Sociological Research and Culture

2.1 Approaches to Sociological Research

Sociology became a science relying on research to build knowledge in American universities.
Sociologists collect data (observations and documentation) and use the scientific method or interpretive frameworks to understand societies and social interactions.
Observations can be biased, so researchers use experiments and studies to gather empirical evidence.
Peer review validates research conclusions, with examples in scholarly journals like Crime Science.
COVID-19 study example: Researchers found that assaults, pickpocketing, and burglary decreased due to stay-at-home restrictions, showcasing the use of empirical evidence and statistical analysis.
Sociologists explore topics without limits, questioning human behavior and social patterns.
They use sociological methods and systematic research within scientific and interpretive frameworks.
This helps discover social patterns in workplaces, families, and education, leading to transformations and enlightenment.

The Scientific Method

Sociologists use experiments, surveys, and field research; the scientific method ensures objectivity and accuracy.
It provides limitations and boundaries to focus studies.
The scientific method involves developing and testing theories based on empirical evidence.
It requires systematic observation and objective, critical, skeptical, and logical approaches.
It involves a series of six prescribed steps established over centuries of scientific scholarship.
Sociological research provides explanations of human behaviors and access to knowledge, rather than reducing knowledge to right or wrong facts.
Sociologists study the role of social characteristics in various outcomes (psychological well-being, crime rates, etc.).
They examine obstacles to meeting basic human needs and study environmental influences and behavior patterns related to social problems.
Research can also focus on positive aspects like vacation trends and healthy habits.
Sociologists apply scientific logic and objectivity, working outside personal agendas.
The method ensures objectivity, consistency, accuracy, reliability, and validity.
It provides a shared basis for discussion and analysis.

Step 1: Ask a Question or Find a Research Topic

The first step is to ask a focused question within a limited scope.
Questions should be narrow enough for specific study but broad enough to have universal merit.
Sociologists frame questions to examine defined patterns and relationships.
Example: How do personal hygiene habits reflect cultural values placed on appearance?

Step 2: Review the Literature/Research Existing Sources

Researchers conduct background research through literature reviews.
This helps understand existing work, identify gaps, and build on prior knowledge.
Researchers cite sources correctly to avoid plagiarism.
Crime researchers examine court, police, prison data, and interviews.
Reviewing sources refines and improves research study design.

Step 3: Formulate a Hypothesis

A hypothesis is an explanation based on a conjecture about relationships between phenomena and causal factors.
Hypotheses often predict how human behavior influences another.
They can be structured as "if, then" statements.
For example: If unemployment increases, then the crime rate will increase.
Hypotheses include independent variables (IV), the cause of change, and dependent variables (DV), the effect.
Researchers establish one form of human behavior as the IV and observe its influence on the DV.
Examples:
- The greater the availability of affordable housing, the lower the homeless rate.
- The greater the availability of factory lighting, the higher the productivity.
The IV causes the DV to change.

Step 4: Design and Conduct a Study

Researchers design studies for reliability, ensuring results can be replicated.
Reliability increases the likelihood of consistent results across people and situations.
Accurate tools and methods enhance reliability.
Researchers strive for validity, measuring what the study intends to measure.
Operational definitions define concepts in concrete steps for objective measurement, ensuring systematic data collection.
Operationalizing concepts ensures consistent replication.
Researchers define each concept or variable in terms of concrete steps to objectively measure it.
Studies must use standard operational definitions for result replication and acceptance.
Definitions set limits ensuring study consistency.

Step 5: Draw Conclusions

Sociologists collect, tabulate, categorize, and analyze data
Analysis supporting the hypothesis allows researchers to discuss its implications for theory or policy.
Contradictory results prompt experiment repetition or procedure improvement.
Even contradictory results contribute to sociological understanding.
Researchers analyze general patterns and exceptions.
They consider how operational definitions and research designs impact results.
Data limitations (who, where, what type of crime) affect generalizability.

Step 6: Report Results

Researchers present findings at conferences and in academic journals, subject to scrutiny.
Studies are repeated in various environments before conclusions are accepted.
Sociological theories and knowledge develop as relationships between social phenomena are established more broadly.

Interpretive Framework

Some sociologists use empirical data and scientific methods, but others utilize an interpretive framework.
This systematic approach seeks to understand social worlds from participants' viewpoints, leading to in-depth knowledge.
Interpretive research is descriptive or narrative.
Approaches explore topics through observation or interaction with subjects involving storytelling.
Researchers learn and adjust methods midway to optimize findings.

