SOC2A: THINKING SOCIOLOGICALLY

Question 1

How would you describe sociology and thinking sociologically?

Basis Of Sociology

Answer 1

Connecting personal issues and problems to wider social structures.

Engagement of concepts, Thinkers/Theorists, Structures in the real world

Questioning: how can attitudes and beliefs be challenged by/connected to the wider environments?

Question 2

Social constructionism and the 4 key questions.

OBJECT, SOCIAL GROUPS, AVOIDING REFERENCE, FEATURES OF THE SOCIAL GROUP.

Answer 2

The way in which humans objectively interpret the world around them in conjunction with beliefs and social interactions.
- What is meant by the object?
- Why consider social groups and not just individuals?
- Why avoid reference to the object? - social groups should be projecting conceptualisation onto the object not vice versa.
- what features of a social group might explain their understanding/contruction of the object?

Question 3

Strategies to loosening the hold of defensive beliefs towards an object in a social group:

Answer 3

1. challenging ‘obvious’ understandings by using past or present variations - showing the object has been conceptualised differently in the past.
2. downplaying the impact that an object has on the way the group conceptualises it - considering social issues/problems and questioning the response.
3. human definitions and interpretation have more priority over the object - understanding that different groups have different classfifications and categories (interpretive flexbility)

Question 4

Points of social constructionist analysis:

Answer 4

1. expanding knowledge of our social influences.
2. expansion within obvious or biological topics to understand how groups have social influences on construction.
3. contributing towards a current debate/open dialogue or discussion.
4. a method of saying that there is no true definition to something and how you cannot be completely accurate on something.

Question 5

REALISM: DEFINITION.

clear examples of social processes within realism?

Answer 5

• • showing the reality of objects.
• robust, solid and hard to question.
  “crazy to deny the reality of it and seeing it as real and influential.”

social structures (class inequalities), criminal acts (genuine impact on lives) and health inequalities (wealther live longer lives).

Question 6

REALISTS BELIEVE THAT:

reliast idea concerning politics?

Answer 6

there is a right way of looking at things and we can get an accurate conceptualisation of things.
believe in attempting to link succesful action with succesful knowledge claims.

realism has replaced positivism.

realist idea - politics covering up truth - legitimate science v problematic politics.

Question 7

social construction v realism points:

SC V R

Answer 7

R - only one right way
SC - there is no one right way. (different ways to conceptualise)
* SC look behind any claim to find social influences.
* R only focus on the social influences if the claim is wrong - testing falsehood.