Exam 1 Flashcards
Quantitative Research
Explains the variation in social life using categories that vary in NUMERICAL amounts EX: How many…
Survey is the most common type of research
Qualitative Research
Methods used to collect information not readily converted to numerical form.
Designed to capture social life as participants experience it rather than in categories predetermined by researcher
Generalizability
The degree to which a researcher may claim their SAMPLE findings inform us about the larger social world
EX: political polls
Validity
The extent to which the study:
- measures what it is intended to measure
- provides an accurate account of the social world
Reliability
Likelihood of getting the same results if a study was replicated
Types of Surveys
Interviews
Participant - Observation
Experiments
Interviews
Qualitative method of a survey gathering information via a set of open-ended questions - much like a conversation
Participant-Observation
Qualitative survey technique by which reserchers observe people and interact with them in their normal environment
An attempt to see the social world as research subjects see themselves
Eperiments
Research technique for answering questions about the effect one variable on another under conditions that can be manipulated by the researcher
Not common in Sociology
Ethics
Inherent to research studies
Does the knowledge gained form the research outweigh potential effects on research subjects
Zimbardo
Prison Experiment at Stanford University
Social Constructs
fundamental tenet of society
influence our idea of who people should be/how they should act
Sociology
understanding social behaviors, where they orginated and the consequences of them
images/stereotypes that come to mind of how structures should act
institutions: intangibles, influenced by structures
Social Construction of Reality
everything in our society is socially constructed (media)
nothing has an entirely objective story
Sociologists try to understand…
How individuals reproduce social constructs EX: classroom settings
Sociological imagination
connecting history to biography (personal lives)
not assuming things are universal/normal but come from structural elements
Social interactions are influeced by social forces
Troubles
individual manifestations of issues
Issues
Social/society as a whole, issues cause individual troubles
Internal Contradiction
no control over the social world, yet we feel we can do whatever we want if we try hard enough
Social Change
forces us to question common sense and/or universally moral
makes us question what we thought the world was like
Socialization
Process by which internalize the values, beliefs and norms of a given society; social skills
Limitations to Socialization
Can be socialized generally but not in a new situation
Nature vs. Nurture
Human Nature
Socialization teaches you when and where to perform biological functions
EX: where to go to the bathroom
The Self
individual identity of a person as perceived by that same person,
The “I” - one’s sense of agency action or power
Other: someone or something outside of self
Infants can’t distinguish
Depends on what others do to you/view you as/tell you
Socialization toward self
requires input from others associate with unique sounds to help separate them from others
There are subjects AND objects
Reflexive Self
Passive, happens without thinking