Critical Sociology

Critical sociology deconstructs existing sociological research and theory.
It is informed by Karl Marx, scholars from the Frankfurt School view social science as embedded in power systems.
Critical sociologists view theories and methods as either legitimizing social power/oppression or liberating humans from inequality.
Deconstruction may involve data collection, but analysis is not empirical or positivist.

2.2 Research Methods

Sociologists study the social world using various research methods to design studies.
They use primary source data collection (surveys, participant observation, experiments) and secondary data analysis.
Research methods have pros and cons, and study topics influence method use.
Researchers require a research design and data collection method.
There are times to remain anonymous and times to be overt.
There are times to conduct interviews and times to simply observe.
Some participants need to be thoroughly informed; others should not know they are being observed.
Researchers choose methods suiting topics, research participants, and research approaches.

Surveys

Surveys collect data from subjects via questionnaires or interviews.
They are widely used scientific research methods providing anonymity for expressing personal ideas.
The 2020 U.S. Census exemplifies large-scale sociological data gathering.
Not all surveys are sociological research; many focus on marketing needs.
Nielsen Ratings determine TV show popularity through market research.
Online surveys, incentivized polls from stores, and restaurants are common too.
Sociologists use surveys under controlled conditions for specific purposes.
Surveys are effective for discovering people's feelings, thoughts, and actions.
They track preferences, behaviors (sleeping, driving), and demographics (employment, income).
Surveys target specific populations (college athletes, international students).
Researchers survey a sample representing a larger population.
Success depends on sample representativeness.
Random samples ensure every person has an equal chance of selection.
Researchers develop specific plans to ask questions and record responses.
Subjects are informed about the survey's nature and purpose upfront.
Researchers thank and offer subjects a chance to see the results.
A questionnaire is used to gather information.
Closed-ended questions (yes/no, multiple-choice) gather quantitative data that is counted and statistically analyzed.
Open-ended questions require short essay responses, yielding subjective, varied qualitative data.
Qualitative information is harder to organize, but provides in-depth insights into personal beliefs.
Interviews involve one-on-one conversations between researchers and subjects allowing freedom to respond without predetermined choices.
In interviews, researchers can ask for clarification and spend more time on a subtopic.
Researchers must avoid steering subjects and build trust and listen without judgment.
Surveys often collect both quantitative (demographics) and qualitative data (why prisoners take advantage of opportunities).
Surveys can be online, phone, mail, or face-to-face.

Field Research

Sociologists conduct field research outside laboratories, libraries, or workplaces by gathering primary data from natural environments.
Researchers must be willing to enter new environments and observe, participate, or experience research subjects.
Field research takes place in the subject’s natural setup (coffee shop, village, shelter).

Beyoncé and Lady Gaga as Sociological Subjects

Researchers have studied Lady Gaga and Beyoncé and their impact on music, movies, social media, fan participation, and social equality.
Research methods used include secondary analysis, participant observation, and concert surveys.
Click, Lee & Holiday (2013) interviewed Lady Gaga fans using social media for artist communication, noting these fans are viewed the artist to mirror them and are a source of inspiration.
Many fans are members of the LGBTQ community with solidarity expressions (outstretched arms).
Sascha Buchanan (2019) utilized participant observation to study relationships between Beyoncé and Rihanna fan groups.
Media sustains a myth of rivalry between the two successful Black female vocal artists.

Participant Observation

Researchers join people and participate in routine activities for observation purposes.
Researchers experience a specific aspect of social life, gaining firsthand insight into a trend, institution, or behavior.
This involves blending in with the studied population.
In 2000, Rodney Rothman posed as a dot com employee, as a form of participant observation, however, he later was discredited for allegedly fabricating some details of the story.
Researchers might work as waitresses, live as homeless people, or patrol with police officers.
Researchers are alert to patterns, asking specific questions, forming hypotheses, analyzing data, and generating results.
John S. Lynd and Helen Merrell Lynd revised their study's purpose after gathering data.
Researchers may not alert people to maximize access to authentic behaviors.
It may take time to gain inside access by role playing, networking, or applying for a job.
Too much involvement isn’t recommended.
Findings are often descriptive or interpretive, reporting witnessed experience.
Barbara Ehrenreich worked minimum-wage jobs (waitress, cleaning woman) to study low-income workers.
She brought aspects of working class life to light, describing working conditions and treatment that working class employees suffer.

Ethnography

Ethnography immerses researchers in social communities to observe daily life and culture.
Focus is on how subjects view standing and understand themselves in a social group.
Examples include studying U.S. fishing towns, Inuit communities, villages in Thailand, monasteries, or amusement parks.
Researchers commit to studying various place aspects.

