CHAPTER 3 SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES AND SOCIOLOGICAL INQUIRY SOCIOLOGICAL IMAGINATION AND SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES 1. DEFINITION OF TERMS: a. Sociological Imagination, the leading proponent of which is C. Wright Mills (1959), is a quality of mind that enables one to do the following: See what is going on in the world and what may be happening within ourselves; * See that society — not our own foibles or failings — is responsible for many of our problems; * See that many of our personal problems can be transformed into political issues; © See the power of society to shape our individual lives; © Define the troubles we endure in terms of historical change. * See the intricate connection between the patterns of our own lives and the course of world history, and * Know what this connection means for the kind of men we are becoming and for the kinds of history-making in which we might take part. In short, sociological imagination is that quality of the mind essential to grasp the interplay of men and society, of biography and history, of self and sce. It is a way of looking at our personal experiences in terms of what is 72 on in the world around us. (C. Wright Mills (1959). b, Sociological perspective - is « distinctive point of view that th world guides our actions, thinking, and life choices. Maciones (1997). 2. CHARACTERISTICS OF SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE Maciones, J. (1997) gives the following characteristic sociological perspectives: a, Seeing the general in the particular ‘There are general patterns in the bel Society acts-differently on various eg. children vs. adults; women vs. men; educated vs. il r rigs into which we happen to fall shapeb. Seeing the strange in the familiar Society guides our thoughts and deeds, Humen be imply a matter of what people decide to do. nes industrialized, a peasant becomes a laborer, factory wor eic.; when war happens, a store clerk becomes a rocket launcher; a wife lives alone; a child grows up without a father. c, Haman behavior is not as individualistic as we think, but rather social forces affect human behavior Ex. Durkheim's study on suicide showed that some categories of people were more likely than others to choose to take their own lives Durkheim found: “Men, Protestants, wealthy people, and the unmarried had significantly higher suicide rates compared to wornen, Catholics and Jews, the poor and married people. He deduced that these differences corresponded to people’s degree of social integration Low suicide rates characterized categories of people with strong social ties; high suicide rates were found among those who were more socially isolated and individualistic. d. Sociological perspective has a global perspective, the study of the larger world and our society's place ix it. Global awareness, seeing the world as a global village, is @ logical extension of the sociological perspective, Where we are placed in our jividval experience. It stands to iety in the larger world system > Our global village indicates that peopie the world over are far from equal in their quality of life.SOCIOLOGICAL INQUIRY Z DEFINITION OF TERME a, Sociological Inc tific investigation or intellectual and rigorous research on @ particular issue, problem, concer, event ot situation for a betier understanding of the same. It is concerned with the repetitive patterns in human behavior, presented according to logically related hypotheses and supported by empirical evidence. To be meaningful, these facts have to be ordered according to a conceptual scheme or theoretical framework. (Panopio, 2004) b. Sociologist - refers to a person with professional knowledge and skills in studying the fac ntific inquiry in 0% e at certain generalizations and truths about social life and society. The main task of the sociologist is to study human groups and finnish nces with the scientific data they need « » their work success: GOAL OF SOCIOLOGICAL INQUIRY The basic goal of sociological inquiry is to obtain a better understanding of society and the interactions, social relations, social phenomena, social behavior and social processes taking place within it. It seeks to discover social reality as it is supported by verifiable facts and data as empirical evidence. A social fact is any observation about society, social behavior, or social phenomena which can be verified as true. FUNDAMENTAL PROCEDURES IN SOCIOLOGICAL INQUIRY Sociological inquiry follows the steps in the scientific method as follows: (Donald Light & Suzanne Keller — 1985). a. Defining the problem. Selecting a topic for research and defining key concepts: b Reviewing the literature. Familiarizing oneself with the existiny theory and research on the topic. c. Forming a hypothesis. Defining the relationship between meesurable variables so that they can be measured and the hypothesis tesied. d. Choosing a research design. Selecting a method for study experiment; case study, survey, field observation, or a histo approach. e. Collecting the data. Collecting the information that_will test the hypothesis. ee