SYG1000 Midterm Notes Monday 6 27 11 What is Sociology Sociology enables us to understand the structure and dynamics of society and their intricate connections to patterns of human behavior and individual life changes It examines the ways in which the forms of social structure groups organizations communities social categories such as class sex age or race and various social institutions such as kinship economic political or religious affect human attitudes actins and opportunities Studying the interplay between individual vs group Sociologists question things that are often taken for granted choose where you live where your kids go for school Making the familiar strange Key concepts social structure social institutions social interaction social changes Social structure Social institutions needs to have broader meaning Social interaction way people relate and respond to one another how social interaction benefits harms Social changes social structures might not change often but we want to know the effect these have individuals individuals or groups and groups Tuesday 6 28 11 Theories and Roots of Sociology Sociological imagination Sociologists study the intersection between history and personal biography Three questions that Mills asks 1 What is the social structure of the particular society The pieces and how they differ throughout history 2 Where does the society stand in human history Change in roles over time like women s place in household 3 What types of individuals prevail in the society and period Look at race gender orientation over time and draw connections Beginnings August Comte 1798 1857 positivism seeks to identify laws that describe behavior of a particular reality and the scientific study of society Harriet Martineau 1802 1876 one of the first methods books translated the work of Comte into English The Big 3 Classical Theorists Karl Marx Labor and creativity Class conflict is what drove society When you re forced to sell your labor it forms a sense of alienation Alienation Alienated person I really don t care because I am detached from my work and from other people If something in society is harming someone we should work to fix it Emile Durkheim Social solidarity o Mechanical solidarity traditional hunter gatherer society everyone s role is set no diversity o Organic solidarity functional interdependence among people Anomie sense of despair and aimlessness when you don t feel connected via social solidarity no common values Max Weber Anomic person I am distressed about it because there are no common values or norms to guide me Society is failing me Rationalization Iron Cage of Bureaucracy Rational person Let me think about it and I ll get back to you later because I need to make some calculations before I know the answer Conflict Perspective Roots in the work of Marx Society is a collection of parts held together by power Differences in the balance of power produce conflicts dominate group gains benefits at expense of subordinate American Sociology The Chicago School Robert Parks Cooley and Mead Looking Glass Self WI Thomas WEB Dubois race civil rights Jane Addams applied sociology Structural Functionalism Roots in the work of Durkheim Society as an organism with systems that function together Equilibrium that operates efficiently Functions positive vs dysfunctions negative Manifest Functions intended vs Latent Functions unintended group Social change is the result of conflicts Conflict produces change Cohesion through conflict Symbolic interactionism Roots in Cooley and Mead Focuses on the micro level rather than macro People act in response to the meanings that signs and social signals hold Dramaturgy Goffman Sociology Versus History tends to focus on narratives individuals unique events Anthropology don t use quantitative methods Psychology tends to study you sociology studies us Political Science and Economics Wednesday 6 29 11 Research Methods What are Research Methods A way of testing hypotheses we have about the social world sociological scientific method o Identify a problem o Become familiar with previous research o Form a hypothesis and clearly define variables of interest o Choose a research design method o Collect data o Analyze data o Disseminate findings Deductive vs Inductive Deductive research begins with a theory forms a hypothesis makes empirical observations and analyzes in order to modify the original theory Inductive research starts with empirical observes and works to form a theory REMEMBER Correlation does not mean causation Correlation a relationship between two variables in which they change together Causation relationship between variables in which a change in one DIRECTLY produces a change in the other Correlation or Causation Causality In order to determine causality three things are necessary correlation time order non spuriousness or lack of alternate explanations Challenges of Causality Reverse causality When you believe that A causes B but really B causes A Ex Health and income Spuriousness when it appears that there is a relationship between A and B but really C or some observed factor aka confounding factor is causing the relationship to appear significant Ex Ice cream sales and death from drowning Basic definitions Literature review Hypothesis Dependent variable Operationalization the process of assigning a precise method of measurement Independent variable Two types of social research Quantitative methods examine the social world using data that can or is already converted into numerical form Uses statistical analysis to examine social phenomena Qualitative methods collect and analyze data that cannot be readily converted into numeric form Data and Methods Typically Qualitative Ethnography historical methods comparative research experimentation content analysis Typically Quantitative Survey research experimentation Qualitative Methods Grounded theory inductive method of generation theory from the data Ethnography naturalistic method based on studying people in their own environment Participant observation the research both observers and becomes a member in a social setting Interviews face to face information seeking conversations Advantages offer a way of studying groups that are often overlooked challenge our notions about groups we though we knew detail can reshape how we think about individuals and groups Disadvantages not easily replicated limited in the degree of representatives risk of bias people are not always
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