Sociology

• Sociological imagination


  The capacity to think systematically about how things we experience as personal problems are really social issues widely shared by others living in a similar time and social location as us
• Sociological imagination


  • Allows us to see the social origins of the world around us
  • Questioning the degree to which it is natural or inevitable and then
  • Challenging existing stereotypes and active discrimination human beings
  • Facilitates more active and effective participation in the world around us
• Sociological questions


  Concerned with a broad canvas, ranging from basic units of human life to a now rapidly changing global economy that is impacting all of our social relationships
• Exposure to violence is another topic explored by sociologists
• Living in a high-crime neighbourhood increases stress levels and is harmful to children in many ways
• There are very few areas of life that cannot be studied sociologically
• Social context


  The range of social environments, including economic, political, and cultural, that surround individuals and influence our lives
• Factors that influence individual lives

  • Immediate family
  • Parent educational level
  • Income
  • Neighbourhood and community
  • Education
  • Types of organisations available and accessed
  • Type of employment
  • Country of birth
  • Historical period at birth
• Families


  • Give racial, ethnic, and religious identities
  • Teach basic rules of society
  • Provide first social networks
  • Influence education and cognitive capacities through life-long interactions
  • Help in later life
• Our individual lives are shaped by the conceptions we and others have about who we are and what groups or categories we are members of
• The identities may be neutral, positive or, sometimes, even harmful
• Groundbreaking research on link between neighbourhood violence and children's school performance demonstrates how violence can be absorbed by and transmitted through neighbourhood contexts and highlights how children, who are perhaps the most vulnerable to such exposure, experience their effects at school as well as home
• Organisations and Institutions


  • The places we learn, work, worship, relax, exercise, and pursue political and social objectives
  • Participation in organisations shape personal and public identities available to us, how we value them, why we gravitate toward some and not others
  • They also shape what opportunities are available to us by connecting individuals to larger social networks
• Sociology and Historical Contexts


  • Refer to the state of the world we are born into
  • Involves difference in economic opportunities based on the social and economic context
• Social interactions


  • The way people act together and alter their behaviour around others
  • Governed by a set of norms, basic rules of society that help us know what is and what is not appropriate to do in a given situation
• Social structure


  • The external forces, especially social hierarchies and institutions
  • Shaped by social hierarchy—a set of enduring social positions that grant some individuals and groups with different status, elevating some above others
  • Governed by institutions where individuals play different roles—they occupy different positions that are defined by specific rules and expectations about how to behave
• Comte coined the term "Sociology"
• Durkheim is considered the father of Sociology and established the first European Sociology Department and major European journal of sociology
• The University of Chicago established the first U.S. Sociology Department
• Industrialisation


  • Growth of factories and large-scale goods production
  • New technologies and innovations
  • Immense social changes
  • Different approaches needed
• Urbanisation


  • Growth of cities in late nineteenth century in U.S., Europe, and elsewhere
  • Shift from agriculture to manufacturing
  • Problems were markedly different
  • New type of political challenge, including social movements
• Sociology engages with a broader range of concepts and theories, it encompasses different units of analysis and looks at the social world through various levels of abstraction, akin to a photographer with multiple lenses
• Spin-off fields that originally started in sociology

  • Criminology
  • Gender Studies
  • Demography
  • Communications/Media Studies
  • Organisational or Management Studies
• Feasible question


  • Leads us to consider the topic in a practical, detailed way that works toward a prediction of what we expect to find; the issues it addresses relate to existing work by other researchers
  • Can be studied given the limits of time and resources
  • Leads to think more specifically about a topic
  • Helps to turn ideas about a topic into a working hypothesis
• Hypothesis


  The tentative prediction we have about what we are going to discover before we begin the research
• Six questions to determine merit and feasibility of a research question

  • Do I already know the answer?
  • Is my question researchable?
  • Is my question clear?
  • Does my question have a connection to social scientific scholarship?
  • Does my question balance the general and the specific?
  • Do I care about the answer?
• Values


  Belief systems that shape views of and perspectives on the world studied
• Theoretical traditions


  Conceptual frameworks used to imagine and make sense of the world
• Code of ethics


  Set of guidelines that outline what is considered moral and acceptable behaviour in scientific research
• Researchers must disclose their identity and obtain informed consent of the study participants
• Operationalise


  Specify the operations and techniques that will be used to examine the concepts that are the focus of the study
• Dependent variables


  Those factors in our research that we expect to change in relationship to other variables (independent variables)
• Independent variables


  Those factors that we expect to stand alone and are not expected to change in relationship to other variables
• Classic Steps of the Scientific Method

  1. Formulate research questions and research hypothesis

  2. Predict the relationship between the independent and dependent variables

  3. Find existing data or collect new data

  4. Analyse data

  5. Draw conclusions
• Quantitative research


  Relies on statistical data and uses raw data that come in numerical form
• Qualitative research


  Relies on words or detailed interviews and involves the use of large amounts of textual materials
• The decision about which method is best to use should always be based on the research question
• Survey research


  A set of standardised questions to a large number of people and can be done in person, on the phone, by mail, or Internet
• Close-ended surveys


  Respondents are asked identical questions and are generally required to choose among the answers provided to them
• Open-ended surveys


  Interviewees provide answers to questions in their own words