SYG1000 Test One Review Sociology Science guided by our basic understanding that the social matters lives affected by characteristics if the social world The social imagination the ability to look beyond that individual as the cause for success and failure and see how ones society influences the outcome outside forces contribute to ones situation 3 paradigms o Functionalism macro society as system of interrelated parts Herbert Spencer social Darwinism strong societies survive and weak ones become extinct Auguste Comte French first to use the term sociology and tried to discover the social laws statement of fact that are unchanging under given conditions and can be used as ground rules for any study of society Emile Durkheim solidarity is what holds society together and mechanical solidarity the state of community bonding in traditional societies in which people share beliefs and values to perform common activities vs organic solidarity when people live in a society with a diverse division of labor Talcott Parsons Social Inertia sociological systems remain at rest when resting and in motion when moving Robert Merton Manifest functions functions that leads to an expected consequence or outcome and latent functions functions that lead to unseen or unexpected consequences o Conflict theory macro society is a struggle over scarce resources groups battle for power Karl Marx bourgeoisie refers to members of the capitalist class vs proletarian refers to members of the poor or working class False consciousness persons lack of understanding of his or her position in society and class consciousness ones understanding of their own position in society Harriet Martineau one of the first female sociologists she considered not just class equality but also inequality between sexes W E B Dubois started studying race in America and double consciousness the sense that a person must keep a foot in two worlds one in the majority groups world and one in the minority groups world Jane Addams lived among the poor because she understood them o Symbolic interactionalism micro individual interaction between people influence them and can impact society George Herbert Mead how symbols teach us to understand ourselves Herbert Blumer people act towards things based on the meanings they ascribe to them and these meetings arise out of our interactions with others and society Contagion the rapid irrational mode where people do not think rationally or clearly and react emotionally Erving Goffman Dramaturgy the study of social interactions in terms of theatrical performance Howard Becker the labels we ascribe to people influence their behavior Max Weber social class conflicts bureaucracies and protestant ethic The view that a person s duty is to achieve success through hard work and thrift such success being a sign that one is saved Feminist Theory gender inequality theory gender oppression theory o Overlapping Theories structural oppression theory Exchange Theory Environmental Theory Chapter One Readings o The Sociological Imagination thinking beyond the individual understanding how the social impacts the individual individual also shapes the social world and most people don t think in larger context Personal Troubles impact the individual and his immediate relations with others Public issues transcend the individuals immediate environment o Generalizing Stereotyping and the social science strive to generalize without stereotyping we cannot avoid generalizing but we can at least be accurate Judgmental an absolute category category that overshadows all others doesn t change with new evidence not created carefully and doesn t encourage search for understanding Research methods scientific procedures that sociologists use to conduct research and develop knowledge about a particular topic o EX Playing an instrument and doing well in school o Independent variables variables that are deliberately manipulated in an experiment playing an instrument o Dependent variables response to the manipulated variable GPA o Control variable variables that are kept constant to accurately test the impact of an independent variable no way of knowing o Concepts abstract ideas that are impossible to measure o Operationalization turning abstract ideas into something measurable Causation relationship between cause and effect Correlation indication that one factor might be a cause for another factor Causal relationship where one condition leads to a certain consequence Positive correlation two variables that move in a parallel direction Negative correlation occurs when variables move in opposite directions Five steps of research o Decide on a topic o Review the literature o Develop a hypothesis o Collect data Concerns reliability and validity Types of studies comparative cross sectional look at one event in a single point in time and longitudinal data from over time Sample subset of a population Generalizability what is learned can be applied to the population from which the sample is taken Random sample group randomly chosen from a population Sample of convenience nonrandom sample available to the researchers Selection effects the likelihood that a nonrepresentative sample of the population may lead to inaccurate results Field research research conducted in a natural setting Participant observation researcher poses as a person who would normally be in the environment Case studies investigations of one person or event in detail Ethnography aims to understand the social perspective and cultural values of a particular group by participating with or getting to know their activities in detail Secondary Data data that others have collected and published Statistical Analysis based on numbers and used with quantitative data Qualitative data generally includes field research and looks for common o Analyze results themes o Share and publish results in academic journals or peer reviewed journals Chapter Two readings o Telling the truth and damned lies and statistics Need statistics to understand the social world but we need to watch for bad statistics 9purposely manipulated or accidently misread We accept bad ones because people are awestruck by the power of numbers and many aren t comfortable with basic math o Racism and research the case of the Tuskegee syphilis study Ethical issues Culture the language beliefs values norms behaviors and material objects that are important enough to pass onto future generations of a society o Material Culture items
View Full Document
Unlocking...