Transcript What is sociology?

UNIT 1: Introduction to Sociology
Chapter 1: An Invitation to Sociology
Chapter 2: Sociological Research Methods
Standard: Students will describe the
development of sociology as a social science
by identifying methods and strategies of
research and by examining the contributions of
sociology to the understanding of social issues.
The Sociological Imagination:
Observations from Movies and Real Life
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What is sociology?
Sociology is the study of human social
behavior as it relates to the social structure;
Sociologists do not focus on the individual,
but rather look at patterned social behavior
in a group.
By studying sociology, you may begin to see
the relationship between events in your own
life and events in society. As your textbook
puts it, “knowing how social forces affect our
lives can prevent us from being prisoners to
those forces.”
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What’s your perspective?
Read “A Native American Speech” on page 10
in your textbook. Answer the three
questions at the end of the reading. Be
prepared to discuss your answers with the
class.
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Movies vs. Real Life
What are the pros and cons of using movies
as a starting point for this class?
What are the pros and cons of using real life
experiences as a starting point for this class?
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What other perspectives can be taken when
studying society?
Sociology: Investigates human social
behavior from a group perspective, usually
with a focus on modern, industrial societies.
Anthropology: Investigates culture,
customary beliefs, and material traits of
groups, usually with a focus on preliterate
societies.
Psychology: Investigates human mental and
emotional processes, usually with a focus on
the development and functioning of the
individual.
Economics: Investigates the production,
distribution, and consumption of goods and
services. (Period 2, Best Class Ever!)
Political Science: Investigate the
organization, administration, history, and
theory of government.
History: Investigates past events in human
societies, usually by using newspapers,
historical documents and oral histories as
sources of information.
Answer Question 20 on page 33; be
prepared to discuss your answer!
The Origins of Sociology
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The field of sociology did not exist before the 19th century.
Social upheaval—caused by the French Revolution and
Industrial Age—led intellectuals to think deeply about how
to bring back a sense of community and restore social order.
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Translated Comte’s work; her own work was very popular,
making her a celebrity of her time
Linked slavery with oppression of woman; spoke out for
emancipation; her ideas on feminist theory are still read
today
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Compared social stability to the human body; all parts
(economics, religion, government, family, etc.) must work
together for a healthy society
Introduced Social Darwinism (survival of the fittest) and
believed that people should not interfere in social change,
even if competitive actions of corporations were causing
injustice for the poor
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Founder of Communism; believed that workers should plan
revolutions to ensure equality and distribution of wealth.
Identified social classes and theorized about class conflict—
the struggle between bourgeoisie (owners) and proletariat
(workers)
Saw communism as positive and capitalism as negative;
believed that capitalism would self-destruct eventually
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Social worker and co-founder of Hull House (social services
organization) in Chicago; awarded Nobel Peace Prize in
1931
Focused on imbalance of power among social classes and
the effects of industrialization on the poor; she was also a
suffragist
W.E.B. Du Bois (America, 1868-1963)
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Karl Marx (Germany, 1818-1883)
Believed that human beings acted on their own
understanding of a situation; verstehen (putting yourself in
someone else’s shoes) was needed to understand how
behavior is effected by personal meanings, values, beliefs
and attitudes
Identified rationalization (relying on knowledge, reasoning
and planning) as the key transition between preindustrial
and industrial societies; used ideas of rationalization and
verstehen to identify bias in social research
Jane Addams (America, 1860-1935)
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Believed society existed because of consensus among its
members (social contract theory); distinguished between
mechanical solidarity (preindustrial society) and organic
solidarity (industrial society)
Introduced the use of statistics to the field of sociology;
demonstrated that human behavior must be explained by
social factors and not just psychological ones
Max Weber (Germany, 1864-1920)
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Herbert Spencer (England, 1820-1903)
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Harriet Martineau (England, 1802-1876)
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Father of Sociology; believed social behavior should be
studied scientifically
Coined the term positivism, meaning conclusions about
society should be made using scientific observation
Distinguished between social statics (study of social stability
and order) and social dynamics (study of social change)
Emile Durkheim (France, 1858-1917)
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Auguste Comte (France, 1798-1857)
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Focused on issues of race both inside and outside of the
United States
What’s Your Perspective?
