Sociology Unlocked 2e
by Cumming
© 2022 Oxford University Press
Chapter 2
What Do Sociologists Do?
© 2022 Oxford University Press
This Chapter Will Help You:
• Understand the difference between common sense and
sociological research
• Outline the major perspectives in sociology
• Identify the difference between qualitative and quantitative
research methods
• Identify the various types of research methods that sociologists
use in each kind of method
• Understand the importance of ethics in social science research
© 2022 Oxford University Press
What is Common Sense?
• Knowledge we get from our lived experience
• May be accurate, but is not always reliable
• Things that are commonly known are not necessarily factual
• Information can’t just be assumed to be authentic
– it must be examined, tested and analyzed
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What is a Theory?
• A set of propositions intended to explain social phenomena
• May be used to explain or predict a phenomenon
• Theories can help us understand the relationships between
variables
• Theories can help us understand changes over time
• Two major approaches in this course:
– decolonization for beginners
– Students of UoA on SI
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Major Theoretical Perspectives in Sociology
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Major Theoretical Perspectives: Functionalism
• Functionalism focuses on social
stability
• Functionalists view society as a
set of interconnected parts
• This is similar to how the human
body works
• Social institutions persist because
they help society to survive
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Functionalism cont’d
Talcott Parsons Robert Merton
Manifest Functions
• Society tends toward balance or • The intended outcomes generated by a
equilibrium social institution
• As one part of society changes, Latent Functions
other parts must adjust to • The unintended or less visible
outcomes of a social institution
maintain social stability
Dysfunctions
• A system that is not functioning
properly is dysfunctional
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Functionalism cont’d - Emile Durkheim
• Studied how rapid social change
affects social stability
• As societies grow more complex,
people have fewer commonalities
– Less social solidarity
– Moral order (unwritten social norms
that maintain social order) decays
• This may result in anomie:
– A feeling of normlessness
– Instability resulting from the
breakdown of values and a lack of
purpose
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Major Theoretical Perspectives: Conflict Theory
• Conflict theorists focus on the importance of conflict and
change
• They see social life as a continuing struggle for fairness,
security, and respect
• See society as organized around inequalities
• See the disadvantaged as actors with agency who can
challenge the power structures that oppress them
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Conflict Theories cont’d – Karl Marx
Marx focuses on capitalism’s mode of
production:
• A way of producing the material things
we need to survive
The capitalist mode of production
produces a particular social order:
• The bourgeoisie own the means of
industrial production
• The proletariat work for a wage and
produce profits for the bourgeoisie
• Marx believed that the capitalist social
order exploited the proletariat
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Conflict Theory cont’d – Karl Marx
Class consciousness
• The proletariat far outnumber the bourgeoisie
• Marx believed that if the workers recognized their common
exploitation and their common power, they could overthrow
the business owners
False consciousness
• Capitalism continues because the proletariat do not
recognize their exploitation
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Conflict Theory cont’d
• Marx’s theorizing was
instrumental in promoting labour
rights
• May 1 is International Worker’s
Day
– Promotes equitable and safe
workplaces
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Major Theoretical Perspectives:
Symbolic Interactionism
• Symbolic interactionism studies
people’s everyday lives closely
• Interactionists focus on the
meanings, definitions and
interpretations that individuals
share
– How certain behaviours come to be
defined in certain ways
– How we learn to engage in
everyday activities
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Symbolic Interactionism cont’d – Erving Goffman
Front Stage Interactions
• Situations in which you perform
in the way that people expect
based on internalized norms
• Display the parts of ourselves
that we want others to see
Back Stage Interactions
• Situations in which you behave
in a more relaxed or “real”
fashion
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Symbolic Interactionism cont’d –
George Herbert Mead
• Mead argued that we develop our sense of self through
social interaction
– That is, by observing how others treat us and react to us
Significant Others
• Family members and close friends
• Play a major role in shaping our sense of self
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Symbolic Interactionism cont’d –
George Herbert Mead
Mead argued that our self has two parts:
• The I
– Our unsocialized self
– Impulsive, creative, spontaneous
• The Me
– Socialized by significant others
– Reflects the values and attitudes of society learned through
interaction
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Diversity and Marginalized Voices in Social Theory
• The founders of the major theoretical perspectives are not
from diverse backgrounds
• All are white, male, and European or American
• White men held a great deal of social power in the 19th and
early 20th centuries
• However, people of diverse backgrounds contributed to social
theory, but were not acknowledged at the time
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Black Voices - W.E.B. DuBois
• Key founder of American sociology
• Examined racism as a structural
constraint
Double Consciousness:
• Seeing oneself through the eyes of
a racist society
• Tension between how African
Americans see themselves and how
other (racist) people see them
• Prevents a person from having a
unified sense of self
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Black Voices – Franz Fanon
• Wrote “The Wretched of the Earth”
• Promoted resistance of French colonialism in Algeria
• Argued that the colonized had the right to use violence to gain
independence
• His book was censored by the French government
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Women’s Voices
• Women who made unrecognized historical contributions to classical
social theory include:
• Harriet Martineau
• Jane Addams
• Rosa Luxemburg
• Mary Wollstonecraft (recognized as one of the first feminists)
– “A Vindication of the Rights of Women”
• Wrote about women’s subjugation in marriage and equated it with a form of
legal prostitution
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Feminism
All forms of feminism focus on
gendered inequality
• View it as the result of social
practices
Patriarchy
• A cultural system that promotes the
idea that men should play the
dominant roles in society
• An example is the father of the
bride “giving” her to the groom
– Historically women were the property
of men
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Feminism cont’d
First Wave Feminism
• 1880 – 1920
• Resulted in (some) women gaining the right to vote
Second Wave Feminism
• Demanded wider social equality for women
• Treated women as a group with common experiences
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Feminism cont’d
Dorothy Smith
• Most famous Canadian feminist
• Introduced standpoint theory - A view of
the world from a marginalized status
– Based on her lived experience – life
separated in 2 worlds
– Single mother at home and academic
at university with her (mostly male)
colleagues (who had very different
lives)
– Creates a unique standpoint
– Sociology was missing the voices of
marginalized groups because it was
formed in a male-dominated world
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Feminism cont’d
Third Wave Feminism
Kimberle Williams Crenshaw
Focus on intersectionality:
A woman’s experience of oppression is unique to her particular
circumstances
• Both race and gender impact women’s lives and oppressions
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bell hooks
• Anti-racist feminism
• Both race and gender affect a
woman’s destiny
• Focused on black women as
distinct from both black men and
white women
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The Scientific Method
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The Research Cycle: Research Idea
• What is the topic that you are interested in?
