the discipline of sociology
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Lecture 1. the discipline of sociology. The Sociological Imagination. Defined as: “...the ability to see the relationship between individual experiences and the larger society” (Mills, 1959) Defining “society” social group geographical territory - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
THE DISCIPLINE OF SOCIOLOGYLecture 1
The Sociological Imagination
Defined as: “...the ability to see the relationship between individual experiences and the larger society” (Mills, 1959)
Defining “society” social group geographical territory same political authority and cultural expectations
Importance of Global Interdependence
1. Where we live shapes the lives we lead2. Societies are increasingly interconnected3. Many social problems in Canada are
more serious elsewhere Macionis and Gerber, 2011:8
The Discipline of Sociology
• Industrial economy
• Growth of cities
• Political change
Early Thinkers
Auguste Comte (1798-1857)• coined the term sociology..and
considered the founder• He believed that societies contained:• Social Statics • Social Dynamics • Natural science applied to society• Positivism
Early Thinkers
Harriet Martineau (1802-1876)
• Made Comte’s work more accessible
• She was an active sociologist studying social customs and consequences of industrialism and capitalism
Early Thinkers
Emile Durkheim (1858-1917)
• Believed that people are a product of the social environment
• Society are built of social facts• Anomie - a condition when social
control becomes ineffective as a result of the loss of shared values and a sense of purpose in society
• Scientific approach to studying social facts
What do these thinkers have in common?
Questioning the status quo
Karl Marx (1818-1883)Conflict (especially class conflict) was necessary– Bourgeoisie and proletariat– Capitalist system made poverty
• Capitalist class controls and exploits the masses of struggling workers
• Results in Alienation• Marx predicted that the workers would becomes aware
of its exploitation and overthrow the capitalists, creating a free and classless society
Just one more…
Max Weber (1864-1920)• Value-free sociology conducted in a scientific
manner• Verstehen – see the world as others see it• Bureaucracies and organization
Development in North America• United States
• Canada– First department
– Canadian Review of Sociology founded in 1965
Theoretical Perspectives
• Theory• Perspective
• A basic image of society that helps us think about social issues and guide social research
Contemporary Theoretical Perspectives
• Functionalist (or structural-functionalist)• Conflict • Feminist• Symbolic Interactionist
Functionalist Perspectives
• Assumption that society is a stable, orderly system
• The parts of society work together to promote solidarity and stability
• Everything in a society (institutions, customs, interactions) function to keep the society going
Types of functions
R. K. Merton (1910-2003)• Attempted to classify functions–Manifest– Latent–Dysfunctions
Conflict Perspectives• Assumption that groups in society are engaged in a
continuous power struggle for control of scarce resources
• Social patterns and relations benefit some individuals while hurting others
• Emphasize factors such as social class, gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity and age
• Conflict can also lead to social change
Feminist Perspectives• Assumption that gender is necessary category to
understand and to explain inequalities in the household, paid labour force, politics, law and culture
• There is no single unified approach.• Focus on patriarchy : a hierarchical system of power
in which males possess greater economic and social privilege than females
Symbolic Interactionist Perspectives
• Assumption that society is a sum of the interactions of individuals and groups
• Focuses on micro-level of analysis• Symbolic interactionists attempt to examine people’s
day-to-day interactions and their behaviour in groups• This perspective examines:– Interaction– Symbol
• Each person has a subjective interpretation of a given situation
Theory guides our research!
• Research is the process of systematically collecting information for the purposes of testing an existing theory or generating a new one
• But not all sociologists collect research in the same manner
The Sociological Research Process
• With quantitative research, the goal is scientific objectivity, and the focus is on data that can be measured numerically
The Sociological Research Process
• With Qualitative Research, the use of interpretative description (words) rather than statistics (numbers) are used to analyze the underlying meanings and patterns of social relationships
Research Methods
• Research methods: strategies or techniques for systematically conducting research– Surveys– Secondary Analysis of Existing Data– Field Research– Experiments
Surveys
• Survey: a poll in which the researcher gathers facts or attempts to determine the relationship among facts
• Respondents: people who provide data for analysis through interviews or questionnaires
Types of Surveys
Telephone•More honest and less threatening•Greater control over the data•Problems: Some not accessible to researchers
Self AdministeredQuestionnaires
•Simple and inexpensive•Respondents are anonymous•Problems: low response rates
Interview•Personal and direct contact•Face to face Respondents•Problems: Major cost and time
Surveys
• Sampling Considerations:– Survey research involves some type of sampling– From a population (those persons we want to find
out about)– Sample• Representative Sample
• Random Sample
Secondary Analysis
• Using data that has already been gathered by someone else
• One kind: content analysis: the systematic examination of cultural artifacts or various forms of communication to extract thematic data and draw conclusions about social life
Field Research
• Field research is the study of social life in its natural setting: observing and interviewing people where they live, work and play
• Use of qualitative data• Varieties of observation:
– Participant observation– Ethnography
Experiments
• Defined: a carefully designed situation in which the researcher studies the impact of certain variables on subjects’ attitudes or behaviour.– experimental group– control group
Experiments
• Process: After persons are selected with very similar characteristics into these two groups, then:
1. Both groups are pre-tested2. Exposed to a stimulus representing the
independent variable3. Post-tested: to see if the independent variable
had an effect on the dependent variable
Ethical Issues in Sociological Research
• Elements of the Canadian Sociology and Anthropology Association:–Participation must be voluntary–No harm to research subjects
(physically, psychologically, or personally)–To protect confidentiality and
anonymity
To summarize
• Sociology involves using different theoretical perspectives to systematically study the social world
• Different perspectives can be used to interpret the same issues/topics in different ways
• These different perspectives allow us to deconstruct the “taken-for-granted” ways of thinking