Week 1: what is sociology?
● is the scientific study of human life, social group, whole societies and the human
world
● Sociology is the study of society
● Why study sociology
○ A better understanding of the problems of others
○ Sociological research provides policy input and to assess policy outcomes
○ Self-enlightenment who we are and what is our position in society
○ Self-empowerment
○ Social critic for progressive social change
Week 2-3: Sociological Theory - Structural Functionalism, Social Conflict and Symbolic
Interactionism
Approaches theories
Macro-Level
The structural-functional approach explores how social structures work together to help
society operate.
• Auguste Comte, Emile Durkheim, and Herbert Spencer helped develop the
structural-functional approach. The social-conflict approach shows how inequality
creates conflict and causes change.
• Two important types of conflict analysis are gender conflict theory, which is also
called feminist theory, and race-conflict theory.
• Karl Marx helped develop the social-conflict approach.
Micro-Level
The symbolic-interaction approach studies how people, in everyday interaction,
construct reality.
• Max Weber and George Herbert Mead helped develop of the social-interaction
approach
Research orientations:
Positivist sociology uses the logic of science.
• tries to establish cause and effect
• demands that researchers try to be objective
• is loosely linked to structural-functional theory
Interpretive sociology focuses on the meanings people attach to behaviour.
• people construct reality in their everyday lives.
• Weber’s Verstehen is learning how people understand their world.
• is linked to symbolic-interaction theory (alludes to particular effects of communication
and interaction in people to make images and normal implications)
Critical sociology uses research to bring about social change.
• focuses on inequality
• rejects the principle of objectivity, claiming that all research is political
• is linked to social-conflict theory
The Capitalist Revolution
Karl Marx (1818 - 1883): (diagnose the society)
Conflict theory: Capitalism and class struggle
Have to understand the material reality that they based on first
Mode of production
Class theory: materialist conception of History (dialectical materialism)
*capitalist class represent the minority
The Cap
Max Weber (1864-1920):
Social evolution as a process of rationalization (especially rationalisation of productions
and bureaucratisation)
●
●
●
●
Major theoretical approaches
Structural functionalism:
Social conflict:
Symbolic interactionism:
Structural-Functional Social-conflict and
Theory
feminist theories
Sociobiology theory
What is the
level of
analysis?
Macro-level
Macro-level
Macro-level
What is
culture?
Culture is a system
of behaviour by
which members of
societies cooperate
to meet their needs.
Culture is a system
that benefits some
people and
disadvantages others.
Culture is a system
of behaviour that is
partly shaped by
human biology.
What is the
foundation of
culture?
Cultural patterns are
rooted in a society’s
core values and
beliefs.
Marx claimed that
cultural patterns are
rooted in a society’s
system of economic
production.
The feminist theory
says cultural conflict is
rooted in gender
Cultural patterns
are rooted in
humanity’s
biological evolution
How does a cultural
pattern benefit some
people and harm
others?
Socio economic
status
How does a cultural
pattern support social
inequality?
How does a cultural
pattern help a
species adapt to its
environment?
e.g. core believe of
Cambodia culture
What core
questions does
the approach
ask?
How does a cultural
pattern help society
operate?
What cultural
patterns are found in
all societies?
Week 4-5: Sociological Research (Macionis Chapter 1, pp. 18-24)
●
●
●
Positivist sociology: the study of society based on scientific observation of social
behaviour
Interpretive sociology: the study of society that focuses on discovering the
meanings people attach to their social world
Critical sociology: the study of society that focuses on the need for social change
Reliable and valid (stereotypes)
Independent variable, dependent variable and interfering variables
The sociologist's line of questioning
Sociology is scientific but cannot study humans like natural sciences as we are self-aware beings
conferring meaning and purpose on what we do.
Sociology can lead to reliable and valid research results (e.g. religiosity of students).
The differences between valid and reliable (recount)
Intersubjectivity instead of objectivity: sociology is limited by the biases of the research and
subjects.
● Define the problem: select a topic
○ Factual ignorance (to improve our knowledge
■ What kind of the main occupation of youth women compared to youth
men in Cambodia?
○ Identify a puzzle (investigate just not only because of a lack of knowledge but
also because of a lack of understanding?
