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59 Cards in this Set

  • Front
  • Back
C. Wright Mills
developed sociological imagination
Sociological imagination
sociology should connect biography (personal troubles) to history (social issues)
Emile Durkheim
Main developer of the structural functionalism theory; lived during industrial revolution; thought the revolution was a positive thing for the rise of science; believed sociology was the highest form of science; conducted the suicide studies with Catholics and protestants; believed organic solidarity was more effective than mechanical solidarity
Structural Functionalism
society is a system or a body with different parts that different things; all parts must function together; natural tendency is toward equilibrium and balance; change in one part requires a change in another; concepts have functions and dysfunctions within society
Anomie (SF)
state of normlessness in society
manifest functions (SF)
intended consequences of something

ie: college- provides education
latent functions (SF)
unintended consequences of something

ie: college- also provides parties and spouses
Kinds of research questions asked by structural functionalists
What function does X fill?
How is X functional and dysfunctional?
What are the manifest and latent functions of X?
What is not functioning properly and needs to be fixed?
Karl Marx
Main developer of the conflict theory; lived during industrial revolution; thought revolution was negative and oppressive; saw horrible working conditions for average people; went inside the workers homes; studied in the library; saw a large pattern of oppression starting in western civilization; believed that our ability to create is what makes us human- under capitalism, we never own what we make and have less control over what we create
Patterns of oppression in western civilization (CT)
Roman Empire- masters and slaves ( were allowed to work as normal but had to pay taxes)

Middle Ages- lords and serfs (futile system- give small piece of land to lord and they ruled that area) ( serfs worshiped the lords who ruled where they lived)

Industrial revolution- factory owners (bourgeoisie) and factory workers (proletariat)
dialectical materialism (CT)
conflict between those with resources and those without drives change
means of production (CT)
things required to make stuff, ie- tools, ingredients, materials

owned by the bourgeoisie under capitalism ( but they dont know how to use them)

proletariat sell their labor and use means of production to make things they dont own, ie- prostitution
economic determinist (CT)
only really important relationship is the economic one
Proletariat Revolution (class consciousness) (CT)
Marx believed that the oppressed proletariat would realize their oppression and similarities with one another

thought US would have the biggest one but it never happened
False Consciousness (CT)
the idea that proletariat believe that they are diverse and free- they dont feel like they are oppressed
Conflict Theory
society is constantly changing and evolving; transformation is driven by conflict between groups; conflict is constant therefore so is change; groups in power create rules that serve to maintain their power; people are in conflict over scarce resource access; racial and gender groups cause conflict
Hegemony (CT)
state of dominance where dominance is so complete that alternative options are hard to imagine
ie- students deciding what should be taught in classes rather than faculty
kinds of research questions asked by conflict theorists
what groups are in conflict?
what are the scarce resources that they are conflicting over?
how is power being maintained?
what are the hegemonic beliefs?
Macro-level theories
meant to explain society on a large scale
-structural functionalism (Durkheim)
- conflict theory (Marx)
Micro-level theory
what is happening now-personal- small scale
-symbolic interactionism (Weber)
Max Weber
main developer of symbolic interactionism theory; lived during the industrial revolution; had mixed feelings about capitalism; liked how highly efficient it was; disliked how no one controlled or understood the whole process (Iron cage of bureaucracy); didn't go to the library- traveled to the US and interacted with people; wrote "Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism"; believed that Calvinism (belief in predestination) encouraged capitalist thinking
Verstehen (SI)
understanding; importance of understanding the world from someone else's perspective; person's position impacts their experience
Value-free sociology (SI)
sociologists should keep their own values from affecting their work
Symbolic Interactionism
people attach meaning to symbols and create society through shared meanings; nothing has real meaning until we give it some; we respond to things in society based on meanings we have attached; reality we experience is largely a social construction; if we treat something as real, then it is real in its consequences
Herbert Blumer (SI)
looked at construction of reality and shared understandings
Standpoint theory (SI)
looks at how the world is different from a particular standpoint; each persons reality is different from one another
Contemporary Theories
critical theory
feminist theory
postmodernism
Critical Theory
developed out of conflict theory's criticism of prevailing systems; critical of power relationships embedded in all systems of society; believes that mass culture is oppressive; believes people have agency and can resist
mass culture (critical theory)
created and sustained through media and advertising; masks us of what is really important in the world and distracts us with stuff that doesn't matter
ie- miley cirus, mcdonalds
agency (critical theory)
ability to make choices about ones own life
Feminist Theory
Developed out of:
-conflict theory's views on power
-critical theory's views on science
symbolic interactionisms interest in standpoint
-how are gender relations really power relations?
-how are masculinity and femininity maintained, enacted, and changed in society?
-how can we create a more equitable science?
Postmodernism
developed out of:
-symbolic interactionism's ideas of socially constructed realities
-critical theory's critique of science
-critical theory's ideas about "mass culture"
-distrustful of any claim of objectivity
-current society is based on an amalgamation (combination) of empty, consumerist symbols without any framework of principles
-largely pessimistic- don't think people are going to change their ways
Qualitative research method
doesn't involve numerical data; uses observations, lengthy interviews; gives more descriptive data; lots of written data and few numbers; uses small sample sizes; sometimes uses snowball sampling methods; not generalizable to larger populations; time consuming
Grounded Theory
used in qualitative research; researcher goes into research setting with few assumptions and little knowledge; allows theory and info. to emerge from data collected
Quantitative Research method
uses surveys, censuses, and relies on hypothesis testing model; numeric data; large samples; random sampling; results are generalizable to larger populations if random samples are used; needs larger samples to be accurate and sometimes they aren't available
objectivity
removal of bias from research; used to be the goal of many researchers; feel like this is not attainable or desirable now
inter-subjectivity
when multiple claims form multiple perspectives have some degree of consistency; this is more desirable today
Exploratory research
investigates something not many others have studied before; usually uses qualitative methods
descriptive research
gives additional precision or info about a know subject; US census; usually uses quantitative methods
explanatory research
tries to explain why- what are the causes of things; either quantitative or qualitative methods
reliability
ability of someone else to replicate one's experiment and produce similar results
validity
one's experiment is testing what they actually intend it to
Principles of research ethics
1. voluntary participation
2. informed consent
3.anonymity and confidentiality
4.honest reporting
deductive approach
starts with theory, forms a hypothesis, makes empirical observations, and analyzes the data to confirm, reject, or modify original theory
inductive approach
starts with empirical observations and works to form a theory
causality
notion that a change in one factor results in a corresponding change in another
correlation (association)
simultaneous variation in two variables
reverse causality
situation in which the researcher believes that A results in a change in B but B is actually causing A
dependent variable
outcome that is being explained
independent variable
measured factor that researcher believes has a causal impact on dependent variable
hypothesis
proposed relationship between two variables
operationalization
process of assigning a precise method for measuring a term being examined for use in a particular study
placebos
simulated treatment given to a control group to factor out effect of merely being in an experiment from effect of actual treatment under consideration
double-blind study
when neither the subjects nor the researchers know who is in the treatment group and who is in the control (placebo) group
reflexivity
analyzing and critically considering our own role in and effect on our research
case study
in-depth look at a specific phenomenon in a particular social setting
participant observation
qualitative method that seeks to uncover the meanings people give their behavior by observing social actions in practice
comparative research
researchers compare two or more entities with the intent of learning more about the factors that differ between them
content analysis
systematic analysis of content rather than structure of a communication, such as a written work, speech or film