METHODS OF SOCIOLOGY

The Case-Study Method:

A case study is defined as “an investigation of an individual or group in which the variables
which are measured and whose empirical relations explored are characteristics of the individuals
or group and not a sub-unit of it.”It is a form of qualitative analysis involving the very careful
and complete observation of a person, a situation or an institution".

The case study method may be defined as an all inclusive and intensive study of an
individual, in which the investigator brings to bear all his skill and methods or as a
systematic

Gathering of enough information about a person to understand how he or she functions as a unit
of society.”

The case study method is employed in studying an individual case or that of a group, a
community or an institution. The contention underlying it is that any case being studied is
a. representative of many, if not all, similar cases and hence will make generalisations
possible.

This method is usually employed for the study of professional criminal and other social deviants
and involves an investigation and an analysis of all the factors entering into the case and its
examination from as many points of view as possible.

It is a way of organising social data so as to preserve the unitary character of the social object
being studied. Expressed somewhat differently it is an approach which views any social unit as a
whole.

Some of the techniques used in the method are interviews, questionnaires, life histories,
documents of all kinds having a bearing on the subject and all such material which may enable
the sociologist to have a deep insight into the problem. Thoroughness is the keystone of this
method.

Case work is based on the principles of acceptance, self determination and confidentiality. The
principle of acceptance refers to the attitude of the worker, his respect for the client as an
individual which gives him a sense of security and encourages him to speak about his problem
frankly; the principle of self determination allows the client to decide for himself rather than
deciding for him; and the principle of confidentiality implies that the relationship between the
case worker and the client is one of the trust and whatever is revealed to the worker is to be kept
confidential and is not to be shared with anyone except in the interest of the client with his
permission.

Case work is used in a variety of settings such as child care and child guidance institutions,
schools, colleges, medical and psychiatric settings, family welfare, marriage counseling centres,
institutions for the old and infirm as well as handicapped and also with people who suffer from
addiction, character disorders, emotional disturbances and the like.

Functionalism or Structural Functional Method:

The approach of functionalism is being given great importance in the study of social phenomena
by some sociologists. By this method we try to interpret any part of society in terms of its
functions and not in terms of its utility and origin. Functionalism, in other words, refers to the
study of social phenomena from the point of view of the functions that particular institutions
such as family, class, political institutions, religion, etc., serve in a society.

It is a functional analysis of the different parts of society. According to R. K. Merton, it depends

upon a triple alliance between theory, method and data, Function is the contribution which a
partial activity makes to the total activity of which it is a part.

The functional method assumes that the total social system of the society is made up of parts
which are inter-related and inter-dependent, each performing a function necessary to the life of
the group, and these parts can best be understood in terms of the functions that they perform or in
terms of the needs they meet. And since they are inter-dependent we can understand them only
by investigating their relationship to other parts as well as to the whole social system.

The Statistical Method:

The Statistical Method is used to measure social phenomenon mathematically that is with the
help of figures. Social Statistics is mathematics applied to human facts.” Odum writes, “Statistics
which is the science of numbering and measuring phenomena objectively is an essential core of
research."
Statistical method is a term used to describe the process of interpreting facts by the use of
statistics and statistical theory.

It is obvious that Statistics can be used with advantage where the problem can be expressed in
quantitative terms as in measuring the growth of population, the increase of birth and death rates,
rise and fall in income etc. Much of the research work in Sociology is currently being carried on
with the help of the data collected through statistics, for example, in studying population,
migration, economic conditions, human ecology etc.

But the great difficulty in adopting the statistical method is that mostly the social problems are
qualitative and not quantitative. This method can, therefore, be used in a limited sphere only.

The Historical Method:

The Historical Method consists of a study of events, processes and institutions of past
civilizations for the purpose of finding the origins or antecedents of contemporary social life and
thus of understanding its nature and working.

History and Sociology are so much inter-related that some of the sociologists regard history to be
past Sociology, and Sociology present History, it is evident that our present forms of social life,
our customs or ways of living have their roots in the past and they can, therefore, be best
explained when they are traced back to their sources. This can be possible only with the help of
History. Social heritage is another name for history.

But this method cannot help us in studying all the problems of Sociology. The scope of
Sociology cannot be limited to the study of facts provided by History.

The historical facts, as contained in life histories, diaries, etc., may be revealing but they have
little use for scientific investigation, they may not be able to answer all the questions that may be
raised, by a sociologist. Further, the historical facts also run the risk of not being studied
objectively by the interpreters.

The Historical Method, therefore, was being not wholly adequate and dependable for the study of
social phenomenon, calls for the employment of other methods for enquiry into field of
sociology.
Postmodernism

Postmodernism is an intellectual movement that became popular in the 1980s, and the ideas
associated with it can be seen as a response to the social changes occurring with the shift from
modernity to postmodernity.

Moreover, it seems that the pursuit of scientific knowledge (and especially its application) has in
some ways made the world a riskier, more dangerous place – nuclear weapons and global
warming are both the products of science, for example.

Democracy has spread around the world, but in many developed political systems voters are
apathetic and politicians reviled. In short, for many postmodern theorists, the grand project of
modernity has run into the sand.

