Starks Chapter 4

1
Starks Chapter 4

• Macro Sociology Studying larger Groups and
  Societies

2
Describing Populations

• Formal Techniques
• Survey Research-data collected from samples
• Census Data- data collected from the total
  population
• Simple fact-assumption about a concrete specific
  state of affairs
• Proportional fact distribution of cases , relies
  on survey research or census data

3
Census Vs. Samples

• Census collection of all cases
• Census research is very costly
• Sample set of cases/ units randomly selected
• Random selection all cases have an equal
  opportunity of being selected in the sample
• SLOPS (Self selected listener opinion polls)
  inaccurate as not random
• Ex Literary Digest poll showed FDR would lose by
  40 VS Gallup Poll asks 1,000 randomly selected

4
Random selection

• Automatic dialing machines randomly select from
  all possible s within an area code. The area
  code is selected at random from the list of all
  area codes
• Sampling works because laws of probability can be
  applied to randomly selected samples

5
Sample

• Samples are never exactly equal to the population
• The larger the sample the more accurate
• The absolute number is important not the ratio of
  the sample to the population
• Researchers prefer 1,000 to 1,500 cases in good
  survey research. The larger the sample size the
  smaller the misrepresentation of the true sample.

6
Survey Research

• Data collected is based on a sample of the
  population
• Data are collected by personal interviews/question
  naire
• More difficult to establish time order for
  questionnaire data than form data from
  experiments.

7
Spuriousness

• A false correlation between a proposed cause and
  its effect.
• For instance the cause and its effect may be the
  result of some third factor.
• Pg.. 81 Diagram of a spurious correlation between
  hand size and shoplifting

8
Hirschi and Stark Hellfire and Delinquency

• Table 4-1 pg.. 103 Church Attendance and
  delinquency
• Control for sex reveal a spurious relationship
• Table 4-4 pg.. 105 Studies of Religion and
  Delinquency Results, location, church membership
• Religion sustains conformity to the moral order
  only as religion is a vital aspect of group
  solidarity.

9
Network Analysis Group Properties

• Network analysis involves constructing measures
  of network variables and using networks as units
  of analysis. The test hypothesize about the
  properties of social relationships

10
Zablocki Networks of Love and Jealousy

• U of C at Berkley 1980 study-data from 120
  communes, in-depth study of 60 through
  questionnaires and observation
• Figure 4-1 Pg. 108 Networks of Loving
  relationships in four communes
• Figure 4-2 Love intensity and stability of
  communes-
• Communes founded on religious ideology are more
  successful than those founded on political or
  secular ideology

11
Sociology of Societies

• Macro Sociologist Talcott Parsons
  1951Functionalist approach
• Society is a system
• A system a set of components/parts,
  interdependent, maintaining equilibrium
• systems can be openopen to external forces or
  closedno eternal input
• societies are never static

12
Society as a System of Institutions

• Politics
• Economy
• Religion
• Education
• Family
• Social roles, groups and activities are clustered
  within these social institutions

13
Functionalism

• Society is an open system
• Structures and culture exist and develop on the
  basis of their consequences for other parts of
  they system-they work
• Sociologists developed functionalism from
  Biology, Arthur Stinchcombe, 1968 Functionalist
  theory as 1)there is a part of the system to be
  explained
• 2) it preserves some other part of the system
  from disruption or overload
• 3) the theory must identify the source of this
  potential disruption or overload

14
Functional view of the family

• Nuclear family one adult couple and their
  children, functional for modern/industrial
• Extended family, several adult couples and their
  children, functional in societies where the
  family serves to support dependents

15
Functionalism Terms

• Functional alternativeone part may fulfill other
  functions
• Dysfunctionsarrangement that harm or distort the
  social system-racial and ethnic conflict
• Involution Daniel Chirot, 1994, evolutionary
  change may be a retrograde or degenerative
  change. Not all evolution is positively
  progressive.

16
Social Evolution

• Social evolutionists Chirot 1994, Lenski, 1976
• Over the centuries societies tend to become
  larger, and more effective, especially
  technically, able to modify the environment, more
  efficient at food production, more urban
• Competition for survival, bias in favor of
  aggressive cultures with superior numbers and
  firepower

17
Conflict Theory who benefits?

• Karl Marx (1818-1883) Culture and social
  structure created by the ruling class to serve
  its own interest
• Class conflict is the primary cause of evolution
• Max Weber (1864-1920) other causes of group
  conflict status groups based on race,
  ethnicity, religion, occupation gender, sexual
  preferencea subculture having a specific rank
  within the stratification system

18
Conflict theory and social change

• Conflicts among classes and or status groups
  supply the energy and the motivation for
  constructing and maintaining patterns of culture
  and particular social structures
• Marx Religion is the sigh of the oppressed
  creature, the feeling of a heartless world, and
  the soul of soulless circumstances. It is the
  opiate of the people.

19
Comparative Research violence and Modernity

• Comparative research, identifies comparisons of
  large social units, ..nations or societies
• Anthropologists pioneered field research and have
  two centuries of ethnographic field studies
• George Murdock, Yale, by 1971 data on 1,264
  cultures had been published 1969 Murdock and
  Douglas White published Standard Cross-Cultural
  Sample
• 1981- 563 societies to make up the Atlas of World
  Cultures

20
Napoleon Changon Life Along the Amazon

• Lived conducting field studies among the Yanomamo
  for 30 years, living thirteen long visits
• nearly 70 of adultskilling by a tribesman
• 30 of all male deaths were due to violence
• Nearly 50 of the males 25 have participated in
  a killing

21
Are Primitive societies all peaceful?

• Two basic types of primitive societies
• Factional Societies ( solidarity is based on
  subgroups) such as the Yanomamo, conflict and
  competition are high and frequent violence
• In communal societies (solidarity is based on the
  whole community), such as the Navaho of the
  Southwest, factional disputes and conflicts are
  regarded as improper, and violence is minimized

22
Jeffery Paige, 1974 conflict and Social
Structures

• Theorized that 1) factions in primitive societies
  will form along divisions based on kinship
  2)factions in primitive societies will from along
  divisions based on residence 3) violence in
  primitive societies primarily occurs between male
  factions and 4) primitive societies will tend to
  lack factions and have little violence when
  kinsmen do not share common residence

23
Paige cont.

• Patrilocal rule of residence- the bride leaves
  home and they reside close to the husbands
  family-maximizes interaction with male kin
• Matrilocal rule of residence- the new family
  resides with or near the brides family, male kin
  are scattered and lack day-to-day interaction
• Matrilocal societies tent to be communal and have
  low internal violence, Patrilocal societies will
  be factional with high levels of internal
  violence.
• His theory proved accurate most simple societies
  are Patrilocal and are overwhelmingly factional
  and violent