Introduction to Sociology and its Research Methods  

(Back to Main Page) 

 

Back to Lecture Topics

Links to related web sites: 

 

Links on this page:

 

 


(What follows below summarizes the work of many sociology textbook writers over the years. Three of the most influential in my teaching have been Robert Bierstedt, Theodore Caplow, and Ian Robertson).


 

Introduction:

 

Links to related web sites:

Our text defines the sociology as, "the systematic study of social behavior and human groups." (Schaefer, p. 3) But there are a wide variety of definitions.  My favorite comes from Everette K. Wilson:  "Sociology is the systematic study of people's greatest creations, the groups they build."

What is a group? It is a collection of people interacting together in an orderly way on the basis of shared expectations about each other's behavior." What is the difference between groups, categories, and aggregates?
 

A group is a collection of people who interact.

A category is a collection of people who possess a similar trait but who do not interact-- all bartenders in Richmond with red hair; or the people riding the bus to work one morning.

 

There is also the aggregate-- these are people who happen to be at the same place at the same time, but don't necessarily interact-- the people waiting for the bus downtown.

 

What is the minimum number of people that we can class as a group? Most texts will tell you two. One sociologist, Theodore Caplow, will tell you three. Why?
 

·  When one of the members dies social interaction will still occur. Society is real and it is greater than the sum of its parts social relationships between a dyad are much more simple than those between triads.

 

·  The pattern of relationships between three people has the potential to be far more complex alliances can be built, coalitions can form. This can't happen when there are only two people.
 

I think sociology is important for a number of reasons which are most cogently stated by Everett K. Wilson.
 

Sociology helps us to understand the truth about ourselves and about our society. "We come to know ourselves better because since we are in large measure, social creations, to know our social world and how it influences us is to come to a clearer conception of who we are and {to some degree} why. We come closer to the truth about our society since sociology is the best means of understanding and unraveling the complexities of social live; because it is the best means of learning the methods appropriate for analyzing social reality; and because it helps us go beyond fallible common sense to describe and explain more accurately the classes of social behavior and connections among them."
In short, there is nothing so important for us human beings as the groups we create, There is no intellectual activity more important than the study of those creations, not chiefly because such study develops saleable skills, but because such study moves us a little closer to understanding the truth in human affairs.

The Sociological Imagination is defined as understanding the relationship between history and personal biography).
 

1. The classic example is divorce-- what are the personal causes of divorce? What are the STRUCTURAL causes of divorce? Here are a few examples:

 

no-fault divorce legislation

increased labor force participation of women

smaller families

decline in religion and church attendance
 

Sociology (or any systematic field of inquiry no matter what the subject matter) has it's own special perspective. It defines what its subject matter is, helps us decide what is important, and then provides the tools and concepts which we can apply to examine it. That's what we'll be doing in this course. We'll be giving you some tools and concepts which I hope, will enable you to take a new look at a familiar world.

Sociology is a science and there has been a considerable amount of argument about whether or not it can actually be treated as such. I don't see what all the argument is about. Science is little more than a method or a philosophy of investigation.
 

1. Science is a logical, systematic, method by which we obtain knowledge about the world around us. This systematic method relies on:
 

 rigorous logic;

 hard facts;

 testable theories and

 replication

 

Science presumes that there is order to the universe, that events are patterned, not random.

.

According to one sociologist, Robert Bierstedt, Sociology is:
 

1. a social not a natural science: It is concerned with human social behavior not physical events or processes.

2. a categorical not a normative discipline. It describes what is not what should be.

3. a pure, not an applied science. The immediate goal is to acquire knowledge about human society, not to determine how that knowledge is used

4. an abstract science not a concrete one. It is concerned with patterns of human events, not concrete specific events. i.e. wars and revolutions; not a particular war. (Sociology VS History)

5. a generalizing discipline (nomothetic) rather than particularizing or individualizing. It seeks general laws or principles about human interaction and association, not as in the case of history, complete and comprehensive descriptions of particular societies and events
 

Here are concepts and terms which are important to sociology and the study of society.
 

Social System: a set of persons and activities whose mutual relationships are fairly constant. The term includes societies, organizations, groups, and institutions

 

Society: this is a group of interacting individuals who share the same territory and participate in a common culture. We can say that a society is a self-sufficient, self perpetuating social system.

 

Interaction: a process by which communicating individuals influence each other's thoughts and actions. (The key here is that there is reciprocal influence).

 

Culture: all the shared products of human society -- everything-- both social customs, rules, laws, and the material things we make.

