CH-1-2 Understanding Sociology – Sociology : Chapter Notes

This Document Contains Chapters 1 to 2 CHAPTER 1 UNDERSTANDING SOCIOLOGY CHAPTER OUTLINE WHAT IS SOCIOLOGY? The Sociological Imagination Sociology and the Social Sciences Sociology and Common Sense WHAT IS SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY? THE DEVELOPMENT OF SOCIOLOGY Early Thinkers Auguste Comte Harriet Martineau Herbert Spencer Émile Durkheim Max Weber Karl Marx W.E.B. Du Bois Twentieth-Century Developments Charles Horton Cooley Jane Addams Robert Merton Pierre Bourdieu MAJOR THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES Functionalist Perspective Conflict Perspective Interactionist Perspective The Sociological Approach TAKING SOCIOLOGY WITH YOU Applied and Clinical Sociology DEVELOPING A SOCIOLOGICAL IMAGINATION Theory in Practice Research Today Thinking Globally The Significance of Social Inequality Speaking across Race, Gender, and Religious Boundaries Social Policy throughout the World APPENDIX: CAREERS IN SOCIOLOGY Boxes Research Today: Looking at the Gulf Coast Oil Spill from Four Theoretical Perspectives Sociology in the Global Community: Your Morning Cup of Coffee LEARNING OBJECTIVES WHAT’S NEW IN CHAPTER 1 1. Define sociology. 2. Define “sociological imagination.” 3. Differentiate sociology from other social sciences. 4. Differentiate sociology and common sense. 5. Define the term “theory.” 6. Discuss the development of sociological thought. 7. Discuss the contributions of the earliest sociological theorists. 8. Discuss developments in Sociology during the twentieth century. 9. Identify the major sociological perspectives. 10. Compare and contrast functionalism, conflict theory, interactionism, and feminism. 11. Define applied and clinical sociology. 12. Discuss key elements of the “sociological imagination.” • Excerpt from Where Am I Wearing? A Global Tour to the Countries, Factories, and People that Make Our Clothes, by Kelsey Timmerman • Discussion of how researchers in various social sciences would study the effects of the 2010 earthquake in Haiti • Thinking Critically Exercise on social and cultural capital • Research Today Box, “Looking at the Gulf Coast Oil Spill from Four Sociological Perspectives” • Emphasis on the theme, “Taking Sociology with You” in the last two sections (Applied and Clinical Sociology – and - Developing a Sociological Imagination) CHAPTER SUMMARY Sociology is the scientific study of social behavior and human groups. In attempting to understand social behavior, sociologists rely on a type of creative thinking referred to as the sociological imagination – an awareness of the relationship between an individual and the wider society. The key element of the sociological imagination is the ability to view one’s own society as an outsider would. This is quite a challenge since most of us are accustomed to the norms and values of only one culture. Sociology, like many of the social sciences, is quite broad in scope. Sociologists put their imagination to work in a variety of areas, including aging, criminal justice, economics, family life, politics, human ecology, and religion. Sociology focuses on the scientific study of human behavior and is distinct from common sense. Common sense, which is often based only on hearsay, tradition, or intuition, is typically inaccurate and unreliable. Sociology, on the other hand, is an empirical science, relying on systematic observations of social life. Sociologists use theory to examine the relationships between observations or data that may appear to be unrelated initially. Effective theory may have both explanatory and predictive powers. Early European theorists made pioneering contributions to the development of sociological theory. Auguste Comte (1798-1857) coined the term sociology to refer to the science or study of human social behavior. Harriet Martineau (1802-1876) gave special attention to social class distinctions, such as gender and race. Herbert Spencer (1820-1903), drawing on the work of Charles Darwin, applied the evolutionary view to the development of societies. Émile Durkheim (1858-1917) focused on understanding behavior within a larger social context, rather than individualistic terms. One of Durkheim’s most famous and enduring works is Suicide. Additionally, Durkheim is noted for his consideration of anomie, the loss of direction felt in a society when control of behavior becomes ineffective. Max Weber (1864-1920) advocated the use of verstehen as a means by which to understand human behavior. Karl Marx (1818-1883) suggested society is divided between competing classes (bourgeoisie and proletariat) that clash in pursuit of their own material interests. Marx’s most famous work is The Communist Manifesto (1848). Sociology continues to build on the developments of the early European thinkers. However, sociologists from the United States have also helped advance sociological theory and research. W.E.B. Du Bois (1868-1963), one of the founders of the NAACP, used sociological research to study urban life for Black and White Americans in order to mitigate social problems experienced by Blacks in the United States. Charles Horton Cooley (1864-1929) preferred to first view smaller units of intimate, face-to-face groups in understanding social behaviors. Jane Addams (1860-1935) was an early female sociologist who combined intellectual inquiry with social service work and political activism for the purpose of assisting the underprivileged. Robert Merton (1910-2003) produced a theory to help explain deviant behavior and emphasized the unity of macro-level and micro-level approaches in the study of society. French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu theorized that capital includes accumulated knowledge, prestige, formal schooling, and social connections that are passed on from one generation to the next. Sociologists view society in different ways. The functionalist perspective views society as a living organism in which each part contributes to its survival. Talcott Parsons (1902-1979) was greatly influenced by the work of Durkheim, Weber, and other European sociologists. Parsons was a key figure in the development of functionalist theory. The conflict perspective views the social world as being in continual struggle. Karl Marx viewed the struggle as inevitable, given the exploitation of workers under capitalism. The feminist perspective views inequality in gender as central to all behavior and organization. Sociologists began embracing the feminist perspective in the 1970s. The interactionist perspective is primarily concerned with the fundamental or everyday forms of interaction, including symbols and nonverbal communication. George Herbert Mead (1863-1931) first developed interactionism in the United States and is regarded as the founder of the interactionist perspective. Sociologists make use of all the perspectives since each offers unique insights into understanding of social behavior. Applied sociology is the use of the discipline of sociology with the specific intent of yielding practical applications for human behavior and organizations. Clinical sociology is dedicated to altering social relationships or to restructuring social institutions. Both applied and clinical sociology can be contrasted with basic or pure sociology, which seeks a more profound knowledge of the fundamental aspects of social phenomena. RESOURCE INTEGRATOR Focus Questions Resources 1. What is sociology and what is the sociological