Socy 1101-Introduction to Sociology

1. Socy 1101-Introduction to Sociology Professor: Rosemary L. Hopcroft Office: 490B Fretwell E-mail: rlhopcro@uncc.edu Website: uncc.edu/rlhopcro

2. Outline: What do sociologists do? • The scientific method and sociological investigation • What do sociologists do? • What is a theory? • Theories and beliefs • What are social groups? • Observation • Conclusions and generalization • Problems that can arise • Post modern critique • Reactivity • Values and the effects of social research • The Sociological Perspective • Why study sociology?

3. What do sociologists do? • Sociologists study people in groups using the scientific method. • Different to what historians, journalists, novelists and other writers do. They seek to describe. • Sociologists seek general explanations and develop theories of social phenomena.

4. What is the scientific method? • The scientific method consists of following the steps in the wheel of science.

5. The wheel of science

6. You can actually start at any point on the wheel, but the important thing is, no matter where you start, you complete one full circle of the wheel. • You could begin with an observation. For instance, you could observe that people in one country seemed happier than people in another country. • Then you could develop a theory about why that might be so, draw a hypothesis from it, and test it. Based on the results of the test, you would draw conclusions about the theory. Is it supported? Is it falsified?

7. Or you could begin with a theory of why people tend to be happy, draw a hypothesis from it, test it, and then draw conclusions.

8. What is theory? • Since theory is so important, we had better define it more explicitly. Theories are explanations of particular social phenomena. • They are made up of a series of propositions. • A proposition gives the relationship between two factors or characteristics that vary from case to case of whatever we are studying.

9. Propositions • Propositions can be general or specific. The specific propositions are derived from the more general propositions, and they must be testable. • The specific propositions are derived from the more general propositions, and they must be testable.

10. Example. Durkheim’s theory of suicide • For example, one early sociological theorist, Emile Durkheim (1858-1917), wanted to explain why suicide rates varied from country to country. • He theorized that more individualistic (egoistic) societies would have more suicide than less individualistic societies because they were less socially integrated. • Thought Protestant countries more individualistic than Catholic countries.

11. Durkheim’s theory of suicideas a set of propositions 1. In any country, the suicide rate varies with the degree of individualism (egoism). As individualism increases, so does the suicide rate. (General proposition) 2. The degree of individualism varies with the incidence of Protestantism. That is, as the incidence of Protestantism increases, the degree of individualism increases. 3. Given propositions one and two, the suicide rate in a country varies with the incidence of Protestantism. The higher the incidence of Protestantism, the higher the suicide rate. (Most specific proposition)

12. The important concepts in this theory are in bold: suicide rate, individualism, and Protestantism. • He then tested this hypothesis by collecting information about suicide rates in Protestant and Catholic countries. • Found that Protestant countries did have higher suicide rates than Catholic countries - support for his theory of suicide.

13. Turns out that Durkheim conveniently overlooked some regions in which the Catholic suicide rate was higher than the Protestant suicide rate. • Last, there was the glaring exception of England – a Protestant nation that had a low suicide rate. • Durkheim tried to explain away England by pointing to the fact that the Anglican church was something like the Catholic church. • Unfortunately, many English people were not Anglicans at all.

14. Others have revised Durkheim’s theory. • Other studies, for example, show that it is not so much the type of religion, but religious commitment that helps prevent suicide, and that, in general, the modernization and development of a country promotes suicide (Stack 1983). • It took nearly 100 years to fully revise Durkheim’s findings – a testimony to how slow the production of social scientific knowledge can be.

15. Theories versus Beliefs • The most important thing about theory is that it can generate a testable hypothesis that can be supported or falsified with data. • If a statement cannot generate a testable hypothesis and therefore cannot be tested, it is not a theory, it is a belief. • For example, the statement “there is a god” is not a theory, it is a belief. So is the statement “there is no god.”

16. To recap, sociologists study people in groups using the scientific method.

17. What groups do sociologists study? • Social groups or groups of any number of people greater than one • A state may be considered a group of people • Families, companies, countries are all groups of people

18. Social Groups and Individuals

19. Observation • Sociologists must collect data to test their hypotheses. • Data in example came from:

20. Primary methods used in Sociology • Experiments • With experiments, you have two identical groups of subjects – an experimental group and a control group • You change one factor in the experimental group • Compare results in experimental and control group • Change in experimental group is attributed to factor changed

21. Field research • Observe human subjects in natural settings

22. Survey research • Ask subjects a set of survey questions • Use statistical methods to analyse the results

23. Analysis of existing data • Analyse statistics previously collected (by governments, organizations, companies, etc) using statistical and other methodologies • This is what we used when examining why rural states had a higher circulation of Field and Stream magazine

24. Conclusions and generalization • After we have collected data, we can decide whether it supports or fails to support our hypotheses • Then we make conclusions about how our results support, or fail to support, our original theory

25. Problems that can arise • People can see what they want to see. • E.g. Millikan and the charge on the electron

26. The Post-modern critique • Post-modern critique says that researchers are embedded in a particular culture (their own), so complete objectivity is impossible • There are no truly objective "facts."

27. Response: • We can accept that people see things differently without accepting that there are no objective facts • The scientific method helps us discover these objective facts • It is designed to minimize the effects of investigator biases

28. Reactivity • In doing social research, we ourselves change the social processes we are studying, • This is called the problem of reactivity • E.g. Elton Mayo and the Hawthorne Electric Plant studies

29. Values and the effects of social science research • Some scholars argue that some things are best left unstudied • E.g. sex differences • Ethics and the limits to what social scientists can study

30. The Sociological Perspective • Understanding people’s actions and behaviors as in part a result of their social context. • That social context is made up of many factors – an individual’s position in a social network, their culture, religion, group and institutional setting, and the prevailing demography of the society.

31. This was Emile Durkheim’s insight 1858-1917

32. In work’s such as Suicide, Durkheim showed how something as personal as suicide is influenced by social factors.

33. Individual psychology and human nature itself also influence how individuals respond to their social context.

34. This was Edvard Westermarck ’s insight 1862-1939

35. Westermarck showed how early social contexts influence later incest avoidance. • This is innate to human biology.

36. Why study sociology? • We as humans are a highly social species. • Understanding being social is fundamental to understanding the human condition

37. Sociology is useful in all endeavors in life, whether it be in business (marketing, for example), architecture and design, finance and economics, education, politics etc. • We can design better public policies if we understand what contexts work and what contexts do not work to produce the social behaviors we prefer.

38. Overview of class • Fundamentals of sociological analysis • Used in all sociological studies • Biology • Culture • Social groups and social networks • Institutions • Demography

39. Research areas in sociology • Microsociology • Family • Social stratification • Global inequality • Gender inequality • Race and ethnicity • Religion • Crime and violence • Biosociology of health • Economic sociology • Sociology of the environment • Political sociology and social change