Download Sociology

Sociology
Chapter 2
Soc. Feb. 2
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Bell Work
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Grab Book, notes
Read pgs.30 to 32 first 10 min.’s
Schedule
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Notes: Basic Concepts; intro to Scientific
Your Turn
Basics of Sociological Investigation
Basically the methods that sociologists
use to conduct research
 Two Basic requirements

 Look
@ world sociologically (using soc.
persp.)
 Be curious and ask Questions

What were some of the ?’s Lois began asking?

Who are the black leaders? what effect does being a
racial minority have on their view of themselves?
Sociology is a science

Its one form of truth
 Logical
system that bases knowledge on direct and
systematic observation

Scientific Sociology
 Study
of society based on systematic observation of
social behavior.

Knowledge is based on empirical evidence
 Which
is evidence we can verify with our senses.
Lesson Closing
Reread the six common sense
 Task #1

 Complete
the “Your turn” box at the bottom of
page 32 in folders
At least three examples; could be anything and
how you found out they weren’t true.
 May work with a partner, but needs to be in own
folder
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Project Work time
Chapter 2.
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Bell Work
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Grab Book look
Answer: in Notes
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What are the 3 Ways to study sociology?
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What is Scientific Sociology
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Study of society based on systematic observation of social behavior
Schedule
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Scientific
Interpretive
Critical
Notes: 3 Ways to do sociology #1 (Scientific)
Lesson Closing

Recap and L-J#1
Scientific Sociology
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
Read pgs. 33/34
What is it?
 Study
of society based on systematic observation of
social behavior

Concept: mental construct that represents some
part of the world in simplified form
 Examples:

Society, family, economy
Variable: Concept whose value changes from
case to case
 Examples:
Prices from item-item in a store; to identify
different “social classes.”
Scientific Sociology

Measurement: procedure for determining the
value of a variable in a specific case.
 Can be very difficult to measure sociologically
 Can look at many different aspects of a situation
 B/c
variables can be measured differently sociologists
have to decide which to consider.

Looking at social class; what qualifies a person for a certain
class? Wealth, education, living address, occupation?
 Operationalize a Variable
 specifying exactly what is to be measured before assigning a
value to a variable.
 Popcorn
Read example on pg.33
Scientific Sociology
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Reliability and Validity
 Reliability:
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Consistency in measurement over repeated trials
 Validity:

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Actually measuring what you intended to measure
How would simply asking people how
often they attended their church not meet
the goal of studying how religious people
are?
Lesson Closing
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Task #2
 Read

and answer Applying Soc. On page 34
Task #3
 Record
 L-J

your amount correct every time!
#1
Time to plan/work on your research project
w/ Partner
Bell Work
Get Folders and book
 Get papers from the back

 Why
is it important to operationalize a
variable?

To make sure the sociologist know exactly what
they are trying to measure
 Why
are two really important concepts to
researchers?

Reliability and Validity
Relationship among Variables
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Cause and Effect:
 Relationship
in which change in one variable
causes change in another
 Independent Variable:

Variable that causes change
 Dependent

Variable:
Variable that changes
Relationship among Variables
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Correlation
 When
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2 (or more) variables changes together.
Spurious Correlation.

Apparent, but false, correlation between 2 (or more)
variables.
 Found through the use of control
 Popcorn
35-36
Read and refer to example on pg.s
Objectivity
Personal neutrality in conducting research
 Replication

 Repetition
of research by others in order to
assess its accuracy.
Limitations of Scientific Sociology
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Human behavior is too complex for sociologists
to predict accurately any individuals actions
Presence of a researcher can affect the behavior
being studied
Social patterns change
Hard for sociologist to be objective and keep
personal values out of their research
Lesson Closing

Task #5
 Read
Article Day America Told the truth on
pg. 26; answer questions
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Task #6
 Read
Article Separating the Wheat and the
Chaff: on page 27-29: answer ?s
Bell Work

