Download Three Ways to Do Sociology

Three Ways to Do
Sociology
Methodological Orientations
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Scientific sociology
Study of society based on systematic
observation of social behavior
Called “positivism”
Objective reality exists out there
Verified by our senses
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Concepts, Variables, and
Measurement
Concept: a mental construct (sort of a
body of knowledge) that represents some
part of the world in a simplified format
– When you “add” matter, matter increases
– When you “subtract” matter, matter decreases
– “Society” is a concept that has parts such as
“the family”, “the economy”
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Variable
A value whose value changes from case
to case
Prices go up and down
Social classes
– Upper class
– Middle class
– Working class
– Lower class
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Measurement
A procedure to determine the value of a
variable in a specific case
– Weight
– Distance
– Etc.
– But, how do you measure “social class?”
Income, occupation, education?
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Operationalize a Variable
Specifying exactly what is to be measured
before assigning a value to a variable
Before measuring the concept of “social
class,” you would measure what—
-income level?
-years of schooling?
-occupational prestige?
-whatever….
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Taking the Opinions of Others in
Survey
Because people are increasingly of mixed
race, the last census permitted people to
chose more than one race when
describing themselves
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Reliability
Consistency in measurement
A measurement is reliable if repeated
measurements give the same results time
after time.
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Validity
Measuring exactly what you intend to
measure
If you are studying religious people, for
example, do you study people who attend
church?
-they could attend because they are
pressured
-habit
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Mode, Mean, Median
Mode: the number that occurs most often
Mean: the average of a series of numbers
Median: the value that occurs half way in a
series of numbers arranged from lowest to
highest
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Relationships Among Variables
Remember, a variable is a value
The real payoff is seeing relationships
among variables
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Cause and Effect
A relationship in which change in one
variable causes change in another
-Studying hard for an exam will result in a
higher grade
-Practicing shooting foul shots will
increase accuracy in making foul shots
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Independent Variable
The independent variables would be the
amount of study achieved or the amount of
time practicing foul shots
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Dependent Variable
The variable that changes
-the exam grade
-the accuracy of foul shooting
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Linking is Important
Lets us predict the outcome of future
events
If you study, you will get a good grade. If
you don’t study, you will not.
Can you think of an independent variable
and a dependent variable?
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Correlation
A relationship in which
two or more variables
change together
Looking at juvenile
delinquency, for
example, we see that
densely populated
neighborhoods and
crowded housing
correlate with juvenile
delinquency…however
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There May Be Another Factor
People living under these conditions are
usually poor…in other words…
Both previous conditions are caused by
poverty
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Spurious Correlation
An apparent but false relationship between
two or more variables that is caused by
some other variable
In this case, if we control the income level
(keep it the same) and increase or
decrease the density of the living
conditions, the delinquency rate does not
change
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Objectivity
Personal neutrality
Hold to scientific procedures
Attitudes and beliefs should not influence
the findings
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Sociologists Selecting Topics for
Study
Most have a built in bias to some degree—
hopefully small
People naturally study what they have an
interest in and a bias for
Most sociologists are white, highly
educated, and more politically liberal than
the population as a whole. Like everyone
else, they are influenced by their social
backgrounds
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Replication
Having others repeat the same research
and getting the same results helps give
credence to the original results
Objectivity and truth lie in consistency over
time
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Interpretive Sociology
Sociologists suggest that the scientific
may fail to find real meaning in the study
Max Weber, pioneering this view point,
emphasized process of interpretation—
learning what meaning people find in what
they do
Therefore, interpretative sociology is
focusing on the meanings people attach to
their social world
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Verstehen
The German word
for ‘understanding”
Observing more
than “what” people
do, but “why” they
do it
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Critical Sociology
The study of society that focuses on the
need for social change
Founder: Karl Marx--communist
Questions like, “should society exist in its
current form?” are the standard
Emphasis is on social activism—get out
there and protest!
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Sociology as Politics
Critical sociologists state that all research
is political or biased
-either it calls for change or it does not
-sociologists need to chose what positions
to support
An activist orientation that calls for
knowledge used to take action
Politics range from liberal to radical left
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Gender and Research
The personal traits and social positions
that members of a society attach to being
female or male
Gender stereotyping
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Androcentricity
Seeing things only
from the
perspective of a
male
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Overgeneralizing
Using data drawn
from people of only
one sex—tainting
the findings
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Double Standards
Judging men and women differently—man
as head of the household and the woman
as engaging in family “support work”…the
author forgets how important “support
work” is…
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Research Ethics
Be fair
Make your results available to other
sociologists
Disclose all research material
Conduct safe research
Protect people’s privacy
Disclose sources of financial support
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The Experiment—Testing the
Hypothesis
A research method for investigating cause
and effect under highly controlled
conditions
Hypothesis: a statement of a possible
relationship between two or more
variables—usually a “if, then” statement—
if it’s this way, then it will be that way.
