CHAPTER ONE The Study of Society

The study of people doing things together, or Sociology is The study of people doing things together, or “the systematic study of human social interaction” (Brinkerhoff, p. 2).

THE SOCIOLOGICAL IMAGINATION IS: “the ability to see the intimate realities of our own lives in the context of common social structures; it is the ability to see personal troubles as public issues” (Brinkerhoff, P. 2).

THREE FOUNDERS OF SOCIOLOGY: KARL MARX EMILE DURKHEIM MAX WEBER

KARL MARX Materialist Conception of History People’s class positions depend on their relationship to the means of production. Two classes: Bourgeoisie (Owners) Proletariat (Workers)

EMILE DURKHEIM Social Facts: 1. Externality 2. Ability to Constrain Behavior

MAX WEBER Rationalization of Society: “the search by people for the optimum means to a given end is shaped by rules, regulations, and larger social structures” (Ritzer, p. 23).

Rationalization has four dimensions: efficiency predictability calculability nonhuman technology

Three Sociological Perspectives: 1. Functionalism 2. Conflict 3. Symbolic Interactionism

Functionalism (Structural Functionalism) “addresses the question of social organization and how it is maintained” (Brinkerhoff, p. 10). Founder: Emile Durkheim

Functionalism Just as physical scientists ask how particular body parts help maintain healthy biological organisms, so functionalists ask how particular institutions maintain healthy societies.

ASSUMPTIONS BEHIND FUNCTIONALISM (BRINKERHOFF, PP. 10): Stability Harmony Evolution

FUNCTIONALISTS ASK: “What is the function?”

Conflict “addresses the points of stress and conflict in society” (Brinkerhoff, p. 12). Founder: Karl Marx

Conflict: Certain groups of people benefit from existing social arrangements at the expense of other groups of people.

ASSUMPTIONS UNDERLYING CONFLICT (BRINKERHOFF, P. 13): Competition Structural Inequality Social Change

CONFLICT THEORISTS ASK: “Who Benefits?”

“Macrosociology focuses on social structures and organizations and the relationships between them” (Brinkerhoff, p. 14). “Microsociology focuses on the interactions among individuals” (Brinkerhoff, p. 14).

Symbolic Interactionism “addresses the subjective meaning of human acts and the processes through which people come to develop and communicate shared meanings” (Brinkerhoff, p. 13). Founder: George Herbert Mead

SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM: Symbols (Language) point to: Objects: Goals Things Social Acts

Symbolic Interactionists focus on the definition of the situation for the people involved.

ASSUMPTIONS UNDERLYING SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM (BRINKERHOFF, P. 13): Symbolic meanings are important Meanings grow out of relationships Meanings are negotiated

SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISTS ASK: “What does it mean?”

RESEARCH METHODS

Sociologists are Scientists. They A) study the empirical world in B) a systematic fashion

Empirical data pertains to the senses; things we can OBSERVE.

THE RESEARCH PROCESS: 1. Gathering Data -collecting/gathering empirical observations 2. Finding Patterns -discovering correlations 3. Generating Theories -explaining patterns 4. Testing Hypotheses -examining our explanation

“Variables are measured characteristics that vary from one individual or group to the next” (Brinkerhoff, p. 17).

CORRELATION VS. CAUSAL RELATIONSHIPS

In a CAUSAL RELATIONSHIP an INDEPENDENT VARIABLE CAUSES A CHANGE IN A DEPENDENT VARIABLE.

CORRELATION: “occurs when there is an empirical relationship between two variables” (Brinkerhoff, p. 18); the variables vary together, but they don’t necessarily cause change in one another.

Falsifiable statements. Hypotheses: “statements about relationships that we expect to find if our theory is correct” (Brinkerhoff, p. 17). Falsifiable statements.

Theory: “an interrelated set of assumptions that explain observed patterns” (Brinkerhoff, p. 18).

RESEARCH METHODS: FIELD WORK SURVEYS EXPERIMENTS

FIELDWORK Strengths: Provides a detailed, “thick description,” of people being observed Weakness: lack of theoretical generalizability

SURVEY RESEARCH: “is a method that involves asking a relatively large number of people the same set of standardized questions” (Brinkerhoff, p. 21).

Surveys are generally distributed to a sample of people from an entire population. Sociologists often use random samples, a sample in which all members of the population have an equal chance of being picked.

Population Sample

SURVEYS Strengths Weakness good idea about what a large amount of people think about a specific set of topics Weakness don’t know much else about the population

EXPERIMENTS: “the researcher manipulates independent variables to test theories of cause and effect” (Brinkerhoff, p. 20).

CONTROL GROUP EXPERIMENTAL GROUP Independent variable introduced

EXPERIMENTS Strengths Weaknesses excellent for testing hypotheses about cause and effect Weaknesses possibly unethical subjects behave differently when under observation they omit factors that would influence the same behavior in a real-life situation