For Jean Baudrillard (1929 – 2007), the post-modern age is a world where people respond to
media images rather than to real persons or places. Thus when Diana, princes of Wales, died in
1997, there was an enormous outpouring of grief all over the world. But were people mourning a
real person? Princes Diana existed for most people only through the mass media, and her death
was presented like an event in a soap opera rather than an event in real life.

Separating out reality from representation has become impossible when all that exists is
‘hyper reality' – the mixing of the two.

The first view accepts that the social world has moved rapidly in a postmodern direction.
The enormous growth and spread of the mass media, new information technologies, the
more fluid movement of people across the world and the development of multicultural
societies – all of these mean that we no longer live in a modern world, but in a postmodern
world. However, on this view there is no compelling reason to think that sociology cannot
describe, understand and explain the emerging postmodern world.

The second view suggests that the type of sociology which successfully analysed the modern
world of capitalism, industrialization, and nation states is no longer capable of dealing with the
de-centred, pluralistic, media-saturated, globalizing postmodern world.

FREDRIC JAMESON, in his magisterial work, Postmodernism, or, the Cultural Logic of

Late Capitalism (1991), has offered us a particularly influential analysis of our current
postmodern condition. Like Jean Baudrillard, whose concept of the simulacrum he adopts,
Jameson is highly critical of our current historical situation; indeed, he paints a
rather dystopic picture of the present, which he associates, in particular, with a loss of our
connection to history. What we are left with is a fascination with the present. According to
Jameson, postmodernity has transformed the historical past into a series of emptied-out
stylizations (what Jameson terms pastiche) that can then be commoditized and consumed. The
result is the threatened victory of capitalist thinking over all other forms of thought.
 Theories of socialization

Charles Horton Cooley

Among the first to advance this view was Charles Horton Cooley (1864–1929), who said
that by interacting with other people we gain an impression of how they perceive us. In effect,
we “see” ourselves when we interact with other people, as if we are looking in a mirror when we
are with them. Cooley (1902) developed his famous concept of the looking-glass self to
summarize this process. Cooley said we first imagine how we appear to others and then imagine
how they think of us and, more specifically, whether they are evaluating us positively or
negatively. We then use these perceptions to develop judgments and feelings about ourselves,
such as pride or embarrassment.

Sometimes errors occur in this complex process, as we may misperceive how others regard us
and develop misguided judgments of our behavior and feelings. For example, you may have been
in a situation where someone laughed at what you said, and you thought they were mocking you,
when in fact they just thought you were being funny. Although you should have interpreted their
laughter positively, you interpreted it negatively and probably felt stupid or embarrassed.

Whether errors occur or not, the process Cooley described is especially critical during childhood
and adolescence, when our self is still in a state of flux. Imagine how much better children on a
sports team feel after being cheered for making a great play or how children in the school band
feel after a standing ovation at the end of the band’s performance. If they feel better about
themselves, they may do that much better next time. For better or worse, the reverse is also true.
If children do poorly on the sports field or in a school performance and the applause they hoped
for does not occur, they may feel dejected and worse about themselves and from frustration or
anxiety perform worse the next time around.

Yet it is also true that the looking-glass-self process affects us throughout our lives. By the time
we get out of late adolescence and into our early adult years, we have very much developed our
conception of our self, yet this development is never complete. As young, middle-aged, or older
adults, we continue to react to our perceptions of how others are viewing us, and these
perceptions influence our conception of our self, even if this influence is often less than was true
in our younger years. Whether our social interaction is with friends, relatives, coworkers,
supervisors, or even strangers, our self continues to change.

Sigmund Freud

Cooley focused on interaction with others in explaining the development of the self, the
great psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) focused on unconscious, biological forces that
he felt shape individual personality.The personality consists of three parts: the id, the ego, and
the superego. The id is the selfish part of the personality and consists of biological instincts that
all babies have, including the need for food and, more generally, the demand for immediate
gratification. As babies get older, they learn that not all their needs can be immediately satisfied
and thus develop the ego, or the rational part of the personality. As children get older still, they
internalize society’s norms and values and thus begin to develop their superego, which represents
society’s conscience. If a child does not develop normally and the superego does not become
strong enough, the individual is more at risk for being driven by the id to commit antisocial
behavior.

Piaget and Cognitive Development

Children acquire a self and personality, but they also learn how to think and reason. The way
they acquire such cognitive development was the focus of research by Swiss psychologist Jean
Piaget thought that cognitive development occurs through four stages and that proper maturation
of the brain and socialization were necessary for adequate development.

The first stage is the sensorimotor stage, in which infants cannot really think or reason and
instead use their hearing, vision, and other senses to discover the world around them. The second
stage is the preoperational stage, lasting from about age 2 to age 7, in which children begin to
use symbols, especially words, to understand objects and simple ideas. The third stage is
the concrete operational stage, lasting from about age 7 to age 11 or 12, in which children begin
to think in terms of cause and effect but still do not understand underlying principles of fairness,
justice, and related concepts. The fourth and final stage is the formal operational stage, which
begins about the age of 12. Here children begin to think abstractly and use general principles to
resolve various problems.

Recent research supports Piaget’s emphasis on the importance of the early years for children’s
cognitive development. Scientists have found that brain activity develops rapidly in the earliest
years of life, and that stimulation from a child’s social environment enhances this development.
Conversely, a lack of stimulation impairs it, and children whose parents or other caregivers
routinely play with them and talk, sing, and read to them have much better neurological and
cognitive development than other children.