspapers, published historical works and statistics produced by government agencies, all of which are created by people other than the researcher for purposes other than sociological research

postindustrial revolution

the technology-driven shift from manufacturing to service industries and the consequences of that shift for virtually all human activities

globalization

the process by which formerly separate individuals, groups, institutions, economics, states, and cultures are becoming tied together, and people are becoming increasingly aware of their growing interdependence

Strengths and Weaknesses of Experiments

S- high reliability; excellent for establishing cause-and-effect relationships

w- low validity for many sociological problems causes of the unnaturalness of the experimental setting

Strength and Weaknesses of Surveys

S-good reliability; useful for establishing cause-and-effect relationship

W- Validity problems exist unless researchers make strong efforts to deal with them

Strengths and Weaknesses of Participant Observation

S- Allows researchers to develop a deep and sympathetic understanding of the way people see the world; especially useful in exploratory research

W- problematic reliability, validity and generalizability

Strengths and Weaknesses of Analysis of Existing Documents and Official Statistics

S- often inexpensive and easy to obtain; provides good coverage; useful for historical analysis; nonreactive

W- often contains biases reflecting the interests of the data creators rather than the interests of the researchers

4 Main Sociological Research Methods

1) Experiments

2) Survey

3) Participant Observation

4) Analysis of Existing Documents and Official Statistics

Social Forces

Societal-level mechanisms that influence the character of individual and their life trajectories

Provide possible explanations for how society influences individuals

Ideology/Culture

Systems of thought that influence us to perceive that world in particular ways, and to make particular judgments (can influence choices about behaviour)

eg. "blind people cant do those things"

How Individuals Influence Society

Agency; individual decision making

Is sociology better at explaining social groups or individuals?

Social Groups.

Because most people behave in ways that are consistent with ideology and structure most of the time

Sociology is an empirical discipline

"What society IS like"

sociologists rely on data and observation when we say things about the social world

Empirical

based on, concerned with on verifiable observation or experience

empirical questions

a question that can be answered by making objective observations

ARGUMENT ON VALUES Eg. sex workers

Quantitative Data

numerical data eg. survey

qualitative data

descriptive data eg. writing

Operationalization

Involves specifying precisely how a concept will be measured.

Translates a concept into a variable or into a series of variables

Independent Variable

variable that is hypothesized to have some affect

dependent variable

variable that is hypothesized to be influenced by the independent variable

Population

the universe of cases that the research question is relevant to

survey

a data collection method in which people are asked questions about their knowledge, attitudes, or behaviour, either in a face-to-face or telephone interview or by completion of questionnaire

sample

a subset of a population that is investigated empirically

closed-ended questions

survey questions provide respondents with a list of permitted answers. each answer is given a numerical code so that the data can later be easily input into a computer for statistical analysis

open-ended questions

survey questions that allow respondents to answer in their own words

Generalizability

the extent to which observations about a sample can be reasonably assumed to represent a population

example of population

canadian high school students

example of sample

2500 canadian high school students across 50 highschools (need to include an array of its highschools and types of kid)s

random sampling

each individual in the population has an equal probability of being selected for study. (unwillingness, time)

High generalizability

representative sampling

the sample is a reproduction of the population among particular demographic characteristics. Mirrors the population

Higher generalizability

convenient sampling

people are sample based on their availability

Lower generalizability

snowballing sampling

people that have been sampled introduce the researcher to the other possible study participants. Usually limited to qualitative research , often the only way to sample difficult to access groups. Eg. criminals and elites

Low generalizability

What are quantitative methods?

1) Secondary analysis

2) data scraping

secondary data analysis

the analysis of data that have been collected by other researchers

Disadvantage to secondary data anaylsis

you dont get to pick which questions asked

data scraping

using computer algorithms to generate data about people's online behaviour

3 variables for quantitative analysis

1) nominal/categorical

2) ordinal

3) ratio

nominal categorical variable

numbers are used to represent different conditions, but the phenomenon itself is not quantitative- therefore the variable values cannot be ranked (categories)

examples of nominal categorical variables

race, neighbourhood, marital status, religion, fav kardashion

Ordinal variable

different values of the variable cannot be ranked but there is no way to measure the precise difference between ranked values (NO precision)

examples of ordinal variables

likert scales, class ranks, pain

Ratio variable

differences between values are measurable and there exists a real zero (limit). can be ranked and know PRECISION

examples of ratio variabes

number of siblings, income, hours spent on social media per day, time

difference between ordinal and ratio variables

PRECISION. ratio has precision, ordinal doesnt

Descriptive statistics

tell us about the distribution of ONE variable

Central tendency

attempt to give a quick picture of the content of one variable

whats the most appropriate measure of central tendency for nominal level variables?

Mode

What can you NOT apply to ordinal level variables?

Mean

Proportion

tells us the % of a variable that falls into one particular variable value. Related as a value between 0 and 1.

Outliers

extreme cases (numbers far off from the rest)

Inferental Statistics

measure the relationship between two or more variables.

- knowing the value of one variable allows us to make an inference about the likely value of another variable