 

Norms: Norms are rules which convey the proper behavior in a given social situation. Sometimes you will hear them referred to as formal norms (those which are written down) and informal norms (unwritten, unspoken rules). We have divided them into several categories or types:

 

Folkways: These are weak norms or conventions followed in everyday life; not eating with one's fingers (at least in a fancy restaurant in this society)

 

Mores: These are much stronger norms that contain some moral significance. Killing somebody is a violation of a very strong more.

 

Laws: Laws are encoded (written) norms. They are formally enacted by a political authority and backed by the state.

 

Taboos: They are the strongest norms of all. Violation of Taboos is considered loathsome and disgusting.

 

Status: Status is simply the position a person occupies in society. We all occupy different statuses and most of us occupy multiple statuses. Generally, you will hear of two kinds: Ascribed: It's assigned to us or we are born into it. Generally, we can't change it. Achieved: It's a social position that we earn.

 

Role: A role is the part played by a person occupying a particular status in society.

 

Institution: Institutions are stable patterns of norms, statuses, and roles that fulfill some social need... or; (We also call a large establishment with a permanent staff of workers working under one roof an institution; (prison, museum, etc.).

 

Socialization: A process where a person learns the norms of a given culture; how to occupy the statuses, and how to perform the associated roles.

 

Power: The ability to make somebody do something against his will. It is the ability to control the behavior of others.

 

The History of Sociology:

Links on this Page

 

 


Robert Bierstedt (1974, p. 4) has commented that "Sociology has a long past, but only a short history." This is because society has been a subject for speculation and inquiry since the dawn of civilization-- Plato's Republic can be considered one of the West's greatest sociological treatises; Confucius's Analects -- the East. But only within the last century or so has sociology become a separate subject and a separate science.

 

The Ancients: Plato and Aristotle: 

Plato (427-347 BC):

1.    He founded the Academy, -- a school which lasted over 900 years. It was for advanced students in philosophy and science. Actually it was the world's first university and was used as a model when "academic" institutions were revived in the 13th century. Relevance to Sociology:

2.    Some important themes from his writings found in social science today are:
 

Social ends (goals) as well as means can be rationally selected.

The division of labor in society (its job structure) should determine how that society is stratified. The stratification of society should not determine its division of labor.

How well a person's natural ability (talent) matches the position that that person occupies in the social structure is the true test of any system of stratification.

Individual happiness depends upon the social order.

The lack of integration in a society is the cause of deviant behavior in individuals.
 
 

                        Aristotle (384-322 BC):

 

1.        Aristotle, a student of Plato, also founded a school, the Lyceum.  He developed the idea of science as a method of gathering information and understanding the world around us. But there was an ironic twist to this according to sociologist, Robert Bierstedt. In the middle ages all of his works were available to the scholars of that time but they appear to have been selectively translated and used. For example his writings on science were ignored.  The practice then in vogue was authority.  If a scholar wanted to know something, he looked it up in the writings of the ancients. There is actually a case where a medieval scholar was thrown out of a university because, when asked to find out how many teeth there were in a horse, he found a horse and counted them instead of looking it up in the writings of Aristotle. As far as modern sociology is concerned, Aristotle:

2.         

Addressed the problem of precision in social research.

Insisted that the study of human behavior be focused on human values.

Performed a study of the constitutions of 158 city states which can be considered the first large-scale social research project in all history.
 

The Forerunners: August Comte, Harriet Martineau, and Herbert Spencer


When sociology emerged as a separate discipline it was roughly in the time frame of the industrial revolution. New forms of government challenged the old monarchies, religion lost its influence as the undisputed moral authority, and the pace of social and technological change surpassed that of anything witnessed before in the history of humankind.

Links to related web sites:

Sociological Timeline, U. of Missouri

The History Chart

The Karl Marx/Frederick Engels Interactive Archive

The Dead Sociologists' Society

August Comte (1789-1857):

Prior to Comte, nobody had identified sociology as a separate discipline. Comte was the first to do this, and for this reason has been called the "Father of Sociology." He has made at least four lasting and important contributions to Sociology:
 

1. His most important contribution was that he emphasized that social phenomena can be scientifically studied.

2. He also perceived the importance of the division of labor in determining social structure.

3. He introduced the distinction between theoretical (pure) and applied sociology.

4. He distinguished the study of social structure (social statics) from social change (dynamic sociology).

                    Harriet Martineau (1802-1876):

Mainly known for her translations of Comte's work, Harriet Martineau was actually a better sociologist. Her own book, Society in America, is an excellent example of rigorous sociological analysis, focusing on status distinctions in this society stemming from gender and race. Like Comte, she called for an applied approach where the lessons learned from scholarly study of society would be applied to curing social ills. Jane Addams would later advocate this approach in the United States.

