Sociology - Youth

• Sociology is the study of human groups and social behaviour
• A society is an organised group of people associated together for religious, benevolent, cultural, scientific, political, patriotic or other purposes
• Sociological imagination was founded by Charles Wright Mills in 1959
• Sociological imagination is thinking objectively about society rather than being influenced by subjective personal experiences. We think sociologically when making a link between personal troubles and public issues.
• Macro = An issue that indicates a problem with societal structures or institutions
• Micro= The issue faced by individual people
• Historical, Cultural, Structural, and Critical factors
• Theory - a statement about the way the world is believed to work To explain social behaviour in the real world
• Sociological Perspective - A collection of theories that provides researchers with a model to guide and reflect upon their social research
• Functionalism perspective is that each part of society is interdependent and contributes to society 'functioning' as a whole (like the human body)
• Functionalism was founded by emile durkheim
• Marxism was founded by Karl Marx
• Marxism is societies exploitation of the poor by the rich and powerful
• Feminism is concerned with the effect of gender differences on social experiments
• WAVES OF FEMINISM First wave - 1848-1920 voting rights, property rights and political candidacy Second wave - 1963-1980 liberation from structural inequalities in relationships, family, labour, family reproduction and sexuality Third wave - 1991-2010 Embracing individualism, diversity and inclusivity Fourth wave - 2012- Combating sexual harassment, assault and misogyny
• Quantitative - numerical information (the amount or quantity of what is being studied)
• Qualitative - descriptive information (includes words, pictures, descriptions, and other 'qualities' of what is being studied)
• Research methods - experiments, survey (questionnaire), interview, fieldwork, participation observation, secondary analysis
• EXPERIMENT - Controlled research that involves testing the effect of one variable on another variable, usually by comparing results from a control to an experimental group
• SURVEY (QUESTIONNAIRE) - Research involving participants responding to a set of questions or statements that are usually analysed statistically
• INTERVIEW - Research whereby a participant is asked to answer a series of questions through one-on-one conversation
• FIELDWORK - Research involving the careful observation and recording of behaviour in a naturalistic setting
• PARTICIPATION OBSERVATION - Research involving the careful watching and recording of participant behaviour in a clinical or naturalistic setting
• SECONDARY ANALYSIS - Using data from other sources to examine sociological questions
• Social category is a collection of people who do not interact but who share similar characteristics
• Youth is a socially constructed, age based, social category appropriate to Western society's which usually includes young people aged between 12 and 24 years
• Historically there were only adults and children (youth is a new phenomenon) It was invented during the industrial revolution
• Youth can be described as the social transition from childhood to adolescence
• Teenagers - 13 to 19
• Tweens - 8 to 13
• Teenagers and tweens came from marketers to target a specific group of people (lead to controversy and oversexualisation)
• Young adult - 18 to 34
• Representation - Refers to the way the 'reality' of people, places, objects, events, cultural identities or tangible concepts portrayed in the media
• Representation - gives us insight into a society, what was known and understood about youth, public perceptions and misconceptions about youth
• Historical = anything before 2013
• Contemporary = last 10 years
• Representations - ADVANTAGE = positive messages of diversity, inclusion and social justice. DISADVANTAGE = negative stereotypes, discriminations and prejudices against certain groups
• Media is not neutral
• Inclusion - the extent to which individuals experience a sense of belonging and participation actively in society
• Exclusion - the extent to which individuals experience marginalisation and restrictions of certain rights, resources and opportunities that are available to others