This essay included a brief look at the history of education and how it has developed into the system we now have today. It also looked at two sociological theories on education; Functionalist and Marxist. The feminist perspective was touched upon when relating education to gender Apr 04, · Definitions of key terms for the five basic sociological perspectives – Functionalism, Marxism, Feminism, Social Action Theory and Postmodernism. More details on the perspectives below can be found at the relevant links on my sociological theories page, which has been written to specifically cover the AQA A-level sociology syllabus Making Connections: Sociological Research An Experiment in Action: Mincome Figure “Mincome” was a large-scale experiment conducted in Dauphin, Manitoba, between and to explore the effect of having a universal guaranteed annual income on
Stages in the Sociological Research Process – Sociology
In the university cafeteria, you set your lunch tray down at a table, grab a chair, join a group of your classmates, and hear the start of two discussions. Perhaps the speakers had firsthand experience, talked to experts, conducted online research, or saw news segments on TV. In response, two conversations erupt.
Going to Disney World is one of my favourite childhood memories. As your classmates at the lunch table discuss what they know or believe, the two topics converge. The conversation becomes a debate. Someone compares Beliebers to Beatles fans. Someone else compares Disney World to a cruise. Students take sides, agreeing or disagreeing, as the conversation veers to topics such as crowd control, mob mentality, sociological perspective essay, political protests, sociological perspective essay, and group dynamics.
Beliebers join together claiming they want romance, except what they really want is a safe place to explore the confusion of teenage sexual feelings. Disney World is a place where sociological perspective essay go to see what it would be like to live inside a cartoon. But you are thinking of Justin Bieber and Disney World.
You have a new perspective on human behaviour and a list of questions that you want answered. That is the purpose of sociological research—to investigate and provide sociological perspective essay into how human societies function. They also rely on a theoretical foundation that provides an interpretive perspective through which they can make sense of scientific results. A truly scientific sociological study of the social situations up for discussion in the cafeteria would involve these prescribed steps: defining a specific question, gathering information and resources through observation, forming a hypothesis, testing the hypothesis in a reproducible manner, analyzing and drawing conclusions from the data, publishing the results, and anticipating further development when future researchers respond to and retest findings.
You might assume that your observations and insights are valuable and accurate. To mediate these concerns, sociologists rely on systematic research processes. When sociologists apply the sociological perspective and begin to ask questions, no topic is off limits.
Every aspect of human behaviour is a source of possible investigation. Sociologists question the world that humans have created and live in. They notice patterns of behaviour as people move through that world. Using sociological methods and systematic research within the sociological perspective essay of the scientific method and a scholarly interpretive perspective, sociologists have discovered workplace patterns that have transformed industries, family patterns that have enlightened parents, and education patterns that have aided structural changes in classrooms.
The students at that university cafeteria discussion put forth a few loosely stated opinions. If the human behaviours around those claims were tested systematically, a student could write a report and offer the findings to fellow sociologists and the world in general. The new sociological perspective essay could help people understand themselves and their neighbours and help people make better decisions about their lives.
Sociologists often begin the research process by asking a question about how or why things happen in this world. It might be a unique question about a new trend or an old question about a common aspect of life. Once a question is formed, a sociologist proceeds through an in-depth process to answer it, sociological perspective essay. In deciding how to design that process, the researcher may adopt a positivist approach or an interpretive approach.
Sociological perspective essay following sections describe these approaches to knowledge. Sociologists make use of tried-and-true methods of research, such as experiments, surveys, field research, and textual analysis.
But humans and their social interactions are so diverse that they can seem impossible to chart or explain. It might seem that science is about discoveries and chemical reactions or about proving ideas right or wrong rather than about exploring the nuances of human behaviour. However, this is exactly why scientific models work for studying human behaviour.
A sociological perspective essay process of research establishes parameters that help make sure results are objective and accurate, sociological perspective essay. Scientific methods provide limitations and boundaries that focus a study and organize its results. This is the case for both positivist or quantitative methodologies and interpretive or qualitative methodologies.
The scientific method involves developing and testing theories about the world based on empirical evidence. It is defined by its commitment to systematic observation of the empirical world and strives to be objective, critical, skeptical, and logical.
It involves a series of prescribed steps that have been established over centuries of scholarship. But just because sociological studies use scientific methods does not make the results less human.
Sociological topics are not reduced to right or wrong facts. In this field, results of studies tend to provide people with access to knowledge they did not have before—knowledge of other cultures, knowledge of rituals and beliefs, knowledge of trends and attitudes. Reliability increases the likelihood that what is true of one person will be true of all people in a group. Researchers also strive for validity how well the study measures what it was designed to measure. Returning to the Disney World topic, reliability of a study would reflect how well the resulting experience represents the average experience of theme park-goers.
In general, sociologists tackle questions about the role of social characteristics in outcomes. For example, how do different communities fare in terms of psychological well-being, community cohesiveness, sociological perspective essay, range of vocation, wealth, crime rates, and so on? Are communities functioning smoothly? Sociologists look between the cracks to discover obstacles to meeting basic human needs.
