Sociology Exam 1

Mills description of sociological imagination

Mills describes it this way: "The first fruit of this imagination—and the first lesson of the social science that embodies it—is the idea that the individual can understand his own experience and gauge his own fate only by locating himself within his period, that he can know his own chances in life only by becoming aware of those of all individuals in his circumstances. In many ways it is a terrible lesson; in many ways a magnificent one."

Reliability

he likelihood of obtaining consistent results using the same measure

Symbolic interactionism

A theoretical approach in sociology developed by George Herbert Mead that emphasizes the role of symbols and language as core elements of human interaction.• Instead of looking at big theories of society (macrosociology) focused on how face-to-face interactions create the social world (microsociology)• Focuses on how shared meanings, orientations, and assumptions form the basic motivations behind people's actions

W. E. B. Du Bois(1868-1963) what he did

Argued that the color line persisted after slavery-Connected race to social and economic stratification-Critical of Marx for having ignored the importance of race in an understanding of social inequality.

Harriet Martineau (1802-1876)

British social theorist—the first person to translate Comte's written works into English, and one of the earliest feminist social scientists.•Often cited as the first female sociologist

Quant or Qual?

Depends on the nature of your research question. Choose the method that best helps you answer what you want to find out. Both useful? Mixed-methods!•Uses more than one method in a single study• Can be used to "confirm" findings found by one method• Surveys and interviews return the same findings• or can be used to "complement" findings •using different methods to gain different forms of knowledge.• For example, can use qualitative data (interviews) to understand the results derived from quantitative data (surveys).

Midrange Theory

neither macrosociology (it doesn't try to explain all of society) nor microsociology. Rather, midrange theory attempts to predict how certain social institutions tend to function. The key to midrange theory is that it generates falsifiable hypotheses—predictions that can be tested by analyzing the real world.

W. E. B. Du Bois(1868-1963)

the first African American to receive a PhD from Harvard and the first sociologist to undertake ethnography in the African American community.

W. E. B. Du Bois(1868-1963)

the first African American to receive a PhD from Harvard and the first sociologist to undertake ethnography in the African American community.-Argued that the color line persisted after slavery-Connected race to social and economic stratification-Critical of Marx for having ignored the importance of race in an understanding of social inequality.

What makes good research ?

valid, reliable, and generalized

Feminist Theory

A catchall term for many theories with an emphasis on women's experiences and a belief that society, in general, subordinates women. Emphasizes the centrality of gender in analyzing the social world.

Field Experiments

A field experiment takes place in a natural or real-world setting.• Field experiments are often used to evaluate the success of interventions to improve educational and health outcomes.• Examples are field experiments used to assess whether characteristics such as gender, race, and sexual orientation lead to discrimination in real labor and housing markets.

functionalism examples

According to functionalists, society is like a body where the parts must work together to sustain it•It is made up of different social institutions that serve different functions and play different roles in creating social order. •These functions may be manifest (explicit) or latent (hidden). •What is the function of schooling? The health care system? Even crime seen as playing a role in a functioning society.

Solidarity

-Wanted to know how societies were held together.-Division of labor helps to determine how social cohesion is maintained.-Organic solidarity: The social cohesion that results from the various parts of a society functioning as an integrated whole.

Anomie

A situation in which social norms lose their hold over individual behavior and individuals feel that their lives lack meaning

Bureaucracy

A type of organization marked by a clear hierarchy of authority and the existence of written rules of procedure and staffed by full-time, salaried officials.

Variables

A variable is a representation that captures different dimensions, categories, or levels of a concept.•Variables have to "vary," take on different values.

Conflict and Capitalism - Marx

Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of wealth, which is invested and reinvested in order to produce profit.•According to Marx, capitalism creates conflict because the rich exploit the poor and the poor seek ways to overcome that exploitation. •For Marx, this conflict brought on by the exploitation of the poor by the rich under capitalism will bring social change.

August Comte (1798-1857)

Coined the word sociology.•Believed the best way to understand society is by determining the logic or scientific laws governing human behavior, called positivism.•French society at the time was undergoing changes from industrialization that some believed would lead to massive disorder. •Comte tried to understand how societies construct order out of what appears to be chaos. •Believed social planning and scientific knowledge could be used to improve people's lives.

Types of Data Collection

CollectionTypes of data collection used in social research: •Experimental methods• Survey research• Content analysis •Participant observation •Interviews• Historical methods• Comparative research

Emile Durkheim (1858-1917)

French social psychologist and philosopher methodological principles that guide research. •Argued that the aspects of social life that shape our actions as individuals could be analyzed just as rigorously as natural scientists studied objects or events in the natural world.

Karl Marx (1818-1883)

German economic, political, and social theorist

max weber (1864-1920)

German sociologist, philosopher, and political economist whose ideas influenced social theory and social research.•

Social constraints

How the groups and societies of which we are members influence our behavior.-Anomie:

sociological perspective

Looking at life sociologically requires giving up: 1. Familiar Ideas 2. In favor of strange notion that society shapes those decisions

Mills stuff continued

Mills believed using the sociological imagination helps people understand their society and how it affects their own lives.•What people think are personal failings or private troubles are actually more general problems shared by many others and can be better understood by looking at the way we organize our society. •Mills: "Know that many personal troubles cannot be solved merely as troubles, but must be understood in terms of public issues-and in terms of the problems of history-making."•The sociological imagination brings people together to create change by transforming personal problems into public issues.

natural experiment

Participants in natural experiments are assigned to conditions by natural forces, not by experimental procedures. •A natural experiments is more similar to an observation study than a true experiment. •Studies looking at gender discrimination in orchestras are examples of a natural experiment. • The switch to blind orchestra auditions represents a natural manipulation.

