Sociology
Diving Deeper Into Sociology
MINDS ON
Do you live in a rural area or an urban centre? Take a moment to think about these questions:
- What is the best thing about where you live?
- What is something that you would change?
- If you were to reverse roles or swap locations, what is something that you would anticipate enjoying about living in the opposite setting?
Keep your answers in mind as you watch or listen to this short video:
What did you connect to as you watched this video? Many of us likely connected to this video in different ways - maybe to something that we know, or something we’d like to experience. Regardless of what we like or would change about where we live, it’s important to note that we are all part of a bigger picture - society and the social world.
Reach back to what you learned in Unit 1, and remember that sociology is the study of groups, society, and social interactions. As you work through Unit 3 - Sociology - you’ll learn how diverse factors, such as our geographical location, influence and shape our individual and group behaviour. You will also learn how social groups and society influence many things about who we are and how we interact with each other.
ACTION
As you continue to work through the course, you may notice that many of the same (or similar) issues are studied by psychologists, sociologists, and anthropologists. Although they study the same issues, they examine them through different lenses. If you reach back to Unit 1, you’ll likely be able to recall learning about how the lenses relate to these three disciplines.
This unit examines the discipline of sociology - the study of groups, social interactions, and society. Before we explore different ways of explaining groups in society, it’s important that you understand a very significant concept in sociology: social institutions. Different groups in society are referred to as social institutions by sociologists - people who study sociology. All of the different social institutions collectively (together) create our society, and they govern (or guide) the way society functions or interacts. Social institutions have an impact on us as individuals too, because they create or establish the ways in which we are expected to act. For example, the social institution of the law (legal system) enforces what is considered to be acceptable behaviour and what is not legally acceptable (e.g., what we can be arrested for!). What are some other examples of social institutions?
Social_Institutions
All of these (and many more) social institutions work together to create society.
An interesting point to think about is that many social institutions are dynamic, which means that they change to try to reflect important aspects of our diverse society. For example, the term ‘family,’ at one time, was very traditional (e.g., a mom, dad, and children). Today, in Canada, the term family is defined as, “any combination of two or more persons who are bound together over time by ties of mutual consent, birth and/or adoption or placement, and who together assume responsibilities for variant combinations of some of the following: physical maintenance and care of group members, addition of new members through procreation, adoption or placement; socialization of children, social control of members, production, consumption, distribution of goods and services; and affective nurturance (i.e., love)." (vanierinstitute.ca) It’s important to note however, that different cultures have different definitions for the term ‘family.’
Sometimes it might seem like all of these institutions regulate or control too much of our everyday lives, but what would happen if we didn’t have social institutions? Think about laws, for example. If we didn’t have laws to govern our society, would we live in peace? Would we be happier? Would we be kind to each other? These questions raise some important issues, for example, “Are humans innately good, or evil?” Do you remember the concept of ethnocentrism - our tendency to judge others based on our culture? Do you think the term ethnocentrism may be relevant in this discussion?
Major Sociological Schools of Thought
You can likely recall that all sociologists are interested in studying groups and society. But the term ‘sociology’ is an umbrella term - a big or overarching term - that encompasses (or includes) different approaches. You likely remember this concept from Unit 2 and the study of Psychology. The different approaches that are found under the umbrella term are called Schools of Thought, and sociologists that are in the same ‘school of thought’ generally have the same beliefs that explain how groups in society act – and interact.
Do you remember the idea (or analogy) of wearing different coloured lenses? Even though all the Schools of Thought study groups in society, each of them explains the way society is - and the way groups in society interact - slightly differently. Social groups in society are made up of people who interact with each other often and share similar characteristics (e.g., clubs, teams, family, friends) and have a great sense of unity. Social categories is the term that describes people who share similar characteristics, even though they might not interact with each other (e.g., teenagers, Canadians, the elderly).
Schools_of_thought
Let's apply your new knowledge by looking at a specific issue in society - crime and deviant behaviour. Drag and drop something a sociologist might say about crime or deviant behaviour (e.g., their perspectives) to the school of thought to which it connects.
School_of_thought_drag_and_drop
Perspectives in Sociology
Check In Point: Find an image that you feel represents the ‘big idea’ or main point of each of the perspectives you just read about: Structural Functionalism, Conflict Theory, Symbolic Interactionism, or Contemporary Theories (e.g., Feminist Perspective, Marginalized Voices).
Save these images in your Portfolio.
