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Sociology 9th Edition

Sociology 9th Edition. Rodney Stark University of Washington. Chapter 1 . Groups and Relationships: A Sociological Sampler. Chapter Outline. Science: Theory and Research The Discovery of Social Facts The Sociological Imagination Sociology and the Social Sciences Units of Analysis

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Sociology 9th Edition

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  1. Sociology 9th Edition Rodney StarkUniversity of Washington

  2. Chapter 1 Groups and Relationships: A Sociological Sampler

  3. Chapter Outline • 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

  4. Chapter Outline • 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

  5. Science: Theory and Research • Science is a method for describing and explaining why and how things work • The scientific method consists of two components: theory and research.

  6. Theory • 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.

  7. Research • Making appropriate empirical observations or measurements. • Test theories or gain knowledge about some portion of reality so it becomes possible to theorize about it.

  8. Holman’s Law of Inequality • 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.

  9. The Discovery Of Social Facts • 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.

  10. André Michel Guerry • 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.

  11. Guerry’s Research: Stability and Variation • 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. • 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. • These patterns forced Guerry to reassess the primary causes of human behavior

  12. % Female and % of Persons 16–25 Accused of Theft in France

  13. Morselli’s Research: Number of Suicides per 100,000 Population

  14. Durkheim and Suicide • 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.

  15. The Sociological Imagination • 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.

  16. Sociology and the Social Sciences • 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.

  17. Why Modern Sociology Stresses a Global Perspective • 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.

  18. Fundamental Sociological Questions • What binds people together? • What separates us? • What causes social solidarity and what causes social conflict?

  19. The Social Scientific Process: 8 Steps • Wonder. Science always begins with someone wondering why. • Conceptualize. Scientists must be precise about what it is they are wondering about. • Theorize. To explain something, we must say how and why a set of concepts are related. • Operationalize. Identify indicators of each concept to make a theory testable.

  20. The Social Scientific Process: 8 Steps • Hypothesize. Formulate predictions about what will be observed in the connections among the indicators of the concepts. • Observe. Use the appropriate research design to gather observations. • Analyze. Compare what we observe with what the hypothesis said we would see. • Assess. Change theories to fit the evidence.

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