Chapter 2
Sociological Investigation
I. The Basics of
Sociological Investigation.
A. Sociological
investigation begins with two key requirements:
1. Look at the world using the sociological
perspective.
2. Be curious and ask
questions.
B. Sociology is seen by many sociologists a type of science, a logical system that bases knowledge on direct,
systematic observation. Science is one form of truth. Scientific
sociology is the study of society based on systematic observation of social
behavior. Scientific knowledge is based on empirical
evidence, information we can verify with our senses.
B1) Basic
research method:
Claim
-> Based on Empirical Evidence
accepted by Target Audience (typically
peer group)
C. Science as a
form of truth: why does science make a special claim to truth?
1)
Neutrality, replicability
2) Social power, white coats, funding, TV
ads
3) Science at the religion of modernity
D. Basis of
other truth claims:
1) Faith based on revelation
2) Recognized experts (including
scientists?)
a) Media, political leaders,
etc. “Conventional Wisdom.”
3)
Social consensus, “common sense.”
4) Pragmatism: “it works.”
5) Magical thinking – illegitimate, but
very powerful
II.
There are three ways
to do research: scientific sociology, interpretive sociology, and critical
sociology.
A. Scientific Sociology: based on natural sciences
1. Scientific sociology is the study of
society based on systematic observation of social behavior. The scientific orientation to knowing, called
positivism, assumes that an objective
reality exists and the scientific method
ALONE allows us to have real knowledge about this material world..
2. Concepts are mental constructs that
represent some part of the world, inevitably in a simplified form.
2a. Scientific
sociologists create an hypothesis,
i.e., a claim in strictly scientific terms.
They posit a causal relationship between
3. Variables
are concepts whose value changes from case to case.
a. Independent and dependent variables.
4. Measurement
is the process of determining the value of a variable in a specific case.
a.
Statistical
measures are frequently used to describe populations as a
whole.
b.
This requires that
researchers operationalize
variables, which means specifying exactly what one is to measure in assigning a
value to a variable.
5. APPLYING SOCIOLOGY BOX—Three Useful (and
Simple) Statistical Measures.
a. The mean
refers to the arithmetic average of a series of numbers.
b. The median
is the value that occurs midway in a series of numbers arranged from lowest to highest.
8. Sociologists strive for objectivity, a state of personal
neutrality in conducting
research, whenever possible following
Max Weber’s model of value-free
research.
a. One
way to limit distortion caused by personal values is through
replication, repetition of research by others in order to assess
its
accuracy.
C. Social science, or social studies, is
fundamentally different from natural science in a number of key ways (although
many of these can be said to be true for natural sciences as well):
1) Social reality is extremely
complex; impossible to control. Replication
is difficult; laboratory situations typically very artificial.
2) History only happens once; can’t construct alternative histories.
3) Human beings are conscious
actors; treating them as objects in research loses something essential
4) “Social position determines consciousness.” “Value neutral” stance can always be attacked
as, in fact, partisan. “Objective” positions
can be said to always favor someone’s self-interest, including within the scientific
community.
5) One reason to make the claim of objectivity
is the great prestige of science, in many ways the religion of the modern
secular world in its privileged claim to truth.
Quantitative data seems more “scientific,” results in more grant money,
higher status.
Associated with
the following methods:
(A research
method is a systematic plan for conducting research.)
A. An experiment
is a research method for investigating cause and effect under highly controlled
conditions. Experimental research is explanatory, meaning that it asks not just
what happens but why. Typically, researchers conduct experiments to test hypotheses, unverified statements of a
relationship between variables. Most experiments are conducted in laboratories
and employ experimental and control groups.
1.
The
2. The Stanford
County Prison study was an experiment conducted by Philip Zimbardo that supported the notion
that the character of prison itself, and not the personalities of prisoners and
guards, causes prison violence.
3. Problems with research
method: impossible to replicate complexity of real social world. Do people really act the same when “on
stage?” Reality TV.
B. A survey
is a research method in which subjects respond to a series of statements or
questions in a questionnaire or an interview. Survey research is usually
descriptive rather than explanatory.
1.
Surveys are directed at populations, the people who are the focus of research. Usually we
study a sample, a part of a
population that represents the whole. Random sampling is commonly used to be
sure that the sample is actually representative of the entire population.
2.
Surveys may involve questionnaires,
a series of written questions a researcher presents to subjects. Questionnaires
may be closed-ended or open-ended. Most surveys are self-administered and must
be carefully pretested.
3.
Surveys may also take the form of interviews, a series of questions administered in person by a
researcher to respondents.
4.
Structured, open ended.
5. Lois
Benjamin used interviews and snowball sampling to study one hundred elite African Americans. Benjamin
concluded that, despite the improving social standing of African Americans,
black people in the
“Counterintuitive” results that seem to go
against the bias and expectations of the experimenter seem more powerful.
B. Interpretive Sociology.
1.
Max Weber, who pioneered this framework, argued that the
focus of sociology is interpretation. Interpretive
sociology is the study of society that focuses on the meanings people
attach to their social world.
2.
The interpretive sociologist’s job is not just to observe
what people do but to share in their
world of meaning and come to appreciate why they act as they do.
3.
Need to participate in their world. “Thick description.”
4.
This approach dominates anthropology.
\
Associated with
the following method:
C. Participant observation (or ethnography) is a method by which researchers systematically
observe people while joining in their routine activities. Participant
observation research is descriptive and often exploratory. It is normally qualitative research, inquiry based on subjective
impressions.
1. William Whyte utilized this approach to study
social life in a poor neighborhood in
Society, illustrates the
value of using a key informant in field research.
C. Critical
Sociology.
1.
Karl Marx, who founded critical sociology, rejected the
idea that society exists as a “natural” system with a fixed order. Critical sociology is the study of society
that focuses on the need for social change.
2.
“What’s wrong?”
“What’s false?”
3.
The point is not merely to study the world as it is but to
change it.
D. Research is affected by gender, class, race, etc.the personal traits and social positions that
members of a society attach to being female and male, in five ways:
1. Androcentricity,
or approaching an issue from the male perspective.
2.
Overgeneralizing, or using data drawn from studying only
one sex to support conclusions about human behavior in general.
3. Gender blindness, or not considering the variable of gender at all.
4. Double standards.
5. Interference because a subject reacts to the sex of the researcher.
E. Class bias: no poor sociologists
F. Ideological bias: sociology overwhelmingly
liberal.
1.
Lois Benjamin example.
2. Does “scientific” approach eliminate bias?
3. Power of stance of
neutrality, above the fray.
4. Advantages of making
biases explicit.
Final method:
D. Using available data: Existing sources. Also
called archival research.
1. Sometimes, sociologists analyze existing sources, data collection by others.
1.
E. Digby Baltzell’s
Puritan Boston and Quaker Philadelphia
explored reasons for the prominence of New Englanders in national life. This
study exemplifies a researcher’s power to analyze the past using historical
sources.
. FINAL NOTE ON OBJECTIVITY:
1) Does scientific method have
special power to claim truth?
2) Can sociologists be completely
objective
3) Should sociologists and the media strive for objectivity?
4) Difference between objectivity and
“balance.”