Introduction to sociology
Hoofdstuk 1 7-9-2022
Individual perspective type of explanation of human behavior that focusses on individual
causes
Social context social environment in which people are embedded
Sociological imagination type of explanation of human behavior that focusses on social
causes
Social phenomenon collective human behavior
Proximate causes factors that are close to the phenomena to be explained
Ultimate causes factors that underlie proximate causes (also called distal causes)
Micro, meso, macro level The level of scale in which a study is done
Social problem a social problem or public issue is one that a ects many people
and and issue for which many people are concerned.
Personal trouble Problem related to the personal life of an individual
Social intervention Social policy measure
Societal relevance Relevance of sociological work for the understanding of social
problems.
Normative question question that entails value judgements
Scienti c question question that does not entail value judgements.
Descriptive question type of scienti c question targeted towards describing phenomena
Theoretical question type of scienti c question targeted towards understanding
phenomena
Application question type of scienti c question targeted towards applying scienti c
knowledge
Ill-de ned question Question which is vague and ambitious
Precise question question which has clear interpretation
Question ingredients elements of a question which can be speci ed. These are:
behavior of interest, social contexts, period and populations.
Scienti c relevance relevance of sociological work for the accumulation of sociological
knowledge.
Literature review systematic overview of the theories and observations that are
known (background knowledge), typically in a certain specialized
eld of research.
False theoretical question Theoretical question which aims to explain something that does
not exist
1
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, Comparative-case question question which includes some comparison of cases, such as
multiple social contexts, multiple moments in time and/or multiple
populations.
Common sense everyday thinking, intuitions, beliefs and perceptions.
Private sociologists The way human being, in daily life, make sense of the social world.
As such they are prone to, among other things, intuitive thinking,
implicit reasoning development of incoherent and vague ideas,
keeping knowledge private and searching for con rmations.
Academic sociology The way academic institutions describe and explain the social
world. Characteristics are the systematic way of gathering
knowledge, making explanations public and subject to criticism,
the development of coherent theories and rigorous testing.
Cumulative science the practice that theories and observations of earlier studies are
incorporated in the work of successive studie
Background knowledge the theories and observations that are known before the study
commences.
1.1 The sociological perspective
Individual perspective Sociological perspective
Phenomena of interest Individual phenomena, Social phenomena, collective
individual behavior behavior
(Why are people obese) (Why is obesity increasing in
society)
Explanations for behavior individual characteristics social context, social causes
(e.g. Genes, personality) (Country, neighborhood, family,
school)
PRINCIPLE 1.1
The sociological perspective: Sociology is the study of social phenomena. This means that,
if you want to give a sociological explanation of human behavior, you need to consider the
in uence of social contexts and study the resulting collective human behavior.
Relations between social perspective on human behavior and individual perspective:
- supplemental perspectives: the two perspectives provide a more comprehensive
explanation of human behavior. This possible relation thinks that a purely individual
perspective falls short and needs to be supplemented with a social perspective.
- Alternative perspective: individual and social perspectives can be seen as entire
di erent perspectives, so there could be only social causes but no individual cause to
behavior.
- Proximate and ultimate causes: these are causes that are in the background.
Proximate causes are closer and ultimate, or distal causes are more underlying.
Ultimate cause: bullying in school —> proximate cause: Negative self image —>
consequence: obesity
2
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, 1.2 Social problems
Social problem: a social problem or public issue is one that a ects many people and and
issue for which many people are concerned. Social problems are more severe the more
people are a ected, and the more severe, the more they con ict with prevalent values
Personal trouble: Problem related to the personal life of an individual
1.3 Three aims of sociology
There are three aims to solving a social problem. These are: describe, Explain and Apply.
Sociology does not immediately jump to solving these problems, but instead studies them
and nds out later how a problem can be solved.
Describe: nding accurate descriptions of social phenomena. To have a good
understanding of the nature of social problems we need to have accurate descriptions to
begin with.
Explain: The aim of this is to come with scienti c explanations for social phenomena.
Apply: The third step is to apply and share its insights, this makes the problem return to the
public concern about social problems.
There are two ways for sociologists to apply a solution to the public. One is coming up with
predictions, by studying the researched numbers, one could come up with a way to in
some way predict the future. Another way for sociologists to apply their knowledge is to
develop and evaluate social interventions, for example, there is a wage gap between men
and women in the workplace, and a sociologist could implement positive discrimination,
like hiring more women.
1.4 Three types of sociological questions
A normative question is one that questions what should be done. Examples of these could
be:
- Should we reduce income equality?
- Should we do more to combat the rise in crime?
- Should we adopt positive-discrimination policies to boost the career of women?
Answers to these questions is about what people consider good or bad for themselves or
for society. Answers to these questions are often based on your own beliefs and values,
political stance or culture. These questions could be seen as the core of the public debate.