imagination? IN THE TEXT Key Terms: sociology, sociological imagination, science, natural science, social science Box: “Where Am I Wearing?” Visual Support: Photos of earthquake in Haiti; Table 1-1 Sections of the American Sociological Association IN THE INSTRUCTOR’S MANUAL Classroom Discussion Topics: 1-1, 1-2, 1-3, 1-4, 1-5 Video Resources: The Promise of Sociology; Requiem for Detroit; Streets of Plenty; Why Sociology? REEL SOCIETY CD Topic Index: Sociological Imagination 2. What is sociological theory? IN THE TEXT Key Terms: theory Visual Support: Photo of Las Vegas welcome sign IN THE INSTRUCTOR’S MANUAL Classroom Discussion Topics: 1-9, 1-13, 1-14, 1-15 Additional Lecture Ideas: 1-3, 1-4, 1-7, 1-8 Topics and Sources for Student Research: Identifying Theories; Goffman and the Feminist Perspective; Contemporary Sociological Theory Video Resources: Karl Marx-The Massive Dissent; Marxism; The Promise of Sociology; Sociological Perspectives 3. How did sociology develop as a discipline? IN THE TEXT Key Terms: anomie, verstehen, ideal type, double consciousness, macrosociology, microsociology, cultural capital, social capital Visual Support: Photo of Harriet Martineau, photo of student Figure 1-1: Contributors to Sociology (Durkheim, Weber, Marx, DuBois) IN THE INSTRUCTOR’S MANUAL Additional Lecture Ideas: 1-2, 1-5, 1-8 Classroom Discussion Topics: 1-9, 1-10, 1-11, 1-12 Video Resources: Karl Marx—The Massive Dissent; Marxism: The Theory that Split the World; W.E.B. Du Bois: A Biography in Four Voices 4. What are the major theoretical perspectives in sociology? IN THE TEXT Key Terms: functionalist perspective, manifest function, latent function, dysfunction, conflict perspective, feminist view, interactionist perspective, nonverbal communication, dramaturgical approach Box: Research in Action, “Looking at Sports from Three Theoretical Perspectives” Visual Support: Photo of a sacred cow in India; photo of men with tattoos; Photo of Ida Wells-Barnett; Table 1-2, Major Theoretical Perspectives IN THE INSTRUCTOR’S MANUAL Additional Lecture Ideas: 1-3, 1-4, 1-5, 1-7, 1-8 Classroom Discussion Topics: 1-10, 1-11, 1-12, 1-13, 1-14, 1-15 Topics and Sources for Student Research: Identifying Theories, Goffman and the Feminist Perspective, Gender and Nonverbal Communication, Contemporary Sociological Theory Video Resources: Marxism, Sociological Perspectives, W.E.B. DuBois: A Biography in Four Voices REEL SOCIETY CD Topic Index: Sociological Perspectives 5. What are applied and clinical sociology? IN THE TEXT Key Terms: applied sociology, clinical sociology, basic/pure sociology, globalization, social inequality Visual Support: Photo of community center in Colorado; globalization cartoon Sociology in the Global Community: Your Morning Cup of Coffee IN THE INSTRUCTOR’S MANUAL Topics and Sources for Student Research: Goffman and the Feminist Perspective Topics and Sources for Student Research: Careers in Sociology LECTURE OUTLINE I. What Is Sociology? • The scientific study of social behavior and human groups. A. The Sociological Imagination The sociological imagination is an awareness of the relationship between an individual and the wider society. • C. Wright Mills described this type of creative thinking as the ability to view one’s own society as an outsider. Example: What constitutes a normal sporting event in Bali (i.e., cockfighting) is different than in the United States. • It allows for a broader vision of society rather than a limited, personal viewpoint. B. Sociology and the Social Sciences • The term science refers to the body of knowledge obtained by methods based on systematic observation. • Natural science is the study of the physical features of nature. Astronomy, biology, chemistry, geology, and physics are natural sciences. • Social science is the study of the social features of human society. Sociology, anthropology, economics, history, psychology, and political science are social sciences. • In contrast to other social sciences, sociology emphasizes the influence that social factors have on people’s attitudes and behaviors, and examines the ways in which people influence and are influenced by society. Example: How sociologists and other social scientists study events such as the earthquake in Haiti. C. Sociology and Common Sense • Common sense information is not scientific. It is based on personal experience, tradition, intuition, or hearsay. Therefore, it is often unreliable and inaccurate. Example: Women are more talkative than men. [Researchers found that both male and female college students spoke about 16,000 words per day.] • Sociology tests, records, and analyzes information scientifically to describe and understand a social environment. II. What Is Sociological Theory? • Theory is a set of statements that seeks to explain problems, actions, or behaviors. Effective theory may be both explanatory and predictive. Example: Durkheim’s theory on suicide. • Durkheim’s research suggested that, while a solitary act, suicide is related to group life. Suicide rates reflect the extent to which people are integrated into the group life of society. Modern research show similar results. Example: Las Vegas has low community cohesiveness and a high suicide rate compared to the rest of the U.S. • An essential task in building sociological theory is to examine the relationship between bits of data that are gathered through research and that may seem completely unrelated. III. The Development of Sociology • Several European theorists made pioneering contributions to the development of a science of human behavior. A. Early Thinkers 1. Auguste Comte (1798-1857) • Coined the term sociology to apply to the science of human behavior. • Comte believed a theoretical science of society and systematic investigations of behavior were needed to improve society. 2. Harriet Martineau (1802-1876) • Offered insightful observations of the customs and social practices of both Britain and the United States. She emphasized the impact of economy, law, trade, health, and population on social problems. • She spoke in favor of the rights of women, the emancipation of slaves, and religious tolerance. 3. Herbert Spencer (1820-1903) • Adapted Charles Darwin’s evolutionary view of the “survival of the fittest” by arguing that it is natural that some people are rich while others are poor. • Spencer’s view appealed to those with a vested interest in the status quo, not in social change. This perspective is highly controversial and not widely accepted in Sociology. B. Émile Durkheim (1858-1917) • Behavior must be understood within a larger social context, not just in individualistic terms. • Durkheim concluded that religion reinforces a group’s solidarity. • Consequences of work were of interest to Durkheim. He suggested that specialized labor in industrial societies leads to anomie. • Durkheim was concerned about the dangers that alienation, loneliness, and isolation might pose for modern industrial societies. He included this idea in his study of suicide rates in Europe. C. Max Weber (1864-1920) • A German sociologist who suggested students should employ verstehen (understanding) in their intellectual work. To fully comprehend behavior, we must learn the subjective meanings people attach to their actions—how they themselves view and explain their behavior. • Weber is also credited with the concept of an ideal type. He described various characteristics of an organizational model of bureaucracy as an ideal type. D. Karl Marx (1818-1883) • Suggested society is fundamentally divided between classes that clash in pursuit of their own class and self-interests. He saw the factory as the center of conflict between the owners of the means of production (bourgeoisie) and the exploited labor forces (proletariat). • Marx and his colleague Friedrich Engels argued that workers should unite to overthrow capitalist societies, an act which would require a state of class consciousness on the part of workers. E. W.E.B. Du Bois (1868-1963) • Du Bois, a Black sociologist, contended knowledge was essential to combat prejudice and discrimination. He believed full political rights for Blacks was key to economic and social progress. • Because he challenged the status quo, he didn’t find a receptive audience in either government or academia. • Coined the term double consciousness, the division of a person’s identity into two or more social realities, to describe the experience of being Black in White America. F. Modern Developments • Sociologists within the United States have contributed to the development of new insights to better understand the workings of society. 1. Charles Horton Cooley (1864-1929) • Preferred to use the sociological perspective to look first at smaller units, such as intimate face-to-face groups. He saw these groups as the seedbeds of society in the way they shape people’s ideals, beliefs, values, and social nature. • Cooley’s work increased understanding of small-sized groups. 2. Jane Addams (1860-1935) • A social reformer, she co-founded Chicago’s Hull House. • Working with Ida Wells-Barnett, she successfully prevented racial segregation in Chicago public schools. • Advocated for a more egalitarian society. 3. Robert Merton (1910-2003) • Produced a theory that is one of the most frequently cited explanations of deviant behavior. Noted different ways people achieve success. • Emphasized sociology should strive to bring together the macro-level and micro-level approaches to the study of society. • Macrosociology concentrates on large-scale phenomena. • Microsociology stresses the study of small groups. 4. Pierre Bourdieu (1930-2002) • Capital has many forms, including knowledge, prestige, culture, formal schooling, and social connections. • Sustains individuals and families from one generation to the next. IV. Major Theoretical Perspectives • The major perspectives provide an introductory look at the discipline of sociology. A. Functionalist Perspective • In the view of functionalists, society is like a living organism in which each part of the organism contributes to its survival. • Functionalism emphasizes the way that parts of a society are structured to maintain its stability. • Talcott Parsons dominated functionalist thought in sociology for over four decades in the United States. 1. Manifest and Latent Functions • Robert Merton described manifest functions as open, stated, conscious functions which involve intended, recognized consequences. • Latent functions are unconscious or unintended functions, which may reflect a hidden purpose. Example: Encouraging college attendance for young adults reduces levels of unemployment (by keeping this age group out of the labor force temporarily). Schools also serve as meeting grounds for people to form new relationships. 2. Dysfunctions • Refers to an element or process of a society that may disrupt the social system or reduce its social stability. • Dysfunctions are disruptive to societal functioning. Example: The presence of weapons and gangs in schools inhibits the ability of teachers and students to perform as expected. B. Conflict Perspective • Assumes that social behavior is best understood in terms of conflict or tension between competing groups. • Expanding on Marx’s work, conflict theorists are interested in how society’s institutions maintain privileges for the upper classes and keep others in a subservient position. Major social institutions are thought to reinforce and sustain the status quo. • Conflict approach has become increasingly persuasive since the late 1960s. 1. The Marxist View • Exploitation of workers under capitalism. • Emphasis on social change and redistribution of resources. • Considered more radical and activist than functionalists. 2. The Feminist View • Views inequality in gender as central to all behavior and organization. • Often allied with the conflict perspective. • Focus on macro-level relationships, like conflict theory. • Views the subordination of women as inherent in capitalist societies. • Radical feminists hold the oppression of women as inevitable in all male-dominated (patriarchal) societies. C. Interactionist Perspective • Generalizes about everyday forms of social interaction in order to explain society as a whole. It is a sociological framework that views human beings as living in a world of symbols (i.e., meaningful objects). Example: Persons holding certain titles or in various occupations are viewed and treated differently than others due to the manner in which the occupation is defined. • George Herbert Mead is regarded as the founder of interactionism. • Symbols are critical in human communication. All human interaction is symbolic. Even language itself is a set of symbols. Example: A salute or a clenched fist. Nonverbal communications can include facial gestures, expressions, and postures. • Erving Goffman popularized the dramaturgical approach. Compares everyday life to actors performing on a stage. Example: Projecting a serious image in class and a party image with friends. D. The Sociological Approach • Sociology makes use of all the perspectives. See Table 1-2. • No one approach is the correct one. Perspectives may often overlap, and they can also diverge. V. Applied and Clinical Sociology • Applied sociology is the use of sociology with the specific intent to yield practical applications for human behavior and organizations. Example: Studying connections between illegal drug use and the spread of HIV/AIDS. • Applied sociology has led to specializations, such as medical and environmental sociology. • Clinical sociology is dedicated to facilitating change by altering social relationships (as in family therapy) or restructuring social institutions (as in the reorganization of a medical center). • Basic (pure) sociology seeks more profound knowledge or understanding of social patterns. Example: Durkheim’s suicide research is intended to help us better understand the social dynamics underlying suicide rates, not to treat those at risk for suicide. VI. Developing a Sociological Imagination A. Theory in Practice • Illustrates how the sociological perspectives are useful for understanding today’s issues. B. Research Today • Reveals new information on social factors that influence human social behavior. • Direct application to improving people’s lives. C. Thinking Globally • Globalization: The worldwide integration of government policies, cultures, social movements, and financial markets through trade and the exchange of ideas. • Globalization is increasing. Sociologists recognize that social behavior must be viewed within a global context. • Some view globalization as a natural result of advances in communication (Internet). Others suggest the expansion of multinational corporations has created a world without borders. D. The Significance of Social Inequality • Social inequality: A condition in which members of society have differing amounts of (and levels of access to) wealth, prestige, and power. • Sociologists often see