 

Herbert Spencer (1820-1903):

 

Spencer was a Victorian who truly believed in the superiority of his society in 19th century England. He retired early from a career as a railroad engineer after acquiring an inheritance and devoted the rest of his life to a gigantic project which he called the "synthetic philosophy" which meant an all-embracing philosophy of science including treatises on the principles of biology, psychology, ethics, and sociology.

1    Theoretically, he had two main concepts which he pursued:

Society is very much like a gigantic organism with different parts which function to keep it together and help it survive. (An early version of "functionalism").

The process of evolution operates in the social sphere to establish a sequence of development from the simplest primitive tribe to the most advanced civilization.

 

2.    Spencer also collected extensive ethnographic data on many societies and arranged them in a standard format for comparison. He published this data in an eight-volume set entitled Descriptive Sociology. Unlike Comte, Spencer was an empiricist who collected his data very carefully. (Another set of volumes came out in the 1930's after his death).

3.    Perhaps Spenser's greatest influence was that he introduced a large number of students to sociology. He wrote the Study of Sociology (1873) which was the first sociology textbook used in a college course in the United States.
 

Karl Marx (1818-1883):
 

Marx is perhaps the greatest social philosopher of his century. He certainly has had a profound influence on the course of events in recent history. He was born and educated in Germany receiving his Ph.D. from the University of Jena at age 23. He spent most of his life as a political exile in London where he helped establish internationalist socialist organizations from which 20th century Communism claims its descent.  He married a woman of nobility after a 7-year engagement. Because of his political ideas, getting a teaching job at a major university was out of the question.  He worked on a variety of jobs including, newspaper editor and foreign correspondent for the New York Tribune (then a socialist newspaper.  He and his wife had seven children four of whom died in infancy or in early youth.  At times, he and his family lived in abject poverty while he wrote and couldn't find work.  He met Friedrich Engles, the son of a wealthy German Textile manufacturer in Paris in 1844 and the two struck up a life-ling friendship and partnership. Engles supported him throughout much of his later life. (See Caplow and Feuer)

 

1.    His intellectual partner, Engles (1820-1895) wrote a book entitled, Conditions of the Working Class in England (1844) which is the earliest social survey of a slum community.

2.    His broad theory (which we will call Macro or Grand theory) is so far ranging that it is difficult to summarize it briefly:  

Of central importance is the concept of Class struggle.  Modern conflict theory  stems directly from Marx's work.  He wrote his famous "Communist Manifesto" 1847 which is remembered for this famous line:  "The history of all hitherto existing societies is the history of class struggles."

 

For Marx, class membership is determined by the ownership of property. Basically, there were two major classes. The bourgeoisie (the wealthy capitalists who owned the means of production) and the proletariat who owned only their own labor which they were forced to sell to the bourgeoisie at bargain rates. (Marx and Engles acknowledged the existence of other classes in modern society, but claimed that they would be gradually consumed by the capitalists and merged with the proletarians.

 

The interests of the capitalists (bourgeoisie) and proletarians are conceived as opposite and not subject to compromise.

 

He developed the concept of "Surplus Value of Labor":  Everything that is produced is produced by the labor of the proletariat, but out of the product which they produce, they receive only the minimum necessary for their survival. Labor is being exploited.

 

Alienation: The worker is removed from the product he makes. He is unable to express himself freely because of the discipline of the industrial system. He gets very little return from the product which he makes. He loses interest in the purposes toward which his own activity is directed. He becomes alienated.

 

False consciousness: In this condition, the worker requires fantasies, religion, patriotism, art, and politics. These fantasies are deliberately provided by the capitalists to distract the proletarian from class consciousness and persuade him to accept exploitation.

 

The centrality of Economy: Everything in society is derived from the means of production. The relationship to the means of production is the foundation of a society. Law, politics, knowledge, morality, and even family relationships are all parts of the "superstructure" and are determined by the economy (how production is organized).

 

Marxist theory is also evolutionary: Feudalism was replaced by capitalism and capitalism would inevitably be overthrown by communism. What was needed was the development of a class consciousness by the proletariat and this would occur as more intellectuals, disgusted with the exploitations of capitalism, educated the masses.

 

After the proletarian revolution there would develop a classless, stateless society without private property a communist utopia. 

