socio review p1

writing from a consensus perspective, he used positivist principles to understand development in the natural world.

writing from a conflict perspective, he looked at economic relationships between the bourgeoisie and proletariat to explain the maintenance of social order within the society

writing from a social action approach focused upon social change in explaining the development of modern society.

writing from a consensus perspective, saw society as a social system that must be understood in terms of the relationship between their various institutions.

procedural rules defined within the scientific community, how data should be collected and analysed and ethical rules. A scientific ethos to ensure that results are not simply made up.

the study of social behavior based on scientific principles

also know as anti positivism, rather than studying social behavior in a scientific manner, it should be looked at from the viewpoint of those that create and define it.

a criticial worldview that argues that the people construct narratives through which to make sense of the world.

functionalist explain how order and stability are created / maintained and also look at the organization of society as a social system.

Marxists focus on the impact of work and how it is socially organized as the key to understanding how all other social relationships are organized.

Feminist focus upon social order and control being based upon male power expressed interpersonally and culturally.

Interactionists see social order as being created from the bottom of society up by individuals through their individual and collective behavior.

Marxism, functionalism, feminism, and action theory all explain social change in their own ways focusing upon changes such as the move from pre industrial to industrial society and change in the functions of various institutions within society.

a macro approach including functionalism, Marxism and feminism, in which society can be seen as a framework of cultural rules guiding behavior and telling people how to behave appropriately in any given situation.

a micro approach based upon social action. Behavior becomes action when it is directed towards other people in ways that take account of how they react.

a perspective developed by Giddens that sees structure and action as equally significant when trying to understand the relationship between the individual and society.

a life long process of rule learning underpinned by sanctions

the family is influential in shaping basic norms and values and imposing sanctions within primary socialisation too, are people of a similar age who influence our behavior.

Through the formal and hidden curriculum we learn new skills/ behaviors/ roles that we are not likely to have learnt via the family.

an impersonal relationship but still influential, affecting behavior such as likes/dislikes/consumption patterns, modeling behavior that can be copied.

the values of many societies are underpinned by religious principles/ values. Individuals may / may not feel directly influenced by religion; those that are may live by religious rules/ norms and be subject to their positive and negative sanctions.

people within a society see themselves as having something in common with each other and see themselves as different from those in other societies. The term can be broken down further into physical space and mental space.

culture contributes to the social construction of reality, including material culture. (physical objects) and non material culture. (knowledge and beliefs that are valued.

a building block of culture. Everyone has a number of roles that they play in relation to each other and each roles carried expected behaviors with it.

generally help to structure society in supporting norms and highlighting what we see as important within society.

specific rules dictating how people should act in a situation, which helps maintain order and predictability.

fundamental, deep rooted ideas, that shape our values and can also be shaped by them.

constructed around a set of basic ideas that shape our values and can also be shaped by them.

the capacity to bring about change (active power) and the ability to make others believe that nothing has change (passive power)

Occupation can be a good indicator that allows us to define simple groupings such as lower and middle class. Each class grouping can be detailed individually and divided further into sub groups

socially constructed identities not necessarily linked to biological differences. Can be broadly split into different forms of masculinity and feminity and a possible crisis of masculinity within modern society.

related to various cultural differences such as religion, family structures, beliefs, values, and norms.

look at culture and identity in terms of what they do, how they are used and what they mean

cultural products and practices that are seen as socially superior to others.

also known as popular/mass culture, the opposite to high culture and seen as commerical, mass produced, shallow worthless , disposable cultural products and practices.

identity has uncertainty in postmodern theory in comparison to the certainties of modernist theory, as people may define themselves more in terms of consumption than using factors such as class, age, ethinicity, and gender.

data collected personally

data that already exists in some form

information expressed statistically / numerically

information that aims to capture the quality of people's behavior by exploring the why rather than the what, when, and where

normally conducted in private, respondents write their answers without presence of guidance from the researcher.

interviews are questionnaires that are read out, conducted in the presence of the researcher, with respondents answering questions verbally.

can have qualitative and quantitative forms, it involves the analysis/ study of texts, often from the media.

can under controlled conditions, test the relationship between different variables and may be conducted in a labratory (closed environment) or in field (a natural environment outside a labratory).

a comparative analysis that involves tracking changes among a representative sample over time.

may be either quantitative or qualitative and produce a snapshot of behavior at any time by analysing correlations and causations of particular issue.

statistical / numerical data created and published by governments that allow sociologists to examine patterns and trends between societies.

an informal interview, not structured by a standard list of questions. Topics can be dealt with in any order and researchers can phrase their questions as they think best.

beginning with a general idea or topic, the researcher encourages the respondent to talk freely about the things they feel are important.

Also called focus groups, these involve respondents gathering to discuss a topic decided in advance by the research.

observing behavior from a distance, without becoming involved in the behavior that is studied being and sometimes without the subjects knowing that they are being observed.

the researcher participates with their subjects in order to understand their behavior from their viewpoint.

aware they are being studied

not aware they are being studied

research in which the characteristics of a particular group or case are studied. This is a research technique rather than method where different methods usually qualitative can be used to generate data.

the study of cultural meanings embedded in media forms. This method is often combined with content analysis to produce a more rounded picture of behavior through its ability to explore and interpret the hidden messages embedded within texts.

there are many different sources of documents that sociologists use, such as official documents from governments, organizational documents from private companies, organizations and personal documents from individuals.

the initial stage at which the sociologist decide things like the general topic and more specific ideas about what aspect of it to study

the research focuses that sets the basic theme for study in the form of a hypothesis or question

sampling is needed to choose the respondents for the research because its not possible to research the whole population.

used to select a small proportion of the people that will be subjects of the research.

data once collected, needs to be analysed in one of three ways private/internal analysis, practical analysis, or public external analysis

once the data has been analysed, research needs to be presented in terms of its findings, conclusion, limitations, suggestions for further research and improvements to the research design.