They might study environmental influences and sociological perspective essay of behaviour that lead to crime, substance abuse, divorce, poverty, sociological perspective essay, unplanned pregnancies, or illness. And, because sociological sociological perspective essay are sociological perspective essay all focused on problematic behaviours or challenging situations, researchers might study vacation trends, healthy eating habits, neighbourhood organizations, higher education patterns, games, parks, and exercise habits.
Sociologists can use the scientific method not only to collect but to interpret and analyze the data. They deliberately apply scientific logic and objectivity. They are interested in but not attached to the results, sociological perspective essay. Their research work is independent of their own political or social beliefs. This does not mean researchers are not critical. Nor does it mean they do not have their own personalities, complete with preferences and opinions.
But sociologists deliberately use the scientific method to maintain as much objectivity, focus, and consistency sociological perspective essay possible in a particular study. With its systematic approach, the scientific method has proven useful in shaping sociological studies.
The scientific method provides a systematic, organized series of steps that help ensure objectivity and consistency in exploring a social problem. They provide the means for accuracy, reliability, and validity.
In the end, the scientific method provides a shared basis for discussion and analysis Merton Typically, the scientific method starts with these steps—1 ask a question, 2 research existing sources, 3 formulate a hypothesis—described below. The first step of the scientific method is to sociological perspective essay a question, describe a problem, and identify the specific area of interest, sociological perspective essay. The topic should be narrow enough to study within a geography and timeframe.
The question should also be broad enough to have universal merit. That said, happiness and hygiene are worthy topics to study. Sociologists do not rule out any topic, but would strive to frame these questions in better research terms, sociological perspective essay.
That is why sociologists are careful to define their terms. The concept is translated into an observable variablesociological perspective essay, a measure that has different values. The operational definition identifies an observable condition of the concept. By operationalizing a variable of the concept, all researchers can collect data in a systematic or replicable manner. The operational definition must be valid in the sense that it is an appropriate and meaningful measure of the concept being studied.
It must also be reliable, meaning that results will be close to uniform when tested on more than one person. But these driving behaviours could be interpreted differently by different researchers and could be difficult to measure, sociological perspective essay.
The next step researchers undertake is to conduct background research through a literature reviewwhich is a review of any existing similar or related studies. A visit to the library and a thorough online search will uncover existing research about the topic of study, sociological perspective essay. This sociological perspective essay helps researchers gain a broad understanding of work previously conducted on the topic at hand and enables them to position their own research to build on prior knowledge.
It allows them to sharpen the focus of their research question and avoid duplicating previous research. Researchers—including student researchers—are responsible for correctly citing existing sources they use in a study or that inform their work.
While it is fine to build on previously published material as long as it enhances a unique viewpointit must be referenced properly and never plagiarized. To study hygiene and its value in a particular society, a researcher might sort through existing research and unearth studies about childrearing, vanity, obsessive-compulsive behaviours, and cultural attitudes toward beauty. A hypothesis is an assumption about how two or more variables are related; it makes a conjectural statement about the relationship between those variables.
The hypothesis formulates this guess in the form of a testable proposition. Sociological perspective essay, how the hypothesis is handled differs between the positivist and interpretive approaches. Positivist methodologies are often referred to as hypothetico-deductive methodologies.
A sociological perspective essay is derived from sociological perspective essay theoretical proposition, sociological perspective essay. On the basis of the hypothesis a prediction or generalization is logically deduced. In positivist sociology, the hypothesis predicts how one form of human behaviour influences another. Successful prediction will determine the adequacy of the hypothesis and thereby test the theoretical proposition. Variables are examined to see if there is a correlation between them.
When a change in one variable coincides with a change in another variable there is a correlation. This does not necessarily indicate that changes in one variable causes a change in another variable, however, just that they are associated. A key distinction here is between independent and dependent variables.
In research, independent variables are the cause of the change. The dependent variable is the effector thing that is changed. For example, in a basic study, the researcher would establish one form of human behaviour as the independent variable and observe the influence it has on a dependent variable.
Chapter 1 - The Sociological Perspective
, time: 1:06:12Chapter 2. Sociological Research – Introduction to Sociology – 1st Canadian Edition
Apr 04, · Definitions of key terms for the five basic sociological perspectives – Functionalism, Marxism, Feminism, Social Action Theory and Postmodernism. More details on the perspectives below can be found at the relevant links on my sociological theories page, which has been written to specifically cover the AQA A-level sociology syllabus Making Connections: Sociological Research An Experiment in Action: Mincome Figure “Mincome” was a large-scale experiment conducted in Dauphin, Manitoba, between and to explore the effect of having a universal guaranteed annual income on Mills further suggested that sociologists could use sociological imagination to examine the problems facing society from an outward perspective. Going back to unemployment, a sociologist might observe that in a country of one million people, having five hundred citizens unemployed would be less urgent of an issue than five hundred unemployed in
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