Sociology: to use a systematic approach to investigate the interrelationships among human interactions to understand society better
Aguste Comte: developed sociology based on the methods of physical science
Scientific method
Quantitative research methods:
– Seeks to quantify data and generalize results to the population of interest
– Secondary analysis: the use of data previously collected for other purposes; existing data is plentiful
– Surveys
– Experiments
– Longitudinal studies
Qualitative Research Methods
– Aims to uncover underlying reasons, motivations, opinions, and prevalent trends among individuals on a small scale
– In-depth interviews: one on one, open ended, deep method, most often conducted face to face
– Participant observation: the researcher takes part in the phenomenon being studied
– ethnography: description of a cultures\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\’s social life from the POV of the researcher being embedded over time in a group
– Focus groups
– groupthink: tendency for members to yield desire for consensus rather than expressing individual ideas
– Content analysis: assigning codes to text or media to analyze and infer patterns
Sustainability: idea that current and future generations should have > or = access to resources
Research Methods
Sociologists must choose an appropriate method to research their area of study. They must be specific in order to prevent getting sidetracked.
Snowball sampling: people in the group being studied introduce the researcher to other people to study
– the researcher relies on people they befriend in the community to find other people they are interested in studying
– EX: asking the people you\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\’re researching to give the survey to their friends
Social Problems
– time diary method: subjects track their actions at various times over several days (ex: \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\”what did you do on Sunday at 10 a.m.?\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\” instead of \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\”do you attend church each weekend?\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\”)
– Hawthorne effect: people change their behavior when they know they\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\’re being watched
Convenience sample: based on accessibility of research subjects
– it\\\\\\\’s a bad idea to use your friends as subjects because most people\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\’s friends have similar views as them
Empathy in sociological research
– Verstehen: taking time to understand individuals\\\’ POV (empathy)
Branches of Femenism
– liberal: sex-discrimination are a product of prejudice and stereotyping
– radical: problem roots from intersection of various types of oppression and men\\\’s patriarchal control
– Marxist/social: root of problem is capitalism and patriarchy