 

          The Founders: Emile Durkheim and Max Weber

 

Emile Durkheim (1858-1917):

 

 Durkheim was born in eastern France. His parents had intended for him to be a rabbi, but during his adolescence he moved away from Judaism to Catholicism, and later did not adhere to any particular religious faith. He started out as a high school teacher then moved to the University of Bordeaux and the Sorbonne.

 
1.    A central theme in all his works is that society is a reality "sui generis" (of its own). It is a natural entity greater than the sum of its parts and not explainable in psychological or biological, or purely rational terms.

2.    He wrote four important books which developed this theme in various ways.
 

The Division of Labor in Society: In this book he presented his own theory of social evolution. In their early stages, societies are comprised of small groups of people who resemble each other both physically and mentally; possess the same skills and aptitudes, and share the same ideas. They are bound together by what he calls "mechanical solidarity." But as societies develop, population increases and interaction between groups intensifies, the division of labor differentiates individuals by occupation, class, interests, norms, and values. Mechanical solidarity becomes "Organic solidarity." The society is now held together by complicated relations of interdependence and reciprocity.

 

The Rules of Sociological Method: This has been called the "Declaration of Independence for sociology." In this book he defines the subject matter of sociology to be "Social facts." (Ways of acting, thinking, and feeling, external to the individual, and endowed with a power of coercion, by reason of which they control him." In other words, Norms, customs, creeds, rituals, etc. The fundamental rules for the observation of social facts are to consider social facts as things, to examine them without preconceptions, to identify them by external, verifiable characteristics, and to concentrate on uniformities of behavior rather than individual variations. (Durkheim also introduced the method of correlation as a means of proving postulates).

 

Suicide: (1897) earliest in a long line of statistical studies of social problems. He took what had been considered a psychological problem and showed conclusively that social factors, primarily the degree of integration of the social groups to which an individual belongs have an effect on suicide rates.

 

The elementary forms of Religious Life: Here he argued that fundamental attitudes of human awareness, perceptions of time, space, categories, and causality are collective representations arising from social experience. Examining religious behavior in primitive societies he concluded that whatever is worshipped in any religion is always society in disguise.

 

Max Weber: (1864-1920)

Weber knew more about the organization of civilized societies, ancient and modern, Western and Oriental, than anyone else has ever known.  Born in Germany to a prosperous family, he was brought up in Berlin, studied law, history, economics, and philosophy, and became a professor at 30. However, he suffered a nervous breakdown shortly thereafter, which forced him to give up teaching. He took up problems involving the origins of capitalism, the relationship of religion and science, the effect of stratification on government, the growth of bureaucratic organization, the limits of social rationality, and the connections among values, emotions, and actions.
 

1.    Some Key Points:

 

He is known for his studies in the sociology of religion.   The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism investigated the relationship between religious beliefs of Puritan sects of the reformation (example: Calvinism) and the development of industrial capitalism in England. Refuted Marx by demonstrating that values can affect economy.

 

Verstehen (Interpretative Understanding): stressed meaning, understanding, comprehension. (Being close to the subject matter)

 

The Ideal Type as a research method.  He applied it to the study of bureaucracy.

 

He wrote extensively on bureaucracy and its effects on the individual.

 

Some American Social Theorists and Sociologists:


We talked about some of the more prominent theorists who influenced the discipline, (Durkheim, Marx, and Weber). The following people influenced modern American Sociology?

Lester Frank Ward: (1841-1913) one of the first American sociologists; (has been called by some the father of American sociology); stressed the discipline's role in social reform.

 

William Graham Sumner: (1840-1910) (Yale University) focused on the minute aspects of interaction in everyday life; introduced the terms "folkways" and "mores" in his book, Folkways.

 

 George Herbert Meade: (1863-1931) (University of Chicago) developed the discipline of Social Psychology.

 

Robert E. Park: (1864-1944) (University of Chicago) focused on the study of social problems, the city, the assimilation of ethnic minorities in to American culture; wrote an influential text on sociology in 1921 with Ernest Burgess.

 

Ernest W. Burgess: (1886-1966) (University of Chicago) wrote about the family; developed the concentric zone theory of the city.

 

Talcott Parsons: (1903-1979) (Harvard) functionalist, abstract theory on a macro level; had a great influence on the discipline of sociology in the 1940's and 1950's; criticized by many for his abstract, value-free non-activist approach.

 

C.Wright Mills: (1916-1962) criticized theories such as Parsons' and the preoccupation with devising new and complex statistical techniques and research methods. Wrote the Sociological Imagination.

