SOCIOLOGY AS A DISCIPLINE

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SOCIOLOGY AS A DISCIPLINE
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What is Sociology?

• SOCIOLOGY a science about society and laws that
  stand behind peoples everyday behaviours and
  decisions. Sociology studies patterns of social
  behaviours.

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SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE

• people - behaviour - prediction
• one person - solitary situation two or more
  people - social situation
• modification of our behaviour and thoughts
• prediction of our behaviour in certain situations
  and the behaviour of others to be able to create
  some patterns of behaviour
• imagine your behaviour in the following
  situations praying alone in a church, sitting
  with your family at home, playing football,
  having the job interview

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SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE What is Society?

• LARGER SENSE - a cluster, system of patterned
  interactions among organized group of people, eg.
  Western society industrial capitalism,
  parliamentary democracy, public education,
  monogamous marriage
• SPECIFIED SENSE - an organized group of people
  who have distinctive social patterns, occupy a
  defined terrority and share a sense of common
  identity, eg. French society, Spanish society
  (each can be called Western society)

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SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE Common terms

• SOCIETY people.
• SOCIAL STRUCTURE interaction (mutual relations)
  between people, eg. family.
• CULTURE beliefs, rules, ideas that characterize
  a societys way of life.

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SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE Society

• It exists independently of the individuals who
  belong to it (it is a WHOLE greater than a sum of
  its parts)
• People are born and die but society exists its
  because the STRUCTURE is made by relationship
  among the people, not the people themselves

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SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE TWO MAIN QUESTIONS IN
SOCIOLOGY

• WHY PEOPLE BEHAVE THE WAY THEY DO?
• WHY ARE THEIR SOCIAL SITUATIONS THE WAY THEY ARE?

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SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVEFrom personal to social
problem

• Many personal troubles can be understood and
  solved on a broader, society-wide level. When
  someone loses his job its a personal trouble
  that can be explained by his own lack of skills
  or willingness to work. But when the rate of
  unemployment is 14 for the Polish population it
  becomes a social problem.

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SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVEFundamental questions

• Sociology tries to find answers to the following
  questions What is human nature? How are people
  trained to behave in certain ways in certain
  situations? Why do you feel the way you do about
  college education, health policy, the kind of job
  you desire, the sort of family life you want to
  have? How much chance do you have in achieving
  these goals? What causes poverty, revolutions,
  riots, terrorism? What will the society of the
  future be like?

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SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVESocial man

• Social man is a creature who has learned to
  direct biological drives into socially accepted
  channels and who has made the values and goals of
  a particular time and place part of his
  personality.

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SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVESocial man

• MUCH OF HUMAN BEHAVIOUR IS BEST EXPLAINED NOT IN
  TERMS OF THE INNATE CHARACTERISTICS OF
  INDIVIDUALS, BUT AS AN OUTCOME OF SOCIAL
  ARRANGEMENTS THAT AFFECT PARTICULAR INDIVIDUALS
  BECAUSE OF THEIR POSITIONS IN THE SOCIAL
  STRUCTURE. HUMAN BEHAVIOUR WILL CHANGE WHEN
  SOCIAL CONDITIONS CHANGE AND NOT THE OTHER WAY
  AROUND.

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SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVESummary

• It is paying particular attention to certain
  aspects of social reality while deliberately
  neglecting others.
• Sociological perspective
• Gives us a new view of familiar things
• Helps us understand strange behaviour and
  unfamiliar situations eg. Eastern empires like
  China, Byzanthium, Persia the high ranking
  positions were held by eunuchs. The eunuch system
  was so widespread because such people were
  absolutely loyal toward despots demand. They
  coudnt have descendants and usually had little
  connection to their families.

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HISTORY OF SOCIOLOGY

• Sociology has its roots in ancient times. Greece
  and Rome were places where the social thought has
  begun. But sociology as a science has its
  beginning in 18th century.

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HISTORY OF SOCIOLOGYFounders - Comte

• AUGUST COMTE (18-19th century) he is said to be
  the founder of sociology. He claimed that social
  world should be studied in the same, scientific
  manner as the natural world. The purpose of
  sociology is to predict. The purpose of
  prediction is control. Sociology was to discover
  the laws of social order so that the stability
  could be maintained.
• Subjects of sociology
• Statics stable structures of society which
  endured over time
• Dynamics forces of change and conflict that
  disrupted social order

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HISTORY OF SOCIOLOGYFounders - Durkheim

• EMILE DURKHEIM (19-20th centruy) he asked
  what makes mutually hostile and self-seeking
  individuals work together in a society? In his
  view, society is maintained by its members
  common bonds. Interaction comes from shared
  activities praying, working and shared
  beliefs (collective consciousness). There are two
  kinds of social unity
• Mechanical solidarity based on a moral
  consensus among people who have many social
  similarities (eg. rural village people share
  many traditional customs)
• Organic solidarity based on mutual dependence
  among people of different backgrounds and beliefs
  (eg. residents of a modern city where people have
  few emotional bonds/ties but are held together by
  the division of labor.