Read “The McDonaldization of Higher Education” on page
20 in your textbook. Answer the two questions at the end of
the reading. Be prepared to discuss your answers with the
class.
Theoretical Perspectives of Sociology
Functionalism
Conflict Perspective
Symbolic Interactionism
• A society is a relatively
integrated whole.
• A society tends to seek
relative stability.
• Most aspects of society
contribute to the
society’s well-being and
survival.
• A society rests on the
consensus of its
members.
• A society experiences
inconsistency and
conflict everywhere.
• A society is continually
subjected to change.
• A society involves the
constraints and coercion
of some members by
others.
• People’s interpretations
of symbols are based on
the meanings they learn
from others.
• People base their
interactions on their
interpretations of
symbols.
• Symbols permit people
to have internal
conversations. Thus
they can gear their
interactions to the
behavior that they think
others expect of them
and the behavior they
expect of others.
Research Methods
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Quantitative research involves numerical
data gained by surveys or precollected data.
Qualitative research involves narrative or
descriptive data gained by field research.
Secondary Analysis (Precollected Data)
What are some sources for secondary
analysis?
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Survey Research
How are effective surveys conducted?
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Population means all the people with the
characteristics that a researcher wants to
study. Example: All high school seniors in the
United States
A sample is a group of people that represent a
larger population; a representative sample is
a group of people who accurately reflect the
characteristics of the population as a whole.
How do you know you have a representative
sample that is selected by random? The best
sources for survey information are the US
Census Bureau and professional polling
organizations, such as the Gallup Poll.
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A questionnaire is a written set of questions
to be answered by a research participant; an
interview is when a trained researcher asks
questions and records the answer.
Survey questions can be closed-ended or
open-ended. See Figure 2.1 on page 40.
Field Research
What is the most popular approach to field
research?
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How is survey information gathered?
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Researchers use government reports,
company records and research done by other
social scientists to prove their theories. But
WHO collected the data?
Field research takes place in a natural setting
as opposed to a laboratory.
A case study is a thorough investigation of a
single group, incident, or community. The
assumption is that findings in one case can be
generalized to similar situations.
In participant observation, a researcher may
join a group with or without informing its
members that he or she is a sociologists.
Please review the charts and examples in
your book for detailed information about
each method.
Causation in Science
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Why do sociologists look for multiple
causes?
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Causation is the belief that events occur in
predictable ways and that one event leads to
another.
Multiple causation is the belief that an event
occurs as a result of several factors working in
combination.
Each of the singles factors that might explain
an event is called a variable—a characteristic
that is subject to change.
What are the kinds of variables used in
sociology?
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A quantitative variable can be measured
numerically.
A qualitative variable is defined by its
presence or absence in a category. For
example, male/female, married/single,
sophomore in high school, etc.
An independent variable causes something to
occur.
A dependent variable reflects a change as a
result of something happening.
An intervening variable changes the
relationship between two variables, for
example, a government support program may
intervene between poverty and hunger.
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What is a correlation?
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What are the standards for showing
causation?
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A correlation measures the relationship
between two variables. It can be positive or
negative.
Research must show that two variables are
correlated.
All other possible factors must be taken into
account. Beware of spurious correlations—a
relationship between to variables that is
actually caused by a third factor.
A change in the independent variable must
occur before a change in the dependent
variable can occur.
What’s Your Perspective?
Read “A Model for Research” on page 56 in
your textbook. Answer the four questions at
the end of the reading. Be prepared to
discuss your answers with the class.
Procedures and Ethics
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The Scientific Method
Identify the Problem
Review the Literature
Formulate Hypothesis
Develop a Research Design
Collect Data
Analyze Data
State Findings and Conclusions
• Ethics in Social Research
• No, you may not pay senior
football players to randomly slap
freshmen in the cafeteria so you
can gather data for your field
study project on bullying.