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Outline 1: The Sociological Perspective and Research Process I. THE DEFINITION OF SOCIOLOGY I. I. Sociology is the systematic study of human society and social interaction. Why study sociology? 1. Sociology helps us see the complex connections between our own lives and the larger, recurring patterns of the society and world in which we live. I. A society is a large social grouping that shares the same geographical territory and is subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. Sociological research often reveals the limitations of myths associated with commonsense knowledge that guides ordinary conduct in everyday life. I. A. The Sociological Imagination 1. According to sociologist C. Wright Mills, the sociological imagination enables us to distinguish between personal troubles and public issues. 1. Developing our personal sociological imagination requires that we take into account perspectives of people from diverse backgrounds. A. The importance of a Global sociological Imagination 1. The world’s high income countries have developed industrialized, technologically advanced economies and relatively high levels of income. Low income countries are those that are undergoing transformation from agrarian to industrial economies. 1. We must take into account other countries, as well as in the United States, because the future of this country is intertwined with that of other nations. I. THE DEVELOPMENTOF SOCIOLOGICAL THINKING A. Sociology emerged during the late 1800 century as one facet of the European intellectual response to Industrialization and urbanization. A. Industrialization is the process by which societies are transformed from dependence on agriculture and handmade products to an emphasis on manufacturing and related industries A. Urbanization is the process by which an increasing proportion of a population lives in cities rather than rural areas. A. Some early social thinkers were concerned with social order and stability: 1. Auguste Comte coined the term sociology and stressed the importance of positivism – a belief that the world can best be understood through scientific inquiry 1. Herbert Spencer used an evolutionary perspective to explain stability and change in societies. He coined the term “survival of the fittest”, equating this process of natural selection with progress and success. 1. According to Emile Durkheim, social facts are patterned ways of acting, thinking, and feeling that exist outside any one individual and exert social control over each person. Anomie is a condition in which social control becomes ineffective as a result of the loss of shared values and of a sense of purpose in society. A. Other early theorists were concerned with conflict and change. Karl Marx believed that conflict- especially class conflict is inevitable. 1. Class conflict is the struggle between members of the capitalist class, or bourgeoisie and the working class, or proletariat. 1. Exploitation of workers by capitalists results in workers’ alienation – a feeling of powerlessness and estrangement from other people and from oneself. 1. Max Weber noted that economic interests are important in affecting human actions, as well as other factors such as prestige. His concern with the growth of large-scale organizations is reflected in his work on bureaucracy. A. Sociology thrived in the United States as a result of the intellectual climate and the rapid rate of social change. 1. The first U.S. department of sociology was at the University of Chicago. Robert E. Park and George Herbert Mead were influential among early American sociologists. Mead founded the symbolic interaction perspective. 2. W.E.B. Du Bois founded the second U.S. department of sociology at Atlanta University and wrote the Philadelphia Negro: A Social Study, examining Philadelphia African American community. I. CONTEMPOARY THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES A. A theory is a set of logically interrelated statements that attempts to describe, explain, and (occasionally) predict social events. A. Functionalist perspectives are based on the assumption that society is a stable, orderly system characterized by societal consensus. 1. Societies develop social structures (institutions) that persist because they play a major part in helping society survive. These institutions include the family, education, government, religion, and economy. 1. Talcott Parsons stressed that all societies must make provisions for meeting social needs in order to survive. For example, a division of labor between husband and wife is essential for family stability and social order. 1. Robert K. Merton distinguished between intended and unintended functions of social institutions. a) Manifest functions are intended and/or overtly recognized by the participants in a social unit. b) Latent functions are unintended functions that are hidden and remain unacknowledged by participants. c) Dysfunctions are the undesirable consequences of any element of society. A. According to conflict perspectives, groups in society are engaged in a continuous power struggle for control scarce resources. 1. Along with Karl Marx, Max Weber believed that economic conditions were important in producing inequality and conflict in society; however, Weber also suggested that power and prestige are other sources of inequality. 1. C. Wright Mills believed that the most important decisions in the United States are made largely behind the scenes by the power elite, a small clique composed of the top corporate, political, and military officials. 1. Feminist perspectives focus on patriarchy – a system in which men dominate women, and that which is considered masculine is more highly valued than that which is considered feminine. A. Interactionist perspectives are based on the assumption that society is the sum of the interactions of individuals and groups. 1. George Herbert Mead, a founder of this perspective, emphasized that a key feature distinguishing humans from other animals is the ability to communicate in symbols – anything that meaningfully represents something else. 1. Some interactionists focus on people’s behavior while others focus on each person’s interpretation or definition of a given situation. A. Functionalist and conflict perspectives focus primarily on macrolevel analysis – an examination of whole societies, large-scale social structures, and social systems. By contrast, interactionist approaches are based on a microlevel analysis – an examination of everyday interactions in small groups rather than large-scale social structures. THREE SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES Rooted in the writings of Herbert Spencer, Emile Durkheim, Talcott Parsons and Robert Merton The key question: whether each different part contributes to the smooth functioning of the whole? Functionalist Macrolev el Society is composed of interrelated parts that work together to maintain stability within society. This