behavior as shaped by social inequality. E. Speaking across Race, Gender, and Religious Boundaries • Both men and women, and people from a variety of ethnic, national, and religious origins are included in research by sociologists. • Sociology today seeks to better understand the experiences of all people. F. Social Policy throughout the World • Examination of current social issues. Example: Government funding of childcare centers; global immigration; religion in schools. • Sociology is useful in evaluating the success of programs or the impact of changes brought about by policy-makers and political activists. Sociologists will play an increasing role in government by researching and developing public policy. KEY TERMS Anomie Durkheim’s term for the loss of direction felt in a society when social control of individual behavior has become ineffective. Applied sociology The use of the discipline of sociology with the specific intent of yielding practical applications for human behavior and organizations. Basic sociology Sociological inquiry conducted with the objective of gaining a more profound knowledge of the fundamental aspects of social phenomena. Also known as pure sociology. Clinical sociology The use of the discipline of sociology with the specific intent of altering social relationships or restructuring social institutions. Conflict perspective A sociological approach that assumes that social behavior is best understood in terms of conflict or tension between competing groups. Cultural capital Noneconomic goods, such as family background and education, which are reflected in a knowledge of language and the arts. Double consciousness The division of an individual’s identity into two or more social realities. Dramaturgical approach A view of social interaction popularized by Erving Goffman in which people are seen as theatrical performers. Dysfunction An element or a process of society that may disrupt a social system or reduce its stability. Feminist view A sociological approach that views inequity in gender as central to all behavior and organization. Functionalist perspective A sociological approach that emphasizes the way in which the parts of a society are structured to maintain its stability. Globalization The worldwide integration of government policies, cultures, social movements, and financial markets through trade and the exchange of ideas. Ideal type A construct or model for evaluating specific cases. Interactionist perspective A sociological approach that generalizes about everyday forms of social interaction in order to explain society as a whole. Latent function Unconscious or unintended function that may reflect hidden purposes. Macrosociology Sociological investigation that concentrates on large-scale phenomena or entire civilizations. Manifest function Open, stated, and conscious function. Microsociology Sociological investigation that stresses the study of small groups, often through experimental means. Natural science The study of the physical features of nature and the ways in which they interact and change. Nonverbal communication The sending of messages through the use of gestures, facial expressions, and postures. Science The body of knowledge obtained by methods based upon systematic observation. Social capital The collective benefit of social networks, which are built on reciprocal trust. Social inequality A condition in which members of society have differing amounts of wealth, prestige, and power. Social science The study of the social features of humans and the ways in which they interact and change. Sociological imagination An awareness of the relationship between an individual and the wider society, both today and in the past. Sociology The systematic study of social behavior and human groups. Theory In sociology, a set of statements that seeks to explain problems, actions, or behavior. Verstehen The German word for “understanding” or “insight”; used to stress the need for sociologists to take into account the subjective meanings people attach to their actions. ADDITIONAL LECTURE IDEAS A set of numbers precedes each additional lecture idea. The first number is the text chapter number and the second number is the number of the additional lecture idea. 1-1: Émile Durkheim’s Analysis of Suicide Émile Durkheim’s classic analysis of suicide distinguishes among three major forms of this act: egoistic, anomic, and altruistic. This is a good topic for class discussion. When students are asked to explain the cause of suicide, they focus on depression and stress. However, as Durkheim would note, most people who are depressed or who experience stress do not commit suicide. Only relatively small handfuls of people who experience these symptoms take their lives. There must be some other factor that explains why a few depressed and stressed individuals commit suicide and most do not. At this point, students are ready to be introduced to the classic work of Durkheim. Students rarely have difficulty understanding altruistic suicide, but the distinction between anomic and egoistic suicide is more difficult for them to grasp. Use the following chart, which may be amended with different examples, as the basis for a discussion. The discussion can have two parts. First lead students through the chart, asking, for example, “Who is more likely to commit suicide, a Catholic or a Protestant?” After the chart is completed, explain the difference between the different types of suicide and then ask students to explain which of the illustrations are examples of anomic suicide and which are examples of egoistic suicide. Note that people in both columns commit suicide, but that the people in the left column are more likely to commit suicide than people in the center column. Note, also, that women attempt to commit suicide more often than men, but men succeed more often than women. More Likely to Commit Suicide Less Likely to Commit Suicide Type of Suicide Protestant (Reform Jew) Catholic (Orthodox Jew) Egoistic Scandinavian Italian Egoistic Divorced individual Married individual Anomic Divorced individual Never married individual Anomic Never married individual Married individual Egoistic Person living in a country at peace Person living in a country at war Egoistic Person living in a suburb Person living in a ghetto Egoistic Men Women Egoistic Army recruit Student at local community college Anomic College freshman away from home Student at local community college Anomic Factory worker College student Egoistic See Émile Durkheim. Suicide. New York: Free Press, 1951. (Originally published in French in 1897.) See also K. D. Breault, “Suicide in America: A Test of Durkheim’s Theory of Religion and Family Integration,” American Journal of Sociology 92 (November 1986): 628-656. See also Bernice A. Pescosolido and Sharon Georgianna, “Durkheim, Suicide, and Religion: Toward a Network Theory of Suicide,” American Sociological Review 54 (February 1989): 33-48. 