Chapter 1: Sociological Perspectives on Social Problems

Empirical approach

A method that answers questions through a systematic collection and analysis of data.

Institution building

A modern version of the functionalist perspective, which attempts to show how people reorganize their lives to cope with new conditions.

Institution

A more or less stable structure of statuses and roles devoted to meeting the basic needs of people in a society, for example, the healthcare system.

Comparative perspective

A process to learn about other cultures and other historical periods to better understand social problems within one's own culture.

Qualitative methods

A research strategy that focuses on narrative description with words rather than numbers to analyze patterns and their underlying meanings.

Quantitative methods

A research strategy which data can be measured numerically.

What are the 4 major stages that most social problems seem to go through outlined by Malcolm Spector and John Kitsuse (1987)

Stage 1-Problem definition Stage 2-Legitimacy Stage 3-Reemergence of demands Stage 4-Rejection and institution building

Economics

Studies the levels of income in a society in the distribution of income among the societies members. To understand how the resources of society--its people and their talents, its land and other natural resources—can be allocated for the maximum benefit of that society, Economists also study the relationship between the supply of resources and the demand for them. Confronted with the problem of homelessness, an economist would tend to study how the supply of and demand for different types of housing influences the number of homeless people in a given housing market.

Political Science

Study of the workings of government at every level society. As Harold Laswell (1941), a leading American _____ _____-ist put it, "Politics is the study of who gets what, when, and how." A _____ _____-ist, therefore, would be likely to see homelessness as a problem that results from the relative powerlessness of the homeless to influence the larger society to respond to their needs. A _____ ______-ist would tend to focus on the ways in which the homeless could mobilize other political interest groups to urge legislators to deal with the problem.

Role

Performance of a certain set of behaviors that go with a status.

Breakdown

Takes place when obedience to a set of rules is not rewarded or is punished.

Problem definition

The first stage that most social problems seem to go through: Groups in society attempt to gain acknowledgment by a wider population (and the press and government) that some social condition is "offensive, harmful, or otherwise undesirable." These groups publicize their claims and attempt to turn the matter into a political issue.

Rejection and institution building

The fourth (and final) stage that most social problems seem to go through: The complainant groups usually decide that official responses to their demands are in adequate. They seek to develop their own organizations or counter institutions to press their claims and enact reforms.

Natural history approach

The idea that social problems develop in a series of phases or stages.

What are the four things that the goals of empirical research can include?

1. Describe some phenomenon. 2. Examine the factors that predict or are associated with some phenomenon. 3. Explain cause and effect relationships or provide insight into why certain events do or do not occur. 4. Understand the meanings attached to behavior or situations.

What issues were considered to be the top five social problems between 2001 and 2014 (Saul, 2015)?

1. Economy 2. Unemployment 3. The government 4. Health Care 5. Immigration

What are the three basic perspectives that contemporary sociology is founded on?

1. Functionalist Perspective 2. Conflict Perspective 3. Symbolic Interactionist Perspective

What are the six other approaches to the study of social problems (besides sociology)?

1. History 2. Cultural Anthropology 3. Psychology 4. Social Psychology 5. Economics 6. Political Science

What are the six research methods?

1. Survey 2. In-depth review 3. Experiment 4. Focus groups 5. Observation 6. Secondary analysis

What four things can social problems be best understood by?

1. Using an empirical approach. 2. Linking individual experiences with social structure. 3. Recognizing that social inequality contributes to social problems. 4. Acknowledging that understanding social problems requires a comparative perspective.

Status

A social position.

Secondary deviance (labeling theory)

A state in which a person who is labeled "deviant" may then adopt elements of what is popularly viewed as a deviant lifestyle

Labeling theory

An application of the interactionist perspective that offers an explanation for certain kind of social deviance; theory that society creates deviance by identifying particular members as deviant

Experiment

Application: For explanatory research that examines cause-and-effect relationships among variables. Several types: classical experimental design and quasi-experimental designs based on degree of controlling the environment. Generates quantitive data. Advantages: Provides greatest opportunity to assess cause and effect. Research design relatively easy to replicate. Limitations: The setting may have an artificial quality to it. Unless the experimental and control groups are randomly assigned or matched on all relevant variables, and experiment is carefully controlled, bias may result.

Observation

Application: For exploratory and descriptive study of people in a natural setting. Researcher may be a participant or non-participant. Generates qualitative data. Advantages: Allows study of real behavior in a natural setting. Does not rely on self reports. Researchers can often ask questions and take notes. Usually inexpensive. Limitations: Can be time-consuming. There could be ethical issues involved in certain types of observation studies, namely, observing without consent. Researcher must balance roles of participant and observer. Replication of research is difficult.

Secondary analysis

Application: For exploratory, descriptive, or explanatory research with data that were collected for some other purpose. Diverse. Can be large data sources based on national samples (e.g., U.S. Census) or can be historical documents or records. Generates quantitative or qualitative data depending on the source of data used. Advantages: Saves the expense and time of original data collection. Can be longitudinal, with data collected at more than one point in time. Good for analyzing national attitudes or trends. Makes historical research possible. Limitations: Because data were collected for another purpose, the researcher cannot control what variables were included or excluded. Researcher has no control over sampling or other biases in the data.

Survey

Application: For gathering information about issues that are not directly observed, such as values, opinions, and other self-reports. Can be conducted through mail or telephone or administered in person. Useful for descriptive or explanatory purposes; can generate quantitative or qualitative data. Advantages: Sampling methods can allow researchers to generate findings to a larger population. Can provide open ended questions or a fixed response. Limitations: Must be carefully prepared to avoid bias. There is a potential for a low return or response rate. Can be expensive and time-consuming. Self-reports may be biased.