 

Robert K. Merton: (1910-2002 ) (Columbia University) a founder of structural functionalism in the United States. Made the distinction between "manifest" and "latent" functions.

 

Additional Points and General Concepts:

 

The Chicago School: First Soc Department in the USA; dominated the field from 1893 to the onset of WWII. George Herbert Meade, John Dewey, and W.I. Thomas pioneered the study of human nature and personality. R.E. Park and E. W. Burgess studied urban social problems, prostitution, slums, and crime. William F. Ogburn studied social and cultural change.

 

The Sociological Imagination: C. Wright Mills-- that quality of mind essential to grasp the interplay of man and society, of biography and history, of self and world. Many of the personal troubles of individuals can be understood and solved only on a broader, societal level. When only one man is unemployed, for example, that is his personal problem. His problem can be explained by his own lack of skills, opportunities, or willingness to work. When 40 percent of black youths are unemployed, that is a social problem that goes beyond the failings of individuals.

 

Value-free Sociology: As a pure, objective scientific endeavor, it is not possible for the sociologist to be entirely value free. His values emerge at various points starting when he picks his problem to study. Total objectivity is impossible in any science. But we do try to minimize distortions caused by out personal bias.

 

Theoretical Perspectives:

Links to related web sites:

Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction

World Wide Web Virtual Library for Sociology

 

A Theory is a statement that organizes a set of concepts in a meaningful way by explaining the relationship between them.
 

Functionalist theory: Society tends toward equilibrium. (Durkheim, Spencer)  Manifest (intended) and Latent (unintended) functions.  Dysfunctions...  Functionalism tends to be a conservative perspective and has difficulty explaining social change. Example: The civil rights movement of the 60's was disrupting the equilibrium of a then balanced (but flawed) society.  The implication was that the movement was "dysfunctional." (macro level theory)

 

Conflict Theory: Society is in a constant state of flux, tension, disagreement. Hostility exists over goals and values -- no value consensus. Powerful segments control weaker segments in society. This body of theory focuses on whose interests are involved, who benefits or suffers from existing arrangements. (Marx, Mills) Critique: Conflict theory overlooks the more stable elements of society.  (macro level theory)

 

Interactionist Perspective (Weber, Meade) The focus on interaction. Being close to your subject and observing patterns of interaction. (micro level theory) Symbolic interaction: we communicate through the use of symbols. Critique: overlooks larger social institutions.

 

Ethnomethodology: we try do determine what the rules and norms of society are by intentionally breaking them and observing people's responses.

 

Dramaturgical Sociology: (Irving Goffman, 1922-1982) an analogy to the stage-- looking at the various roles we play and the situations that shape them. Front stage vs. back stage behavior. Impression Management:

 

Research Methods
 
 

Links on this page:

 
 

General Discussion: 

Ian Robertson points out that there are two essential sides to what he calls the "sociological enterprise," let me add that they apply well to all forms of scientific analysis (theory and research)

 

      • Theory:  Theory is a statement that organizes a set of concepts in a meaningful way by explaining the relationship between them, and for us in sociology we would define social research as the systematic recording of human behavior in society for the purpose of developing and testing social theories.

(Robertson also makes a distinction between theory and generalization. Generalization is a statement about the recurrent relationships among recurrent variables. Theory tries to impart meaning, to explain a given phenomenon by proposing causal relationships. Generalizations just say that variables are related (i.e. age and athletic performance are related)).
 

      • Research:  Research is the thorough, systematic, and objective act of collecting data. An important point to remember is that these two "things" we call theory and research must occur together for "science" to occur.  Theory without research, (i.e. the facts to back it up) is little more than speculation.  Research and facts assembled without regard to any theoretical framework are meaningless data.

This is an important process which is not limited to sociology and even the sciences themselves. We all do it ourselves every day as we form ideas and theories about the world around us. (Only, we are far less systematic and rigorous in our data collection and "theory building." Also, our "research" is almost always "action" or "applied research.")  For example, when driving down the interstate, we are often confronted with the problem with restrictions on speed and our need to get to our destination quickly, which may entail violations of the law. We all "know" such generalizations about the relationship between speeding and getting traffic tickets the two seem to be related. But we need more specific information and guidelines: When, where, and under what conditions are we more likely to get pulled over for speeding? We start building theories about the behavior of the state police, the equipment they use, and what factors might result in us getting tickets.