1-2: Women Sociologists in the Twentieth and Twenty-first Centuries The dearth of female founding figures in sociology attests to the fact that women faced strong barriers to entering academia in the past. What many students will not realize is that—in sociology and in most other disciplines—women continue to face substantial barriers to acquiring academic jobs, attaining tenure, and contributing to their fields. Lecturing on this issue will make students more aware of the barriers that female sociologists still face, despite the common impression that the academy is one of the few gender-neutral, bias-free institutions in the work world. Moreover, it will give students a preview of the complicated sociological processes through which gender inequalities are manifested in the work place. While in the past it was common for women to be kept out of academics because of overt discrimination, today family issues are a central obstruction to women’s advancement. One excellent source of information about the trials of twentieth-century female sociologists is the book Gender and the Academic Experience (Meadow and Wallace 1994). In this book project, the first 20 women to receive Ph.D. degrees in sociology from the University of California-Berkeley were invited to write essays describing their experiences in graduate school and beyond. These women received their degrees between 1952 and 1972, a period during which UC-Berkeley had already become a top breeding ground for research sociologists. Their fascinating accounts of the female experience in the academy show numerous ways in which it was often far more problematic for women of this era to complete the Ph.D. process than it was for men. Although some of the women describe sociology departments that were supportive of them, others recount always feeling like unwelcome intruders in a man’s world—a message they received from male students and faculty alike. Many had more difficulty acquiring graduate funding than their male peers did. One woman (Harriet Presser) was actually taken out of consideration for funding when the department chair discovered that she was a single mother, and therefore not cut out for graduate study. A number of the other female students also had children, and had to forge a difficult balance between academics and family—at a time when outside childcare was not readily available. In part because of the very different gender expectations of the time, graduate studies often strained their marital relations. One woman (Dorothy E. Smith) experienced serious tension in her marriage when it became clear that she was a more promising student than her husband, who was enrolled in the same department. He ended their marriage within a few weeks after she completed her Ph.D. degree. Women completing their Ph.D. degrees in more recent decades would no doubt write a different book. But gender still poses a number of complications for women who decide to become professors. The work-family balance is a central issue for today’s female academicians. Given the long work hours that academic jobs demand and the strong American cultural norms surrounding motherhood, female faculty often anticipate that raising children will make it difficult for them to amass the publication and teaching record required for tenure. Moreover, many believe that their departments will perceive them as lacking commitment to the job, should they choose to have children before achieving tenure. For these reasons, more female than male academicians remain childless. Among women who do have children, tenure becomes a more difficult goal. Not surprisingly, studies have found that women with children are less likely to attain tenure than women who do not have children are. By contrast, men with children are actually more likely to achieve tenure than childless men are (Mason and Goulden 2002). This very interesting gender pattern probably reflects the fact that mothers spend more time in childcare than do fathers. Likewise, it may suggest that academic departments (unfairly) assume that fatherhood makes a man more stable, responsible, and committed to his career, while motherhood makes a woman less committed to her career. Other studies indicate that women who complete the Ph.D. are more likely to drop out of academia, to fall behind men in salary and post-tenure promotions, and to have appointments at lower-ranked institutions (Caplan 1995; Williams 2000). While these and other issues are sure to remain for some time in the future, more and more departments are beginning to recognize the special barriers female academics face. In a stunning acknowledgement, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology recently acknowledged that an investigation had uncovered a pattern of long-term systemic gender discrimination in salaries and other valued resources, and that it would implement a program to redress these inequalities (Miller and Wilson 1999). Sources used for this essay and additional reading ideas include: Paula J. Caplan. Lifting a Ton of Feathers. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1995; Constance Coiner and Diana Hume George. The Family Track. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1998; Mary Ann Mason and Marc Goulden, “Do Babies Matter?” Academe 88 (November/December 2002); Kathryn P. Meadow and Ruth A. Wallace (eds.). Gender and the Academic Experience. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1994; D.W. Miller and Robin Wilson, “MIT Acknowledges Bias Against Female Faculty Members,” The Chronicle of Higher Education 45 (April 2, 1999); Emily Toth. Ms. Mentor’s Impeccable Advice for Women in Academia. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1997. 1-3: India’s Sacred Cow: A Functionalist View To an American tourist in India, the Hindu prohibition against slaughtering cows may appear to be an ignorant belief that stands in the way of progress. The cattle browse unhindered in street markets, eating oranges and mangoes while people compete for the meager food supplies. Why is there such a devotion to the cow, or zebu, the large-humped species found throughout Asia and Africa? The simple explanation is that it is an integral part of Hinduism. Yet we know that many Indian people are often on the edge of starvation. Why has this practice, which appears to be manifestly dysfunctional, persisted for centuries? Economists, agronomists, and social scientists working from a functionalist perspective have found that cow worship is highly functional for Indian society. For example, the zebus perform two essential tasks: plowing the fields and producing milk. If eating zebu meat were permitted, families might be tempted to slaughter their cows for immediate consumption, leaving themselves susceptible to eventual ruin. In addition, zebus produce dung, which is recovered as fertilizer and as a fuel for cooking. (American scientists are even attempting to replicate this practice to help our society meet its needs for more energy sources.) Finally, the prohibition against slaughtering cows serves the function of assisting India’s poor. Untouchables (India’s lowest-status group) eat zebu beef in the secrecy of their homes. Thus, the prohibition against eating beef restricts consumption by most of the population while allowing the poorest sections to obtain vitally needed nutrients otherwise missing from their diet. The tourist returns to the United States with stories about the “ignorant” Indians. In reality, the tourist is ignorant of how functional cow worship is for Indian culture—and of how the West fails to learn from the wisdom of Indian traditions. See Marvin Harris. Cows, Pigs, Wars and Witches: The Riddles of Culture. New York: Random House, 1978, pp. 11-32. See also Harris, Human Nature 1 (February 1990): 28-36. 