Bell Work (1st 10 minutes)
 Finish

up Task #5 and #6
Read Interpretive Sociology Part on page
38-39
Interpretive Sociology

What is it?
 Study
of society that focuses on the meaning
people attach to their social world
 Verstehen: “understand”
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Who Founded it?
 Max
Weber: argued that focus of sociology
should go beyond just observation and into
interpretation
Critical Sociology: Read Section
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What is it?
 Study
of society that focuses on the need for
social change
 Point is to not merely study the world, but to
change it

Who founded it?
 Karl
Marx
Rejected idea of society being a “natural” system
 What did he also find/start?
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbTIJ9_bLP4
Gender and Research
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5 ways gender affects research
 Androcentricity:
approaching the issue from the male
perspective
 Over-generalizing: using data drawn from studying
only one sex to support conclusions for general
human behavior
 Gender Blindness: not considering the variable of
gender at all
 Double Standards: permitting/applying something to
one but not another
 Interference: subject reacting to the sex of the
researcher.
Lesson Closing
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Research Ethics
 All
studies must follow certain guidelines like
not harming subjects, disclosing $$ sources,
and publicizing all Data for everyone

Task #7
 Complete
Your Turn on page 40
Bell Work
Get books and folders
 Task #8
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 In
folders answer these questions
What are the 5 ways gender affects research?
 Who founded critical sociology
 What does interpretive sociology look at?
 What does objectivity mean?
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Folder Questions

What are the 5 ways gender affects research?
 Androcentricity,
overgeneralizing, gender blindness,
double standards, interference
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Who founded critical sociology
 Karl

Marx
What does interpretive sociology look at?
 Focus’

on meaning people attach to their behaviors
What does objectivity mean?
 Having
a neutrality in research
Methods of Sociological Research

Research Method
 Systematic
plan for conducting research
 Four common methods

Four types
 Experiment
 Survey
 Participant
Observation
 Using available data
Experiment
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Research method to investigate cause and effect.
 Explanatory

in nature
Hypothesis (ideas that are tested)
 Unverified statements of a relationship
 Conducts in labs w/ two typical groups
 Experimental and Control

b.t variables
Hawthorne Effect
 Change
in a subjects behavior by awareness of being
studied
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Read Illustration on page 43.
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmwSC5fS40w
Lesson Closing

Word Search Activity
 Create
a word-search or X-Word for 12 terms
covered so far in Chapter 2
Creating word/definition clues for the vocab. Words
not just listing them
 Will have various other times to work on it!
 Due Friday Afternoon
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Bell Work: Thurs
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Bell Work
 Get
book/folder
 Task #9
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Write a hypothesis for conducting an experiment
that deals with population density and personal
health.
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What would be the indep./depend. variables
Thinking about Diversity
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In folders read on pg.42
Answer Questions as Task #10
#1
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#2
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By wording certain phrases wrong to some cultures that are overly
polite, might agree out of politeness; i.e. some Hispanic cultures
Learn in advance the ways of life of any category of people
involved in the research
#3: just make some notes on what you think could be
similarities and differences.

Just discuss.
Survey
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Survey: Research method in which subjects
respond to a series of questions in 2 major forms
 Usually

more descriptive than explanatory
Population: People who are the focus of
research
 Sample:
part of the population that represents the
whole.
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Often uses random sampling
Survey
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Two main types
 Questionnaire
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Series of written questions a researcher presents to subjects.
Can be closed/open ended.
 Interview
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Series of questions done in person by a researcher to
respondents.
Illustration
 Popcorn
Read: Studying African American Elite
Experimental Survey Story
Task #11
 Billy decided to conduct an experiment that looked at how
people viewed pre-marital co-habitation. Billy believed that
both age and religion would have a great affect on the
views toward pre-marital co-habitation. Particularly age
would show drastic results. He believed that by separating
the 90 random people from his community he interviewed
into age ranges he could see a drastic difference in their
approach to his subject. He decided to separate them 1530, 31-45, 46-60, and 60-up. Billy decided to conduct his
research by passing out a piece of paper that had yes/no
questions about their views towards his topic. They would
also complete an age/religion/gender section so that Billy
could look at various results
 Identify: Hypothesis, Ind./Dep. Variable (s), type of method,
population, sample and what you believe the results would
conclude
Lesson Closing
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Anchor Activities
 Work
on Word Search
 Read from Soc. Book
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“If it's far away, it's news, but if it's close at
home, it's sociology”
Bell Work