 

In fact, while it is easy to see why theory and research must accompany each other, it is very difficult, in practice, to get them to "match" properly. All too often the theory is such that we can't conduct the research to test it properly either because we can't devise adequate research methods or because of ethical considerations (How much pain will humans endure in the dentist's chair?) (What are the effects of longterm discrimination on racial and ethnic minorities?) (What happens to children who are raised in isolation?) Data exists on these latter two questions because of history but it must be adapted to our use we can't create these kinds of situations. It would be morally wrong. (In fact graduate school is littered with the bones of students who developed interesting questions and theories, but failed to come up with adequate means of answering to testing them.
 

      • The most egregious example: Nazi experiments with concentration camp inmates during W.W.II--I'm thinking of the cold water immersion studies involving human beings-- Newsweek, (Jan, 1995) describes other experiments involving twins...

 

      • Other examples can be drawn closer to home here in the United States-- U. S. soldiers exposed to radiation to determine its effects on their ability to fight.

 

      • There were also a series of experiments in the south where men affected with syphilis were divided into two groups--  one given a placebo the other treated.  Both groups were examined periodically to see the affects of the treatment vs. no treatment at all.

 

      • One sociological study also raised serious ethical questions:  Laud Humphries study of homosexual behavior-- the "Tea Room Trade."

 

Cause and Effect:


Important to the construction of theory is the notion of cause and effect. There are two basic assumptions to this: Everything has a cause.  Each cause will produce the same effect time and time again (holding everything else constant).
 

The problem for us is to: 1. sort out the cause from the effect;  2. If there are many possible causes and many effects, determine which cause is linked to which effect.  To do this we are guided by two things:  1. logic, and;  2. the time sequence of events. Example: Smoking and cancer. We know that a relationship exists between the two. It doesn't seem logical that cancer causes smoking Are there any instances where a disease will cause people to smoke?
 

Variables: 

A variable is a characteristic that can;  change with time for a given individual (age) or change from one individual to another (age, sex, income, education).  For individuals some examples would be:  age, sex race, IQ, attitudes about anything, income, education, etc. Variables can also be defined at the group level:  Examples would be birth rate, death rate, infant mortality rate, divorce rate, marriage rate, average income, average amount of  cigarettes smoked, etc.

Types of variables: basically we will be dealing with three kinds:

      • independent; the one producing or thought to be producing the effect. (this is usually the one we try to manipulate, if we can, to see what effect it has on the dependent variable).

 

      • dependent; this is the variable we observe to see what changes the independent variable produces. (We usually don't have to change the independent variable physically, i.e. vary a person's income to examine his lifestyle. What we usually do is group the variables into categories and see what effects are made on the dependent variable within each category of the independent variable).

 

      • control; Sometimes when we want to ensure that a relationship exists between two variables and not a third, we will "control" for that variable by holding it constant and then looking at the other two.

 

Levels of Measurement


What can we do with social data? What are its limitations? In order to understand this, we must discuss what is commonly referred to as "levels of measurement." There are four:

      • Nominal: is the lowest and we can do the least with statistically. Many of the statistical techniques we have available just don't apply. The best way to describe it is simply that it consists of categories: male and female; apples pears and oranges; colors, black red, white, green , yellow, orange; Names, John Paul, and Ringo, etc. The only measure we can apply here is does it belong in the category or doesn't it? We can't say, is an apple more than an orange?

 

      • Ordinal: At this level we can order items along some form of measurement small to large; less to more; "I like red better than green." "This record sounds better than that one." "My sister is prettier than yours." "This Mercedes rides better than that Porsche." Here we can order our preferences for friends, food, etc. from those we like least to those that we like best; spinach, broccoli, carrots, peas, etc. but there is no way that we can say that the distance between them, say spinach and broccoli is the same as the distance between carrots and peas.

 

      • Interval: Here, the distance between each unit has the same "interval" or is equal. The Fahrenheit and Celsius temperature scales are good examples. Each degree on these scales is the same as all the others so we have a good idea just how hot 100 degrees is in relation to, say 50 degrees. It is interesting to note that in sociology we treat attitude scales as interval measures even though we really can't say for sure that they are. (Example; strongly disagree disagree agree strongly agree). How useful are interval scales statistically. Really quite useful. They let us do more than ordinal scales. For example now we can specify that for every ten degrees Celsius increase in water temperature in a sealed vessel, there is a corresponding increase in steam pressure inside that vessel. (Or in sociology for every ten point decrease in a social integration scale there is a corresponding 20 point increase in the probability that the society in question will break up). (You can see why we don't have nearly the accuracy as the physical sciences).

