SOC200 - Introduction Flashcards
Agreement Reality
known through culture
we accept reality that people believe is true, true in our culture
Experiential Reality
known through personal experience + discovery
Agreement: Ways of knowing
Tradition
Authority
•Inherited knowledge
•Experts, leaders, parents – dangerous when outside of expertise
Experiential: Ways of knowing
Personal Inquiry & Experience
•Both necessary, one not truer than other
•Can’t experience everything, easier to accept some things are true
OVERGENERALIZATION
assuming few similar events evidence of a pattern
•Researchers say it’s a gateway drug
•But assuming all marijuana consumers will move onto harder drugs + criminal life is overgeneralization
•Replication: repeating experiment to see if you get the same results
SELECTIVE OBSERVATION
focus on events/situations that agree with pattern
INACCURATE OBSERVATIONS
aren’t engaged in consciously, methodically/with proper tools can be misrepresented
•Asking parents if kid smoke pot + not kid
ILLOGICAL REASONING
no basis in logic
•Gateway theory seems logical
•It doesn’t make sense if they go from hard drugs to softer drugs
•Gamblers fallacy: assume that a consistent run of good luck or bad luck foreshadows it’s opposite
SCIENTIFIC UNDERSTANDING MUST
Make sense (be logical)
Correspond to what we observe
ASPECTS OF SOCIAL “SCIENCE”: Social Theory
Reasoning about the workings of the social world
ASPECTS OF SOCIAL “SCIENCE”: Data Collection (observation)
-in methodical + systemic way
ASPECTS OF SOCIAL “SCIENCE”: Data Analysis
Do the observations correspond to the theory? (or vice versa)
Do the observations correspond to the theory? (or vice versa)
•Bidirectional – can go either way
looks for patterns + observations + compares what is logically expected with what is actually observed
SOCIAL SCIENCE RESEARCH
Follows a logical method of inquiry and observation
-Driven by theory + logic, not belief/philosophy
-Stresses what “is” NOT what “should be”
•Must substantiate subjective view, would have to be balanced against evidence
SOCIAL SCIENCE RESEARCH
Finds patterns in social life, or patterns in behaviour attributed to social phenomena
•Social regularities
•Why + when ppl act in predictable/nonpredictable manner
SOCIAL SCIENCE RESEARCH
individual NOT generally the primary focus
•Individual usually source of info, but aggregates focus
Draws on a language of agreed upon concepts +
terms for doing research
why aggregate patterns of behavior are regular even when individuals change
Data
the information for your research
Quantitative
numeric data
•Easier to aggregate, compare, and summarize data
•Statistical analysis
•Lose richness of meaning by converting it into a number
Qualitative
non-numeric data •Relies on verbal •Case studies •Rich description •Ambiguous explanation: You don’t know exactly what someone else means by the expression and vice versa
Quantitative Variable
logical groupings of attributes
age, years of education, IQ score, score on a happiness scale
Qualitative Variable
old, an educated person intelligent, happy
Attributes
characteristics of people or things 35, over 65, grey hair
18, a university professor 165, smooth talker
80 out of 100, smiling person
Independent + Dependent Variable
Independent: presumed to cause/determine a Dependent
Dependent: variable assumed to be caused by another
Inductive Reasoning
General principles developed from specific observations
Specific Observations to General Principle
Deductive Reasoning
Specific hypotheses developed from general principles
General Principle to Specific Hypothesis
Relationships
- Never a single cause
* Lots of factors can be an independent variable
Pure research
knowledge for knowledge’s sake
Applied research
Social scientists are committed to seeing their knowledge of society put into action