Institutional Ethnography

It focuses on everyday social relationships.
Developed by Dorothy E. Smith (1990), it challenges sociology's exclusion of women.
Smith’s three major works explored what she called “the conceptual practices of power” and are still considered seminal works in feminist theory (Fensternmaker n.d.).

The Making of Middletown: A Study in Modern U.S. Culture

In 1924, Robert and Helen Lynd studied Muncie, Indiana, to discover what “ordinary” people did and believed.
No one had studied the average American.
Researchers gathered data to objectively describe their observations.
Researchers found that Muncie was divided between business and working class groups.
The two classes led different lives with different goals and hopes.
Mass production offered both classes the same amenities, however.
Middletown: A Study in Modern American Culture became a bestseller.
Readers identified with citizens of Muncie, Indiana, and the use of data to define U.S. people became important.

Case Study

Researchers examine existing sources, conduct interviews, engage in direct observation and even participant observation.
Researchers might study a single case of a foster child, drug lord, cancer patient, criminal, or rape victim.
It does not provide enough data to form a generalized conclusion.
Researchers study “feral children” provide unique information about child development.
Cases of feral children offer extreme examples of parental neglect.
Case studies offer a way for sociologists to collect data that may not be obtained by any other method.

Experiments

Researchers test social theories by conducting an experiment that investigates a hypothesis.
There are lab-based and natural field experiments.
Either type of experiment is useful for testing if-then statements: if a particular thing happens (IV), then another particular thing will result (DV).

An Experiment in Action

In 1971, Frances Heussenstamm tested a theory about police prejudice using fifteen ethnically diverse students.
The students drove to and from class with perfect driving records along Los Angeles highways.
Heussenstamm placed a Black Panther bumper sticker on each car, and asked the students to follow their normal driving patterns.
The results showed that the students would be stopped regardless of following all the laws.
The experiment was halted after seventeen days, and the enthusiasm of participants had run out.

Secondary Data Analysis

Sociologists contribute knowledge by using secondary data, such as work collected from already completed research.
Sociologists study works by historians, economists, teachers, or sociologists, periodicals, newspapers, or organizational data.
Secondary data usage saves time and money, adding depth to studies.
Sociologists interpret findings in new ways.
Social scientists use data from governmental departments and groups like the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics or WHO.
It is nonreactive research (unobtrusive research), meaning it doesn’t involve direct contact impacting people’s behaviors.
Public records are not always easy to access.
To guide the search through a vast library of materials and avoid wasting time reading unrelated sources, sociologists employ content analysis
There is sometimes no way to verify the accuracy of existing data.
Another problem arises when data are unavailable in the exact form needed or survey the topic from the precise angle the researcher seeks.
When conducting content analysis, consider the publication date of existing sources
For example, Robert S. Lynd and Helen Merrell Lynd (1920's) attitudes, gender roles, race, education, and work have changed significantly since then.

2.3 Ethical Concerns

Sociologists conduct studies to shed light on human behaviors, requiring ethical obligations to avoid harming subjects.
Max Weber identified concerns about personal values distorting study results.
Sociologists must disclose findings without omitting or distorting significant data.
Value neutrality involves remaining impartial without bias.
Many believe complete objectivity is impossible/caution readers about certain value bias.
Sociologists attempt to remain objective, overcoming biases when collecting data.
Investigators are ethically obligated to report results.
The American Sociological Association (ASA) maintains a code of ethics.

ASA's code of ethics - Researchers are required to:

Maintain objectivity and integrity in research
Respect subjects’ rights to privacy and dignity
Protect subject from personal harm
Preserve confidentiality
Seek informed consent
Acknowledge collaboration and assistance
Disclose sources of financial support

The Tuskegee Experiment

This included 600 African American men, including 399 diagnosed with syphilis.
The objective of the study was to see “how untreated syphilis would affect the African American male”

Henrietta Lacks

In 1951, Henrietta Lacks was receiving treatment for cervical cancer at John Hopkins Hospital.
Doctors discovered that she had “immortal” cells, which could reproduce rapidly and indefinitely.
Without her consent, doctors collected and shared her cells to produce extensive cell lines.
Today, these cells are known worldwide as HeLa cells.

Milgram Experiment

Stanley Milgram conducted an experiment at Yale University, on measuring subject willingness to obey authority who instructed them to perform acts conflicting with their conscience.
The ethical concerns involve the extreme emotional distress faced by the teachers, who believed they were hurting other people.

