Chapter 2: Sociology as a Social Science
Sociology as a Science
● Social science: academic disciplines focused on society and the relationships within societies
● Science: a form of knowledge that attempts to provide causal explanations of phenomena
and tests of those explanations through empirical research
○ To the scientist, understanding means explaining why something under study acts
or behaves the way it does
● Theory: a logically organized scientific explanation
○ We look first at ways sociologists create and use concepts and theories, and second
at the methodologies they use to tes those theories
Concepts and Theories in Sociology
Concepts
● A concept directs our perceptions of the world around us by specifying what we should
notice and what we should ignore
○ Calls our attention to certain similarities among objects or ideas and at the same
time directs us to ignore all differences
○ Reflect the interests of the people who created them
Theories
● A theory specifies relations among concepts, predicting the degree to which they affect each
other, and why
● Sociology can demonstrate relationships among concepts, but exacting predictions seem to
be blocked by the complexity of human beings and their societies
Major Theoretical Perspectives in Sociology
● Structural functionalism: a perspective that views the various parts (or structures) of
society in terms of the functions they fulfill for the overall society
○ Manifest functions: the obvious functions provided by social structures
■ i.e. educational systems serve to pass on cultural knowledge to each
generation
○ Latent function: the uninententional or hidden function provided by social
structures, which may not be known or understood until the structure is altered
■ i.e. educational systems tend to keep wealth in the hands of the wealthy
across generations
● Conflict theory: a school of sociological theory that focuses on the inherent strains and
conflicts in social relations and the use of power by members of society to further their
interests in light of that conflict
, ○ Built-in differences in power and wealth will produce conflict in society between
those who have them and those who don’t
○ Ideology: an idea or set of ideas that represents a particular interest of a particular
social group; within a social movement, an ideology represents the movement’s
world view, including their perception of the world, along with a proposed role for
the movement
● Interactionist perspective: human behavior is a meaningful response to an agreed-upon
social reality shared by members of society
○ In order to understand a response, we need to understand that social reality
○ We can only understand, explain, and predict an individual’s action if we first know
what that action means to the individual (Max Weber)
The Methods of Sociological Research
● Hypothesis: states a prediction, which follows from the theory (“if this happens, then this
will happen”)
○ Measurement: the assignment of numbers to some specific characteristic according
to a specified rule
● Operational definition: the definition of a concept in terms of the way it is measured
Quantitative research methods produce data that is objective, without bias, and expressed
numerically
● The Formal Experiment
○ Experiment: a method of hypothesis testing in which the objects to which the
hypothesis applies are assigned randomly between two groups; resulting
differences between the two groups should be due to the experimental condition
■ Control group
■ Experimental group → experimental treatment = independent variable
■ Changes caused by manipulation = dependent variable
Qualitative research methods use a range of methods to examine understandings, meanings, and
perceptions; the data are expressed in themes and words
● Participant Observation
Making Sense of Research Findings: Statistics
● Descriptive statistics: the transformation of observations into numbers in such a way that
the observations are described (how many, to what extent, etc.)
○ Correlations: a descriptive statistic (usually varying from -1.0 to +1.0) that measures
the degree to which two or more observations (or variables) rise and fall together,
suggesting a relationship between the two
Sociology as a Science
● Social science: academic disciplines focused on society and the relationships within societies
● Science: a form of knowledge that attempts to provide causal explanations of phenomena
and tests of those explanations through empirical research
○ To the scientist, understanding means explaining why something under study acts
or behaves the way it does
● Theory: a logically organized scientific explanation
○ We look first at ways sociologists create and use concepts and theories, and second
at the methodologies they use to tes those theories
Concepts and Theories in Sociology
Concepts
● A concept directs our perceptions of the world around us by specifying what we should
notice and what we should ignore
○ Calls our attention to certain similarities among objects or ideas and at the same
time directs us to ignore all differences
○ Reflect the interests of the people who created them
Theories
● A theory specifies relations among concepts, predicting the degree to which they affect each
other, and why
● Sociology can demonstrate relationships among concepts, but exacting predictions seem to
be blocked by the complexity of human beings and their societies
Major Theoretical Perspectives in Sociology
● Structural functionalism: a perspective that views the various parts (or structures) of
society in terms of the functions they fulfill for the overall society
○ Manifest functions: the obvious functions provided by social structures
■ i.e. educational systems serve to pass on cultural knowledge to each
generation
○ Latent function: the uninententional or hidden function provided by social
structures, which may not be known or understood until the structure is altered
■ i.e. educational systems tend to keep wealth in the hands of the wealthy
across generations
● Conflict theory: a school of sociological theory that focuses on the inherent strains and
conflicts in social relations and the use of power by members of society to further their
interests in light of that conflict
, ○ Built-in differences in power and wealth will produce conflict in society between
those who have them and those who don’t
○ Ideology: an idea or set of ideas that represents a particular interest of a particular
social group; within a social movement, an ideology represents the movement’s
world view, including their perception of the world, along with a proposed role for
the movement
● Interactionist perspective: human behavior is a meaningful response to an agreed-upon
social reality shared by members of society
○ In order to understand a response, we need to understand that social reality
○ We can only understand, explain, and predict an individual’s action if we first know
what that action means to the individual (Max Weber)
The Methods of Sociological Research
● Hypothesis: states a prediction, which follows from the theory (“if this happens, then this
will happen”)
○ Measurement: the assignment of numbers to some specific characteristic according
to a specified rule
● Operational definition: the definition of a concept in terms of the way it is measured
Quantitative research methods produce data that is objective, without bias, and expressed
numerically
● The Formal Experiment
○ Experiment: a method of hypothesis testing in which the objects to which the
hypothesis applies are assigned randomly between two groups; resulting
differences between the two groups should be due to the experimental condition
■ Control group
■ Experimental group → experimental treatment = independent variable
■ Changes caused by manipulation = dependent variable
Qualitative research methods use a range of methods to examine understandings, meanings, and
perceptions; the data are expressed in themes and words
● Participant Observation
Making Sense of Research Findings: Statistics
● Descriptive statistics: the transformation of observations into numbers in such a way that
the observations are described (how many, to what extent, etc.)
○ Correlations: a descriptive statistic (usually varying from -1.0 to +1.0) that measures
the degree to which two or more observations (or variables) rise and fall together,
suggesting a relationship between the two