Sociology is not a normative ideology, meaning that you need to verify that the questions
you ask are targeted to social phenomena. It helps to deviate the normative aspect of
questions from the scienti c aspects of it.
PRINCIPLE 1.2
Scienti c questions: sociologists study the scienti c aspects to social problems. This
means that, rather than asking normative questions, they address scienti c questions about
social phenomena.
After verifying that your question is scienti c, you need to ask what the aim is of the
question.
3
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, Type of question symbol Nature of the question Examples
Descriptive Q(d) How much, many? How high is the crime rate in
What is happening? Brazil and Canada?
Theoretical Q(t) Why is this happening? Why is the crime rate higher in
Brazil than in Canada?
Application Q(a) What will happen in the future? How will the crime rate develop in
What are the consequences of a Brazil? Which interventions
certain social intervention? reduce crime?
1.5 The art of asking good sociological questions
Ill-de ned questions: Question which is vague and ambitious
Precise question: question which has clear interpretation
Question ingredients: elements of a question which can be speci ed. These are: behavior of
interest, social contexts, period and populations.
Scienti c relevance: relevance of sociological work for the accumulation of sociological
knowledge.
Literature review: systematic overview of the theories and observations that are known
(background knowledge), typically in a certain specialized eld of research.
False theoretical question: Theoretical question which aims to explain something that does
not exist
Comparative case question: question which includes some comparison of cases, such as
multiple social contexts, multiple moments in time and/or multiple populations.
There are two elements for developing a good sociological question. These are precision
and relevance. By precision it is important that your question cannot have multiple
interpretations
Elements for a good question could be:
1. Behavior of interest
2. Social contexts
3. Time period
4. Populations
PRINCIPLE 1.3
Precise questions: formulate sociological questions as precisely as you can. In developing
more-precise questions, specify the following question ingredients: (1) the human behavior
you want to describe, (2) social context, (3) period and (4) population.
The second element to a good sociological element is relevance. A question is more
relevant when you can relate it to social problems or to society.
Challenges to the relevance of a sociological question
- avoiding repetition of questions. Doing research in to whether a question has been asked
before is very important. Therefore it is advised to do a literature review before forming a
sociological question.
- False questioning: in some cases it is possible to raise a false question. To prevent this it
is advised to do good research before posing a question whether what you are asking is
true.
- Posing a question for small cases. When posing questions it is important that you can
compare your case to another time, or population etc. sociologists tend to nd these
comparing cases more important than questions with single cases. These are called
4
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Hoofdstuk 1 7-9-2022
Individual perspective type of explanation of human behavior that focusses on individual
causes
Social context social environment in which people are embedded
Sociological imagination type of explanation of human behavior that focusses on social
causes
Social phenomenon collective human behavior
Proximate causes factors that are close to the phenomena to be explained
Ultimate causes factors that underlie proximate causes (also called distal causes)
Micro, meso, macro level The level of scale in which a study is done
Social problem a social problem or public issue is one that a ects many people
and and issue for which many people are concerned.
Personal trouble Problem related to the personal life of an individual
Social intervention Social policy measure
Societal relevance Relevance of sociological work for the understanding of social
problems.
Normative question question that entails value judgements
Scienti c question question that does not entail value judgements.
Descriptive question type of scienti c question targeted towards describing phenomena
Theoretical question type of scienti c question targeted towards understanding
phenomena
Application question type of scienti c question targeted towards applying scienti c
knowledge
Ill-de ned question Question which is vague and ambitious
Precise question question which has clear interpretation
Question ingredients elements of a question which can be speci ed. These are:
behavior of interest, social contexts, period and populations.
Scienti c relevance relevance of sociological work for the accumulation of sociological
knowledge.
Literature review systematic overview of the theories and observations that are
known (background knowledge), typically in a certain specialized
eld of research.
False theoretical question Theoretical question which aims to explain something that does
not exist
1
fi fi fi fi fi ff fi
, Comparative-case question question which includes some comparison of cases, such as
multiple social contexts, multiple moments in time and/or multiple
populations.
Common sense everyday thinking, intuitions, beliefs and perceptions.
Private sociologists The way human being, in daily life, make sense of the social world.
As such they are prone to, among other things, intuitive thinking,
implicit reasoning development of incoherent and vague ideas,
keeping knowledge private and searching for con rmations.
Academic sociology The way academic institutions describe and explain the social
world. Characteristics are the systematic way of gathering
knowledge, making explanations public and subject to criticism,
the development of coherent theories and rigorous testing.
Cumulative science the practice that theories and observations of earlier studies are
incorporated in the work of successive studie
Background knowledge the theories and observations that are known before the study
commences.
1.1 The sociological perspective
Individual perspective Sociological perspective
Phenomena of interest Individual phenomena, Social phenomena, collective
individual behavior behavior
(Why are people obese) (Why is obesity increasing in
society)
Explanations for behavior individual characteristics social context, social causes
(e.g. Genes, personality) (Country, neighborhood, family,
school)
PRINCIPLE 1.1
The sociological perspective: Sociology is the study of social phenomena. This means that,
if you want to give a sociological explanation of human behavior, you need to consider the
in uence of social contexts and study the resulting collective human behavior.
