Sociological theories

and methods
SOC10500 INDIVIDUAL, GROUP AND SOCIETY (FALL 2020)
PROF. BILES
Week 2: Key questions

 What is science and the scientific method?

 What are paradigms, theories, hypotheses, and variables?
 How do structural functionalism, conflict theory and symbolic
interactionism make sense of the social world?
 How is the research process organized?
 What is reliability? Validity?
 What are the most important research methods in Sociology?
 What is the difference between correlation and causation?
 What is informed consent?
Sociology as science

 Science is a systematic process used to gain knowledge

 Scientific method
 Rooted in positivism, seeks to generalize, establish universal truths
 Social world can be studied through direct observation
 Empirical evidence will help to explain how the world works
 Different approaches to sociology
 Positivist sociology
 Interpretative sociology
 Critical sociology
Scientific method

 Six steps
 Start with a question
 Do background research
 Formulate hypothesis
 Design and carry out study
 Draw conclusions
 Report findings
 In practice, a combination of inductive
and deductive reasoning
Interpretive framework

 Alternative approach to understanding social world

 Systematic approach, seeks to understand social worlds from
the point of view of participants *subjective)
 Generally more descriptive or narrative
 Does not formulate or test formal hypotheses
 Does not seek attempt to build universal models or generalize
Paradigms, theories and hypotheses

 Paradigm
 Set of concepts and theories that frames how you see the world
 Purpose is to aid in interpreting society; requires assumptions
 Theory
 Tentative explanation about how some aspect of society works
(or should work)
 Positive theory (Objective and fact-based)
 Normative theory (Subjective and value-based)
 Hypothesis
 Testable statement about a possible real-world relationship
Key sociological paradigms

 Structural Functionalism (Spencer, Durkheim, Merton)

 Society as organism, well-oiled machine; objective is stability and social order
 Social institutions fulfill certain social functions (manifest and latent)
 How does change take place?

 Conflict Theory, Critical Theory (Marx, Frankfurt School)

 Society as different groups (class, race, gender) competing for scarce resources
 Focus on inequality; conflict is the source of change

 Symbolic Interactionism (Weber, Mead, Blumer)

 Society is the product of everyday social interactions
 Focuses on individual social situations and social construction of reality
 Big “T” truth does not exist (constructivism)
Research methods

 Systematic plan for gathering and

analyzing observations about the world
 Quantitative and qualitative data
 Experiments
 Secondary data
 Field work
 Ethnography
 Participant observation
 Surveys
 Case studies
Variables

 A variable is something that can take on many different values

 Researcher must operationalize variables
 Define variable
 Explain how you will measure it
 Variables must be reliable (consistent) and valid (reflect reality)
 Relationships between variables
 Correlation vs. causation
 Independent variables (cause)
 Dependent variables (effect)
Research ethics

 Hawthorne effect
 Researcher’s presence can bias findings
 Protecting human subjects
 Informed consent
 ASA Code of Ethics