Ch 1 Flashcards
Sociological perspective
- Social contexts in which people live and how it influences people’s lives
- how groups influence people and how people are influenced by their society
Society
Group of people who share a culture and a territory
Social location
Corners in life that people occupy because of where they are located in a society
Ex. Job, income, education, gender
Scientific method
Using objective, systematic observations to test theories
Auguste Comte
- Positivism: apply scientific method to the social world
- invented sociology
Sociology
- study of society
- discover social principles to social reform
Herbert Spencer
- second father of sociology
- sociology should not guide social reform; would interfere with natural processes
- Social Darwinism: evolving from barbarian form to civilized form; only the fittest (intelligent) survive
Karl Marx
- Class conflict: two social classes: bourgeoisie (capitalists) and proletariat (workers)
Emile Durkheim
- social factors underlie suicide rates
- Social Integration: the degree to which people are tied to their social group
- weaker social ties = higher suicide rate
- patterns of behavior: recurring characteristics/ events
Max Weber
- religion is the central force in social change
- Protestant ethic: self-denying approach, birth of capitalism
- spirit of capitalism: desire to invest capital in order to make more money
W.E.B. Du Bois
- African American
- founded NAACP
Jane Addams
- founded Hull House
Basic sociology
Analyzing some aspect of society with no goal other than gaining knowledge
Applied sociology
Using sociology to solve problems
Ex. NAACP
Public Sociology
Middle ground between research and reform; benefit the public
Theory
General statement about how some parts of the world fit together and how they work; explanation of how 2 or more facts are related to one another
3 major theories
Symbolic interaction, functional analysis, conflict theory
Symbolic interactionism
- Symbols are key to understanding how we view the world and communicate with one another
- George Herbert Mead and Charles Horton Cooley
- micro: face to face interaction
Functional Analysis
- Society is a whole unit made up of parts that work together
- when all parts of society fulfill their functions, society is in normal state
- when they do not, society is in abnormal/ pathological state
- macro: large scaled patterns of society
Robert Merton
Functionalism: society is a whole composed of parts that work together
Manifest functions
action intended to help part of a system
Latent functions
Unintended consequences that help a system adjust
Conflict Theory
- Society is composed of groups that are competing with one another for scarce resources
- Karl Marx
- class conflict
- macro
Surveys
- narrow the population: target group
- sample: individuals from your target
- random sample: everyone in population has same chance of being included in study
- stratified random sample: subgroups,
- respondents: people who answer the questions
- close ended questions: followed by list of possible answers, ex. Age
- open ended: answer in your own words
- rapport: trust with respondents
Participant Observation (Fieldwork)
researcher participates in research setting with observing what is happening
Case Studies
- Researcher focuses on single event/ individual
- power dynamics/ motives
Secondary Analysis
Researcher analyze data that have been collected
Analysis of Documents
- Study documents, records, papers
- cannot be used to study social and emotional
Experiments
- determine cause and effect
- experimental group and control group
Unobtrusive Measures
- observing the behavior of people who are not aware that they are being studied
- can be unethical
Ex. Cameras, 911 calls
8 steps in sociological research
- Select topic
- Define problem
- Review literature
- Form hypothesis
- Choose research method
- Collect data
- Analyze results
- Share results
