Ch 2 - Theory and Social Research

Question 1

aggregates

Answer 1

collections of many individuals cases or other units

Question 2

3 things about how social theories work

Answer 2

1. social theroies explain recurring patterns, not unique or one-time events
2. social theories are explanations for aggregates not particular individuals
3. social theories state a probability, chance or tendency for events to occur rather than that one event must absolutely follow another

Question 3

Social theory

Answer 3

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

Question 4

macrosocial theory

Answer 4

society at the level of social structures and populations - large scale as a whole

societies, cities, nations, populations

Question 5

mircosocial theory

Answer 5

individuals and individual action. small scale narrow level of reality - face to face interaction

Question 6

mesosocial theory

Answer 6

between micro and macro
social organizations and social institutions in society

Question 7

Empirical generalizations

Answer 7

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

Question 8

Middle range theory

Answer 8

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

Question 9

Concepts

Answer 9

Building blocks of theory - idea expressed as a symbol or in words

Question 10

Assumptions

Answer 10

Statements about the nature of things that are not observable or testable - necessary starting point

Question 11

assumptions of social theory
Agency vs structure

Answer 11

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

Question 12

assumptions of social theory - Ontology

Answer 12

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

Question 13

assumptions of social theory - empistemology

Answer 13

techniques by which we study the social world

: how we study the social world; positivism vs.interpretivism

Question 14

Epistomology - positivism

Answer 14

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

Question 15

Epistemology - interpretivism

Answer 15

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

Question 16

Thomas Kuhn

Answer 16

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

Question 17

paradigm

Answer 17

intergrated set of assumptoms, beliefs, models of doing good research, techniques for gathering and analyzing data

Question 18

positivitist approach

Answer 18

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

Question 19

If a researcher repeats a study and does not get similar findings, one or more of five possibilities may be occurring

Answer 19

1. intital study was an unsusally fluke or based on a misguided understanding of the social world
2. important conditions were present in the initial study but no one was aware of their significance so they were not specified
3. the initial study or the repetition of it was sloppy, it did not include careful, precise measures
4. the initial study or the repetition of it was improperly conducted
5. repeated study was an unusual fluke

Question 20

nomothetic (positivitst)

Answer 20

which means that explanations use law or law-like principles

Question 21

Interpretive approach (epistemology)

Answer 21

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

Question 22

idiographic

Answer 22

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.

Question 23

Verstehen

Answer 23

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

Question 24

structural functionalism

major concepts
key assumptions
level
people

Answer 24

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

Question 25

Symbolic Interactionism

major concepts
key assumptions
level
people

Answer 25

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

Question 26

Conflict theory

major concepts
key assumptions
level
people

Answer 26

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

Question 27

Critical Feminism

major concepts
key assumptions
level
people

Answer 27

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

Question 28

Critical Race Theory

major concepts
key assumptions
level
people

Answer 28

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

Question 29

Grounded theory

Answer 29

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

Question 30

theoretical explanation -

Answer 30

why something occurs and how concepts are connected - general rule or principle

Question 31

ordinary explanation

Answer 31

makes something clear or describes something in a way that illustrates it and makes it intelligible

Question 32

Temporal order

Answer 32

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

Question 33

three things to establish causality

Answer 33

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?

Question 34

Association

Answer 34

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

Question 35

eliminating alternatives

Answer 35

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