■ For example: are ethnic minorities discriminated against in Cambodia?
When yes, why or when not why not?
■ Is youth unemployment related to criminality rates in Cambodia? When
yes, why or when not, why not?
○ Putting research problem in context (time, location, conditions)
● Review the literature: familiarize yourself with existing research on the topic.
○ Reviewing research of others which is related to the research problem (literature
review)
○ What other researchers have found?
○ What theories they have developed?
●
●
●
Formulate a hypothesis: what do you intend to test? What is the relationship between
variables?
○ Identifying variables (concept whose value change from case to case e.g. social
class, social mobility)
○ Operationalizing variables: defining measurements of variables
○ Independent, dependent- and interfering variables
○ Identifying relations: positive and negative correlations
○ Spurious relations (e.g. poverty and revolution)
○ Probability causality vs deterministic causality
○ Types of hypothesis: descriptive, explanatory, prescriptive, predictive and
normative
○ For example more social mobility increase social stability?
Select a research design: Choose one or more research methods: experiment, survey,
observation, use of existing sources.
Carry out the research: collect your data, record information.
●
●
Interpret your results: work out the implications of the data you collect
Report the research finding: What is their significance? How do they relate to previous
findings?
Week 6-7: Culture, Society and Socialization I (Theories of Culture and Society)
- Culture: the way people think, act, objectives that form the way of life
- Values are abstract standards of what ought to be (for example, equality of
opportunity).
•
Values can sometimes be in conflict with one another.
•
Lower-income countries have cultures that value survival;
higher-income countries have cultures that value individualism and self-expression. Beliefs
are specific statements that people who share a culture hold to be true (for example, “A
qualified woman could be elected president”).
Norms, rules that guide human behaviour, are of two types:
•
mores (e.g., sexual taboos), which have great moral significance
•
folkways (e.g., greetings or dining etiquette), which are matters of everyday
politeness
Week 8: Culture, Society and Socialization II (Theories of Socialization and
Society)
❖ Sigmund Freud:
➢ Id: the human being’s basic drives
➢ Ego: a person’s conscious efforts to balance innate pleasure-seeking drives
with the demand of society
➢ Superego: the cultural values and norms internalized by an individual
❖ George Herbert:(The Social Self: I and me – social experience not biological
maturation or instinct form our individual personality)
➢ Sociologist George Herbert Mead believed that people develop self-images
through interactions with other people. He argued that the self, which is
the part of a person's personality consisting of self-awareness and self-image,
is a product of social experience.
➢
What distinguish culture from society and nation?
●
Culture is a shared way of life (represents the beliefs and practices)
●
●
Society is an organized interaction of people (represents the people)
nation is a political entity
3.2 Explain three major theories of socialization. (pages 77–82)
Sigmund Freud’s model of the human personality has three parts:
•
id: innate, pleasure-seeking human drives
•
superego: the demands of society in the form of internalized values and norms
•
ego: our efforts to balance innate, pleasure-seeking drives and the demands of
society
Jean Piaget believed that human development involves both biological maturation and
gaining social experience. He identified four stages of cognitive development:
➢ 4 stages of Child development from birth up to 15
•
The sensorimotor stage involves knowing the world only through the senses.
•
The preoperational stage involves starting to use language and other symbols.
•
The concrete operational stage allows individuals to understand causal
connections.
•
The formal operational stage involves abstract and critical thought. Lawrence
Kohlberg applied Piaget’s approach to stages of moral development:
George Herbert Mead: Nurture
•
The self is part of our personality and includes self-awareness and self-image.
•
The self develops only as a result of social experience.
•
Social experience involves the exchange of symbols.
•
Social interaction depends on understanding the intention of another, which requires
taking the role of the other.
•
Human action is partly spontaneous (the I) and partly in response to others (the me)
•
We gain social experience through imitation, play, games, and understanding the
generalized other.
Format of the exam questions:
Make sure to understand all the terminology
●
Short answer question
Minimum 2 lines
●
●
Explaination I:
○ Write minimum 1 page
■ Describe and explain
Explanation II:
○ Write a minimum of half a page
■ What motivate
■ Describe
■ How to ensure