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Stark--Chapter 1

Stark--Chapter 1. Groups and Relationships: A Sociological Sampler. Science: Theory and Research. Science: A sophisticated and precise method for describing and explaining why and how things work.

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Stark--Chapter 1

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  1. Stark--Chapter 1 Groups and Relationships: A Sociological Sampler

  2. Science: Theory and Research • Science: A sophisticated and precise method for describing and explaining why and how things work. • Theory: An abstract statement that explains why and how certain things happen, or are as they are. (An explanation) • Research: Making appropriate empirical observations or measurements. • Test knowledge, or gather sufficient information about some portion of reality.

  3. The Discovery of Social Facts • Que’telet, Guerry--Founders of Moral Statistics. • Studied The Compte . Noted the stability of crime, suicide rates • Stable from year-to-year • Varied greatly from place to place • Concluded powerful forces outside the individual cause stability and variation.

  4. Suicide rates in Europe (Morselli) • Morselli extended work of Que’telet, Guerry • Why the variations in suicide, and a general increase?

  5. Suicide rates in Europe • Morselli: It’s due to the shift from a society based on small town, rural life to a modern, industrialized society. • Cities: Huge, impersonal, disorderly • Morselli: some nations had higher rates b/c they were more modernized; Modernization was taking place throughout Europe

  6. Suicide Rates in Europe (Durkheim) • Durkheim called himself a Sociologist; expanded on Morselli’s thesis • Durkheim: Modern societies are deficient in the warm/secure personal relationships typical of traditional rural life. • Result: People lacked social resources to carry them through times of trouble/despair.

  7. Suicide Rates in Europe (Durkheim) • Durkheim: Suicide reflects weaknesses in the web of relationships among members of society. • Suicide, for Durkheim, was not a weakness of character or personality.

  8. The Sociological Imagination • The ability to see the link between incidents in the lives of individuals and large social forces. (C. Wright Mills) • Peter Berger: Sociology is devoted to discovering the general in the specific.

  9. What is Sociology? • Sociology is one of several social sciences (among them anthropology, economics, political science, psychology, history). • Sometimes difficult to distinguish among them--even some psychologists do "social" science. • Sociology is "The scientific study of patterns and processes of human social relations."

  10. Units of Analysis • Units of Analysis--the "things" being observed by researchers. • Units of Analysis can be: individuals, groups, cities, counties, advertisements, countries, cultures. • Sociologists aggregate these units--a collection of a type of unit of analysis (usually larger numbers) in which the search for patterns is made.

  11. Seeing the Patterns

  12. Seeing the Patterns

  13. Macro and Micro Sociology • Two Kinds of Sociology: • Micro Sociology • Small Groups, Individuals • Macro Sociology • Larger Groups, Structures

  14. Scientific Concepts • Concepts: • Names used to identify some set or class of things said to be alike. • Concepts: • Are the building blocks of theories--we link them together to illustrate relationships between concepts • Example: Groups are “Any set of two or more persons who maintain a stable pattern of social relations over a period of time.”

  15. Groups: The Sociological Subject • Groups are not aggregates. • Aggregates come together only briefly and accidentally. • Examples?

  16. Types of Groups • Dyad • 2 Persons • Triad • 3 Persons • Coalition formation

  17. Is Chivalry Dead? • Chivalry: "...a readiness to help the weak and protect women." • Examples of Chivalrous behavior: Men helping women with their chairs or coats, opening doors for them. • How might we study this?

  18. Is Chivalry Dead?

  19. Is Chivalry Dead? • Why would the environment make a difference as to how people behave? • What was different between McDonald's and The Embers? • The emergent quality of groups

  20. Effects of Size of Groups • What happens to groups as they grow? • Groups of size 7 or more have a tendency to break into cliques. • How big should committees be?

  21. Primary and Secondary Groups • Primary Groups • Characterized by great intimacy among members • People in primary groups know each other well; strong emotional ties. • Secondary Groups • Less intimate social networks • Involved in collective goal pursuit • No powerful sense of belonging

  22. Solidarity and Conflict • What binds us together? • What separates us? • Social Solidarity: Density and emotional intensity of attachments within a group. • Solidarity: “Glue”

  23. Analyzing Social Networks • Network: Pattern of ties or connections between some set of units. • Social Network: Pattern of social links or relationships among some set of social units. • Social Relationship: Repeated actions between social units or the persistence of stable, shared features among units.

  24. Social Networks • The pattern of social relations among members of a group • Sociograms

  25. Depiction of a Social Network = Person = Social Link

  26. Studying Self-aware Subjects • The difficulty of studying people. • Reactiveness in research • Unobtrusive Measures: Methods which gather information without disturbing the objects of research.

  27. Validation • Validation Research: Sociologists will use this ensure that they are getting accurate information. • Self-Report data • Checking against other records • Using multiple measures to see if they return the same results.

  28. Reducing and Eliminating Bias • Essence of Scientific Method: Systematic Skepticism • Try to disprove things • Many things we “know” turn out not to be true. That’s where science comes in. • Science is a control for bias, for if we follow the methods correctly there is much less likelihood of our fudging the results, either intentionally or not. • The public nature of science.

  29. The Social Scientific Process • Wonder • Conceptualize • Theorize • Operationalize

  30. The Social Scientific Process, Cont’d • Hypothesize • Observe • Analyze • Assess

  31. Sociology and Free Will • Are we robots whose behavior is preordained? No. • People make choices; people will attempt to do the most reasonable thing • Maximizing rewards, minimizing costs • It's only because people's choices are predictable that it's possible to claim people have free will.

  32. Sociology and Free Will • If behavior is not predictable, it must be random, and thus people wouldn't be making choices • DuBois: Sociology is the Science of Free Will. • Humans make choices; Sociologists study why people make the choices they do

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