 

      • Ratio: Interval scales lack one thing, a "true zero point." The Fahrenheit and Celsius scales both have zero degrees but they don't have any absolute meaning because we know that it can get colder than zero degrees on either of these scales. However, we do have one scale for temperature that is a true ratio scale the Kelvin scale. Zero degrees Kelvin the temperature at which all molecular motion stops is 273.16 degrees Celsius. Does sociology measure anything on the ratio level? Yes; income, family size, population, age, and many other types of things such as rewards held, nears in graduate school, grades, etc.

 

Statistics


Statistics: You should be familiar with some of the basics know the measures of central tendency (mean, median, and mode) and be able to link specific kinds of statistical measures with the levels of measurement. Lets begin with the measures of central tendency. Here are a set of numbers representing family size (number of children) in a group of families living in a small neighborhood: 1, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 3, 4, 5, 20

      • The mode is the most frequently occurring observation. In the above example it is "2" four of the neighbors have 2 children. While it's useful to know this, we are lacking information about the extremes especially that one family with 20 children.

 

      • The mean or "average" is obtained by dividing the sum of all numbers by the total number of observations 43/10 = 4.3 children. The problem with the mean is that it is affected by the extreme values. Most of the neighbors have less than four children.

 

      • The median is the value that falls exactly in the middle. It has the advantage of not being distorted by the extreme values. In this case the median is 2+2=4 4/2= 2

 

Other Statistical Measures


Now lets look at some kinds of statistical measures that we can apply to the analysis of social data. Remember, the level of measurement used, nominal, ordinal, or interval, will limit the kinds of statistics we can use.
 

      • Tests of Significance: If we have two variables measured at the nominal level (categories) we are limited in the statistics we can use to tell if there is a relationship between them. For example, is there a relationship between the college one attends and the material one reads for re creation? Here are three colleges and three types of reading material:  VCU Women-- Gothic Romances;  VCU Men-- Science Fiction;  Continuing Studies Students (male and female)-- Organizational Literature!  Because our level of measurement is nominal we are limited in the statistical tests we can use. First, we can test to see whether or not a relationship exists. Either it does or it doesn't. We can't say, "The more one VCU Male he is a reader of  SCIFI." It doesn't make sense. (Either he is a male or he isn't). Tests of significance involve comparing the results we obtain against a hypothetical distribution of results computed as if no relationship existed between the variables.

 

      • Measures of Association: We can also use another type of statistic with nominal data which will actually tell us the strength of the relationship between two variables. Measures of association will give us the strength of the relationship between two variables. Usually they provide a coefficient which ranges from 0 (no relationship) to 1 (very strong).

 

      • Measures of Correlation: If we have data that's measured at the ordinal level we can also use correlation statistics. Not only do they give us the strength of the relationship, they also give us its direction. For example the relationship between class attendance and grades in school. Analysis of data gathered at VCU may show us that class attendance and grades are positively related, the more often one attends class, the higher the grades will be. The statistics we use will provide us with a correlation coefficient usually ranging from 1 to +1 (with 0 meaning no relationship at all). Because we have more information from the level of measurement, our statistics can tell us more about the relationship. (If we had interval level data we could say that each unit increase in education produces a corresponding monetary increase in income).

 

The point of all this is that often social data is restricted with regard to the level of measurement, and for this reason we may lack the precision of the natural sciences. Instead of measuring temperatures, pressures, frequencies, etc. we are often stuck with personal rank orders, attitudes, and feelings. This leads us to a general discussion of difficulties social scientists face in conducting social research.
 

Difficulties in Doing Social Research

What are some of the difficulties facing sociologists in doing research?

      • Contamination of the data:  We may actually change the behavior we are trying to observe by just being there observing it. A good example of this is the Western electric experiments by Elton Mayo. (The Hawthorne Effect),

 

      • Free Will:  Our data. People, unlike atoms, are unpredictable. They are thinking creatures with a will of their own. This adds a special dimension to gathering data and some wild surprises when doing experiments.

 

      • Complexity of Social Behavior:  Social behavior is a very complex phenomenon to observe. It is very hard to isolate all the variables we want to look at from the extraneous items not under our control.

 

      • Ethics: We can do a lot to atoms and animals that we can't ever do to humans because of ethical considerations.

 

      • Challenge of Detachment: We're a part of that which we study society. For this reason it is more difficult for us to be detached from the subject in the same manner that a physicist can be from his.

 

Data Gathering 

How do we gather our data then? What are the methods available to us in our attempt to study society?