– Researchers may choose topics based on personal interest and/or
because the issue has become a social problem
• Once a topic is chosen the researcher must define the problem to be
studied
– What is it that you want to know about the topic?
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The Research Cycle: Literature Review
• This refers to reviewing the previous material written about
the problem
• Helps to pinpoint the area for study
• The material reviewed should be scholarly research
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The Research Cycle: Formulating an Hypothesis
Hypothesis
– A proposition about the relationship between variables
– Will be tested in the research
Variables
– Traits that vary over time
• Dependent variable
– The variable that we are trying to predict and explain
• Independent variable
– The variable that we think will change or influence the dependent variable
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The Research Cycle: Research Design
• Quantitative Research
– Numerical data
– Larger samples
– Trends over time
• Qualitative Research
– Focuses on individual experiences
– Smaller samples
– Individuals’ understandings of their experiences
• Mixed methods
– Combines the two types of research simultaneously
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The Research Cycle: Collecting Data - Experiments
• Controlled laboratory conditions
• Sociologists rarely use this method because it is very artificial
• Sociological researchers refer unobtrusive measures:
– Measures unaffected by respondent participation
– Measures that don’t require the researcher to intrude in the
research context
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Collecting Data cont’d - Content Analysis
• Unobtrusive measure
• A method for studying documents or communications
– Including texts, pictures, audio, or video
• The analysis of the content of public communications
– i.e. books, websites, speeches, social media, popular songs, etc.
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Collecting Data cont’d - Participant Observation
• The sociologist participates in the social unit being studied
• Gain firsthand insight into the activities and attitudes of the
group members
• Involves certain risks:
– The researcher may take on the world view of the group they study
and lose objectivity
– The researcher may change the processes they observe an
participate in
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Collecting Data cont’d - Surveys
• Surveys can reach a lot of people in a relatively short period of
time
• The researcher must first determine the population of interest
• Population:
– The set of all the people who share the characteristics of interest to
the researcher
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Surveys cont’d - Samples
• It would be expensive and time-consuming to collect data from
every member of a population
• Researchers use a subset of the population – a sample - to collect
data
• Systematic random samples are the most accurate
• Convenience samples study people who are easily accessible to the
researcher
• Snowball samples ask participants to suggest the names of other
people to study
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Collecting Data cont’d: Questionnaires
• A questionnaire provides a set of questions to respondents
(through mail or online)
– Respondents record their own answers
• Response Bias:
– Respondents may answer untruthfully or misleadingly
– They may provide socially desirable answers
– Questions may be constructed to produce certain answers and not
others
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Collecting Data, cont’d: Interviews
• In interviews, the researcher asks respondents questions face-
to-face or over the phone and records the answers
• Structured interviews:
– Each respondent is asked a standard set of questions in the same
order
• Unstructured interviews:
– Questions are open-ended and the respondent answers freely
– The interviewer may change the order of the questions or ask other
questions based on respondent’s answer
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Collecting Data, cont’d: Secondary Data Analysis
• Secondary data analysis involves the researcher analyzing and
interpreting data gathered by other researchers or the
government
– For example, researchers may analyze data collected by the Canadian
Census
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The Research Cycle: Data Analysis
When researchers analyze data, they are concerned with two
major issues:
• Validity refers to accurately measuring a concept
• Reliability refers to the extent to which a measure produces
consistent responses
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The Research Cycle: Disseminating Knowledge
• Once research is collected and the data is analyzed, social
scientists must share the knowledge with the public
• This can be done by:
– Publishing books or academic articles
– Presenting at public forums or conferences
– Community-based research may be shared directly with the
community under study
• Peer review assesses the quality and contribution of the
research
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Research Ethics
• Ethical guidelines for research are provided to researchers
through professional bodies and research ethics boards
– Researchers must share their results openly and truthfully
– Researchers must not falsify results
– Researchers must not present others’ work as their own
• Researchers must also minimize any harm to participants
– This includes protecting participants’ identities and allowing them to
withdraw from the research at any time
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