Theories & Methods Flashcards
Definition of a sociological theory
Way of thinking about society.
Centre on how much freedom or control an individual has on their lives and how much power they have to influence society.
What is a structural theory?
- Form of macro sociology - based on assumptions that society is more important than an individual.
- Deterministic (no choice) - argue that social forces and institutions dictate our behaviour. Lives are controlled by society.
- Use quantitative data - numerical data to discover ‘bigger picture’ - meta narratives.
What are social action theories?
- Form of micro sociology - based on assumption that people have free will, agency & choose how they behave.
- Argue society is constructed & shaped by behaviours of individuals & are NOT predictable and are diverse.
- Use qualitative data - written data to give insight (verstehen) & understand human behaviour.
e.g. post modernism & interactionism
Definition of social norms
Perceived, unwritten rules that are deemed acceptable and appropriate within a society.
Definition of a value consensus
Societies develop a set of believes and principles to co-operate and meet societies functional prerequisites.
e.g. Functionalists
Definition of Social solidarity
The feeling of being part of a larger social group. Durkheim stated that society should provide individuals with this sense of social solidarity through all the institutions.
What is Parsons organic analogy?
- Society is like a human body - all social institutions need to function together like a human body requires organs to survive.
- If one institution is dysfunctional, this will have a knock on effect.
What do Marx believe?
The economy is a driving force in society and it is this that determines the nature of social institutions and people’s values and beliefs. They believe society serves and maintains interests of the bourgeoise.
Definition of bourgeoisie and the proletariat
- The bourgeoisie are the people who control the means of production in a capitalist society
- The proletariat are the members of the working class.
Describe the Marxist belief of structure of society.
- Superstructure - social institutions such as school, family & the ideologies of the dominant views of ruling class.
- Economic base - determined everything in society and consists the means of production such as land, factories & relations of production such as shared or private ownership, owners and non-owners.
Definition of Capitalism
Economic and political system where a country’s trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit, bourgeoisie. Market competition.
Definition of Surplus value (profit)
Accumulated exploitation of workers by the new value created by workers in excess of the cost of their own labour.
Definition of False consciousness
People’s inability to recognize inequality, oppression, and exploitation in a capitalist society because of the prevalence within it of views that naturalise and legitimise the existence of social classes.
What was Marx’ prediction?
Class conflict would lead to a revolution whereby the means of a production is given to the state creating a communist society.
Definition of Communism.
Classless society in which all property and wealth are communally owned, instead of being owned by individuals.
Definition of Labelling
The behaviour of human beings is influenced significantly by the way other members in society label (perceive or describe) them.
Definition of self-fulfilling prophecy
Acts as the label they are given.
What do Post-modernists argue?
-That society changes rapidly and cannot be understood through metanarratives.
-They believe that society is no longer bound by societal structures and there’s an increase in diversity.
-They believe there is no single truth.
-Media saturated consumer culture where individuals can ‘pick & mix’ their identities.
Definition of Metanarratives
Big stories / theories that study society as a whole.
What is media- saturated culture?
Baudrillard (2001) says that the mass media is so far into our lives that it begins to shape the way we live. Our society therefore is so saturated with media imagery.
E.g. media image of war zones eliminate the corpses and death before being sent home, only to show war torn streets.
4 main features of the New Right
-Emphasis on limited state involvement in business problems.
-Want the state to reduce spending money.
E.g. Welfare benefits.
-Want a free market, where there’s competition. PRO- capitalists.
-Importance of traditional values.
E.g. Religion, marriage, work ethic etc.
Charles Murray: Underclass
Developed the idea of an underclass. He suggested that the welfare state created welfare dependency and that there were perverse incentives in the welfare system that could encourage lone parenthood and discourage work.
Positivists
Positivist sociologists believe that it is possible to establish objective facts through scientific research methods and the thorough collection and analysis of empirical evidence.
Positivists prefer quantitative methods such as social surveys, structured questionnaires and official statistics because these have good reliability and representativeness.
Interprevism
-Social action theory.
-Qualitative methods such as unstructured interviews or participant observation.
-Interpretivists, argue that individuals are not just puppets who react to external social forces.
Reliability definition
Reliable if someone can do the same research with the same method & find the same findings.
CONSISTENCY.
Positivists prefer this as they like objective ‘social facts’.
Validity definition
-For data to be regarded valid, it must be a true picture of what is being studied. Also it it really evidence of what it claims to be evidence of.
-ACCURACY & TRUTHFULNESS.
-Interprevists favour validity as greater understanding & depth is discovered.
Verstehen: Weber (interprevists)
Inspired interactionist theories & believed we need to gain a deeper understanding and look at the meanings associated with the actions & behaviours we study.
Reliability: Durkheim (positivist)
-Reliable study of suited where he studied suited rates using official statistics.
-Reliable since another sociologist could repeat the experiment and cross check his findings.
-He believes that he could take a highly personalised experience of suicide & scientifically study it to uncover social facts of reasons for.
-Led to theory of 4 types of suicide.
Qualitative methods recognise..
that each individual is completely different & have different thoughts and emotions & experiences.
Therefore they can’t be studied merely through a number statistic & instead should be thoroughly investigated for truthful meaning.
Quantitative methods recognise…
that overall from a wider perspective, statistics are what should be used to be reliable as they have been seen numerous times. These statistics can be cross checked with other research & receive the same outcome.
-They use standardised procedures - step by step replication.
Representative research
When the group being studied (sample) should share characteristics of the target population (people you want to study) thus the findings of the research can be applied to the wider group.
Generalisability
Info collected from smaller groups can be applied to wider groups.
Sampling frame
List of all members of a population you are studying.
Stratified random sampling
-Definition - choosing people at random from predefined categories designed to reflect the characteristics of the target population.
E.g. if target population has 10% black people, sample should have 10% black people to increase representativeness
-Evaluation - :) representative :( time consuming & difficult.
Opportunity sampling
-Definition - choosing easy to access people. Convenience sampling & picking yourself.
-Evaluation - :) quick & easy :( not representative & sample could be biased.
Systematic random sampling
-Drawing every Nth person from sampling frame. E.g. every 3rd or 5th. Size of frame or desired size of sample could affect size of gap between names chosen.
-Evaluation - :) reduces bias :( difficult to achieved because of practical issues of sorting ppts - time consuming.
Quota sampling
-Definition - giving each interviewer from predefined groups of people based on social class, gender etc. A flaw is that people’s characteristics can sometimes cut across several categories compromising the data.
-Evaluation - :) simple & easy & desired characteristics :( bias (time of day, appearance) & unrepresentative.
Random sampling
-Definition - most basic type of sample. Equal chance of being chosen (could be through hat)
-Evaluation - :) avoids bias/subjective judgements & equal chance of selection :( not representative- people with certain variables can be left out.
Snowball sampling
-Definition- relies on ppts recommending others to take part in the research. Traditionally used to gain access to deviant or secret groups who did illegal activities. Researcher has no control over who’s nominated.
-Evaluation - :) can access people who are difficult to access (minority group)
:( unrepresentative, not generalisable & relies on personal recs.
Volunteer sampling
-Definition - allows ppts to approach researcher e.g. through posters.
-Evaluation - :) easy :( time consuming & unrepresentative & not generalisable.
Ethical issues (British sociologists associations) & ethics committee.
-Security - all data must be in accordance with GDPR guidelines.
-Confidentiality - anonymity.
-Deception - should be honest with participants.
-Informed consent - participants should be aware of aims of study & that they are part of research.
-Protection from harm - participants should not be in any form of harm.
Unconventional issues
-Values of sociologists - personal interests & theoretical perspective.
-Aim of research - used to further knowledge or inform social policy.
-Research preferences - what methods they prefer.
-Quantitative or qualitative.
-Validity
-Reliability
-Representativeness
Quantitative methods: questionaries
Social surveys involve gaining info in a standardised manner.
Used to:
-find out facts about population.
-uncover differences in beliefs, values & behaviour.
-to test a hypothesis.
2 types of questionaries:
-self completed.
-structured interview.
