Sociology 9th Edition
Rodney Stark
University of Washington
Chapter 1
Groups and Relationships:
A Sociological Sampler
Chapter Outline
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Science: Theory and Research
The Discovery of Social Facts
The Sociological Imagination
Sociology and the Social Sciences
Units of Analysis
Micro- and Macrosociology
A Global Perspective
Chapter Outline
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Scientific Concepts
Groups: The Sociological Subject
Solidarity and Conflict: The Sociological
Questions
Analyzing Social Networks
Studying Self-Aware Subjects
The Social Scientific.c Process
Free Will and Social Science
Science: Theory and Research
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Science is a method for describing and
explaining why and how things work
The scientific method consists of two
components: theory and research.
Theory
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Abstract statement that explains why
and how certain things happen and why
they are as they are.
Scientific theories must make definite
predictions and prohibitions.
Research
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Making appropriate empirical
observations or measurements.
Test theories or gain knowledge about
some portion of reality so it becomes
possible to theorize about it.
Holman’s Law of Inequality
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Friendships tend to be concentrated
among people of the same rank.
Exceptions to the rule: members with
close ties to those of another rank, tend
to lack ties to others of their own rank.
The Discovery Of Social Facts
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In 1825, the French Ministry of Justice began
to collect criminal justice statistics.
 Soon, they began collecting data on activities
such as suicide, illegitimate births and military
desertion.
 The data was published, as the General
Account of the Administration of Criminal
Justice in France, with little or no analysis.
André Michel Guerry
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Became fascinated with the statistics and
devoted himself to interpreting them.
 In 1831, he published his findings, attempting
to see if education influenced crime rates.
 In 1833, he published his masterpiece, Essai
sur la statistique morale de la France (Essay
the Moral Statistics of France) and launched
sociology.
Guerry’s Research: Stability
and Variation
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Rates were stable from year to year:
– In any French city or department, almost exactly
the same number of people committed suicide,
stole, or gave birth out of wedlock.
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Rates varied from one place to another:
– The number of suicides per 100,000 population
varied from 34.7 in the Department of the Seine to
fewer than 1 per 100,000 in Aveyron.
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These patterns forced Guerry to reassess the
primary causes of human behavior
% Female and % of Persons 16–25
Accused of Theft in France
1826
1827
1828
1829
1830
Average
% female
% age 16–25
21
21
22
23
22
22
37
35
38
37
37
37
Morselli’s Research: Number of
Suicides per 100,000 Population
England
6.3
6.2
6.5
Sweden
6.8
6.9
6.4
1861–1865
1866–1870
6.6
6.7
Paris
7.6
8.5
London
1827–1830
1861–1870
1872–1876
34.7
35.7
42.6
—
8.1
8.6
1830–1840
1845–1855
1856–1860
Durkheim and Suicide
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In, 1897 Frenchman, Émile Durkheim,
published Suicide.
Stressed that high suicide rates reflect
weaknesses in the relationships among
members of a society, not in the
character or personality of the
individual.
The Sociological Imagination
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Seeing the link between incidents in the
lives of individuals and large social
forces.
Data on moral statistics forced early
social scientists to develop sociological
imaginations.
Sociology and the Social
Sciences
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Sociology is the scientific study of the
patterns and processes of human social
relations.
 All social sciences have the same subject
matter: human behavior.
 Social Scientists: psychologists, economists,
anthropologists, criminologists, political
scientists, many historians, and sociologists.
Why Modern Sociology
Stresses a Global Perspective
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To provide a meaningful basis of
comparison.
Much of what goes on in one society is
influenced by other societies.
Science seeks general theories. A
theory must hold everywhere that it
applies.
Fundamental Sociological
Questions
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What binds people together?
What separates us?
What causes social solidarity and what
causes social conflict?
The Social Scientific Process:
8 Steps
Wonder. Science always begins with
someone wondering why.
2. Conceptualize. Scientists must be precise
about what it is they are wondering about.
3. Theorize. To explain something, we must
say how and why a set of concepts are
related.
4. Operationalize. Identify indicators of each
concept to make a theory testable.
1.
The Social Scientific Process:
8 Steps
Hypothesize. Formulate predictions about
what will be observed in the connections
among the indicators of the concepts.
6. Observe. Use the appropriate research
design to gather observations.
7. Analyze. Compare what we observe with
what the hypothesis said we would see.
8. Assess. Change theories to fit the evidence.
5.