Philip Zimbardo and the Stanford Prison Experiment

In 1971, psychologist Phillip Zimbardo conducted a study involving students from Stanford University.
The students were put in the roles of prisoners and guards.
The experiment was intended to last two weeks, but it only last six days.
The study’s validity has been questioned after participants revealed they had been coached to behave in specific ways.

Laud Humphrey

In the 1960s, Laud Humphrey conducted an experiment at a restroom, questioning his ethics because he misrepresented his identity and intent.

3.1 What Is Culture?

Humans are social creatures that form groups to survive; living together creates common habits, behaviors, and social expectations.
Many human behaviors (shopping, marriage) are learned, and interpretations of these behaviors vary.
Familiarity with unwritten rules helps people feel secure; humor is universal but what makes something funny varies by culture.
Even seemingly simple actions (commuting) involve cultural propriety, or expected behaviors.
Culture can be material (tangible items) or nonmaterial (ideas, attitudes, beliefs).
Material and nonmaterial are linked, and physical objects symbolize cultural ideas.
Metro passes are material (tangible), but represent nonmaterial culture (capitalism).
Travelers become aware of cultural differences and commonalities when interacting with different cultures.
Body language varies around the world; arriving home late with crossed arms and a frown means the same in Russia as the U.S. as it does in Ghana.

Cultural Universals

Cultural universals are patterns common to all societies (family unit). How they are defined/how they function may vary.
In Asian cultures, multiple generations commonly live together.
In the U.S., individuals expected to live independently before forming a family unit.
Other cultural universals: funeral rites and celebrations of births.
Anthropologist George Murdock found cultural universals revolve around basic human survival/shared experiences.
These include language, personal names, and jokes.
Sociologists consider humor necessary for interactions.

Is Music a Cultural Universal?

Music evokes emotional responses in television, movies, commercials, stores.
2009 study by Thomas Fritz: Mafa tribal members (Cameroon) recognized basic emotions (happiness, sadness, fear) in Western piano music.
Music seems to be a universal language, fostering a sense of wholeness within groups.
Language & music were originally one; music can cross societal boundaries more easily than words.

Ethnocentrism and Cultural Relativism

Ethnocentrism evaluates another culture-based on one’s own cultural norms.
Ethnocentrism means believing group is the correct measuring standard
As sociologist William Graham Sumner (1906) described the term, it is a belief or attitude that one’s own culture is better than all others.
A high level of appreciation for one’s own culture can be healthy (community pride).
Ethnocentrism can cause disdain or dislike/misunderstanding/stereotyping/conflict.
Travelers from Chicago may find rural Montana’s nightly silence unsettling, not peaceful.
Ken Barger learned to value survival skills and collaboration.
Cultural relativism assesses a culture by its own standards.
Cultural relativism requires an open mind and willingness to adapt to new values.
Indiscriminately embracing everything about a new culture is not always possible, requiring sociologists to reconcile aspects of their own culture with that of others.
Xenocentrism is the opposite of ethnocentrism, and refers to the belief that another culture is superior to one’s own.
The word xeno- means “stranger” or “foreign guest.”
An opposite reaction is xenophobia, an irrational fear or hatred of different cultures.
The best we can do is strive to be aware of them. Pride in one’s own culture doesn’t have to lead to imposing its values or ideas on others.

Overcoming Culture Shock

People depend on not only spoken words but also on body language, like gestures and facial expressions, to communicate.
Cultural norms and practices accompany even the smallest nonverbal signals (DuBois, 1951); they help people know when to shake hands, where to sit, how to converse, and even when to laugh.
Culture shock often associated with abroad travels (can happen in own town/state).
Oberg (1960): “culture shock” – excited at first, bit by bit, stress arises from interacting with other languages/regional expressions. All can make people feel incompetent and insecure.
Oberg found that people reject new culture and glorifying their own.
It helps to remember that culture is learned.
Everyone is ethnocentric to a point, and identifying with one’s own country is natural.
Adjusting to a new culture takes time (weeks/months to recover; yrs. to adjust).
Make new friends, step out of comfort zone, and learn about self and culture.

