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5 Crash Course: Sociology & the Scientific Method

Crash Course: Sociology

Episode 3:
Sociology & the Scientific Method
Link to Episode: Here

Use the video linked above to answer the following questions within the field of
Sociology.

1. What is sociology and how does it relate to science?

The scientific study of society and human behavior, uses society as a

laboratory

2. What is the scientific method?

developing and testing theories about the social world based on

empirical evidence.

3. Who is Auguste Comte and what is positivism?

Founder of sociology, positivism argues that phenomena can be

studied through direct observation, and that these observations can
be pulled together into theories or facts that can help us understand
how the world works.

4. What is positivist sociology?

The study of society based on systematic observations of social

behavior

5. What is quantitative research and what types of data does it use?

Is the study of observable relationships in the world, using

mathematical or statistical methods

6. What is the median income and how does it differ from the mean?
1.5 Crash Course: Sociology & the Scientific Method

$53,700 and the mean is the average of everyone

7. What is the "1%" and how does it relate to the gap between the mean and
median income?
It describes the percent of the population with the highest income.
And the fact that the income of the 1% is so much higher than the
incomes of the other 99% - that's why we have a gap between the
mean and median.

8. What is qualitative data and how does it differ from quantitative data?

Quantitative data refers to any information that can be quantified,

counted or measured, and given a numerical value. Qualitative data is
descriptive in nature, expressed in terms of language rather than
numerical values

9. What was Elton Mayo's goal when he went to the Hawthorne Works factory in
Cicero, Illinois?

help the Western Electric Company figure out how to make its workers
more productive.

10. What changes did Mayo make to the working environment of the experimental
group at Hawthorne Works, and what were the results?

After thoroughly examining the results, Elton Mayo and his fellow
researchers determined that workers weren't responding to the
change in lighting conditions, but instead were reacting to the fact
that they were being observed by the experimenters. This
phenomenon became known as the Hawthorne effect.

11. What is the Hawthorne Effect?

the fact that people will modify their behavior simply because they are
1.5 Crash Course: Sociology & the Scientific Method

being observed.

12. What is subjective truth, and why is it important to sociologists?

An idea that is built on your own idea and feelings,

13. What is interpretative sociology, and how is it different from positivist

sociology?

The study of society that focuses on the meanings that people attach
to their social world. Positivist sociology focuses on why a person acts
a certain way while interpretive sociology ass why this behavior

14. What is Critical Sociology?

The study of society that focuses on the need for social change

15. What are the three schools of thought in sociology that the video discusses?

sociology as a science. We discussed positivist sociology and how

sociologists use empirical evidence to explore questions about the
world. And we introduced two alternatives: interpretative sociology
and critical sociology.