Sociology

Chapter 2

Soc. Feb. 2

Bell Work Grab Book Read pgs.30 to 32 first 10 min.’s

Schedule Notes: Basic Concepts; intro to Scientific Your Turn

Basics of Sociological Investigation

Basically the methods that sociologists use to conduct research

Two Basic requirementsLook @ world sociologically (using soc.

persp.)Be curious and ask Questions

What were some of the ?’s Lois began asking? Who are the black leaders? what effect does being a

racial minority have on their view of themselves?

Sociology is a science

Its one form of truth Logical system that bases knowledge on direct and

systematic observation

Scientific Sociology Study of society based on systematic observation of

social behavior.

Knowledge is based on empirical evidence Which is evidence we can verify with our senses.

Lesson Closing

Reread the six common sense Task #1

Complete the “Your turn” box at the bottom of page 32 in folders

At least three examples; could be anything and how you found out they weren’t true.

May work with a partner, but needs to be in own folder

Read some of book (project book)

Thurs. Bell Work

Grab Book look Answer: in Notes

What are the 3 Ways to study sociology? Scientific Interpretive Critical

What is Scientific Sociology Study of society based on systematic observation of social behavior

Schedule Notes: 3 Ways to do sociology #1 (Scientific)

Lesson Closing Recap and L-J#1

Scientific Sociology Read pgs. 33/34 What is it?

Study of society based on systematic observation of social behavior

Concept: mental construct that represents some part of the world in simplified form Examples: Society, family, economy

Variable: Concept whose value changes from case to case Examples: Prices from item-item in a store; to identify

different “social classes.”

Scientific Sociology

Measurement: procedure for determining the value of a variable in a specific case. Can be very difficult to measure sociologically

Can look at many different aspects of a situation B/c variables can be measured differently sociologists have

to decide which to consider. Looking at social class; what qualifies a person for a certain class?

Wealth, education, living address, occupation? Operationalize a Variable

specifying exactly what is to be measured before assigning a value to a variable.

Popcorn Read example on pg.33

Scientific Sociology

Reliability and ValidityReliability:

Consistency in measurement over repeated trialsValidity:

Actually measuring what you intended to measure

How would simply asking people how often they attended their church not meet the goal of studying how religious people are?

Lesson Closing

Task #2Read and answer Applying Soc. On page 34

Task #3Record your amount correct every time!L-J #1

Read some of book for project!!

Bell Work

Get Folders and book Get papers from the back

Why is it important to operationalize a variable?

To make sure the sociologist know exactly what they are trying to measure

Why are two really important concepts to researchers?

Reliability and Validity

Relationship among Variables

Cause and Effect:Relationship in which change in one variable

causes change in another Independent Variable:

Variable that causes change

Dependent Variable: Variable that changes

Relationship among Variables

CorrelationWhen 2 (or more) variables changes together.

Spurious Correlation. Apparent, but false, correlation between 2 (or more)

variables. Found through the use of control

Popcorn Read and refer to example on pg.s 35-36

Objectivity

Personal neutrality in conducting research Replication

Repetition of research by others in order to assess its accuracy.

Limitations of Scientific Sociology

Human behavior is too complex for sociologists to predict accurately any individuals actions

Presence of a researcher can affect the behavior being studied

Social patterns change Hard for sociologist to be objective and keep

personal values out of their research

Lesson Closing

Task #5Read Article Day America Told the truth on

pg. 26; answer questions Task #6

Read Article Separating the Wheat and the Chaff: on page 27-29: answer ?s

Tues, Sept 15

Bell Work (1st 10 minutes)Finish up Task #5 and #6

Read Interpretive Sociology Part on page 38-39

Interpretive Sociology

What is it?Study of society that focuses on the meaning

people attach to their social worldVerstehen: “understand”

Who Founded it?Max Weber: argued that focus of sociology

should go beyond just observation and into interpretation

Critical Sociology: Read Section

What is it?Study of society that focuses on the need for social

changePoint is to not merely study the world, but to

change it Who founded it?