1-4: Functionalist and Conflict Views of Popular Music We generally think of the functionalist and conflict perspectives as being applied to “serious” subjects such as the family, health care, and criminal behavior. Yet even popular music can be analyzed using these sociological approaches. Functionalist View: Although intended primarily to entertain people, popular music serves definite social functions. For example, such music can bring people together and promote unity and stability. While Iran held 53 Americans as hostages during 1979 and 1980, people across the nation remembered them with yellow ribbons, and Tony Orlando’s song “Tie a Yellow Ribbon ‘Round the Old Oak Tree” achieved a new surge of popularity. Yellow ribbons continued to serve as a patriotic symbol when the United States greeted returning Desert Storm soldiers in 1991. Moreover, Bette Midler’s song “From a Distance” expressed solidarity with troops serving in the Persian Gulf. From a functionalist perspective, popular music also promotes basic social values. The long tradition of gospel music suggests that faith in Jesus Christ will lead to salvation. In the 1960s, the Beatles told us “All You Need is Love.” Then, during the era of the Vietnam War, they asked that we “Give Peace a Chance.” Conflict View: Popular music can reflect the values of a particular age group and therefore intensify the battle between the generations. In the 1960s, folksinger Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are A-Changin’“ warned older people to get out of the way of the younger generation if they couldn’t understand it. More recently, much of punk rock and alternative music (and costumes) is designed to shock conventional society and reflect the sense of alienation and outrage that its enthusiasts feel. Popular music can also represent a direct political assault on established institutions. The Sex Pistols’ “Anarchy in the U.K.” and the Smiths’ “The Queen Is Dead” attack the British monarchy. Many of the reggae songs of Bob Marley and the Wailers, such as “Burnin’ and Lootin’,” endorsed a revolution in Jamaica. Similarly, certain rap songs, among them Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power” and Ice-T’s “Cop Killer,” challenge the established social order of the United States. Finally, whereas functionalists emphasize that popular music promotes social values that bring people together, conflict theorists counter that popular music often focuses on injustices and on how certain groups of people are victimized by others. In this regard, Midnight Oil’s “The Dead Heart” laments the mistreatment of Australia’s native Aborigines, while Suzanne Vega’s “Luka” and Garth Brooks’s “The Thunder Rolls” both focus on the ugly reality of domestic violence. Clearly, there is more to popular music than simply entertainment. Most songs have lyrics that carry explicit messages of one sort or another. From the functionalist approach, popular music reinforces societal values, while conflict theorists see popular music as another reflection of the political and social struggles within a society. Sources used for this essay include: B. Lee Cooper, “Popular Songs, Military Conflict, and Public Perceptions of the United States at War,” Social Education 56 (March 1992): 160-168; R. Serge Denisoff and Rhys H. Williams. An Introduction to Sociology. New York: Macmillan, 1983, pp. 23-26; John Leland, “Rap and Race,” Newsweek 119 (June 29, 1992): 46-52. 1-5: W.E.B. Du Bois—The Sociologist Social scientists are gradually recognizing William Edward Burghardt Du Bois as a sociologist rather than as a figure in historical events. It is certainly understandable, given his fascinating life. He was born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, on February 23, 1868. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of both Fisk and Harvard Universities, Du Bois actually received two bachelor’s degrees. In his graduate work at Harvard, he arranged to spend two years studying with Max Weber in Germany and eventually became the first Black person to be awarded a Ph.D. from Harvard (1895). Upon graduating, he found that no White college would hire him, and he received his first academic appointment at all-Black Wilberforce College outside Dayton, Ohio. This was the first of many times during his life that Du Bois felt he received second-class treatment from White academe in general and the sociology establishment in particular. During his career, Du Bois wrote more than 20 books and 100 scholarly articles. He was a pioneer both in historical studies of the black experience and in sociological explorations into African-American life. His argument, expressed with passion in The Souls of Black Folk (1903), that an educated Black elite, “the talented tenth,” should lead Blacks to liberation, contrasted sharply with the ideas of his contemporary Booker T. Washington. Washington put his emphasis on industrial training for Blacks and maintained virtual silence on the questions of social and political equality. It is clear that in both his sociological perspective and his actions he typified the conflict perspective. One of Du Bois’s first major works was The Philadelphia Negro, which was the result of two years of funded research that allowed him to have the somewhat trivial title “assistant in sociology” at the University of Pennsylvania. The purpose of his research was to enlighten the powerful movers and shakers of Philadelphia on the plight of Black people. He clearly had a social reformer goal not unlike that of Jane Addams, who is also often overlooked as a sociologist. While it would not be regarded as that novel today, Du Bois sought to show that the problems were not rooted in the heredity of the Black people, but in their social environment. Although he was critical of the rich of Philadelphia, he did believe with some reservations that they had the capacity for benevolence. He conducted the entire study personally, collecting the data and walking the streets of Philadelphia’s Seventh Ward. He felt that the problems of Blacks stemmed from their past servitude, and in this early work he was unwilling to look at the capitalistic system as being responsible for the continuation of the subordinate position of African Americans in urban America. Clearly, Du Bois became impatient for White movers and shakers to bring about change. He quickly sought to empower the talented tenth of which he wrote. With the aim of ending racial discrimination, Du Bois founded the Niagara Movement in 1905. This was a forerunner of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), which he helped organize in 1909 and for which he edited the periodical The Crisis from 1910 to 1934. For decades, this was essential reading for all those interested in the fate of the African-American people. Du Bois resigned from the NAACP in 1934, following a dispute in which he argued that Blacks should expect segregated schools and other institutions to serve them even as Blacks struggled to eliminate the racism that had created these institutions. Du Bois’s view that Africans, freed from their colonial status, should help determine the world’s destiny was scarcely more appealing to civil rights leaders in the United States than his pragmatic approach to segregation. He returned to the NAACP in 1944 after a 10-year absence, but was forced to resign in 1948 when his association with the cause of world peace, his expressed admiration for the U.S.S.R., and his articulate condemnation of racial oppression at home and abroad made him a liability to the organization in a time of political reactionism and anticommunist hysteria. It is difficult now to imagine that Du Bois became a pariah in many quarters of the Black community (and that he remained unknown to Whites) throughout the 1950s. Du Bois spent his last years in virtual exile, but he lived to see advances in racial relations in the United States and the coming of independence, which he had helped to make possible, to much of Africa. In 1963, at the age of 93, Du Bois joined the U.S. Communist party before renouncing his U.S. citizenship and becoming a citizen of the West African nation of Ghana. He was at work on a monumental study of African culture, the Encyclopedia Africana, at the time of his death. Du Bois’s principal scholarly works, other than those already mentioned, include The Suppression of the African Slave Trade to the United States of America, 1638-1870 (1896), The Philadelphia Negro (1899) (see the fine new edition with an introduction by Elijah Anderson published in 1996 by the University of Pennsylvania Press), and Black Reconstruction in America (1935). His autobiography appeared in 1957. 