Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Sociology: Perspective, Theory, and Method
Sociology: Perspective, Theory, and Method
and Method
Sociological Perspective
• Sociology – the systematic study of
human society.
• Political Change
-Pursuit of self-interest
Auguste Comte
• Coined the term “Sociology” in 1838
• Favored Positivism
- A way of understanding based on
science
• Society operates according to certain laws
• Discovered social principles and also
applied them to social reform
Emile Durkheim
• Emphasis on showing how social forces
impact people’s behavior
• Emphasis on thorough research
• Suicide (1897)
– Social factors underlie suicide – not simply
personal reasons
– Social integration – the degree to which
people are tied to their social group
Emile Durkheim
• Social research must be practical
-Discover causes for social ills and recommend
remedies
• Anomie
-Breaking down of the controlling
influences of society
-People become detached from society
and are left with too little moral guidance
Karl Marx
• Class conflict is the engine of human history
• Society is divided into classes who clash in
pursuit of their own class interests
• Group identifications and associations influence
an individual’s place in society
• Concept of “praxis”
-People should take active steps to change
society
-Theory and action
Max Weber
• “Verstehen” (understanding) should be used in
intellectual work
• To fully comprehend behavior, we must learn the
subjective meanings people attach to their
actions – how they themselves view and explain
their behavior
• Samples
- Representative – a selection from the
larger population that is statistically typical
- Random – everyone in the population
has the same chance of being selected
Step 4 – Selecting Research Design
• Existing sources
• Observation – watching individual behavior
• Experiment – specific design to produce
expected results
- Experiment group – exposed to the
independent variable
- Control group – not exposed to the
independent variable
Step 5 – Developing the
Conclusion
• May or may not support hypothesis
• Serves as basis for further research