sociology - theory and methods -finished

• what is sociology?


  systematic and scientific study of the social word around us
• what are functionalist 


  how component part makes up society to operate functionally to its members and maintenance of society as a whole
• what is Interactionist


  try to understand the meaning behind individual actions instead of society as a whole
• what is the Feminist theory


  looks at gender inequities in society and the way that gender structures the social world

  (particularly women's social roles .how Women face DISCRIMINATION, OBJECTIFICATION, OPPRESSION, AND STEREOTYPING)
• Liberal Feminism


  views gender inequality as stemming from the ignorance of men that derives from the strength of socialisation and 'sex role conditioning'
• Marxist Feminism


  • economic dependence women have on men has been created by capitalism
  • This serves 2 function:

  1. Provide cheap female workers who can be exploited even more than men
  2. Ensure household chores are done cheaply

  • When women enter workforce they traditionally work in low paid, low status, mainly part time jobs (can now be viewed as simplistic and changing)
  • They argue the solution to women oppression is the abolition of capitalism. Eradicate double oppression of patriarchy in home and economic exploitation in the workplace
• Radical Feminist


  ' sexual politics' -power relations between men and women - women are opressed by men within a home and need to break this imbalance power by challenging and eradicating the prevailing system of patriarchy/'sisterhood'

  They see gender as a shared class identity . Argues women share the same sec class position because they are controlled and sometimes abused by the violence of men
• Black Feminism 


  white feminist fail to recognise some women were pressed not only by patriarchy but racism
• postmodernist feminists


  shift towards an increasing gender equality, society made feminism no longer relevant
• New Right Theory


  • believes that only the traditional two-parent family (nuclear family) structure can raise well-adjusted children, and the reduction of this may lead to problems in society like crime and poverty.
• Postmodernists


  today society is different to the industrial revolution
• what needs to be in a 'sociological research'


  • representative- group of people being studied need to share characteristic of the larger or target population
  • generalisable-the infomation collected about smaller groups can be applied to larger groups
  • based on evedince
  • be verifiable (can it be tested )
  • be able to cross-referenced (checked against other findings)
• qualitative research


  sample small number of people taking derailed account of their emotions and behaviour
• Quantitative research


  research that collects and reports data primarily in numerical form
• what are positivism theory


  • wants to replicate methods of natural sciences , likes quantitative data.
  • age, ethnicity etc does not affect behaviour
  • knowlege is gained through traditional scientific methods and observations
  • experiment, statistic, questionares, structured interviews
  • behaviour is result of social forces which is observed and measured
• what are Interpretivist theory 


  -world and reality is a social construct(in our head)

  -shift in meaning can influence a person behaviour

  -observations, unstructured interviews, documents

  -wants to gain empathy and know their feelings

  -behaviour is a result of decisions that people make

  -people attract meaning to their behavioy
• what is realism 


  combination of Interperativist and positivist (triangulation) to check both reliability and validity
• what are questionnaires 


  set of questions in a written format. self-administered
• what are interviews 


  a researcher directly asking questions to one or more interviewees
• what is participant observation (overt)


  the observer acts as a member of the group

  e.g. pretending to be a student to study how the actual students behave
• what is non-participant observation (covert)


  the observer is an outsider of the group looking in

  e.g. observing a class room of kids to see how they behave
• what are experiments?


  scientific method, seeking to establish a cause-effect relationship in between 2 variables by testing a hypothesis

  e.g. the sociologist might expose the experimental group of students to tutoring while the control group does not receive tutoring
• documents 


  secondary qualitative data

  e.g. diaries, painting, public records etc
• what is official statistic?


  secondary data collected by the government or other official body
• what is a pilot study 


  a trial run of a research method, usually with a very small sample, in order to ensure that the method will work as intended.
• what are samples?


  smaller group of people who will be studied, taken from a broader target population
• functionalist perspective