In-depth review

Application: For obtaining information about issues that are not directly observed, such as values, opinions, and other self-reports. Useful for getting in-depth information about a topic. Conducted in person, conversation is usually audiotaped and later transcribed. Generates qualitative data. Advantages: Can provide detailed and high quality data. Interviewer can probe or ask follow-up questions for clarification or to encourage the respondent to elaborate. Can establish a genuine rapport with respondent. Limitations: Expensive and time-consuming to conduct and transcribe. Self-reports may be biased. Respondent may feel uncomfortable revealing personal information.

Focus groups

Application: For obtaining information from small groups of people who are brought together to discuss a particular topic. Often exploratory in nature. Particularly useful for studying public perceptions. Facilitator may ask only a few questions; goal is to get group to interact with one another. Generates qualitative data. Advantages: Group interaction may produce more valuable insights than individual surveys or in-depth interviews. Research can obtain data quickly and inexpensively. Good for eliciting unanticipated information. Limitations: Setting is contrived. Some people may feel uncomfortable speaking in a group and others may dominate.

Normlessness

Arises when people have no rules that tell them how to behave.

Functionalist perspective

Definition: A way of thinking that considers the way major social institutions such as the family, the military, the healthcare system, and the police and courts actually operate. View of society and social problems: Views society as a vast organism whose parts are interrelated; social problems are disruptions of the system. Also holds that problems of social institutions produce patterns of deviance and that institutions must address such patterns through strategic social change. Origins of social problems: Social expectations fail, creating normlessness, cultural conflict, and breakdown. Social problems also result from the impersonal operations of existing institutions, both now and in the past. Proposed solutions: engage in research and active intervention to improve social institutions. Create new organizations to address social problems.

Conflict perspective

Definition: A way of thinking that is based on the belief that social problems arise out of major contradictions in the way societies are organized, contradictions that lead to large scale conflict between those who have access to the good life and those who do not. View of society and social problems: Views society as marked by conflicts due to inequalities in class, race, ethnicity, gender, age, and other divisions that produce conflicting values. Define social problems as conditions that do not conform to society's values. Origins of social problems: Groups with different values and differing amounts of power meet and compete. Proposed solutions: Build stronger social movements among groups with grievances. The conflicting groups may then engage in negotiations and reach mutual accommodations.

Symbolic Interactionist perspective

Definition: A way of thinking that offers an explanation that gets closer to the individual level of behavior by looking at the symbols people use in every day interactions—words, gestures, appearances—and how these symbols are interpreted by others. People's interactions with others are based on how they interpret these symbols. View of society and social problems: Holds that definitions of deviance or social problems are subjective; separates deviance and nondeviant people not by what they do but by how society reacts to what they do. Origins of social problems: Society becomes aware that certain behaviors exist and labels them as social problems. Proposed solutions: Resocializes deviants by increasing their contacts with accepted patterns of behavior; makes the social system less rigid. Changes the definition of what is considered deviant.

Psychology

Focuses on the human mental and emotional processes, primarily on individual experience. Rooted in biology, it is more experimental than the other social sciences. An understanding of the ____ pressures that underlie individual responses can illuminate social attitudes and behavior. Thus, a _____-ist would tend to study the influences of homelessness on the individual's state of mind or, conversely, how the individual's personality and ways of looking at life might have contributed to their situation.

Social policies

Formal procedures designed to remedy a social problem; can be designed by officials of government at the local, state, or federal level or by private citizens in voluntary associations, by corporations, and by nonprofit foundations.

Social Psycology

Involves the study of how psychological processes, behavior, and personalities of individuals influence or are influenced by social processes and social settings. It is of particular value for the study of social problems. A _____ ______-ist would be likely to study how life on the streets damages the individual in various ways.

Culture conflict

Occurs when people feel trapped by contradictory rules.

Social structure

The organized arrangements of relationships and institutions that together form the basis of society.

Social construction

The process by which some claims about social problems become dominant and others remain week or unheeded; these claims develop through the activities of actors and institutions in society that shape our consciousness of the social world.

Social disorganization

The results when rules breakdown; it is manifested in three major ways: normlessness, cultural conflict, and breakdown.

Legitimacy

The second stage that most social problems seem to go through: When the groups pressing their claims are considered credible and their assertions are accepted by official organizations, agencies, or institutions, there may be investigations, proposals for reform, and even the creation of new agencies to respond to claims and demands.

History

The study of the past. Historical data can be used by sociologist to understand present social problems. In studying homelessness, for example, historians would focus on changes in how people obtained shelter in society and what groups or individuals tend to be without shelter in different historical periods.

Cultural Anthropology

The study of the social organization and development of smaller, nonindustrial societies, both past and present. Because _____ _____ is closely related sociology, many of the same techniques can be used in both fields, and the findings of ____ _____-ists regarding primitive and traditional cultures shed light on related phenomena in more complex, modern societies. An anthropological study of homelessness would look closely at one or a few groups of homeless people. The anthropologist might be interested in how the homeless and others in their communities understand their situation and what might be done about it.

Reemergence of demands

The third stage that most social problems seem to go through: Usually, the original groups are not satisfied with the steps taken by official agencies; they demand stronger measures, more funding for enforcement, speedier handling of claims, and so on. They renew their appeals to the wider public and the press.

Social problem

Widespread agreement that a condition threatens the quality of life and cherished values and that something should be done to remedy that condition.