Closed & Open questionaries
Closed - designed to get quantitative results. Quick & easy to analyse (pre set responses).
Open - asks respondent to answer in their own words & designed for qualitative info.
Longitudinal survey
Surveys which use a sample over time to survey. These show clear social changes.
What affects research?
-Sociologist values: current social issues ie. In 1960s society was more concerned with gender inequality so further research into this.
-Funding bodies: funded by an external body ie. govt, charities, businesses. As they pay, they’ll affect what & how we research.
Why do we have non representative sampling?
- Theoretical reasons: interprevists aren’t necessarily concerned with representing all individuals, rather with understanding individual norms.
- Practical reasons: time, money & access can be an issue.
Access
-Wallis 1976: church leaders refused to cooperate so he had to find ex members. In this way he created a non-representative sample of church members to study.
-Charlton et al 2001: study of young children’s mobile phones use & abuse used an opportunity sample of school children to the absence of any available sampling.
Advantages & Disadvantages of closed questionaries
ADV:
-quick.
-quantitative (easy to analyse).
-allow to compare with other sets of data.
-easily replicable.
DIS:
-cant explain question to ppt (could be confusing).
-cant follow up with extra questions.
-ppt may not agree with any of the answers.
Advantages & Disadvantages of open questionaries.
ADV:
-ppt isn’t limited with set of answers so they can be expressive.
-richer data - interviewer can follow up with more questions.
-answers are longer & more depth.
DIS:
-qualitative (hard to quantify & analyse).
-hard to complete.
-open to interpretation so might be interpreted different to intent.
Postal / Self questionaries
When ppt picks up or is sent a questionnaire which they fill out themselves and return by post or via the internet.
Longitudinal - ADV & DIS
ADV:
-patterns & trends.
-can quantify & analyse.
DIS:
-high dropout rate.
-expensive.
Michael Rutter
Used questionaries to gain large quantities of data from 12 schools. Large & more representative data. Still not representative of all schools in London. He was given funding.
However, questionaries usually suffer with a low response rate which makes data unrepresentative.
E.g. Hites 1991 study of “love passion & emotional violence” sent out 100,000 but only 4.5% were returned.
Advantages of questionaries
Practical:
-inexpensive.
-postal ones allow geographically dispersed samples.
-easy to quantify.
-can test hypothesis.
Theoretical:
-possible to survey large sample - representative.
-geographically dispersed sample.
-no interview bias.
-reliable & replicable.
-generally objective - validity.
Ethical:
-can be confidential & anonymous.
Disadvantages of questionaries
Practical:
-respondents may not understand question.
-may not access enough qualitative info.
-inflexible - new areas are inexplorable.
Theoretical:
-low response rate - unrepresentative.
-incomplete answers - validity.
-data limited as depth is limited.
-snapshots - idea of social reality cor short amount of time.
-not true reflection of ppts views.
-detachment.
Experiments
-Research in which all variable (that can change) are clearly controlled, so that the effect of changing 1 or more variables can be understood.
-To establish cause & effect.
-Lab experiments used less in socio.
-Occasionally field experiments are used in socio.
Hawthorne effect (demand characteristics)
Happens when people are aware that they are in an experiment so consequently, they alter their behaviour.
Milgram: obedience
-Found that 65% of ppts went to 450V on the shock machine which would’ve killed the person.
-Authority figures & fear of punishment causes obedience.
Bandura: Bobodoll
-1 group of children exposed to a violent role model beating hobo doll.
-Control group not shown this.
-When children introduced to doll they attacked it if they were exposed to violent role model.
Shows violence is a learnt response.
Experimenter group & Control group
Experimenter - you’d vary quantities & measure changes.
Control - you’d keep nutrients constant & measure changes.
Why is it called the Hawthorne effect?
Elton did research into factors affecting work ethic & productivity by altering lighting, heating to worsen / better behaviour but despite what he changed the workers would work hard to impress experimenter.
Advantages of experiments
-reliable & can be replicated.
-positivists see it as an objective way of researching.
-can be used to test out a hypothesis.
-establishes cause & effect.