  • Charles darwin- Society is made up of social institutions (family, education, work) that are interrelated and interdependent. 
  • Durkheim- Collective conscience describes moral values that were core to any society 
  • Talcott parson- socialization is a consensus value, commitment to common mortality (core values) ensures social order 
  • Parsons- argued 4 sub-system: economic, political, kindship and culture. This is so society can be healthy and survive. 4 problems: adaption, goal attainment, integration and latency  
• Marxism

  • Like functionalism, Response to modernism, observed new industrial society of capitalism 
  • Structure that makes up society , operation of society as a system. Preoccupied with the economic system of capitalism
• Marxist perspective

  • conflict analysis of society. Centerd around class conflict 
  • Capitalism as merely a stage or ‘epoch’ in the history of human development  
  • End of history will be truly equal communist society 
  • Marx argued – class conflict, all societies are class societies with dominant and subordinate class. They can never coincide. The subordinate class will seize power and overthrow. 
  • Dominant class is bourgeoisie   
  • Ideologies can preventing workers see their true class position – media, religion, education and family – divert people attentions away from revolutionary thoughts 
• marxist critics

  • Critics argue people make their own history and the assumed future of communism cant be predicted  
  • Functionalist argue they place too much emphasis on conflict at the expense of recognising the fair amount of consenus in society 
  • Feminist argues ,focusing solely on class ignores gender relations
• What are Interactionist 3 key characters

  1. Focuses on interaction between individuals (called actors) and the world (the ‘stage’ where actors perform variety of roles) 
  2. Actions of individuals (why people choose to behave ,’voluntaristic’ behaviour) rather than the structure in which they operate (family obligations, compulsory education, speed cameras etc) 
  3. Stresses the importance of an actor’s ability to interpret the social world, arguing there is no objecting reality; world is real inside the head of each individual 
• Interactionist perspective

  • Erving Goffman – idea of the self. Regognised the discrepancy between our ‘all too human selves and our socialised selves’.tension between what people expect us to do and what we spontaneously want to do 
  • Howard Becker- Concept of power relation and labelling theory- powerful groups can impose labels on the less powerful – labels can become self-fulfilling 
  • There is no such thing as objective reality, reality is what is inside people heads-individual interpretations of the world.  
  • ^idea adopted subsequently by postmodernists 
• interactionist critics - (functionalists and marxists )

  • they neglecting social structures Focuses on interaction between individuals (called actors) and the world (the ‘stage’ where actors perform variety of roles) 

  1. Actions of individuals (why people choose to behave ,’voluntaristic’ behaviour) rather than the structure in which they operate (family obligations, compulsory education, speed cameras etc) 
  2. Stresses the importance of an actor’s ability to interpret the social world, arguing there is no objecting reality; world is real inside the head of each individual 
• postmodernist pespective

  • Marxist argues society is fundamentally the same capitalists system with same economic relations of class exploitation 
  • now characterised by its preoccupation with consumerism, shopping and style 
  • Old society centred more on production and work 
  • Society has become considerably fragmented and individualistic – so much diversity  
  • This allows people to make personal choices in almost every field of life  
  • Like interactionism, postmodernism doesnt recognise objective reality (whats inside people heads)  
  • Postmodernism rejects grand theories  
• what makes a good research

  • valid and reliable
• what does Valid mean 


  accurately record or measure what you originally wanted to explore 
• what does reliable mean

  applicable to a different example of the same situation and give the similar results 
• what makes a good sociological research design

  • common sense versus sociological research (needs to avoids the characteristics of common sense - must be Rigorus and based on empirical evidence)
  • representation (sample shares characteristic of a larger group)
  • generalisability (information collected on the sample can be applied to larger groups)
  • valid and reliable
• quantitative approach

  • factual, takes numeric forms
  • positivist sociologists
  • easier to replicate
  • higher in reliablity
  • social survey, closed questions/structured interview
  • secondary data
  • people behaviour is shaped by factors that are observable
  • undertake a scientific method of collecting social facts
  • numeric and often forms of statistic
• qualitative approach

  • made up of words
  • interpretivist sociologist
  • social action theory
  • decised by max weber
  • interpret motives and meaning behind people experiences by exploring thier behaviour and feelings
  • unstructured interviews , participant observation
  • higer in validity