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59 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
C. Wright Mills
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developed sociological imagination
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Sociological imagination
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sociology should connect biography (personal troubles) to history (social issues)
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Emile Durkheim
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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
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Structural Functionalism
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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
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Anomie (SF)
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state of normlessness in society
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manifest functions (SF)
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intended consequences of something
ie: college- provides education |
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latent functions (SF)
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unintended consequences of something
ie: college- also provides parties and spouses |
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Kinds of research questions asked by structural functionalists
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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? |
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Karl Marx
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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
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Patterns of oppression in western civilization (CT)
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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) |
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dialectical materialism (CT)
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conflict between those with resources and those without drives change
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means of production (CT)
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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 |
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economic determinist (CT)
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only really important relationship is the economic one
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Proletariat Revolution (class consciousness) (CT)
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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 |
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False Consciousness (CT)
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the idea that proletariat believe that they are diverse and free- they dont feel like they are oppressed
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Conflict Theory
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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
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Hegemony (CT)
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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 |
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kinds of research questions asked by conflict theorists
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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? |
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Macro-level theories
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meant to explain society on a large scale
-structural functionalism (Durkheim) - conflict theory (Marx) |
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Micro-level theory
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what is happening now-personal- small scale
-symbolic interactionism (Weber) |
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Max Weber
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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
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Verstehen (SI)
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understanding; importance of understanding the world from someone else's perspective; person's position impacts their experience
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Value-free sociology (SI)
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sociologists should keep their own values from affecting their work
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Symbolic Interactionism
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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
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Herbert Blumer (SI)
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looked at construction of reality and shared understandings
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Standpoint theory (SI)
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looks at how the world is different from a particular standpoint; each persons reality is different from one another
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Contemporary Theories
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critical theory
feminist theory postmodernism |
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Critical Theory
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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
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mass culture (critical theory)
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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 |
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agency (critical theory)
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ability to make choices about ones own life
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Feminist Theory
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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? |
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Postmodernism
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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 |
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Qualitative research method
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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
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Grounded Theory
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used in qualitative research; researcher goes into research setting with few assumptions and little knowledge; allows theory and info. to emerge from data collected
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Quantitative Research method
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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
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objectivity
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removal of bias from research; used to be the goal of many researchers; feel like this is not attainable or desirable now
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inter-subjectivity
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when multiple claims form multiple perspectives have some degree of consistency; this is more desirable today
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Exploratory research
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investigates something not many others have studied before; usually uses qualitative methods
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descriptive research
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gives additional precision or info about a know subject; US census; usually uses quantitative methods
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explanatory research
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tries to explain why- what are the causes of things; either quantitative or qualitative methods
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reliability
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ability of someone else to replicate one's experiment and produce similar results
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validity
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one's experiment is testing what they actually intend it to
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Principles of research ethics
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1. voluntary participation
2. informed consent 3.anonymity and confidentiality 4.honest reporting |
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deductive approach
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starts with theory, forms a hypothesis, makes empirical observations, and analyzes the data to confirm, reject, or modify original theory
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inductive approach
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starts with empirical observations and works to form a theory
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causality
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notion that a change in one factor results in a corresponding change in another
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correlation (association)
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simultaneous variation in two variables
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reverse causality
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situation in which the researcher believes that A results in a change in B but B is actually causing A
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dependent variable
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outcome that is being explained
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independent variable
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measured factor that researcher believes has a causal impact on dependent variable
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hypothesis
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proposed relationship between two variables
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operationalization
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process of assigning a precise method for measuring a term being examined for use in a particular study
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placebos
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simulated treatment given to a control group to factor out effect of merely being in an experiment from effect of actual treatment under consideration
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double-blind study
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when neither the subjects nor the researchers know who is in the treatment group and who is in the control (placebo) group
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reflexivity
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analyzing and critically considering our own role in and effect on our research
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case study
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in-depth look at a specific phenomenon in a particular social setting
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participant observation
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qualitative method that seeks to uncover the meanings people give their behavior by observing social actions in practice
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comparative research
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researchers compare two or more entities with the intent of learning more about the factors that differ between them
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content analysis
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systematic analysis of content rather than structure of a communication, such as a written work, speech or film
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