Research Methods in Sociology
If you reach back to Unit 2, you'll likely remember that many psychologists use the experimental approach when it comes to studying human behaviour - how we think, feel, and act. Sociologists tend to use qualitative (e.g., describing the findings in words) or quantitative (e.g. showing relationships in numbers or statistics) research methods. An important point to note is that regardless of which method is used to collect research, it must be ethical.
You will learn about five different research methods used by sociologists, and as you do, try to think critically about each one. To accomplish this, you can ask yourself these two following questions.
- What are some ‘pros’ (good things or advantages) about using the specific method?
- What are some ‘cons’ (challenges that the researcher may have to deal with) when using the specific method?
Re-create this organizer in your notes to capture your thinking, or click here to access this organizer as an editable file.
Social Science Research Methods
| Research Method (Type) | Pros/Advantages of the Method | Cons/Disadvantages of the Method |
| Surveys | ||
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| Interviews | ||
| Participant Observation | ||
| Content Analysis | ||
| Mixed (or Multiple) Research Methods | ||
1. Surveys
A survey is a research method where people (who are called respondents) answer some pre-set questions. Have you ever answered a survey? Odds are, you have. Surveys are reportedly the most commonly used tool in the research world to gather respondents’ feedback. There are three types of surveys:
- Self-administered Questionnaires: The researcher isn’t present when the respondent fills in the survey. These surveys could be sent in the mail, or could be completed online. Questions often list several possible answers that respondents can choose from (e.g., agree, disagree, true, false). Here is a sample questionnaire.
- Telephone Surveys: Telephone surveys are similar to self-administered surveys; however, instead of completing them on their own, a researcher asks the questions to the respondent over the phone.
- In-person Surveys: As you can likely figure out by the name, in-person surveys are done - in person! The researcher is (physically) in front of the respondent.
2. Interviews
Interviews happen when a researcher asks a series of questions to a respondent. Instead of being able to choose from some pre-set answers, the respondent tells the researcher her/his opinions, ideas, or comments about the topic or issue that is being studied. Interviews can be unstructured (there are no ‘set’ or ready-made questions to ask), semi-structured (there are some set questions, but researchers can ask follow-up questions as they go), or structured (researchers only ask the questions that are on their list before they start the interview). Basically, an interview is a dialogue (or conversation) between the researcher and the respondent. Have you ever had to do an interview - maybe for a job or a scholarship? If so, you can likely relate to this type of research method!
3. (Participant) Observation
Sometimes this method of researching is referred to as fieldwork, because it involves a researcher actively becoming a part of the daily life activities in the population that is being studied. This type of research is meant to be informal, which means that the researchers do not want anything to change because they are there - they want to observe people, society, or groups exactly as they would function if they (the researchers) were not there observing them.
Watch or listen to this short video for an example of participant observation. The researcher’s name is Mary Turner, and she became a participant observer when she lived with and observed Irish Travellers (the proper term for ‘gypsies’ in Ireland, Great Britain, and the United States) for seven years:
4. Content Analysis
This method of collecting research involves analysing texts to study social issues. These texts might include: magazines, newspapers, movies, blogs, social media posts, television programs, etc. For example, researchers studying the topic of body image may look at: how health and fitness magazines have changed over time, how body image is visually represented in different cultures throughout the world, the themes that are present in the magazines, or, they might count the number of references the text makes to certain words that relate to the idea of body image (e.g., self-esteem, self-concept, weight, etc.).
5. Mixed (or Multiple) Methods
A mixed methods approach means that sociologists will use more than one method to collect research - they use different qualitative and quantitative methods together. Then, they compare the results or information they receive to ‘paint’ a bigger picture of the topic they are studying.
CONSOLIDATION
Analysis of a Current Issue
- Choose an issue in society, a social issue, that you might find interesting (e.g., crime, gender, race, age, social media, rights and freedoms, Indian residential schools, materialism, violence in schools, drugs and alcohol, obesity, the economy, poverty, etc.).
- Find an article (e.g., social media post, newspaper article, YouTube video, etc.) about your issue.
- Cite your article in proper APA format.
- Read your article and generate four connections (e.g., questions, statements, images, social media posts) - one from each of these perspectives listed below (don’t forget that you can use your Question Matrix(definition:
) (If you are using a screen reader, you can click here to access the long description for the Question Matrix.) to help you generate your questions!):
- Structural Functionalism
- Conflict Theory
- Symbolic Interactionism
- Feminist Theory (or another Contemporary Theory)
Save your questions in your Portfolio.
Learning Goals and Success Criteria
Learning Skills and Work Habits