Karl Marx Rejected idea of society being a “natural” system What did he also find/start?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbTIJ9_bLP4

Gender and Research

5 ways gender affects research Androcentricity: approaching the issue from the male

perspective Over-generalizing: using data drawn from studying only

one sex to support conclusions for general human behavior

Gender Blindness: not considering the variable of gender at all

Double Standards: permitting/applying something to one but not another

Interference: subject reacting to the sex of the researcher.

Lesson Closing

Research EthicsAll studies must follow certain guidelines like

not harming subjects, disclosing $$ sources, and publicizing all Data for everyone

Task #8 Complete Your Turn on page 40

Bell Work Get books and folders Task #8

In folders answer these questions What are the 5 ways gender affects research? Who founded critical sociology What does interpretive sociology look at? What does objectivity mean?

Folder Questions

What are the 5 ways gender affects research? Androcentricity, overgeneralizing, gender blindness,

double standards, interference Who founded critical sociology

Karl Marx What does interpretive sociology look at?

Focus’ on meaning people attach to their behaviors What does objectivity mean?

Having a neutrality in research

Methods of Sociological Research

Research MethodSystematic plan for conducting researchFour common methods

Four typesExperimentSurveyParticipant ObservationUsing available data

Experiment Research method to investigate cause and effect.

Explanatory in nature Hypothesis (ideas that are tested)

Unverified statements of a relationship b.t variables Conducts in labs w/ two typical groups

Experimental and Control Hawthorne Effect

Change in a subjects behavior by awareness of being studied

Read Illustration on page 43. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmwSC5fS40w

Lesson Closing

Word Search ActivityCreate a word-search for 12 terms covered so

far in Chapter 2 Creating word/definition clues for the vocab. Words

not just listing them Will have various other times to work on it! Due Friday Afternoon

Bell Work: Thurs

Bell WorkGet book/folderTask #9

Write a hypothesis for conducting an experiment that deals with population density and personal health.

What would be the indep./depend. variables

Thinking about Diversity

In folders read on pg.42 Answer Questions as Task #10 #1

By wording certain phrases wrong to some cultures that are overly polite, might agree out of politeness; i.e. some Hispanic cultures

#2 Learn in advance the ways of life of any category of people

involved in the research #3: just make some notes on what you think could be

similarities and differences. Just discuss.

Survey

Survey: Research method in which subjects respond to a series of questions in 2 major forms Usually more descriptive than explanatory

Population: People who are the focus of research Sample: part of the population that represents the

whole. Often uses random sampling

Survey

Two main types Questionnaire

Series of written questions a researcher presents to subjects. Can be closed/open ended.

Interview Series of questions done in person by a researcher to

respondents.

Illustration Popcorn Read: Studying African American Elite

Experimental Survey StoryTask #11

Billy decided to conduct an experiment that looked at how people viewed pre-marital co-habitation. Billy believed that both age and religion would have a great affect on the views toward pre-marital co-habitation. Particularly age would show drastic results. He believed that by separating the 90 random people from his community he interviewed into age ranges he could see a drastic difference in their approach to his subject. He decided to separate them 15-30, 31-45, 46-60, and 60-up. Billy decided to conduct his research by passing out a piece of paper that had yes/no questions about their views towards his topic. They would also complete an age/religion/gender section so that Billy could look at various results

Identify: Hypothesis, Ind./Dep. Variable (s), type of method, population, sample and what you believe the results would conclude

Lesson Closing

Anchor ActivitiesTask #12:Thinking Critically in folders #1-3Work on Word SearchRead from Soc. Book

“If it's far away, it's news, but if it's close at home, it's sociology”

Bell Work

Bell Work10 min.’s to work on word searchesRead from Sociology book if doneL-J #3

Review

Studying a certain town in an experiment would be called the? Population

Taking 50 people from different age groups/genders would be the? Sample

Asking them a series of questions personally would be? Interview

Asking them a series of questions in a closed and written form would be? Questionnaire

Both of these are called? Surveys

Participant Observation

Research method in which investigators systematically (w/a purpose) observe people while joining them in their routine activities.

