Building Reality: The Social Construction of Knowledge Chapter 3 Building Reality: The Social Construction of Knowledge
What Makes Truth? What is a healthy level of cholesterol? What is Pluto? What’s a bug? What is your currency worth? These ideas are social constructions.
Social Construction of Reality The process through which the members of a society discover, make known, reaffirm, and alter a collective version of facts, knowledge, and “truth” Which is maintained and changed through Culture Language
Culture and Language Culture Language Material Non-material Vocabulary Jargon Euphemisms
Shaping Reality Self-fulfilling prophecy Incorrigible propositions Rosenthal and Jacobson (1968) Placebo effect Nocebo effect Stereotype threat Incorrigible propositions
Thinking Sociologically How does what is considered to be “true” or “reality” change from one culture to the next, and from one historical period to the next? What examples can you think of that show how culture and reality have changed over time?
Who Controls Reality? History Conflict and power Social institutions Economy Politics Religion The media Moral entrepreneurs
Conflict Perspective Certain groups or people are more influential in defining reality than others Reality is often based on the interests of powerful people, groups, organizations, and institutions Moral entrepreneurs seek to shape their morality into law
Media News is a constructed reality Economics: Who owns access? By 2009 six companies owned over half of all media outlets Time: What gets left out? Spin: Whose perspective is represented?
Moral Entrepreneurs Individual (and small-group) efforts to control the construction of reality Not necessarily wealthy or influential Good at using publicity and public relations
Thinking Sociologically Conflict perspective and the media Whose voice is not heard? Whose perspective is not represented? How does this shape reality?
Doing Sociological Research Casual research vs. empirical research Probabilistic research Looks at the likelihood of an event occurring (probability) Rarely makes absolute predictions Tries to take into account exceptions and variations
Casual vs. Empirical Casual research Empirical research What we do every day as we observe our surroundings and draw conclusions about what we see Empirical research Seeks generalizability (representative sample) Systematic, controlled observation Theoretical basis for method of study
Approaches to Sociological Research Qualitative Research based on non-numerical information that describes social life (text, written words, phrases, symbols, observations) Quantitative Research based on the collection of numerical data that utilizes precise statistical analysis
Key Terms in Social Research Theory Hypothesis Variables Independent: the one that may cause the change Dependent: the one you are looking at to see what happens Indicators Spurious relationships
Kinds of Research Experimental Field research Unobtrusive research Non-participant observation, participant observation Unobtrusive research
Experiment A research situation designed to elicit some sort of behavior under closely controlled laboratory circumstances Advantages Able to study causal relationships Easy to replicate Disadvantages Not a natural environment Hard to measure many sociological concepts in a lab
Field Research Direct observation of people in their natural settings Advantages: Provides detailed and descriptive understandings of people’s everyday lives Generally inexpensive to conduct Disadvantages: Time consuming Difficult to replicate Difficult to generalize to other groups Reactivity: the Hawthorne effect Particularly susceptible to ethical issues
Unobtrusive Research Researcher does not have direct contact with subjects Analysis of existing data Content analysis Historical analysis Visual sociology
Research Tools Surveys Existing data Representative samples
Surveys Data collected through questionnaires or interviews Advantages Large population can be studied Random, representative samples Results can be generalized Disadvantages Little in-depth information about people’s behavior or experiences Questions need to be correctly worded
Trustworthiness of Social Research Samples Indicators Type of research Values, interests, and ethics