Lecture 2: Social Theory and Method

• Theory: A generalization or simplification used to understand patterns and predict events in the social world
• Abstract, conceptual ideas
• Usually written as a statement about the world, not a question
• Example: as income increases, demand for the purchase of products will also increase
• Empirical Research: The act of systematically observing, testing, experimenting, and/or gathering data for the purpose of understanding phenomena, testing theories, or creating theories
• Examples: Gravity, It always rains on Sundays
• Policy: A plan of action implemented by an individual, group, business, or government to influence outcomes or change the status quo
• Theoretical understandings determine policy
• Example: Theory - We live in a patriarchal system in which women are systemically discriminated against
• Complications with theories and research: Provability is complex and difficult to prove
• Assumptions are unquestioned or improvable
• Result: Many different competing theories and ongoing debates
• Major Theoretical Schools in Sociology:
• Structural Functionalism: Societies naturally work out properly without planning their futures
• Conflict Theory: Those in power design society in their own interest to the detriment of the majority
• Symbolic Interactionism: Focuses on socialization and ideology generation
• Ontology: Set of beliefs about the nature of the world
• Epistemology: Based on ontology, what can be discovered or known through science
• Positivism: The world is real and exists independently from human existence
• Social Constructivism: Perception of the world is socially constructed
• Research Methods:
• Multivariate research methods: Deductive, often related to structural functionalism
• Interpretive research methods: Subjective, inductive, often related to symbolic interactionism
• Historical-Comparative research methods: Compares texts, documents, oral histories across history to form and test theories
• Big Ideas:
• Marx: Material, economic system drives history and creates culture, politics, ideas
• Durkheim: Human action has social causes, structures and institutions help society function
• Weber: Ideas drive history, structures and institutions help society function
• Specific Research Techniques:
• Experiments, Surveys, Field Research, Ethnography, Participant research, In-depth interviews, Document analysis, Discourse analysis, Existing data, Secondary data analysis, Historical research, Content analysis
• Summary of Relationship of Research and Theory:
• Ontology: Assumptions about the nature of the world
• Epistemology: What can be known through research
• Major theoretical schools: Structural functionalism, conflict, symbolic interactionism
• Research methods: Multivariate, Interpretive, Historical Comparative
• Specific research techniques may lead to the development of new sub-theories or use of different major theoretical schools