1-6: Breaching Experiments Understanding and discussing theory can be difficult for many students. A good, educationally sound ice-breaking discussion can be based on norm-breaching experiments. Ask students to do a norm-breaking activity outside of class. Then ask them to report to the class on the impact that the norm violation had on social interaction. Norm-violating activities might include taking an item out of someone else’s grocery cart in the supermarket, staring at a stranger in an elevator, loudly burping in a public place, interjecting a comment in a discussion that is being held in an adjoining table in a restaurant, stopping in front of someone who says “Hi! How are you?” and answering their question in great length while blocking their escape route, or wearing formal evening attire to a class. Of course, you’ll want to make sure that these experiments are within the range allowed by your institution’s IRB (Institutional Review Board). 1-7: Interactionist View of Sidewalk Etiquette Erving Goffman (Relations in Public. New York: Basic Books, 1971, pp. 9-18) offers a new look at sidewalk behavior, drawing on the interactionist approach. When we sit behind the wheel of a car and begin driving, we are confronted immediately with many rules that govern our behavior. Society provides us with reminders of these rules—traffic lights, stop signs, speed-limit signs, white lines marking lanes, and, ultimately, police officers. Interestingly, pedestrians also abide by a certain mutual understanding of proper behavior in traffic. We may not have read a book of “rules of the sidewalk” or been formally taught them, and we do not need to worry about getting a ticket for “walking too fast.” Nevertheless, we have learned certain social standards for pedestrian behavior that are part of our culture. Traffic on the sidewalk sorts itself into two sides going in opposite directions. The dividing line is near the middle of the sidewalk, yet it can shift quickly when traffic bunches in one direction. As in vehicular traffic in the United States, pedestrian movement tends to stay to the right side of the dividing line. Those who are walking more slowly generally stay nearer the buildings, while those in a hurry are nearer the curb. The workability of such lane rules and of rules for passing is based on two subtle practices, “externalization” and “scanning.” When we externalize, we use body gestures to show people the direction in which we are heading. Scanning involves moving our line of sight to observe people coming in our direction and to confirm the forward progress of pedestrians immediately ahead of us. A person’s scanning range is usually three or four sidewalk squares if the street is crowded, and more if few walkers are present. In order to avoid small objects and unpleasant or contaminated spots, we practice “sidestepping.” George Orwell (Shooting an Elephant and Other Essays. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1950, p. 15) observed an interesting example of this practice in Burma. An Indian prisoner was walking between two guards on the way to his execution. He came near a small puddle and sidestepped out of the path for a moment in order to avoid it. This little act points out the often unconscious nature of sidestepping. If a collision with another pedestrian seems imminent, we attempt to create immediate eye contact. The hope is to quickly indicate a new route and avoid a collision. This is a common practice when people are crossing a street at a busy intersection. It can be argued that, given such pedestrian routing customs, the individual effectively becomes a vehicular unit. He or she is expected to conform to many unstated, yet socially agreed upon, standards. 1-8: Sociologists and Their Theoretical Preferences One hundred sixty-eight U.S. members of the American Sociological Association were each asked to identify his or her primary theoretical perspective. The conflict perspective had the most adherents. Few respondents regarded biological factors (i.e., sociobiology) as important. Grouping the responses yields the following results: Conflict/Marxism 24.7% (40) Functionalist/Structuralist 20.4% (33) Interactionist/Ethnomethodologist 17.9% (29) All other 33.9% (55) Atheoretical 3.1% (5) The conflict, functionalist, and interactionist perspectives cover about 60 percent of sociologists’ primary theoretical approaches. See Stephen K. Sanderson and Lee Ellis, The American Sociologist 23 (Summer 1992): 26-42. CLASSROOM DISCUSSION TOPICS 1-1. Stimulating Class Discussion about Where Am I Wearing: A Global Tour to the Countries, Factories, and People that Make Our Clothes. Each chapter in the text has an opening section that highlights an exciting sociological study. These opening sections are complemented by a “Classroom Discussion Topics” section that suggests some appropriate questions for developing a class discussion related to the opening unit. Questions about Timmerman’s work could include: Which sociological research methodology did he use? Could he have learned as much if she used a different sociological research methodology? Which theoretical perspective could be most usefully applied to his findings? Was this study ethical? What are the social policy implications of such research? 1-2. Stimulating Class Discussion about Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America: Present a summary of the book Scratch Beginnings: Me, $25, and the Search for the American Dream by Adam Shepard (2007). Have students examine how differences in labor available to a young, white male might differ from that available to Barbara Ehrenreich based upon her experiences in Nickel and Dimed. Note the cover photo—hitchhiking as a method of transportation—and discuss possible gender-related factors that might have affected the outcome of Shepard’s foray into the working-class world. This topic also would work well after chapter 12 (Stratification by Gender) or chapter 13 (Stratification by Age). 1-3. The Sociology of Tattooing: On the first day of class, ask for a show of hands from students who have tattoos. Lead into a discussion about how tattooing today has become trendy and is no longer just associated with social outcasts. Explain why tattooing can be a topic of sociological research, and use it to give the class an overview of what the discipline of sociology entails. 1-4. First Day of Class: For an unusual activity for the first day of class, see Paul Higgins, “Unconventional First Days: Encouraging Students to Wonder about Social Life and Social Learning,” Teaching Sociology 27 (July 1999): 258-263. 