stability is threatened by dysfunctional acts and institutions. Rooted in the work of Karl Marx and Max Weber and other critics of the 19th century The key questions: who benefits from societal arrangements and why? Conflict Macrolev el Society is characterized by social inequality; social life is a struggle for scarce resources. Social arrangements benefit some groups at the expense of others. Rooted in the work of George Herbert Mead, Charles Horton Cooley. The key questions: how do people make sense of the world in which they participate? Interactionis t Microleve l Society is the sum of the interactions of people and groups. Behavior is learned in interaction with other people; how people define a situation becomes the foundation for how they behave. A. Postmodernist Perspectives reject the grand narrative that characterize modern thinking and suggest boundaries should not be placed among disciplines. This approach focuses on information explosion and the rise of consumer society. THE SOCIOLOGICAL RESEARCH PROCESS A. Sociologists obtain their knowledge of human behavior through research, which results in a body of information that helps us move beyond guesswork and common sense in understanding society. A. The Sociological Research Process 1. Research may be either quantitative or qualitative. a. Quantitative research is based on the goal of scientific objectivity and focuses on data that can be measured numbers. a. Qualitative research uses interpretive description (words) rather than statistics (numbers) to analyze underlying meanings and patterns of social relationships 1. RESEARCH PROCESS The steps in the research process include: 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. selecting and defining the research problem reviewing previous research formulating the hypothesis (if applicable) developing the research design collecting and analyzing the data drawing conclusions and reporting the findings A. Qualitative research differs from quantitative research in several ways: 1. Researchers do not always do an extensive literature search before beginning their investigation. 1. They may engage in problem formulation instead of creating a hypothesis. 1. This type of research often is built on a collaborative approach in which the “subjects” are active participants in the design process, not just passive objects to be studies. 1. Researchers tend to gather data in natural settings, such as where the person lives or works, rather than in a laboratory or other research setting. 1. Data collection and analysis frequently occur concurrently, and the analysis draws heavily on the language of the persons studied, not the researcher. A. Important concepts in the research process 1. A hypothesis is a statement of relationship between two or more concepts. 1. Variables are concepts with measurable traits or characteristics that can change or vary from one person, time, situation, or society to another. 1. The independent variable is presumed to cause or determine a dependent variable. 1. The dependent variable is assumed to depend on or be caused by the independent variable. 1. To use a variable, sociologists create an operational definition – an explanation of an abstract concept in terms of observable features that are specific enough to measure the variable. A. Important concepts in collecting and analyzing data 1. The population consists of those persons about whom we want to be able to draw conclusions. 1. A sample is the people who are selected from the population to be studied, and should accurately represent that population. a. A representative sample is a selection from a larger population that has the essential characteristics of the total population a. A random sample is chosen by chance: every member of an entire population being studied has the same chance of being selected. 1. ETHICAL ISSUES IN SOCIOLOGICAL RESEARCH a. The study of people raises vital questions about ethical concerns in sociological research. a. The American Sociological Association (ASA) has a Code of Ethics that sets forth certain basic standards sociologists must follow in conducting research. A. Sociologists are committed to adhering to this code and to protecting research participants; however, many ethical issues arise that cannot be resolved easily. RESEARCH METHODS A. Research methods are strategies or techniques for systematically conducting research. A. Research methods on a comparative basis Experiments – carefully designed situations in which the researcher studies the impact of certain variables on subjects’ attitudes or behavior – typically require that subjects be divided into two groups: a. The experimental group contains the subjects who are exposed to an independent variable to study its effect on them. Experiments a. The control group contains the subjects who are not exposed to the independent variable. The experimental group and control groups then are compared to see if they differ in relation to the dependent variable, and the hypothesis about the relationship of the two variables is confirmed or rejected. Surveys are polls in which researchers gather facts or attempt to determine the relationship between facts. Using self-administered questionnaires, personal interviews, and/or telephone surveys collects survey data. a. A questionnaire is a printed research instrument containing a series of items for the subjects’ response. Questionnaires may be self-administered by respondents or administered by interviewers in face-to-face-encounters or by telephone. Surveys a. An interview is a data-collection encounter in which an interviewer asks the respondent questions and records the answers. Survey research often uses structured interviews, in which the interviewer asks questions from a standardized questionnaire. In secondary analysis of data, researchers use existing material and analyze data that originally was collected by others. a. Existing data sources include public records, official reports of organizations or government agencies, surveys taken by researchers in universities and private corporations, books, magazines, newspapers, radio, television, and personal documents. a. Content analysis is the systematic examination of cultural artifacts or various forms of communication to extract thematic data and draw conclusions about social life. Secondary Data Field Studies Field research is the study of social life in its natural setting: observing and interviewing people where they live, work, and play. a. In complete observation, researchers systematically observe a social process but do not become a part of it. a. In participant observation, researchers collect systematic observations while being part of the activities of the groups they are studying. a. Ethnography is a detailed study of the life and activities of a group of people by researchers who may live with that group over a period of years. a. An unstructured interview is an extended, open-ended interaction between an interviewer and an interviewee.