3.2 Elements of Culture

Critical elements of culture: values and beliefs. In sociology, value means ideals/principles members of a culture hold in high regard.
Most cultures in any society hold “knowledge” (education) in high regard. In other words, societies value what is good and bad, beautiful and ugly, sought or avoided.
Values are deeply embedded and critical for learning a culture’s beliefs (tenets or convictions people know to be true).
Individual cultures share collective values/beliefs, where U.S. believes in the American Dream/importance of wealth.
Other cultures tie success more to having healthy children.
The U.S. has an individualistic culture, meaning people place a high value on individuality and independence.
Many cultures are collectivist, meaning group welfare prioritizes the individual.
Fulfilling a society’s values can be difficult though (marital monogamy valued, yet many spouses engage in infidelity).
Diversity & equal opportunities are valued in the U.S., yet political offices dominated by white men.
Values suggest how people should behave, but don’t always reflect how they do behave.
Values portray an ideal culture society would like to embrace (no accidents or crime), yet police and lawmakers try to prevent these issues.
Societies strive to maintain its values through rewards and punishments.
People obeying norms and upholding values are rewarded; unwanted behaviors sanctioned.
Receiving good grades means praise from parents/teachers.
Breaking norms and rejecting values lead to labels, traffic, or tickets.
Utlizing social control promotes conformity.
Simple gestures have great symbolic differences across cultures.

Norms

Norms illustrate expected behavior in certain situations; visible and invisible rules structuring societies.
Formal norms are written rules existing in societies that support social institutions and are clearly stated.
Enforcement levels can differ (private property vs. driving while intoxicated).
Laws are formal norms, but so are employee manuals, college entrance exam requirements, and “no running” signs at swimming pools.
Employee manuals, college entrance exam requirements, and “no running” signs at swimming pools.
Informal norms are casual/generally conformed behaviors learned by imitation/general socialization.
Some are taught directly, others are learned by observing consequences.
Informal norms dictate appropriate behaviors and may be difficult to learn when you are new to or not familiar with the culture.
Although informal norms define personal interactions, they extend into other systems as well.
Customer practices at fast food restaurants.

Breaching Experiments

Harold Garfinkel (1967) studied how societal rules and norms influence behavior/shape social order.
One of Garfinkel’s research methods was known as a “breaching experiment,” in which the researcher deviates from any norm to test conformity.
It tests sociological concepts from social norms and conformity.
There are rules about speaking to strangers in public/private.
In some breaches, experimenters directly engage with bystanders.
In those cases, the bystanders are pressured to respond, and their discomfort illustrates how much we depend on social norms.
Breaching experiments uncover and explore the many unwritten social rules we live by.

Mores vs. Folkways

Norms classified as Mores (moral principle): breaking them can have serious consequences (homicide).
Most stronger mores are protected with laws/formal sanctions, while others are judged/guarded by public sentiment.
Consequences can be severe for violating social mores such as plagiarism.
Folkways are norms without moral underpinnings.
They direct appropriate behavior and may be a tradition that one should do or one will be scolded for.
Actions that people everywhere take for granted.

Symbols and Culture

Humans (both consciously and subconsciously) constantly want to make sense of surrounding world.
Symbols (gestures, signs, objects, signals, and words) help people understand the world by conveying recognizable/shared meanings.
Uniforms, logos, and signs are symbols, where gold rings symbolize marriage.
Stop signs provide instruction but serve as symbols; trophies represent accomplishments.
Symbols often noticed when out of context, conveying strong messages.
Stop sign on college door makes political statement; camouflage jacket in antiwar protest.
Semaphore signals “N” and “D” represent nuclear disarmament = peace sign.
Some symbols represent only one side of the story.

Language

The system is based on symbols where people communicate and go through this transmission with their culture.
Letters/words, pictographs, and hand gestures symbolize spoken sounds with meanings.
Sign language/expression indicate meaning.
A written language includes symbols that refer to spoken sound conveying specific meanings; some languages can have multiple meanings.
Language is always evolving/adding new words as societies create new ideas.

Language and Culture

1920: Sapir and Whorf advanced that language shapes perception and behavior (Sapir-Whorf hypothesis).
The hypothesis suggests that language shapes thought and with that behavior.
In the U.S., 13 is associated with bad luck from high-rise buildings do not have the floor with 13.
Words having attached meanings beyond definition that may affect thought/behavior.
Sociologists believe that language can also have broad/lasting impact on perception.
The team found that gender perceptions acquired in a person’s native language carry forward even when they switch languages (Boroditsky).
Some believe that the structure of language has consequences on even individual/group behavior.
Because structure, timing is greatly emphasized, so smooth products and processes.
Language has been hypothesized by showing conflicting positive and negative feelings/actions.

Nonverbal Communication

It is symbolic; gesture meanings are learned through cultures.
A thumbs-up in Russia/Australia curse; a wave can mean greetings or