Ch 2 - Theory and Social Research Flashcards
aggregates
collections of many individuals cases or other units
3 things about how social theories work
- social theroies explain recurring patterns, not unique or one-time events
- social theories are explanations for aggregates not particular individuals
- social theories state a probability, chance or tendency for events to occur rather than that one event must absolutely follow another
Social theory
system of interconnected abstractions or ideas that condenses and organizes knowledge about the social world
* a theory helps us understand the social world; i.e. makes sense
of our empirical observations
* influences the direction of research
macrosocial theory
society at the level of social structures and populations - large scale as a whole
societies, cities, nations, populations
mircosocial theory
individuals and individual action. small scale narrow level of reality - face to face interaction
mesosocial theory
between micro and macro
social organizations and social institutions in society
Empirical generalizations
not theories but are derived from theories and offer a simple statement about a pattern or generalization among two or more concrete concepts that are very close to empirical reality
summarizes findings or regularities in empirical evidence - few if any abstract concepts and makes a statement only about a recurring pattern that researchers observe
Middle range theory
does not try to bridge the micro-macro divide but instead offers theories about limited aspects of social life
focus on specific aspects of social life that they can test with empirical hypotheses
Concepts
Building blocks of theory - idea expressed as a symbol or in words
Assumptions
Statements about the nature of things that are not observable or testable - necessary starting point
assumptions of social theory
Agency vs structure
individuals ability to act and make independent choices vs. refers to aspects of the social landscape that appear to limit or influence the choices made by individuals
assumptions of social theory - Ontology
how we understand the nature of reality
is there an objective social reality, or is social reality
subjective/constructed?
there is an objective social reality that exists out there that is the same for everyone and that is ours to discover
assumptions of social theory - empistemology
techniques by which we study the social world
: how we study the social world; positivism vs.interpretivism
Epistomology - positivism
belief that the social world should be studied in a similar manner to the scientific world. Use of statistics surveys, and experiments
emphasis on replication, nomothetic, large samples, quantitative methods, objective facts
Epistemology - interpretivism
Society as fundamentally different from the topics of the natural sciences and argues that it is wholly inappropriate to study society in similar manner to the natural sciences
Understanding how individuals interpret the social world around them, usually focusing on qualitative methods
constructionist view, ideographic, small samples, qualitative methods
Thomas Kuhn
argued that how science develops in a specific field across time is based on researcher sharing a general approach or paradigm
scientific fields tend to be held together around a paradigm for a long period
paradigm
intergrated set of assumptoms, beliefs, models of doing good research, techniques for gathering and analyzing data
positivitist approach
sees social science research as fundamentally the same as natural science research
Assumes that social reality is made up of objective facts that value free researchers can precisely measure and that statistics can be used to test causal theories
Great value on replication - repeat the basics of a study and get identical or very similar similar findings
inductive and deductive inquiry - develop a general causal law or principle then use logical deduction to specify how it operates in concrete situations
mostly jk
If a researcher repeats a study and does not get similar findings, one or more of five possibilities may be occurring
- intital study was an unsusally fluke or based on a misguided understanding of the social world
- important conditions were present in the initial study but no one was aware of their significance so they were not specified
- the initial study or the repetition of it was sloppy, it did not include careful, precise measures
- the initial study or the repetition of it was improperly conducted
- repeated study was an unusual fluke
nomothetic (positivitst)
which means that explanations use law or law-like principles
Interpretive approach (epistemology)
also scientific - defines the idea of scientific differently from positivism
Human social life is qualitatively different from other things studied by science
social scientists cannot just borrow the principles of science from the natural sciences
Necessary to create a special type of science, one based on the uniqueness of humans that can really capture human social life.
Human social life based less on objective hard factual reality than on the ideas beliefs and perceptions that people hold about reality
only able to understand social life only if they study how people go about constructing social reality
skeptical of positivist attempts to produce precise quantitative measures of objective facts
favor idiographic form of explanation and use inductive reasoning
idiographic
specific description - explaning an aspect of the social world by offering a highly detailed picture or description of a specific social setting, process or type of relationship.
Verstehen
is the desire of a researcher to get inside the world view of those they are studying and accurately represent the people being studied see the world, feel about it and act in it
structural functionalism
major concepts
key assumptions
level
people
major concepts - system, equilibrium, dysfunction, social cohesion
Key assumptions: society has evolved from a simple to complex type that has specialized parts. Parts fulfill different needs or functions of the social system. basic consensus on values or a value system holds society together
Level - macro
durkheim, parsons
Symbolic Interactionism
major concepts
key assumptions
level
people
concepts - self, reference group, role-playing, perception
key assumptions: people transmit and receive symbolic communication when they socially interact. people create perceptions of each other and social settings. people largely act on their perceptions. how people think about themselves and others is based on their interactions.
Level: micro
Mead, Goffman
Conflict theory
major concepts
key assumptions
level
people
concepts: power, exploitation, struggle, inequality, alienation
key assumptions: society is made of groups that have opposing interests. coercion and attempts to gain power are ever-present aspects of human relations. those in power hold on to their power by spreading myths or using violence if necessary
macro
Marx, weber, erik Olin Wright
Critical Feminism
major concepts
key assumptions
level
people
concepts - gender, inequality, discourse, power
key assumptions: it is imperative to understanding the meaning surrounding gender and how power relations play themselves out in subtle ways in various aspects of social inequality.
Level: micro, meso, macro
Judith Butler, Dorothy Smith
Critical Race Theory
major concepts
key assumptions
level
people
race inquality, racialization, stratification
key assumptions: race is embedded in various aspects of social life, inequalities experienced in society cannot be explained solely by theories of class or gender - race and the experience of being racialized also contribute to stratification in social life
micro meso macro
Patricia Hill Collins, bell hooks. WEB du bois, start Hall
Grounded theory
Inductive approach - social theory that is rooted in observations of specific concrete details
widely used in qualitative research
build theory faithful to evidence - micro as foundation for macro
shares goals with posivitist - theory that is comparable with evidence - precise and rigorous, capable of replications and generalizable
theoretical explanation -
why something occurs and how concepts are connected - general rule or principle
ordinary explanation
makes something clear or describes something in a way that illustrates it and makes it intelligible
Temporal order
cause must come before effect
neccessary but not sufficient for causality
Cross sectional research can be tricky -
Simple causal relations are unidirectional/nonrecursive - cause to effect, more complex - reciprocal/recursive
three things to establish causality
temporal order
association
elimination of plausible alternatives
implicit fourth condition - association that a causal relationship makes sense or fits with the broader assumptions or a theoretical framework
can be observed
is there a temporal order?
* is there association between the concepts (positive or negative)?
* can we eliminate alternative explanations?
* does it fit within our theoretical expectations?
Association
Two phenomena are associated if they occur together in a patterned way or appear to act together
Association general idea
if you cannot find association - causal relationship is unlikely
necessary but not sufficient
can be observed
eliminating alternatives
if interested in causality - need to show that the effect is due to the causal variable and not to something else
also called no spuriousness because an apparent causal relationship that is actually due to an alternative but unrecognized cause is called a spurious relationship
cannot be observed
this is an ideal because eliminating all alternatives is impossible
try to eliminate alternatives by measuring possible alternative causes - controlling for variable