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The Hawthorne Effect
People change behavior merely because
they are being observed
1930s study of Western electric Company
Whether lights were turned up or down,
productivity increased—merely because
workers realized they were being
observed
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The Hawthorne Effect
The Hawthorne study stared with the
question whether better lighting would help
productivity
– Lights turned up, better production
– But when they turned the lights down, they
got another increase in productivity
The change was merely an awareness of
being studied
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An Illustration: The Stanford
County Prison
Experiment conducted by researcher
Philip Zimbardo on whether the
environment of prisons fosters violence
Realistic prison constructed on campus of
Stanford University
Students selected for experiment, some
prisoners, some guards
Spend 2 weeks in mock prison--results
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An Illustration: The Stanford
County Prison
Mock arrest conducted—handcuffs,
fingerprinted etc.
– Guards and prisoners became bitter and
hostile
– Guards humiliated prisons—clean toilets with
hands, etc
– Before end of first week, the situation was so
bad (depression, crying, rage, etc) they
cancelled the experiment
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An Illustration: The Stanford
County Prison
“The ugliest, most base, pathological side
of human nature surfaced”
“…taking pleasure in cruelty”
Conclusion: Prison violence is rooted in
the social character of the jails themselves
and not in the personalities of the guards
or prisoners
Agree? Disagree? Why?
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Population and Sample
Population: the people who are the focus
of the research
Sample: a part of a population that
represents the whole
Random sampling: drawing a sample
randomly from the general population that
represents the whole
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Population and Sample
To better assure and accurate sampling, a
random sampling is best
– But, do you interview all those sampled on the
same street?
– In the same neighborhood?
– In the same town?
– In the same state?
What are some issues to overcome?
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Using Questionnaires
A series of written questions a researcher
presents to subjects
-Often, the nature of the question
determines the answers
-One study showed that when students e
given higher number of hours to select for
how many hours per week they studied,
the average hours studied went up
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Using Questionnaires
Closed-ended format: Often
questionnaires use a list of fixed
responses—can limit findings
– When looking at possible answers, people are
often influenced
– Sample: how many hours do I study?
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Using Questionnaires
Open-ended format
– Subjects can answer any way they wish
– Problem: trying to analyze a confusing list of
answers
Self-administering surveys are popular—
mailing survey to subjects
– Testing of the survey is needed
Lots of people, but many throw them away
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Conducting Interviews
A series of
questions a
researcher asks
respondents in
person
Some interviews
are best done in a
open ended
manner
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Conducting Interviews
Researcher must guard against
influencing answers
– Tone
– Body language
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Wording of a Question
Can change an answer completely
“Should gays serve in the military?”—no
“Should gays be exempt from the
military?’--no
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Wording the Question
Using “welfare mothers” verses using
“women who receive public assistance”
Double question
– “Do you think that the government should
reduce the deficit by cutting spending and
raising taxes?”
– One part of the question may be favorable
while the other not, distorting the answer
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Participant Observation
Participant Observation is a research
method in which investigators
systematically observe people while
joining in their routine activities
– Normally, the don’t have any hypothesis in
mind—e.g., I will find more red meat lovers in
small towns than large towns
– Exploratory, descriptinve
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Using Available Data
Researchers may use available data of
studies already done
– Government agencies
– There are some problems—does the data fit
the current question/hypothesis?
– Are categories of people in other studies the
same as in your study, e.g., do people check
one racial category or more than one?
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Inductive Logical Thought
Reasoning that transforms specific
observations into general theory
-”There is interesting data here. I wonder
what it means?”
-Upward reasoning
-From specific to general
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Deductive Logical Thought
Transforms general
theory into specific
hypotheses suitable
for testing
“I have this hunch;
let’s collect some
data and put it to the
test.”
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Fitting It Together: Ten Steps
What is your topic?
What have others already learned?
What, exactly, are your questions?
What will you need to carry out research?
Are there ethical concerns?
What method will you use?
How will you record data?
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Fitting It Together: Ten Steps
What do the data tell you?
What are your conclusions?
How can you share what you’ve learned?
How many of these can you list off the top
of your head?
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Can People Lie With Statistics?
People select their data
People interpret their data
People use graphs to spin the truth
Read Controversy and Debate, page 50
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