Chapter 1
Sociological Perspectives
and
Sociological Research
Chapter Outline
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What is Sociology?
The Significance of Diversity
The Development of Sociological Theory
Doing Sociological Research
The Tools of Sociological Research
Research Ethics: Is Sociology Value
Free?
What Is Sociology?
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The study of human behavior in society.
A scientific way to think about society and
its influence on humans.
Includes the study of social behavior and
social change.
Social Location
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A person’s place in society establishes the
limits and possibilities of a life.
Consider the following consequences of social
locations in society:
• The pay gap has recently increased between
college-educated women and men.
• 1/3 one-third of employed Americans work on
Saturday, Sunday, or both.
What is Sociology?
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Sociology is the study of human behavior
in society.
All human behavior occurs in a context
that shapes what people do and think.
Sociology is a scientific way of thinking
about society and its influence on human
groups.
The Sociological Perspective
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The ability to see societal patterns that
influence individual and group life.
C. Wright Mills was one of the first to write
about the sociological perspective in his book,
The Sociological Imagination.
He wrote that the task of sociology was to
understand the relationship between individuals
and the society in which they live.
Sociology
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Sociology is the study of human behavior,
including the significance of diversity.
Troubles and Issues
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Troubles are private problems in an
individual’s life.
Issues affect large numbers of people
Issues shape the context within which
troubles arise.
Personal troubles
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Personal troubles are
felt by individuals
who are experiencing
problems.
Social issues arise
when large numbers
of people experience
problems rooted in
the social structure of
society.
Sociology Is Empirical
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The empirical approach requires that
conclusions be based on systematic
observations, not on assumptions.
For empirical observations to be useful, they
must be gathered and recorded rigorously.
The empirical basis of sociology distinguishes it
from other forms of social commentary.
Cultural Practices
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Cultural practices that seem bizarre to outsiders may be
taken for granted or defined as appropriate by insiders.
Debunking
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Studying the patterns and processes that
shape behavior.
Questioning actions and ideas that are
usually taken for granted.
Acting as “an outsider within.”
Social Structure
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The organized pattern of social
relationships and social institutions that
together constitute society.
Refers to the fact that social forces guide
and shape human behavior.
Social Institutions
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Established and organized systems of social
behavior with a recognized purpose.
The family, religion, marriage, government, and
the economy are examples of social institutions.
Social institutions confront individuals at birth
and they transcend individual experience— but
still influence individual behavior.
Social Change
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The alteration of society over time.
Sociologists view society as stable but
constantly changing.
Social Interaction
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Behavior between two or more people
that is given meaning.
Through social interaction, people react
and change, depending on the actions
and reactions of others.
Understanding Diversity
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Diversity includes:
• Shaping of social institutions by
different social factors.
• Formation of group and individual
identity.
• The process of social change.
Share of Minorities in the U.S.
Population
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By 2050 the U.S.
population is
projected to be half
non-Hispanic Whites.
How will this affect
your life?
Globalization
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Globalization brings
diverse cultures
together, but it is also
a process by which
Western markets
have penetrated
much of the world.
Influence of the Enlightenment
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Auguste Comte, a French philosopher
who coined the term sociology, believed
sociology could discover the laws of
human social behavior and help solve
society’s problems.
• This approach is called positivism, a
system of thought, in which scientific
observation is considered the highest
form of knowledge.
Emile Durkheim
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Emile Durkheim
established the
significance of
society as something
larger than the sum
of its parts.
Classical Sociological
Theory: Marx
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Karl Marx analyzed
capitalism as an
economic system with
implications for how
society is organized, in
particular how inequality
between groups stems
from the economic
organization of society.
Classical Sociological
Theory: Weber
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Max Weber
interpreted the
economic, cultural,
and political
organization of
society as together
shaping social
institutions and social
change.
Charles Darwin
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British scholar who identified the process of
evolution, by which species are created through
survival of the fittest.
Social Darwinists conceived of society as an
organism that evolved in a process of
adaptation to the environment.
They believed evolution always led toward
perfection, and assumed the current
arrangements in society were inevitable.
The Chicago School
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Characterized by thinkers who were
interested in how society shaped the mind
and identity of people.
They thought of society as a human
laboratory where they could observe and
understand human behavior to be better
able to address human needs, and they
used the city in which they lived as a
living laboratory.
Robert Park
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From the University of Chicago, Park was
interested how racial groups interacted.
He was fascinated by the sociological
design of cities, noting that cities were
sets of concentric circles.
• At the time, the very rich and the very
poor lived in the middle, ringed by
slums and low-income neighborhoods.
Jane Addams
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The only sociologist to
win the Nobel Peace
Prize, Addams used
sociology to try to
improve people’s lives.
The settlement house
movement provided
social services to groups
in need as well as a
social laboratory in which
to observe problems.
Social Order
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Sociologists find
social order even
when it seems that
there is just mass
movement.
One of the goals of
sociological research
is to discover the
processes involved in
creating such order.
Doing Sociological Research
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Sociological research is a tool
sociologists use to answer questions.
The method of research used
depends on the kind of question you
ask.
Research Process
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Develop a research question.
Create a research design.
Gather data.
Analyze data.
Reach conclusions and report results.
Research Process
The Research Process
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The research process
involves several
operations that can
be performed on the
computer, such as
entering data in
numerical form and
writing the research
report.
Replication Study
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Research that is repeated exactly, but on a
different group of people or in a different time or
place, is a replication study.
A replication study can tell you what changes
have occurred since the original study and may
also refine the results of the earlier work.