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HISTORY OF SOCIOLOGYFounders - Durkheim

• The shift from one type of solidarity to the
  other apsect of the Great Transformation. He
  studied moral values. Religion gave a sense of
  moral obligation that led people to give up their
  own selfish purposes for the sake of community.
  That religious solidarity could break down into
  a state of anomie.

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HISTORY OF SOCIOLOGYFounders - Durkheim

• Durkheim created a sociological concept of
  suicide. Suicide is influenced by social
  conditions. Society is a peculiar phenomenon that
  cant be understood by studying only the personal
  characteristics of its members. The rate of
  suicides depends on the strenght or looseness of
  the social network. He distinguished types of
  suicides but not in terms of motives
  (psychology), but according to the relationship
  of the actor to society
• Egoistic suicide an effect of isolation and
  loneliness when the networks in society are
  loosened
• Anomic suicide an effect of anomie a
  condition of social and moral disorder
• Altruistic suicide when the network in society
  is too tight
• Fatal suicide an individual perspective
  situation is seen by a person himself as the one
  without solution.

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HISTORY OF SOCIOLOGYFounders - Marx

• KARL MARX (18th century) society had been
  historically always divided betwen two groups
  classes the one that controls the means of
  production (land, factories) and the one that
  doesnt. The main social process is not
  collaboration but conflict between the exploiters
  and the exploited. All the history is the history
  of class struggles between masters and slaves,
  peasants and lords, capitalists and workers. He
  predicted that contradictions of capitalism would
  destroy it from within and that a CLASSLESS
  society would be created.

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HISTORY OF SOCIOLOGYFounders - Weber

• MAX WEBER (19-20th century) sociology is a
  science which focuses on interpretive
  understanding (VERSTEHEN) of social behaviour in
  order to gain an explanation of its causes, its
  course and its effects. VERSTEHEN can be achieved
  only by discovering the subjective meanings that
  individuals give to their own behaviour and to
  the behaviour of others. In earlier times the
  motivating forces were tradition and religion.
  Nowadays purposive rational behaviour.

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MAIN SOCIOLOGICAL CONCEPTSFunctional and
structural analysis

• Main interest is how one part of a society
  relates to another part or to the social system
  as a whole.
• SOCIETY is a system of coordinated and
  interdependent parts. Various parts are affected
  by the system.
• Functional analysis focuses on consequences of
  social phenomenon for the society.
• A phenomenon can be
• Functional it contributes to the maintenance of
  a system
• Dysfunctional it dezintegrates the system

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MAIN SOCIOLOGICAL CONCEPTSFunctional and
structural analysis

• Main founders of this theory Parsons, Merton,
  Radcliffe Brown.
• Social actions can have two kinds of meaning
• Manifest function intended consequences of
  social actions
• Latent functions unintended consequences
• Change in one part of the social system (eg.
  economy) produces changes in the family,
  population, social values.

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MAIN SOCIOLOGICAL CONCEPTSConflict theory

• It studies social processes that arise from the
  struggle to attain whatever people consider as a
  desirable wealth, power, high social position,
  prestige. Main assumptions
• All social systems distribute valuable resources
  inequally
• The resulting inequalities create conflicts of
  interest among various strata and classes in the
  system
• Conflicts of interest generate overt (open)
  conflicts between those who control valuable
  resources and those who dont
• In a longer perspective these conflicts result in
  the reorganization of social systems
• The final stage of the conflict victory of
  working class and creation of the classless
  society.

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MAIN SOCIOLOGICAL CONCEPTSConflict theory

• Main founders Lewis Coser, Peter Blau
• LEWIS COSER flexible, complex social structures
  are more likely to absorb conflicts than simple,
  tightly integrated societies. There are many
  different group affiliations, different conflicts
  crisscross and this prevent the formation of deep
  crisi. In more traditional, smaller societies
  group affiliations are less in number religious,
  ethnic and political conflicts dont crisscross
  but run together.

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MAIN SOCIOLOGICAL CONCEPTSSymbolic interactionism

• Social life depends on the mutual communication.
• Social interaction takes place through language
  and other symbolic communications (music, art.).
• In order to communicate people must interpret the
  meaning of these symbolic messages and respond in
  a way that will be understood.
• These SHARED MEANINGS are the basis of social
  life.
• SOCIAL REALITY is fluid, it is a process in which
  social actors are involved in negotiations with
  other people about how to behave.

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MAIN SOCIOLOGICAL CONCEPTSEthnomethodology

• The study how people invent and convey shared
  meanings in their everyday routines.
• The founder HAROLD GARFINKEL.
• He tried to bring unspoken rules of social life
  out into the open by breaking them.
• Insignificant rules are important because they
  represent the consistent social patterns that
  make it possible for people to live and work
  together.

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SOCIAL AND SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE
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DIVISIONS OF SOCIOLOGY

• MACROSTRUCTURES - country, nation, global
  society
• MEZZOSTRUCTURES - institutions, organizations
• MICROSTRUCTURES - human being, family

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SUBDISCIPLINES IN SOCIOLOGY

• sociology of medicine
• sociology of culture
• sociology of professions
• sociology of education
• sociology of organization
• sociology of communication
• sociology of human resources, etc.