Allows researchers an in-depth look at social life in many settings

Most research done this way is both exploratory and descriptive

Relies heavily on personal judgment and lacks scientific strength

Example Coaching

Part. Observation: Illustration

Read the Illustration (popcorn or silent?) Brought out the value and idea of using a

key informant in field research.

Using Available Data: Existing Sources

Using/analyzing existing sources and data collection by others Not all research requires self-collection Most evidence/statistics for soc. Is gathered by

government agencies. Appealing to many sociologists

Cheap, easy, time-saving, and often better then what their findings could have been

Illustration (read) Exemplifies (shows greatly) the power of a researcher

to analyze the past using historical sources.

Lesson Closing

“Write about society as news and treat it like sociology.”

Anchor ActivitiesRead In the Times, pg.50/51

Answer #1-3 in folderRead from Sociology BookPass out Word search to 3 o’clock partner

Thurs. Feb. 12th

Bell Work (1st 15 min.s) Turn in Word Search

Answer these questions in complete sentences in folders (1st 10 min.s) What are 4 reasons soc.’s often prefer using existing

data? What are 2 or 3 good things that participant

observation does? What is participant observation in terms of its

research? Read Interplay of theory/method pg.51-52

Interplay of theory/method

Sociologists must know how to turn facts into meaning by building theory.

This is done in two ways Inductive Logical Thought

Reasoning that transforms (builds) specific observations into general theory.

Deductive Logical Thought: Reasoning that transforms general ideas into specific hypothesis

for testing. Just as different methods may be used in conduction, so

might types of reasoning

10 Steps of Sociological Investigation (follow along on pg.53)

1. What is your topic1. Be curious, apply learned ideas

2. What have others learned1. Do some research before you

research

3. What are your questions?1. Who, what, where, and why?

4. What will you need to carry out the research?

1. Time, money, resources?

5. Ethical Concerns?1. Any harm or concerns to

subjects?

6. What method will you use?1. Consider all research strategies

7. How will you record the data?1. Be alert for bias, record everything

8. What does the data say?1. Look at it in terms of your initial

questions

9. Conclusions?1. Preparing a final report

10. How to share it1. Share and look for feedback, but

how?

Lesson Closing

Anchor ActivitiesComplete Thinking it through on pg.54-55Work on project proposalRead sociology book

Thurs. Feb. 12th

Bell Work (1st 15 min.s) Turn in Word Search

Answer these questions in complete sentences in folders (1st 10 min.s) What are 4 reasons soc.’s often prefer using existing

data? What are 2 or 3 good things that participant

observation does? What is participant observation in terms of its

research? Read Interplay of theory/method pg.51-52

Interplay of theory/method

Sociologists must know how to turn facts into meaning by building theory.

This is done in two ways Inductive Logical Thought

Reasoning that transforms (builds) specific observations into general theory.

Deductive Logical Thought: Reasoning that transforms general ideas into specific hypothesis

for testing. Just as different methods may be used in conduction, so

might types of reasoning

10 Steps of Sociological Investigation (follow along on pg.53)

1. What is your topic1. Be curious, apply learned ideas

2. What have others learned1. Do some research before you

research

3. What are your questions?1. Who, what, where, and why?

4. What will you need to carry out the research?

1. Time, money, resources?

5. Ethical Concerns?1. Any harm or concerns to

subjects?

6. What method will you use?1. Consider all research strategies

7. How will you record the data?1. Be alert for bias, record everything

8. What does the data say?1. Look at it in terms of your initial

questions

9. Conclusions?1. Preparing a final report

10. How to share it1. Share and look for feedback, but

how?

Lesson Closing

Anchor ActivitiesComplete Thinking it through on pg.54-55Work on project proposalRead sociology book