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Samenvatting Introduction to Sociology
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Introduction to Sociology - Comprehensive Summary
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Samenvatting Inleiding in Sociologie hoofdstuk 1 t/m 13Chapter 1: Questions
Leerdoelen:
1) Describe the difference between sociological and individual perspectives on human
behavior.
2) Explain what is meant by proximate and ultimate causes of human behavior.
3) Describe the difference between micro, meso and macro level.
4) Describe the similarities and differences between a social problem and a social
phenomenon.
5) Describe the three aims of sociology.
6) Differentiate between normative and scientific questions.
7) Formulate descriptive, theoretical and application questions.
8) Reformulate ill-defined questions into more precise questions.
9) Describe the meaning of societal and scientific relevance.
10) Describe how private sociologists differ from academic sociology.
11) Describe how cumulative sociological science works.
1.1 Sociological perspective
Individual perspective: type of explanation of human behavior which focuses on the
individual causes.
Social context: Social environment in which the people are embedded
Sociological imagination (sociological perspective): type of explanation of human
behavior which focuses on social causes.
- If you want to give a sociological explanation of human behavior, you need to
consider the influence of social contexts and study the resulting collective human
behavior
Social phenomena: Collective human behavior
- Sociologists: aim to understand how, first, human behavior typically results from
shared contextual conditions and how, subsequently, this gives rise to collective
outcomes.
Sociological perspective supplements the individual perspective: the two perspectives
together provide a more comprehensive explanation of human behavior.
Alternative perspectives: for example, only individual causes matters.
Proximate causes: factors that are close to the phenomena to be explained
Ultimate causes: Factors that underlie proximate causes
- VB: Ultimate cause (Bullying in school) Proximate cause (negative self-image)
Consequence (obesity)
Micro level: The level in which individuals operate (pupils)
Meso level: Social contexts at the intermediate level (school)
Macro level: Social contexts that are broader than meso levels (country)
1
,1.2 Social problems
A social problem (public issue) is commonly understood as a problem that
1. Goes beyond the individual (it effects many people)
2. Is an issue about which many people are concerned (it is in conflict with certain
values)
Personal trouble: problem related to the personal life of an individual (not a social
problem)
- What people consider a social problem changes over time and is dependable on the
values of those people.
1.3 Three aims (doelen) of sociology
Descibe: provide an accurate description of social phenomena.
- What sorts of crime are committed by youth?
Explain: Come up with scientific explanations for social phenomena.
- What causes globesity worldwide?
Apply:
1) Sociological work can be valuable for coming up with predictions
2) Develop and evaluate social intervention
- Social intervention: subject to scientific insights and empirical work and are targeted
towards reducing social problems (social policy measure)
Societal relevance: Relevance of sociological work for the understanding of social
problems.
- Descriptions explanation apply
1.4 Three types of sociological questions
Normative questions: Question that entails value judgements (what should be done).
Scientific questions: Sociologists study the scientific apsects to social problems. This
means that, rather than asking normative questions, they address scientific questions
about social phenomena.
1) Descriptive questions: concerned with describing social phenomena.
- How much, how many, what is happening (observe)
2) Theoretical questions: concerned with understanding phenomena.
- Why (theories)
3) Application: questions concerned with applying scientific knowledge
- How (will .. develop), what (would be the effects)
1.5 The art of asking good sociological questions
Precision and relevance: Two elements for developing a good sociological question.
Ill defined: questions which are vague and ambiguous.
2
, Precise questions: questions which has clear interpretation
Question ingredients (precise): elements of a question which can be specified
1) The human behavior you are interested in
2) The social context
3) The period
4) The population
- VB: “How high is the crime rate?”
Human behavior: “How high is the homocide rate?”
Social context: “How high is the homocide rate in England?”
Period: “How high was the homocide rate in England in the year 2015?”
Population: “How high was the male homocide rate in England in the year 2015?”
(Scientific) relevance: relevance of the sociological work for accumulation of
sociologiscal knowledge.
We already know it!
- Literature review: systemtic overview of the theories and observations taht are
known (background knowledge), typically in a certain specialized field of research.
That’s a false question!
- False theoratical question: theoratical question which aims to explain something that
does not exist.
Thats just one case!
- Comarison-case question: question which includes some comparison of cases, such
as multiple social contexts, multiple moments in time and/or multiple populations.
1.6 Sociology and common sense
Common sense: Everyday thinking, intuitions, beliefs and perceptions.
Private sociologists: the way human beings, 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 confirmations.
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.
- Knowledge becomes public, objective and hence the subject of critique and
systematic inquires by many people.
Bindsight bias: after being presented with the facts or explanations, people think is
makes sense and is obvious
Confirmation bias: When people confront their thoughts with reality, they often
search for observations that confirm their ideas and disregard facts that might
undermine their ideas.
1.7 Sociology as cumulative science
3
, Cumulative science: The practice that theories and observations of earlier studies are
incorporated in the work of successive studies.
- Scientific ideas and observations.
Discriptive question Observation
Background knowledge: The theories and observations that are known before the
study commences.
Background knowledge Theoretical question theory
Background knowledge Observations Theory
- New studies are always conducted in an attempt to contribute to what is already
known.
SUMMARY
The sociological perspective explains human behavior with social contexts that
individuals share and thereby differs from the individual perspective.
The sociological perspective can be supplemental tot he individual perspective, it can
offer an alternative and it can provide ultimate causes that are tob e distinguished
form proximate causes.
Individuals (mirco level) share social context, which can be identified at the meso
level and mecro level.
Social problems are problems that go beyond the individual and about which many
people are concerned.
Sociologists study the scientific element to social problems (they study social
phenomena).
Rather than aksing normative questions, sociologists raise scientific questions.
The aims of sociology are to come up with accurate scietific descriptive questions
(what is happening?) theoretical questions (why is this happening?) and application
questions (how can we apply our knowledge?).
Ill-defined questions can increase in relevance by relating them to societal relevance
and scientific relevance.
Questions can increase in relevance by relating relating them the societal relevance
and scientific relevance.
There is a difference between private sociologists and public sociology.
Sociology is cumulative science, as theories and observations of earlier studies are
incorporated into the work of successive studies.
Chapter 2: Theories
Leerdoelen:
1) Describe what a sociological theory is.
2) Use a theory schema to represent sociological theory, hypotheses and observations.
4
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