Sociology

Contents
Unit 1 - Theory and Methods
Unit 2 - Culture, Identity and Socialisation
Unit 3 - Social Inequality
Unit 4 - The Family
Unit 5 - Education
Unit 6 - Crime
Unit 7 - Media

Unit 1 - Theory and Methods

How do sociologists interpret society?

Approaches

Macro approaches
focus on large scale social structures rather than individuals.

Micro approaches
focus on small-scale social interactions (rather than macro scale).

Sociology 1
 Structuralism

Focus on macro

Societies are seen as set of structures in which individuals play definite

roles

Individuals have little freedom of thought or action

Individuals are puppets, their lives are controlled by the society

Interpretivism

focus on micro

Individuals are in control, pulling the strings of society

Individuals make the societies they live in and change them through
actions

Interpretivists are interested in how people make sense of society and

social actions

Believe our identities are not imposed by society, but from interaction
between our thoughts and actions of others.

Alternative sociological perspectives

Consensus and Conflict

Consensus : Basic agreement on a set of shared values

Conflict : Disagreement between groups with different interests

Functionalism

Based on a consensus view

Sociology 2
 Emphasize social functions

How parts of society maintain stability and harmony

Each part of society is seen as having functions that all help the society as
a whole to survive and be stable

‘What function does this aspect of society carry out that keeps this society
stable and allows it to continue?’

Marxism

Named after Karl Marx

Emphasizes conflict

Modern industrial societies are based on a crucial conflict between different

social classes

Permanent and continuous conflict of interest between social classes

How parts of society allow the bourgeoisie to keep their wealth and power

Agree with functionalists that parts of society have functions, argue about
their interpretation

Two main classes:

Bourgeoisie

owners of wealth and property

have power and wealth

oppresses proletariats (who are ‘wage slaves’)

Proletariat

working class

never paid full value of their work

Sociology 3
 Feminism

See a fundamental division between two groups in society, like Marxists

Division is between two sexes rather than two classes

Men control society and have wealth and power in all aspects of society
(e.g. education, work, families

Societies are patriarchal

How sociologists study society?

Positivism

Focuses on quantitative data (usually in the form of statistics)

Based on the belief that sociology should use the same research methods
as natural sciences

Scientific methods

Favour experiments

Tend to use social surveys and questionnaires

Interpretivism

Sociologists need to understand actions in the way particpants do

Sociologists need to understand how people make sense of social reality

around them

Positivists methods are not appropriate

Prefer to use unstructured interviews and participant observation, more

helpful in understand nature of behaviour

Research Strategies

Research aims and selection of topics

Sociology 4
 Research starts with identification of a problem

Research projects are always related to or arise directly from earlier

research

Factors sociologists may be influenced by when deciding what to

research

Personal interests, observations and experiences

Social changes and developments

Availability of funding

Ethical issues raised

Hypothesis setting and revision

Hypothesis : Theory or explanation at the start of research that the

research is designed to test.

When problem is identified, next step is to review available evidence (what

is already known, who else has identified the same issue and how have
they gone investigating it)

Research will attempt to find evidence to support or disprove

Implementing positivist approach in research investigations will most likely

have a hypothesis

Interpretivist approach may have a looser and broader aim - such as

finding out the views of a group of people about a subject

Research methods

Pilot studies

Sociology 5
 Pilot study : small - scale test of a piece of a research project before
main research.

Small number of respondents

To see if there are problems in the design, or if research plan can be

improved

Sampling

Sampling : smaller proportion from target population that a researcher

is aiming to study.

Commonly used sampling frames:

Electoral roll : list of everyone registered to vote in elections, with

their address

Telephone directories : Easily available in countries, usually list only

one person in the household

School registers : lists of children, with other info such as their

gender

Ethical issues

Ethical issues : issues that have a moral dimension, such as when harm or
distress may be caused to participants

Main ethical guidelines

Harm - harm does not have to be physical, might include making

participants feel angry or upset. Participants can be protected by
confidentiality.

Informed consent - the respondent must agree to take part, fully

understood what is involved.

Sociology 6
 Difficulties in implementing a research strategy

Identifying a topic for research : May be difficult to find respondents and get
funding.

Reviewing existing evidence : May be difficult to find existing evidence

Developing a hypothesis or aim : Difficukt choices must be made about

overall approach

Choosing a method : Method chosen may not fulfill aim of project, and may
not approve or disprove hypothesis

Implementing the research method : can be cl

Main methods, strengths and limitations

questionnaires/social surveys :

Unit 3 - Social Inequality

Forms of social stratification

Social stratification : a hierarchy in which groups have different statuses and

different levels of privilege

Sociology 7