theory and methods

• Mead symbolic interactionalism


  'Taking the role of the other' - putting oneself in the place of the other person and seeing ourselves as they see us. First done through imitative play as children by playing mums and dads with dolls. Secondly done through the generalised other as we see ourselves as the wider community do.

  Argues that in order for society to be functional we have to have the ability as others do by having these shared symbols as we are allowed to be conscious of how others require us to act. You can communicate through symbols if you don't understand through words for example, in the football world cup not everyone will speak the same language but everyone knows the rules and flag actions.
• Cooley developing self concept


  the looking glass self is how we see ourselves after receiving opinions and seeing how others see us. Links to the self fulfilling prophecy as we become what other see us as.
• becker labelling theory


  the process of labelling, from identification, to the label being attached, acceptance or rejection of the label by the labelled, to the creation of a master status. Each stage has its own set of problems and issues.
• Goffman dramaturgical approach


  He describes us as actors with the world being our 'stage' and we change our 'masks' depending on how we want people to see us in different social situations. The masks allow us to manipulate how other people see us as we want to give of a good impression. Impression management allows us to present an idealised persona of ourselves to manage how other people view us. He argues because the idea of impression management is so demanding we have a 'backstage' which is our home where we are alone and can be out true self. The idea of role distance is the idea that your social role does not determine your identity as an individual.
• Weber social action theory


  Verstehen is the empathetic understanding of the individual or social group being studied or looking from the perspective of the participant. There are four types of action:

  --traditional action as actions that have become habit because we have always done it and they have no thought to it and are not rational.

  --affectual action is the idea of expressing emotion involving religion and politics.

  -- value-rational action is the idea of actions towards a desired goal that people consider desirable or valuable.

  --instrumentally rational action- rational thought or logic and the most effective way of achieving a goal.
• Hesserl Phenomenology


  Something we use to describe as they appear to our senses. Only makes sense of the world if we give meaning to our experiences through our senses. For example, a piece of furniture has four legs and a flat surface which we can identify as a table. The world I understand is a product of my mind and its how I interpret things from my imagination. The action has meaning for example in a classroom putting my hand up is different to in an auction as they have different meanings but in a different social context.
• Grfinkel Ethnomethodology


  It studies how the process of social interaction produces social order. Ethnomethodology is an approach that stresses the ambiguity of language and action. Its interest is in how ordinary people make sense of their social world.
• Giddens structuration theory


  -Giddens combines the two arguing that there is a 'duality of structure', meaning structure and action (or agency) are two sides of the same coin; neither can exist without the other. Through our actions we produce and reproduce structures over time and space, while these structures are what make our actions possible in the 1st place - 'relationship structuration'

  is structure that is structured by interactions themselves
• Postmodernists


  They argue that there is no single truth or metanarrative. No single metanarrative can explain the world or the course of its history. Science and reasons have become more a more popular way of thinking in the modern world. They essentially argue that it is no longer possible to discover truth and change society for the better.
• Baudrillard 'death of the social'


  Increasing consumption in the media has led to the 'death of social'. He argues we consume commodities and brands such as Nike as a way of expressing ourselves. Identities are no longer fix, like class and gender, but we can pick and mix. He developed the idea of simulaca, meaning that media images that are not based on reality; for example celebrities and reality tv shows are increasingly used to model our behaviour. The media created a world of hyper reality where we cannot distinguish image from reality.
• Marxists structure of a capitalist society


  More optimistic about the future and share the Enlightenment Project. They see the new postmodern society as the most recent form of capitalism, flexible accumulation involving the production of customised products for niche markets through ICT and flexible working. This does lead to a weakening in the working class.

  Superstructure: ideologies and structures of transfer

  Means of production: natural resources, land and technology

  Relations of productions: The people (workers v owners)
• Interpretivism


  society is a social construct of meaning- the sociologist is 'part of the action' and the social reality they are studying so it is impossible for them to be objective.

  They argue there is a 'bottom up' approach where theories emerge as a result of the data gained and the insights developed.