Bell Work
 10
min.’s to work on/finish word searches and
task #12
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Task #12:Thinking Critically in folders #1-3
 Read
from Sociology book if done
 L-J #3
Review
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Studying a certain town in an experiment would be called
the?
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Taking 50 people from different age groups/genders
would be the?
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Interview
Asking them a series of questions in a closed and written
form would be?
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Sample
Asking them a series of questions personally would be?
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Population
Questionnaire
Both of these are called?
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Surveys
Participant Observation
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Research method in which investigators
systematically (w/a purpose) observe people
while joining them in their routine activities.
Allows researchers an in-depth look at social life
in many settings
Most research done this way is both exploratory
and descriptive
Relies heavily on personal judgment and lacks
scientific strength
Example
 Coaching
Part. Observation: Illustration
Read the Illustration (popcorn or silent?)
 Brought out the value and idea of using a
key informant in field research.
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Using Available Data:
Existing Sources
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Using/analyzing existing sources and data
collection by others
 Not all research requires self-collection
 Most evidence/statistics for soc. Is gathered
by
government agencies.
 Appealing to many sociologists
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
Cheap, easy, time-saving, and often better then what their
findings could have been
Illustration (read)
 Exemplifies
(shows greatly) the power of a researcher
to analyze the past using historical sources.
Lesson Closing
“Write about society as news and treat
it like sociology.”
 Anchor Activities

 Read

In the Times, pg.50/51
Answer #1-3 in folder as Task #13
 Read
from Sociology Book
 Pass out Word search to 3 o’clock partner
Monday Bell Work
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Bell Work (1st 10 min.s)
Task #14
Answer these questions in complete sentences
in folders (1st 10 min.s)
 What
are 4 reasons soc.’s often prefer using existing
data?
 What are 2 or 3 good things that participant
observation does?
 What is participant observation in terms of its
research?
Bell Work Tuesday
Make sure to have sociology book!
 Show me your completed word search

 Pass
it out and complete 3 o’clock partners
word search.

Read Interplay of theory/method pg.51-52
Interplay of theory/method
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Sociologists must know how to turn facts into meaning
by building theory.
This is done in two ways
Inductive Logical Thought
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Deductive Logical Thought:
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Reasoning that transforms (builds) specific observations into
general theory.
Reasoning that transforms general ideas into specific hypothesis
for testing.
Just as different methods may be used in conduction, so
might types of reasoning
10 Steps of Sociological Investigation
(follow along on pg.53)
1.
What is your topic
1.
2.
3.
7.
1.
8.
Time, money, resources?
Ethical Concerns?
1.
Any harm or concerns to
subjects?
Look at it in terms of your initial
questions
Conclusions?
1.
10.
Be alert for bias, record everything
What does the data say?
1.
9.
Consider all research strategies
How will you record the data?
Who, what, where, and why?
What will you need to carry out
the research?
1.
5.
Do some research before you
research
What method will you use?
1.
What are your questions?
1.
4.
Be curious, apply learned ideas
What have others learned
1.
6.
Preparing a final report
How to share it
1.
Share and look for feedback, but
how?
Lesson Closing

Anchor Activities
 Task

#15
Complete Thinking it through on pg.54-55
 L-J#4
 Read

sociology book
½ Check for Project Completion!!!!
Wednesday Bell Work
Work on Review
 Quia Review
 Cover ?’s from Review at end of period

 Test

Tuesday
Have proof that you have been making progress
towards project completions