Research findings should be reproducible; if
research is sound, researchers who repeat a
study should get the same results.
Qualitative and Quantitative
Research
Qualitative
Quantitative
Does not use statistical
methods.
Uses statistical methods.
More interpretive, shows more
nuance.
Provides data to calculate
averages and percents.
Hypothesis
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A tentative assumption that one intends to test.
Hypotheses are often formulated as if–then
statements.
• Example: If a person’s parents are racially
prejudiced, then that person will, on average,
be more prejudiced than a person whose
parents are free of prejudice.
Variables
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An independent variable is one the
researcher wants to test as the presumed
cause of something else.
The dependent variable is one on which
there is a presumed effect.
• Example: If X is the independent
variable, then X leads to Y, the
dependent variable.
Validity
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The validity of a measurement is the degree to
which it accurately measures a concept.
To ensure the validity of findings, researchers
usually use more than one measure for a
particular concept.
If two or more chosen measures of a concept
give similar results, it is likely that the
measurements are valid.
Reliability
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A measurement is reliable if repeating the
measurement gives the same result.
Two ways to ensure reliability:
• Use measures that have proved sound in
past studies.
• Have a variety of people gather the data to
make certain results are not skewed by the
tester’s appearance, personality, etc.
Samples and Populations
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A sample is any subset of a population.
A population is a relatively large
collection of people (or other units) that a
researcher studies and about which
generalizations are made.
Percentage
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The same as parts per hundred.
• To say that 22% of U.S. children are
poor tells you that for every 100
children randomly selected from the
population, approximately 22 will be
poor.
Rate
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The same as parts per some number,
such as per 10,000 or 100,000.
• The homicide rate in 2005 was 5.6,
meaning for every 100,000 in the
population, approximately 5.6 were
murdered
Mean
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The same as an average.
• Adding a list of fiffteen numbers and dividing
by fifteen gives the mean.
Correlation
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A a widely used technique for analyzing
the patterns of association, or correlation,
between pairs of variables such as
income and education.
• A spurious correlation exists when
there is no meaningful causal
connection between apparently
associated effects.
Statistical Errors
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Citing a correlation as a cause
• A correlation reveals an association between
things, it does not necessarily indicate that
one thing causes the other.
Overgeneralizing
• Statistical findings are limited by the extent to
which the sample group represents the
population from which the sample was
obtained.
Data Analysis
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The process by which sociologists organize
collected data to discover the patterns and
uniformities that the data reveal.
The analysis may be statistical or qualitative.
When data analysis is complete conclusions
and generalizations can be made.
Generalization is the ability to draw conclusions
from specific data and to apply them to a
broader population.
Human Development Index
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An indicator developed by the United
Nations used to show the differing levels
of well-being in nations around the world.
The index is calculated using a number of
measures, including:
• Life expectancy
• Educational attainment
• Standard of living
Tools of Sociological Research
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Questionnaires, Interviews
Participant Observation
Controlled Experiments
Content Analysis
Historical Research
Evaluation Research
The Interviews
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In closed-ended questions, people must
reply from a list of possible answers, like
a multiple-choice test.
For open-ended questions, the
respondent is allowed to elaborate on her
or his answer.
Sampling
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Often the groups sociologists want to study are
so large that research on the whole group is
impossible.
To construct a picture of the entire group, they
take data from a subset.
• A sample is any subset of a population.
• A population is a large collection of people
that a researcher studies and about which
generalizations are made.
Controlled Experiments
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Highly focused ways of collecting data,
especially useful for determining a pattern of
cause and effect.
Two groups are created:
• An experimental group is exposed to the
causal factor one is examining.
• The control group is not.
All other conditions are equal for both groups.
Violent Video Games
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Playing a violent
video game often
causes the player to
be somewhat more
aggressive afterward.
Quick Quiz
1. Sociology is the study of:
a) personality types
b) political philosophy
c) human behavior
d) the distribution of goods and
services
Answer: c
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Sociology is the study of human
behavior.
2. The ability to see the societal patterns
that influence individual and group life is
referred to as:
a) commonsense
b) social speedup
c) Wright's Theorem
d) the sociological imagination
Answer: d
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The ability to see the societal patterns
that influence individual and group life is
referred to as the sociological
imagination.
3. The sociologist that first coined the term
sociology is:
a) Auguste Comte
b) Emile Durkheim
c) Karl Marx
d) Harriet Martineau
Answer: a
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The sociologist that first coined the term
sociology is Auguste Comte.
4. Symbolic interactionism emphasizes:
a) the role of coercion and power
b) class struggles
c) face-to-face contact
d) the interdependent parts of
society
Answer: c
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Symbolic interactionism emphasizes
face-to-face contact.
5. The first step in sociological research is:
a) to develop a research question
b) to collect the data
c) to decide on a research design
d) to analyze the data
Answer: a
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The first step in sociological research is to
develop a research question.
6. According to the text, which of the
following is not a step in the research
process?
a) developing conclusions
b) analyzing the data
c) duplicating the research design
d) developing a research question
Answer: c
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According to the text, duplicating the
research design is not a step in the
research process.
7. In a controlled experiment, which of the
following would not be exposed to the
causal factor being examined?
a) the control group
b) the posttest group
c) the pretest group
d) the experimental group
Answer: a
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In a controlled experiment the control
group would not be exposed to the
causal factor being examined.
8. Research that assesses the effect of
policies and programs on people in
society is called:
a) comparative research
b) evaluation research
c) programmatic research
d) content analysis
Answer: b
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Research that assesses the effect of
policies and programs on people in
society is called evaluation research.