Chapter Summary
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Chapter 1: Sociology: Perspective, Theory and Method Chapter Summary |
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Chapter 1
1. The sociological perspective shows that the general operation of society affects the experiences of particular people. In this way, sociology helps us better understand barriers and opportunities in our lives.
2. Early social thinkers focused on what society ought to be. Sociology, named by Auguste Comte in 1838, uses scientific methods to understand society as it is.
3. The development of sociology was triggered by the rapid transformation of Europe during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The rise of an industrial economy, the explosive growth of cities, and the emergence of new political ideas combined to weaken tradition and make people more aware of their social world.
4. Theory is the process of linking facts to create meaning. Sociologists use theoretical paradigms to guide theory building.
5. The structural-functional paradigm is a framework for exploring how social structures work together to promote the overall operation of society.
6. The social-conflict paradigm highlights dimensions of social inequality that generate conflict and promote change.
7. In contrast to these macro-level approaches, the symbolic-interaction paradigm is a micro-level framework for studying how people, in everyday interaction, construct reality.
8. Sociological research uses the logic of science, based on empirical evidence we confirm with our senses.
9. Measurement is the process of giving a value to a variable in a specific case. Sound measurement is both reliable and valid.
10. Science seeks to specify the relationships among variables. Ideally, researchers try to identify how one (independent) variable causes change in another (dependent) variable.
11. Although researchers select topics according to their personal interests, the scientific ideal of objectivity demands that they try to suspend personal values and biases as they conduct research.
12. Interpretive sociology is a methodological approach that focuses on the meaning that people attach to behavior. Reality is not “out there” (as scientific sociology claims) but is constructed by people in their everyday interaction.
13. Critical sociology is a methodological approach that uses research to bring about social change. It rejects the scientific principle of objectivity, claiming that all research has a political character.
14. Because their work can harm subjects, professional sociologists must observe ethical guidelines when conducting research.
15. The logic of science is most clearly expressed in the experiment, which investigates cause-and-effect relationships between two (or more) variables under controlled, laboratory conditions.
16. A survey uses either a questionnaire or an interview to gather subjects’ responses to a series of questions.
17. Participant observation involves joining with people in a social setting for an extended period of time.
18. Often sociologists use existing sources rather than collect their own data; doing so is attractive to researchers with limited research budgets.
19. Sociologists make generalizations about categories of people. Unlike stereotypes, these sociological statements (1) are not applied indiscriminately to all individuals, (2) are supported by research-based facts, and (3) are put forward in the fair-minded pursuit of truth.
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