  They adopt a verstehen approach whereby they develop closeness and empathy with those being studies in order to understand the world through their eyes.
• Positivists


  They believe that human behaviour can be measured and explained objectivity. A hypothesis is formed, tested against observable data. Marx also adopted a more scientific approach in his analysis of capitalist society and was interested in studying the underlying structures of capitalism. Durkheim helped to establish the positive approach in sociology through his study of suicide. They argue that sociology should be studies in a scientific way. They take a macro approach because research can be more widespread.
• durkheim positivists and value freedom


  Society can and should be value-free. Social scientists need to be detached and objective in order to study social facts and their influence on our behaviour. Value freedom is only possible if the sociologists own personal feelings are kept out of the research.
• Weber and values


  Weber took the idea from phenomenology that social reality is made up of a 'meaningless infinity' of facts that make it impossible to study in its totality. Therefore the best the researcher can do is select from the certain facts and study these. In webers view we can only select them in terms of what we regard as important based on our own values. Values are essential in enabling us to select which aspects of reality to study and in developing concepts with which to understand these aspects.
• Gouldner values - marxist


  Argues that the values of sociologist will inevitably reflect in their work. But is is not desirable; without values you end up in a situation where you are merely selling your services to the highest behaviour.
• Gramsci social media ideology/ humanistic marxism


  Social media might be a way of challenging hegemony e.g. #metoo and black lives matter. You can use social media as a way to challenge power e.g. filming police.
• Althusse (media)


  More critical of the media as its part of capitalism. It is a huge business whereby they promote things to keep capitalism going.
• social policy


  Refers to the packages or plans and actions adopted by national and local goverment to solve social problems or achieve other goals that are or seem as important.
• social problem


  Something that is seen as being harmful to society e.g. poverty or high teen pregnancy rate.
• sociological problem


  Any social problem or theoretical issue that needs explaining, whether it is a social problem or not.
• Liberal Feminist


  Take on a march of progress view of social change. They want to achieve gender equality and identifies two key ways to do this: legal reform e.g. equal pay act and through cultural change e.g. challenging sexism and gender stereotypes by changing the way children are socialised canalisation)
• Radical feminists


  Focuses on patriarchy as a system of power relations. Patriarchy is universal i.e. it is found in every society throughout time. All men benefit from patriarchy. Patriarchy is the most fundamental form of inequality and conflict in society.
• Marxist feminist


  Womens surbordination is rooted in capitalism. The main reason for this is womens unpaid labour in the home. This places them in a dependent economic position in the family.
• Gramsci hegemony - neo marxism


  Rejected the economic determinism of classical marxism and argued that ideas have a reliable autonomy from the economic base. This means the prolatariat can 'see through' ruling class ideology and developed a counter- hegemonic block. Industrial w/c must produce its own organic interllectuals - leaders who can speak for the opressed.
• Althusse structual marxism - neo marxism


  Three levels of capitalist society:

  --economic level- the economy

  --political level- including the repressive state apparatus e.g. army and police

  --ideological level- institutions which spread dominant ideology e.g. family and education

  The political and ideological levels have relative autonomy from the economic level.
• Lyotard postmodernist 'death of metanarratives'


  Metanarrative- 'grand stories' or theory. One theory can no longer explain how the whole of society works as society today is more fragmented and diverse. Instead, we have competing stories or views of the truth e.g. science, religion, political ideologies. This is preferable to the past when meta narratives were used to oppress people e.g. soviet union. Therefore, truth is relative rather than fixed.
• Kuhn science as a social construction


  Scientists dont work in an open system but in a paradigm. A paradigm is shared by members of a given scientific community and defines what there science is. Kuhn definition, sociology could only become a science if such basic disagreements were resolved. Sociology can only be a science if disagreements get resolved but because there are no agreements sociology is not a science.
• interpretivists science and sociology


  sociology is no and should not be considered a science
• positivists science and sociology


  sociology is and should be a science
• Popper sociology and science


  Sociology is not but it could be a science. He argued that social scientific knowledge has to be based on deduction and falsification. Experiments should aim to prove a hypothesis wrong or falsify it. No matter how much evidence you get a hypothesis is never 100% true. For example, Hypotheses - swans are always white. This statement cannot be true by seeing a flock of white swans, because seeing just one black swan would disprove it. Argues that there is no absolute truth as you cannot prove things to be correct
• seyer right realist 


  Open system - variables are difficult to control. Closed system- chemistry. Argues sociology is an 'open' system as it is complex and difficult to predict but can be scientific. Sociologists cannot be value free but can present concepts and theories in objective ways
• Social facts - positivst view 


  Social facts are things that can be observed and measured. For example durkheims suicide study. The number of people who say they are religious may not act upon it by not going to church. Social facts are external and influence behaviour. There are correlations and links in data and they find the cause and effect relationships. This is favoured through quantitative methods.
• objective knowledge 


  Knowedge thar stays the same - personal feelings dont get involved - objective methods provide facts and value freedom.
• subjective knowledge


  Knowledge that changed or is affected by personal opinion or feelings, subjective research has to be interpreted and is hard to test