UNIT 1: Introduction to Sociology Chapter 1: An Invitation to Sociology

Chapter 2: Sociological Research Methods

Standard: Students will describe the development of sociology as a social science by identifying

methods and strategies of research and by examining the contributions of sociology to the

understanding of social issues.

The Sociological Imagination: Observations from Movies and Real Life

• What is sociology?• Sociology is the study of human social behavior

as it relates to the social structure; Sociologists do not focus on the individual, but rather look at patterned social behavior in a group.

• By studying sociology, you may begin to see the relationship between events in your own life and events in society. As your textbook puts it, “knowing how social forces affect our lives can prevent us from being prisoners to those forces.”

• What’s your perspective? • Read “A Native American Speech” on page 10 in

your textbook. Answer the three questions at the end of the reading. Be prepared to discuss your answers with the class.

• Movies vs. Real Life• What are the pros and cons of using movies as a

starting point for this class? • What are the pros and cons of using real life

experiences as a starting point for this class?

• What other perspectives can be taken when studying society?

• Sociology: Investigates human social behavior from a group perspective, usually with a focus on modern, industrial societies.

• Anthropology: Investigates culture, customary beliefs, and material traits of groups, usually with a focus on preliterate societies.

• Psychology: Investigates human mental and emotional processes, usually with a focus on the development and functioning of the individual.

• Economics: Investigates the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. (Period 2, Best Class Ever!)

• Political Science: Investigate the organization, administration, history, and theory of government.

• History: Investigates past events in human societies, usually by using newspapers, historical documents and oral histories as sources of information.

• Answer Question 20 on page 33; be prepared to discuss your answer!

The Origins of Sociology• The field of sociology did not exist before the 19th century.

Social upheaval—caused by the French Revolution and Industrial Age—led intellectuals to think deeply about how to bring back a sense of community and restore social order.

• Auguste Comte (France, 1798-1857)

– Father of Sociology; believed social behavior should be studied scientifically

– Coined the term positivism, meaning conclusions about society should be made using scientific observation

– Distinguished between social statics (study of social stability and order) and social dynamics (study of social change)

• Harriet Martineau (England, 1802-1876)– Translated Comte’s work; her own work was very popular,

making her a celebrity of her time– Linked slavery with oppression of woman; spoke out for

emancipation; her ideas on feminist theory are still read today• Herbert Spencer (England, 1820-1903)

– Compared social stability to the human body; all parts (economics, religion, government, family, etc.) must work together for a healthy society

– Introduced Social Darwinism (survival of the fittest) and believed that people should not interfere in social change, even if competitive actions of corporations were causing injustice for the poor

• Karl Marx (Germany, 1818-1883)– Founder of Communism; believed that workers should plan

revolutions to ensure equality and distribution of wealth. – Identified social classes and theorized about class conflict—the

struggle between bourgeoisie (owners) and proletariat (workers)– Saw communism as positive and capitalism as negative; believed

that capitalism would self-destruct eventually

• Emile Durkheim (France, 1858-1917)– Believed society existed because of consensus among its

members (social contract theory); distinguished between mechanical solidarity (preindustrial society) and organic solidarity (industrial society)

– Introduced the use of statistics to the field of sociology; demonstrated that human behavior must be explained by social factors and not just psychological ones

• Max Weber (Germany, 1864-1920)– Believed that human beings acted on their own understanding

of a situation; verstehen (putting yourself in someone else’s shoes) was needed to understand how behavior is effected by personal meanings, values, beliefs and attitudes

– Identified rationalization (relying on knowledge, reasoning and planning) as the key transition between preindustrial and industrial societies; used ideas of rationalization and verstehen to identify bias in social research

• Jane Addams (America, 1860-1935)– Social worker and co-founder of Hull House (social services

organization) in Chicago; awarded Nobel Peace Prize in 1931– Focused on imbalance of power among social classes and the

effects of industrialization on the poor; she was also a suffragist

• W.E.B. Du Bois (America, 1868-1963)– Focused on issues of race both inside and outside of the

United States

• What’s Your Perspective? • Read “The McDonaldization of Higher Education” on page

20 in your textbook. Answer the two questions at the end of the reading. Be prepared to discuss your answers with the class.

Theoretical Perspectives of Sociology

Research Methods• Quantitative research involves numerical data

gained by surveys or precollected data. • Qualitative research involves narrative or

descriptive data gained by field research.

• Survey Research• How are effective surveys conducted?

– Population means all the people with the characteristics that a researcher wants to study. Example: All high school seniors in the United States

– A sample is a group of people that represent a larger population; a representative sample is a group of people who accurately reflect the characteristics of the population as a whole.

– How do you know you have a representative sample that is selected by random? The best sources for survey information are the US Census Bureau and professional polling organizations, such as the Gallup Poll.

• How is survey information gathered?– A questionnaire is a written set of questions to be

answered by a research participant; an interview is when a trained researcher asks questions and records the answer.

– Survey questions can be closed-ended or open-ended. See Figure 2.1 on page 40.

• Secondary Analysis (Precollected Data)• What are some sources for secondary

analysis?– Researchers use government reports, company

records and research done by other social scientists to prove their theories. But WHO collected the data?

• Field Research• What is the most popular approach to field

research?– Field research takes place in a natural setting as

opposed to a laboratory. – A case study is a thorough investigation of a

single group, incident, or community. The assumption is that findings in one case can be generalized to similar situations.

– In participant observation, a researcher may join a group with or without informing its members that he or she is a sociologists.

• Please review the charts and examples in

your book for detailed information about each method.

Causation in Science• Why do sociologists look for multiple causes?

– Causation is the belief that events occur in predictable ways and that one event leads to another.

– Multiple causation is the belief that an event occurs as a result of several factors working in combination.

– Each of the singles factors that might explain an event is called a variable—a characteristic that is subject to change.

• What are the kinds of variables used in sociology? – A quantitative variable can be measured

numerically. – A qualitative variable is defined by its presence or

absence in a category. For example, male/female, married/single, sophomore in high school, etc.

– An independent variable causes something to occur.

– A dependent variable reflects a change as a result of something happening.

– An intervening variable changes the relationship between two variables, for example, a government support program may intervene between poverty and hunger.

• What is a correlation? – A correlation measures the relationship between

two variables. It can be positive or negative.

• What are the standards for showing causation? – Research must show that two variables are

correlated. – All other possible factors must be taken into

account. Beware of spurious correlations—a relationship between to variables that is actually caused by a third factor.

– A change in the independent variable must occur before a change in the dependent variable can occur.

• What’s Your Perspective? • Read “A Model for Research” on page 56 in your

textbook. Answer the four questions at the end of the reading. Be prepared to discuss your answers with the class.

Procedures and Ethics

• The Scientific Method• Identify the Problem• Review the Literature• Formulate Hypothesis• Develop a Research

Design• Collect Data• Analyze Data• State Findings and

Conclusions

• Ethics in Social Research• No, you may not pay senior football

players to randomly slap freshmen in the cafeteria so you can gather data for your field study project on bullying.