Archival research: (Existing Sources; Documents) This is a very fruitful and comfortable way of obtaining data. (It beats driving around the city interviewing people). Durkheim used this method to gather data for his book on suicide. People have studied the American outlaw by looking at newspaper reports, letters, arrest records, etc. Its disadvantages are that records are not always accurate nor are they complete. (Cleometrics study of history using detailed records).

      • Census records
      • Uniform crime reports
      • letters
      • diaries
      • autobiographies
      • baptismal certificates, death certificates, marriage records, birth certificates, etc.
      • school records
      • applications, recommendations
      • diplomas, licenses, certifications
      •  performance evaluations
      •  minutes of meetings
      •  speeches
      •  directories, listings
      •  newspapers, magazines, books, etc.

 

Interviews: The researcher personally questions the respondent. Can be structured with all questions precisely worded all asked in the same order; in the same way, or it can be unstructured where the interviewer has wide latitude in the questions he may ask. (Often in this instance he will have a list of areas that he wants to cover. Much like those done by Mike Wallace of 60 minutes).
 

      • Advantages: high response rate; interviewer can probe and ask questions that questionnaire would overlook.

 

      • Disadvantages: relatively costly method.

 

Questionnaires: These are usually self administered and contain a precise list of questions for the respondent to complete.
 

      • Advantages: inexpensive; easy to computer code
      • Disadvantages: high refusal rate (30-40% refusal rate is considered satisfactory!) Questionnaires don't allow for follow up questions in the case of interesting developments.

 

Observation: This is perhaps the most important method we can use and is often the most neglected because it involves a lot of time, effort, and money. The case study is the most common form. But a case study doesn't have to be an observation. One case can be studied through archival records. Case studies have produced some of the most insightful and interesting research in sociology: Middletown, Street Corner Society, When Prophecy Fails, Asylums (by
Goffman), Hustlers, Beats, and Others, Tally's Corner, are all fascinating to read and good, solid pieces of research.Types of observation: participant, and non-participant; overt, and covert. (The text book uses the term "detached" observer we would probably call him or her a non-participant/covert observer based upon the way the text uses the term.
 

      • Advantages:  Researcher is close to the situation less likely to miss important events.

 

      • Disadvantages: researcher may be too close to situation; may become biased or blinded to important events. Researcher may influence the outcome of the situation just by being there.

 

Sample Selection


At some time during the early stages of the research, we must decide from whom we want to gather the data. For example, if we are interested in the political opinions of Virginians, we would ideally like to interview every resident of the state what we call in statistics, the whole population because it includes everybody that we're interested in. Some times when the population is small we are able to do this. But in most cases it is just too costly to interview the population so we take samples from it. In doing this we must ensure that the sample we get is representative of the larger population. It must resemble it as closely as possible. How do we get a representative sample? We draw it at random and make sure its large enough that the population we're interested in can be in it. In general, the larger the sample, the better it will represent the population, provided it is randomly chosen. A biased sample of 3,000,000 people in the USA will predict voting patterns far less accurately than a truly random sample of only 20,000. Types of random samples:
 

      • Simple random sample: All the members of the population are given a number and a sample of them are drawn at random using a computer or random numbers table.

 

      • Systematic random sample: a good approximation of a random sample. Suppose I wanted to interview a sample of VCU students. I could list them according to some criteria (alphabetically, for example) and then take every fifth name. For example, I could use the student directory.

 

      • Stratified random sample: Sometimes we're interested in particular groups that make up the population and want to make sure that they're included in the sample in sufficient numbers. To do this we divide the population by the characteristics we are interested in and then sample randomly within each group. For example, suppose I'm interested in the political attitudes of various religious denominations in Richmond and plan to interview a sample of 500 citizens. Besides Catholics and various protestant denominations, I would like to ensure that I got a good size random sample of Muslims who make up a relatively small proportion of Richmonders. My first task would be to obtain lists for each religious denomination. (Ask class where I would obtain such lists). Then I would draw 100 names for each of the five denominations that I am interested in.

 

      • Cluster sample: This kind of sample is obtained through two or more sampling operations. For example, first we'll draw a random sample of regions in the country, then, within each of these regions, we'll draw a random sample of individuals all these individuals will comprise our sample. Public opinion poles are conducted in this way. First a random sample of counties; then a random sample of areas within counties, and finally a random sample of individuals are selected within those areas.

 

      • False sample: any nonrandom sample.

 

Doing Sociological Research

Stages of the research project:

      • Define the problem
      • Literature review
      • Formulate hypothesis
      • Choose research design
      • Collect data
      • Analyze results

 

Links to related web sites:

 

Links on this page: