Sociology
Sixteenth Edition, Global Edition
Chapter 2
Sociology:
Perspective, Theory,
and Method
Copyright © 2018 Pearson Education, Ltd. All Rights Reserved
Sociological Investigation: The Power of
Society
• Seeing the world sociologically and asking
questions are basic to sociological investigation.
As we look for answers, we need to realize that
there are various kinds of truth.
Copyright © 2018 Pearson Education, Ltd. All Rights Reserved
Basics of Sociological Investigation
• Sociological investigation starts with two simple
requirements:
– Apply the sociological perspective.
– The sociological perspective is like putting on a pair of glasses that lets you
see the hidden patterns in society; it helps you understand how people's
behaviors are shaped by the groups they belong to and the society they
live in. It's like looking at a forest and seeing not just the individual trees,
but also the whole ecosystem that connects them.
– Be curious and ask questions.
Copyright © 2018 Pearson Education, Ltd. All Rights Reserved
Basics of Sociological Investigation
•
• Questions and answers lead us to different kinds of
truths.
• Let's take a look at some of these.
Copyright © 2018 Pearson Education, Ltd. All Rights Reserved
Sociological Imagination
• People's “truths” differ the world over, and we often
encounter “facts” at odds with our own.
Do we simply “pick” our marriage partners? In 77 percent of all married
couples in the United States, both partners are within five years of the
age of each other; in 78 percent, both partners have achieved the same
level of schooling; and in 93 percent of married couples, both partners
are of the same racial or ethnic category.
Although we tend to think of love and marriage as very personal matters,
it is clear that society guides the process of selecting a spouse.
Copyright © 2018 Pearson Education, Ltd. All Rights Reserved
Sociological Imagination: Common
Sense vs. Scientific Evidence
• True or false?
– Does society affect decisions about suicide?
– “Poor people are far more likely than rich people to break
the law.”
– “ “Most poor people don't want to work.”
– “Gender differences in the behavior are just 'human
nature.' ”
– “People change as they grow old, losing interests as they
focus on their health.”
– “Most people marry because they are in love.”
Copyright © 2018 Pearson Education, Ltd. All Rights Reserved
Sociological Imagination: Common
Sense vs. Scientific Evidence
• Society affects decisions about suicide.
True: Sociological research indicates that societal factors such as social
isolation, cultural norms, economic conditions, and access to mental
health resources can significantly influence the rate and occurrence of
suicide.
• "Poor people are far more likely than rich people to break the law."
False: This is a stereotype and oversimplification. While poverty can be
associated with higher rates of certain types of crime, largely due to
systemic inequalities and lack of resources, it is not true that poor people
are inherently more likely to break the law than rich people.
• "Most poor people don't want to work."
False: This is a stereotype and not supported by evidence. Most poor
people are often willing to work, but they may face barriers such as lack
of job opportunities, inadequate pay, or inability to work due to health or
family responsibilities.
Copyright © 2018 Pearson Education, Ltd. All Rights Reserved
Sociological Imagination: Common
Sense vs. Scientific Evidence
• Gender differences in behavior are just 'human nature.'"
False: While there are biological factors that influence behavior, many
gender differences are shaped by societal expectations, cultural norms,
and socialization processes, not just by "human nature."
• "People change as they grow old, losing interests as they focus on
their health."
True and False: This is a generalization and may be true for some
individuals but not others. While aging may lead some people to focus
more on their health, many older adults maintain a wide range of
interests and activities.
• "Most people marry because they are in love."
True and False: This statement can be true in many cultures where love
is seen as the primary reason for marriage. However, it's also true that
people marry for a variety of other reasons, such as social expectations,
economic stability, and family arrangements, among others.
Copyright © 2018 Pearson Education, Ltd. All Rights Reserved
Criteria for Sociological Investigation
• Objectivity
• Meaningful
communication
• Balance between
objectivity and
personal feelings
Copyright © 2018 Pearson Education, Ltd. All Rights Reserved
Three Frameworks for Sociological
Investigation
• Positivist sociology
– The study of society based on systematic observation of social behavior
– Positivist sociology is like using the tools and methods of science to study
society, aiming to find concrete facts and patterns about how people
behave and organize themselves, just like a biologist would study animals
or plants.
• Interpretive sociology
– The study of society that focuses on the meanings people attach to their
social world
– Interpretive sociology is like trying to understand a story by looking at the
world through someone else's eyes, focusing on the meanings people give
to their own actions and to the social world around them.
Copyright © 2018 Pearson Education, Ltd. All Rights Reserved
Three Frameworks for Sociological
Investigation
• Critical sociology
– The study of society that focuses on the need for change
– Critical sociology is a branch of sociology that examines society and its
institutions with a focus on power relations, inequalities, and social change.
It doesn't just study how society works, but it also critiques and questions
why things are the way they are, who holds power, and how that power
affects individuals and groups. It aims to uncover the underlying issues,
such as economic disparities, racial discrimination, gender inequality, and
other forms of social injustice, and seeks to understand how these issues
are perpetuated by societal norms, structures, and policies. The ultimate
goal is not just to understand society, but to use this understanding to
advocate for social change and address these injustices.
Copyright © 2018 Pearson Education, Ltd. All Rights Reserved
Seeing Sociology in Everyday Life
Three Useful (and Simple) Descriptive Statistics
• Sociologists use three different descriptive
statistics to report averages.
– Mode: Value that occurs most often in a series of
numbers
– Mean: Arithmetic average of a series of numbers
– Median: Value that occurs midway in a series of
numbers arranged from lowest to highest
Copyright © 2018 Pearson Education, Ltd. All Rights Reserved
Seeing Sociology in Everyday Life
Three Useful (and Simple) Descriptive Statistics
Copyright © 2018 Pearson Education, Ltd. All Rights Reserved
Descriptive Statistics: What Is…?
• Concept
– Mental construct that represents some aspect of the
world in a simplified form
• Variable
– Concept whose value changes from case to case
• Measurement
– Procedure determining the value of a variable in a
specific case
Copyright © 2018 Pearson Education, Ltd. All Rights Reserved
Positivist Sociology: Operationalizing a
Variable
• For a measurement to be useful, it must be reliable
and valid.
– Reliability: Consistency in measurement
– Validity: Actually measuring exactly what you intend to measure
Copyright © 2018 Pearson Education, Ltd. All Rights Reserved
Relationships among Variables:
Causation
• Cause and effect
– A relationship in which change in one variable causes
change in another
• Types of variables
– Independent: variable that causes the change
– Dependent: variable that changes (value depends
upon the independent variable)
Copyright © 2018 Pearson Education, Ltd. All Rights Reserved
Correlation Does Not Mean Causation (1 of 3)
• Conditions for cause and effect to be considered
– Existence of a correlation
– The independent (causal) variable precedes the
dependent variable in time.
– Third variable is not necessarily responsible for a
correlation between two original variables
• Let's take a closer look at these.
Copyright © 2018 Pearson Education, Ltd. All Rights Reserved
Correlation Does Not Mean Causation (1 of 3)
• For instance, if ice cream sales and the number of
drownings both increase during the summer
months, they are correlated, but eating ice cream
doesn't cause drownings. There might be a third
factor (like the hot weather) that is causing both to
rise. Therefore, before asserting that one thing
causes another, it's essential to conduct thorough
research to rule out other possible explanations
and establish a causal relationship.
Copyright © 2018 Pearson Education, Ltd. All Rights Reserved
Correlation Does Not Mean Causation (1 of 2)
Copyright © 2018 Pearson Education, Ltd. All Rights Reserved
Correlation Does Not Mean Causation (2 of 2)
Copyright © 2018 Pearson Education, Ltd. All Rights Reserved
The Ideals of Objectivity
• Objectivity
– Personal neutrality in conducting research
• Value-free research
– Sociologists as dispassionate and detached (Weber)
• Replication
– Repetition of research by other investigators
– Limit distortion caused by personal values
Copyright © 2018 Pearson Education, Ltd. All Rights Reserved
Limitations of Scientific Sociology
• Human behavior is too complex to predict
precisely any individual's actions.
• The mere presence of the researcher might affect
the behavior being studied.
• Social patterns change.
• Sociologists are part of the world they study,
making value-free research difficult.
Copyright © 2018 Pearson Education, Ltd. All Rights Reserved
Interpretive Sociology: The Importance of
Meaning
• Interpretive Sociology
– Proper focus of sociology is interpretation-
understanding meaning that people create in their
everyday lives
– Key lay in Verstehen (Weber)
– Verstehen involves putting oneself in the shoes of the people
being studied and trying to see the world from their perspective.
This empathic understanding allows researchers to grasp the
cultural context, values, beliefs, and norms that shape people’s
actions and interactions. By employing Verstehen, sociologists can
develop a deeper and more nuanced understanding of social
phenomena, which can then be used to inform the construction of
ideal types.
Copyright © 2018 Pearson Education, Ltd. All Rights Reserved
Positivist versus Interpretive Sociology
• Positivist
– Focuses on actions
– Claims objective reality exists
– Favors quantitative data
– Best suited for laboratory-based research
• Interpretive
– Focuses on understanding of actions
– Counters that reality is subjective
– Favors qualitative data
– Often uses personal interviews and field research
Copyright © 2018 Pearson Education, Ltd. All Rights Reserved
Critical Sociology: The Importance of
Change
• Critical Sociology
– Developed in reaction to perceived limitations of
positivist sociology
– Rejects the idea that society exists in natural system
with fixed order
– Posits the point of sociology is not just to research but
also to change it (Marx)
Copyright © 2018 Pearson Education, Ltd. All Rights Reserved
Summing Up
Three Research Orientations in Sociology
Positivist Sociology Interpretive Sociology Critical Sociology
What is reality? Society is an orderly Society is ongoing Society is patterns of
system. There is an interaction. People inequality. Reality is that
objective reality “out construct reality as they some categories of
there.” attach meanings to their people dominate others.
behavior.
How do we conduct Using a scientific Seeking to look “deeper” Seeking to go beyond
research? orientation, the than outward behavior, positivism’s focus on
researcher carefully the researcher focuses on studying the world as it
observes behavior, subjective meaning. The is, the researcher is
gathering empirical, researcher gathers guided by politics and
ideally quantitative, data. qualitative data, uses research as a
Researcher tries to be a discovering the subjective strategy to bring about
neutral observer. sense people make of desired social change.
their world. Researcher is Researcher is an
a participant. activist.
Corresponding Structural-functional Social-conflict approach
theoretical approach approach
Copyright © 2018 Pearson Education, Ltd. All Rights Reserved
Gender and Research
• Gender shapes research in
several ways (Eichler)
– Androcentricity
– Gynocentricity
– Overgeneralizing
– Gender blindness
– Double standards
– Interference
Copyright © 2018 Pearson Education, Ltd. All Rights Reserved
Gender and Research
• Androcentricity: This term refers to a male-centered approach or perspective. In sociology,
androcentricity occurs when male experiences are treated as a universal model representing
all human experience, thereby marginalizing female perspectives and contributions.
• Gynocentricity: The counterpart to androcentricity, gynocentricity is a female-centered
perspective. It emphasizes women’s experiences or points of view to the potential exclusion of
men’s.
• Overgeneralizing: Overgeneralizing means making broad generalizations or assumptions
based on limited observations. In the context of gender, this might mean applying stereotypes
or simplistic characteristics to all men or all women without acknowledging individual
differences and complexities.
• Gender blindness: This term refers to the failure to consider the differences in opportunities
and experiences that are shaped by gender. Gender blindness can lead to the overlooking of
the unique challenges faced by different genders, which may perpetuate inequalities.
• Double standards: Double standards occur when two things are judged by different criteria. In
gender contexts, this often refers to different expectations or rules for behavior that are applied
to men and women. For example, assertive behavior might be positively labeled as
"leadership" for men but negatively as "bossiness" for women.
• Interference: This term generally refers to something that obstructs or hinders processes and
activities. In the context of gender discussions, it might be used to describe actions or policies
that disrupt the pursuit of gender equity or the understanding of gender dynamics.
Copyright © 2018 Pearson Education, Ltd. All Rights Reserved
Do You Know?
• If you ask only male
subjects about their
attitudes or actions, you
may be able to support
conclusions about “men”
but not more generally
about “people.”
• What would a research
have to do to ensure that
research data support
conclusions about all of
society?
Copyright © 2018 Pearson Education, Ltd. All Rights Reserved
Ethical Guidelines for Research
• The American Sociological Association guidelines
for conducting research:
– Technical competence and fair-mindedness
– Full inclusion and disclosure
– Protection of subjects
– Informed consent
– Funding source disclosure
– Cultural sensitivity
Copyright © 2018 Pearson Education, Ltd. All Rights Reserved
Sociological Research Methods: What
Is…?
• Experiment
– Research method for investigating cause and effect
under highly controlled conditions
• Hypothesis
– Unverified statement of a relationship between
variables; educated guess
Copyright © 2018 Pearson Education, Ltd. All Rights Reserved
Experiments: What Is…?
• Hawthorne effect
– Change in subject's behavior caused by the awareness
of being studied
– Classic Western Electric Company study (1930s)
– https://youtu.be/Y4mOOvDAsts?si=SjIogry-oQUnkOqf
Copyright © 2018 Pearson Education, Ltd. All Rights Reserved
“Stanford County Prison” Experiment
• Zimbardo's research helps
explain why violence is a
common element in our
society's prisons.
• His work demonstrates the
dangers and required ethics
in sociological investigation.
• https://youtu.be/IRR
7CwdHxUE?si=bi2u
V20fW4m1cdgj
Copyright © 2018 Pearson Education, Ltd. All Rights Reserved
Sociological Research Methods:
Experimental Control
• To make certain the change in the dependent
variable was due to the exposure to the
independent variable, the researcher must
– Keep constant other factors that might intrude
– Make experimental and control groups
Experimental: Exposed to independent variable
Control: Exposed to a placebo
Copyright © 2018 Pearson Education, Ltd. All Rights Reserved
Sociological Research Methods: Survey
Research
• Survey Research
– Population
People who are the focus of the research
– Sample
Part of the population representing the whole
– Random sample
Drawn sample from population so every element has an equal
chance of selection
Copyright © 2018 Pearson Education, Ltd. All Rights Reserved
Sociological Research Methods: Survey
Research
• Focus groups are a type of survey in which a
small number of people representing a target
population are asked for their opinion about some
issue or product.
• Here a sociology professor asks students to
evaluate textbooks for use in her introductory
class.
Copyright © 2018 Pearson Education, Ltd. All Rights Reserved
Sociological Research Methods:
Questionnaires
• Closed-Ended and Open-Ended
– Closed: A series of fixed responses; easy to analyze
but narrows range of responses
– Open: Free response; broadens responses; harder to
analyze
Copyright © 2018 Pearson Education, Ltd. All Rights Reserved
Sociological Research Methods: What
Is…?
• Interviews
– A series of questions that a researcher administers in
person
– Optimized by standardization of technique
• Participant observation
– Investigators systematically observe people while
joining in their routine activities
Copyright © 2018 Pearson Education, Ltd. All Rights Reserved
Interplay Between Theory and Method
• Inductive logical thought
– Transforms specific observations into general theory
– “Increases” from specific to general
• Deductive logical thought
– Transforms general theory into specific hypotheses
suitable for testing
– “Decreases” from general to specific
Copyright © 2018 Pearson Education, Ltd. All Rights Reserved
Deductive and Inductive Logical Thought
Copyright © 2018 Pearson Education, Ltd. All Rights Reserved
Putting It All Together: Ten Steps In
Sociological Investigation
• Select and define topic
• Review the literature
• Develop key questions to ask
• Assess requirements for study
• Consider ethical issues
• Select a research methodology
• Collect the data
• Interpret the findings
• State conclusions
• Publish the findings
Copyright © 2018 Pearson Education, Ltd. All Rights Reserved