Relations between social perspective on human behavior and individual perspective:
- supplemental perspectives: the two perspectives provide a more comprehensive
explanation of human behavior. This possible relation thinks that a purely individual
perspective falls short and needs to be supplemented with a social perspective.
- Alternative perspective: individual and social perspectives can be seen as entire
di erent perspectives, so there could be only social causes but no individual cause to
behavior.
- Proximate and ultimate causes: these are causes that are in the background.
Proximate causes are closer and ultimate, or distal causes are more underlying.
Ultimate cause: bullying in school —> proximate cause: Negative self image —>
consequence: obesity
2
flff fi
, 1.2 Social problems
Social problem: a social problem or public issue is one that a ects many people and and
issue for which many people are concerned. Social problems are more severe the more
people are a ected, and the more severe, the more they con ict with prevalent values
Personal trouble: Problem related to the personal life of an individual
1.3 Three aims of sociology
There are three aims to solving a social problem. These are: describe, Explain and Apply.
Sociology does not immediately jump to solving these problems, but instead studies them
and nds out later how a problem can be solved.
Describe: nding accurate descriptions of social phenomena. To have a good
understanding of the nature of social problems we need to have accurate descriptions to
begin with.
Explain: The aim of this is to come with scienti c explanations for social phenomena.
Apply: The third step is to apply and share its insights, this makes the problem return to the
public concern about social problems.
There are two ways for sociologists to apply a solution to the public. One is coming up with
predictions, by studying the researched numbers, one could come up with a way to in
some way predict the future. Another way for sociologists to apply their knowledge is to
develop and evaluate social interventions, for example, there is a wage gap between men
and women in the workplace, and a sociologist could implement positive discrimination,
like hiring more women.
1.4 Three types of sociological questions
A normative question is one that questions what should be done. Examples of these could
be:
- Should we reduce income equality?
- Should we do more to combat the rise in crime?
- Should we adopt positive-discrimination policies to boost the career of women?
Answers to these questions is about what people consider good or bad for themselves or
for society. Answers to these questions are often based on your own beliefs and values,
political stance or culture. These questions could be seen as the core of the public debate.
Sociology is not a normative ideology, meaning that you need to verify that the questions
you ask are targeted to social phenomena. It helps to deviate the normative aspect of
questions from the scienti c aspects of it.
PRINCIPLE 1.2
Scienti c questions: sociologists study the scienti c aspects to social problems. This
means that, rather than asking normative questions, they address scienti c questions about
social phenomena.
After verifying that your question is scienti c, you need to ask what the aim is of the
question.
3
fi fi fi ff fi fi fi fi fl ff fi
, Type of question symbol Nature of the question Examples
Descriptive Q(d) How much, many? How high is the crime rate in
What is happening? Brazil and Canada?
Theoretical Q(t) Why is this happening? Why is the crime rate higher in
Brazil than in Canada?
Application Q(a) What will happen in the future? How will the crime rate develop in
What are the consequences of a Brazil? Which interventions
certain social intervention? reduce crime?
1.5 The art of asking good sociological questions
Ill-de ned questions: Question which is vague and ambitious
Precise question: question which has clear interpretation
Question ingredients: elements of a question which can be speci ed. These are: behavior of
interest, social contexts, period and populations.
Scienti c relevance: relevance of sociological work for the accumulation of sociological
knowledge.
Literature review: systematic overview of the theories and observations that are known
(background knowledge), typically in a certain specialized eld of research.
False theoretical question: Theoretical question which aims to explain something that does
not exist
Comparative case question: question which includes some comparison of cases, such as
multiple social contexts, multiple moments in time and/or multiple populations.
There are two elements for developing a good sociological question. These are precision
and relevance. By precision it is important that your question cannot have multiple
interpretations
Elements for a good question could be:
1. Behavior of interest
2. Social contexts
3. Time period
4. Populations
PRINCIPLE 1.3
Precise questions: formulate sociological questions as precisely as you can. In developing
more-precise questions, specify the following question ingredients: (1) the human behavior
you want to describe, (2) social context, (3) period and (4) population.
The second element to a good sociological element is relevance. A question is more
relevant when you can relate it to social problems or to society.
Challenges to the relevance of a sociological question
- avoiding repetition of questions. Doing research in to whether a question has been asked
before is very important. Therefore it is advised to do a literature review before forming a
sociological question.
- False questioning: in some cases it is possible to raise a false question. To prevent this it
is advised to do good research before posing a question whether what you are asking is
true.
- Posing a question for small cases. When posing questions it is important that you can
compare your case to another time, or population etc. sociologists tend to nd these
comparing cases more important than questions with single cases. These are called
4
fi fi fi fi fi