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2 APPROACHES TO SOCIAL REALITY

• QUALITATIVE
• humanistic,
• non-statistical methods,
• more complex data,
• non standarized data,
• descriptive presentations,
• deeper,
• expensive,
• example in-depth interview

• QUANTITATIVE
• scientific,
• statistical methods,
• simple data,
• standarized data,
• statistical presentation,
• faster,
• cheeper,
• example survey

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SCIENTIFIC PROCEDURE

• BASIC RESEARCH PROCEDURES
• Selecting a topic
• Reviewing the literature
• Forming a hypothesis
• Choosing a research method
• Collecting the data
• Interpreting the data
• Publishing the findings.

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SCIENTIFIC PROCEDUREStep 1. Defining the question

• CAUSAL RELATIONSHIP an association between
  things, persons, behaviours, where one thing A,
  leads to another B
• A (cause)
  B (effect)
• VARIABLE (a measurable characteristic or property
  that changes, eg. age it changes from one
  person to another).In the simplest type of causal
  relationship we have two variables
• INDEPENDENT VARIABLE (poverty)
• DEPENDENT VARIABLE (crime)

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SCIENTIFIC PROCEDUREStep 1. Defining the question

• CORRELATION a tendency between phenomena to go
  together.
• Correlation can be
• Positive when all the variables rise and fall
  together
• Negative one variable rise and the other falls
  at the same time.

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SCIENTIFIC PROCEDUREStep 2. Hypothesis

• HYPOTHESIS a supposition about a relationship
  between variables.
• Example hypothesis about poverty and crime poor
  people lack many of things they need, thats why
  they are more likely to commit crimes, than
  people from higher classes.

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SCIENTIFIC PROCEDUREStep 3. The investigated
population

• Its a group of people we want to examine, for
  example poor people. Usually we are not able to
  examine all the people from the interesting
  category and we draw a SAMPLE a portion of a
  particular population. Two types of a sample
• Simple random sample
• Stratified sample

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SCIENTIFIC PROCEDUREStep 4. Choosing the
research method

• Quantitative and qualitative.
• Based on observation and based on communication
  (direct or non-direct).
• Standarized and non-standarized.
• Examples SURVEY, INTERVIEW, CASE HISTORY, FIELD
  STUDY, EXPERIMENT, CONTENT ANALYSIS

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SCIENTIFIC PROCEDUREStep 4. Research methods -
survey

• It is a poll of a sample of people whose
  responses are likely to be representative of the
  opinions of the whole population under study. It
  is a kind of non-direct method. People are asked
  questions through self-admistered questionaires.
  Application of survey today polititians,
  television, advertising, public officials.

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SCIENTIFIC PROCEDUREStep 4. Research methods -
interview

• AN INTERVIEW a conversation between an
  investigator and a person being interviewed. We
  have a set of questions, but it is a more
  flexible method. Skills of the interviewer decide
  about the success or failure of the interview. A
  face-to-face relation makes people answer in the
  way to satisfy the interviewer and thay dont
  reveal their real opinions.Usually interview is
  recorded.

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SCIENTIFIC PROCEDUREStep 4. Research methods -
case history

• A CASE HISTORY (BIOGRAPHY) a close study of the
  behaviours, feelings and thoughts of individuals.
  There is a risk of obtaining untruthful data as
  we rely on somebodys memoires. Usually recorded
  by an interviewer (on a tape recorder) or by the
  person interviewed (in the form of a diary).

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SCIENTIFIC PROCEDUREStep 4. Research methods -
field study

• It is a method based on observation of the
  behaviours of people in their natural setting. We
  can make participant or non-participant
  observation. In a PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION an
  investigator is a member of a group he examines.
  He can make an observation in secret (nobody
  knows what is his role) or in the open (everybody
  knows his role and purpose).

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SCIENTIFIC PROCEDUREStep 4. Research methods -
experiment

• It is a test of cause and effect under controlled
  conditions. Its not very popular in sociology,
  because it has many limitations. The method
  itself consists of several steps
• Choosing two comparable groups experimental
  group and control group
• Measurement of the level of the examined variable
  in both groups before exposition
• Exposition of the experimental group to a
  stimulus
• Second measurement of the level of the examined
  variable in both groups to estimate whether the
  stimulus caused any effect.

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SCIENTIFIC PROCEDUREStep 4. Research methods -
content analysis

• It uses documents not individuals to make a
  research. It studies records, archeological
  evidence, etc. It enables to get an insight into
  cultural values of a particular society.

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SCIENTIFIC PROCEDUREStep 5. Assessment

• To avoid unreliable information and false
  conclusions researchers combine research methods.
  This procedure is called TRIANGULATION.

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SCIENTIFIC PROCEDUREStep 6. Summary

• We interpret collected data and draw some
  conclusions that should be published broadly.