Chapter 1 Questions

Question 1

individual perspective

Answer 1

type of explanation of human behavior which focusseses on individual cases (genes, personality)

Question 2

Sociological perspective/imagination

Answer 2

type of explanation of human behavior which focusses on social causes and examines social phenomena (collective human behavior)

Question 3

Social context

Answer 3

social environment in which people are embedded

Question 4

3 possible relations between individual and sociological perspective

Answer 4

1) supplemental 2) alternative 3) proximate and ultimate causes

Question 5

levels of social context

Answer 5

micro, meso and macro

Question 6

social problem (public issue)

Answer 6

goes beyond the personal troubles of a individual (it affects many people)

Question 7

personal trouble

Answer 7

problem related to the personal life of an individual

Question 8

three aims of sociology

Answer 8

describe, explain and apply

Question 9

approaching social problems

Answer 9

As a social phenomena (Scientific phenomena of interest)

Question 10

societal relevance

Answer 10

relevance of sociological work for the understanding of social problems

Question 11

social problems have a…. dimension

Answer 11

normative ( desirable goals and values are threatened, people want to solve this problem and politicians, policy makers and organizations offer various measures and interventions to do so

Question 12

normative vs scientific questions

Answer 12

does or does not entail value judgments

Question 13

3 types of scientific questions

Answer 13

1) descriptive 2) theoretical 3) application

Question 14

art of asking good sociological questions (2)

Answer 14

1) precision 2) relevance

Question 15

false theoretical questions

Answer 15

aims to explain something that doesn’t exists

Question 16

comparative case questions

Answer 16

includes some comparison of cases such as multiple social contexts, multiple moment in time and/or multiple populations

Question 17

common sense

Answer 17

everyday thinking, intuitions, beliefs and perceptions

Question 18

private sociologists

Answer 18

the way human beings in daily life make sense of the social world, a such they are prone to, among other things, intuitive thinking, implicit reasoning, development of incoherent and vague ideas, keeping knowledge private and searching for confirmations, little need of emperical testing and descriptions and explenations are true

Question 19

academic sociology

Answer 19

the way academic institutions describe and explain the social world. Characteristics are they systematic way of gathering knowledge, making explanations public and subject to critism, the development of coherent theories and rigorous testing, descriptions and explenations can be true or false

Question 20

hindsight bias

Answer 20

after being presented with the facts, people think it makes sense and it is obvious

Question 21

confirmation bias

Answer 21

search for observations that confirm their ideas and disregard facts that might undermine their ideas

Question 22

cumulative science

Answer 22

the practice that theories and observations of earlier studies are incorporated in the work of succesive studies

Question 23

background knowledge

Answer 23

the theories and observations that are known before the study commences (therefore important that these are public and shared in communities)