Karl Max theory

Proposed the theory of historical materialism, which identifies class conflict as the primary cause of social change.-Materialist conception of history•Marx saw economics as the driving force for social change and the source of conflict in society.

max weber theory

Provided theories of authority, rationality, the state (i.e., government), and status and a host of other concepts that sociologists still use today. Weber also observed that social, economic, and cultural life was becoming organized according to principles of efficiency, which he called the rationalization of society. Out of rationalization came a new form of organization, the bureaucracy.

Ethics of social research

Researchers must meet codified standards set by professional associations, academic institutions, or research centers when conducting studies.• Researchers must guard against causing physical, emotional, or psychological harm to their subjects.• informed consent and voluntary participation are guidelines researchers use to ensure subjects know they are participating in a study and have voluntarily chosen to participate.

LAB experiments

Take place in laboratories. •This setting gives researchers the maximum amount of control over the environment in which the experiment is conducted.

conflict theory

The idea that conflict between competing interests is the basic, animating force of social change and society in general•This conflict at all levels of analysis (from the individual to the family to the tribe to the nation-state), in turn, drives social change•The people who possess the most power are those with the most political, economic, and social resources. They use this power to promote their interests.•Inequalityexistsasa resultofpoliticalstrugglesamongdifferentgroups(classes)ina particularsociety

scientific steps

The scientific method is a systematic process of asking and answering questions in a rigorous and unbiased way. Identify an important question that needs an answer. Construct a hypothesis, or prediction, about the answer to this question .Gather data that allow the researcher to assess the accuracy of this prediction. Analyze the data to determine whether the prediction is accurate. Draw and report conclusions

Functionalism

The theory that various social institutions and processes in society exist to serve some important (or necessary) function to keep society running

Comparative research

a methodology by which a researcher compares two or more entities with the intent of learning more about the factors that differ between them. •Use materials to examine change across locations to answer questions about how and why social processes unfold in particular ways.

Theory

a systematic, generalized model of how some aspect of the world works. It is more abstract and general than a specific hypothesis, and in fact, may generate multiple, testable hypotheses. A theory articulates a system of relationships between facts and suggests causes and effects emerging out of those relationships.

sociological imagination

a term coined by C. Wright Mills, is a tool that helps us to connect our personal experiences to society at large and to greater historical forces.

Surveys

are an ordered series of questions intended to elicit information from respondents. •Surveys tend to be highly structured, meaning that they tend to ask prewritten, closed-ended questions with fixed response options.• Surveys are used by a wide variety of industries, including market research firms, government organizations, and health-care systems, to obtain information about nearly all aspects of individuals' daily lives. Within the field of sociology, surveys account for about one-third of all published studies. • Surveys allow social researchers to describe patterns, test hypotheses, explore subgroup differences, document patterns of stability and change over time, and develop theories of human behavior.

Interviews

are another common form of gathering qualitative data. We can learn how and why people do things by asking them about it.• In-depth interviewing is a qualitative research method in which the researcher asks open-ended questions to elicit as much detail as possible from the interviewee.• The interview may ask about the interviewee's experiences, understandings, thoughts, feelings, and/or beliefs.

Research methods

are standard rules that social scientists follow when trying to establish a causal relationship between social elements.

qualitative methods

attempt to collect information about the social world that cannot be readily converted to numeric form. •Collects and analyzes data that enable rich description in words or images.• Interviews, ethnographies, some forms of content coding

Historical methods

collect data from written reports, newspaper articles, journals, transcripts, television programs, diaries, artwork, and other artifacts that date back to the period under study.• Examine change over time to answer questions about how and why social processes unfold in particular ways.

social institutions

complex group of interdependent positions that, together, perform a social role and reproduce themselves over time.

White Coat

effects are those that researchers have on the very processes and relationships they are studying by virtue of being there.

"Chicago School" perspective

focused on the belief that people's behaviors and personalities are shaped by their social and physical environments.

independent variable

is a measured factor that the researcher believes has a causal impact on the dependent variable.

scientific method

is a procedure involving the formulation, testing, and modification of hypotheses based on systematic observation, measurement, and/or experiments.

Hypothesis

is a proposed relationship between two variables, usually with a stated direction.

partcipant observation

is a qualitative research method that seeks to uncover the meanings people give their social actions by observing their behavior in practice.

Content Analysis

is a systematic analysis of the content rather than the structure of a communication, such as a written work, speech, or film.

Mid theory

is neither macrosociology (it doesn't try to explain all of society) nor microsociology. Rather, midrange theory attempts to predict how certain social institutions tend to function. The key to midrange theory is that it generates falsifiable hypotheses—predictions that can be tested by analyzing the real world.

dependent variable

is the outcome that a researcher is trying to explain.

Macrosociology

looks at social dynamics across whole societies or large parts of them and often relies on statistical analysis to do so.

Reflexitivity

means analyzing and critically considering our own role in, and effect on, our research.

Experimental Methods

seek to alter the social landscape in a very specific way for a given sample of individuals and then track what results that change yields.

quantitative methods

seek to obtain information about the social world that is in, or can be converted to, numeric form.• Relies on data that can be represented by and summarized into numbers• Surveys, experiments, social network analysis, some forms of content coding or interview coding (usually counts)

validty

the extent to which an instrument measures what it is intended to measure

•Generalizability

the extent to which we can claim our findings inform us about a group larger than the one we studied

Direction

the relationship refers to whether your variables move in the same direction (positive) or in opposite directions (negative).•As the independent variable increases, is the dependent variable expected to increase or decrease?

Sociology

the systematic study of human society

Microsociology

understands local interactional contexts, focusing on face-to-face encounters and gathering data through participant observations and in-depth interviews.