1-5. Introducing the Sociological Perspective: This imaginative first-day discussion uses a seemingly trivial issue (toilet paper etiquette), to open students up to the sociological way of thinking. Edgar Alan Burns, “Bathroom Politics: Introducing Students to Sociological Thinking from the Bottom Up,” Teaching Sociology 31 (January 2003): 110-118. 1-6. Personal Experiences and the Sociological Imagination: The author provides a thought-provoking illustration of how instructors can use their personal experiences to illustrate the sociological imagination and elicit classroom responses. See Walter R. Jacobs, “The Teacher as Text: Using Personal Experience to Stimulate the Sociological Imagination,” Teaching Sociology 26 (July 1998): 222-228. 1-7. The Sociological Imagination through Photographs: The author describes a fascinating activity through which Depression-era photographs are used to teach the concept of the sociological imagination. Chad M. Hanson, “A Stop Sign at the Intersection of History and Biography,” Teaching Sociology 30 (April 2002): 235-242. 1-8. Sociological Imagination: See John R. Brouillette and Ronny E. Turner, “Creating the Sociological Imagination on the First Day of Class: The Social Construction of Deviance,” Teaching Sociology 20 (October 1992): 276-279. See also Kathleen O’Flaherty, “Introducing Students to the Concept of the Sociological Imagination: A Written Assignment,” Teaching Sociology 20 (October 1992): 326-328. 1-9. Using Maps to Understand Sociological Theory: Although designed as an out-of-class assignment, this exercise can easily be transformed into an in-class activity for discussion. Barbara Trepagnier, “Mapping Sociological Concepts,” Teaching Sociology 30 (January 2002): 108-119. 1-10. Founders of Sociology: This activity was developed by Dick Colvard of Southern Oregon State College to help students see that the early masters of sociology were real people. See Technique No. 20 in Edward L. Kain and Robin Neas, (eds.). Innovative Techniques for Teaching Sociological Concepts. Washington, DC: American Sociological Association, 1993. 1-11. Talcott Parsons and the FBI: An interesting anecdote about the celebrated theorist is explored in Mark F. Keen, “No One above Suspicion: Talcott Parsons under Surveillance,” The American Sociologist (Fall/Winter 1993): 37-44. 1-12. Talking with the Experts: Some sociology classes have been successful in arranging telephone hookups with contemporary “giants” in sociology. Students find it fascinating to ask these people why they chose to study certain subjects, what problems confront the discipline, and so forth. 1-13. Revisiting Functionalism: Consult N.J. Demarath III, “Who Now Debates Functionalism? From System, Change, and Conflict to ‘Culture, Choice, and Praxis,’“ Sociological Forum 11(June 1996): 333-345. 1-14. The Perspectives—A College Education: There are never enough examples to illustrate the three sociological perspectives as students try to learn them. Here is another example that is relevant to college students because it focuses on colleges. Functionalism: The manifest function of a college is to educate people and to teach them job skills. A latent function of a college is to be a place to make friends and find dates. A dysfunction of colleges is that they are expensive and that you might graduate without learning useful skills. Conflict: A college education may be expensive and access may be difficult or impossible for poorer individuals. Schools in wealthy communities may do a better job of preparing individuals for admission to prestigious colleges. Graduation from a prestigious private college more readily opens up prestigious and well-paying career paths than graduation from many public colleges and two-year schools. Interactionism: A professor’s teaching style may determine the likelihood of a successful classroom discussion. A professor frequently serves as a role model for students. Student diversity in a classroom may have repercussions for classroom interaction. How do students “tell” a teacher not to call on them when a question has been asked? 1-15. Theory Triumvirate: Have students form three panels to analyze some topic or social problem using the three sociological perspectives introduced in Chapter 1. After the presentations, have the class evaluate the different insights that emerge from using all three approaches. 1-16. Using Humor: Joseph E. Faulkner has produced a monograph that includes funny examples that could be incorporated into lectures associated with Chapter 1. See Chapter 1 in Faulkner, Sociology Through Humor. New York: West, 1987. This book is out of print, but used copies are readily available. TOPICS FOR STUDENT RESEARCH AND CLASSROOM DISCUSSION 1. Have students analyze an article from the daily newspaper from a sociological perspective, using a sociological imagination. What differences in their conclusions result from using a sociological imagination? 2. Discuss why students might wear clothing with certain logos or insignias, and ask students to analyze their choices using the three major sociological perspectives. 3. Have students conduct their own study of the national origins of their most well-worn clothing items. Ask them to research popular retail chains to find out their policies regarding child or slave labor. 4. Ask students to compare the number of male professors at your college or university with the number of female professors, and have students factor in salary disparities for both, if access to salary information is possible. Then discuss gender inequality using the conflict and feminist perspectives. 5. Discuss the shift in social attitude toward smoking over the last 50 years, and ask students to analyze the change in attitude using the three major sociological perspectives. 6. Ask students to analyze the creation of seat belt laws using all three sociological perspectives. CHAPTER 2 SOCIOLOGICAL RESEARCH CHAPTER OUTLINE WHAT IS THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD? Defining the Problem Reviewing the Literature Formulating the Hypothesis Collecting and Analyzing Data Developing the Conclusion In Summary: The Scientific Method MAJOR RESEARCH DESIGNS Surveys Ethnography Experiments Use of Existing Sources ETHICS OF RESEARCH Confidentiality Conflict of Interest Value Neutrality FEMINIST METHODOLOGY THE DATA- RICH FUTURE Applying Sociology Initiating Policy SOCIAL POLICY AND SOCIOLOGICAL RESEARCH: STUDYING HUMAN SEXUALITY APPENDIX I: USING STATISTICS AND GRAPHS APPENDIX II: WRITING A RESEARCH REPORT Boxes Trend Spotting: Overcounting and Undercounting in the U.S. Census Research Today: Surveying Cell Phone Users Research Today: What’s in a Name? Taking Sociology to Work: Dave Eberbach, Research Coordinator, United Way of Central Iowa LEARNING OBJECTIVES WHAT’S NEW IN CHAPTER 2 1. Define the scientific method. 2. Discuss formulating the hypothesis. 3. Differentiate correlation from causation. 4. Describe the processes of collecting and analyzing research data. 5. Define validity and reliability in research. 6. Describe the various research methods used in sociology. 7. Discuss the ethics of social research. 8. Discuss sociological efforts to understand sexual behavior. Revised Mapping Life Nationwide Map, “Educational Level and Household Income in the United States” Discussion of nonrespondents to Current Population Survey Trend Spotting Box: Overcounting and Undercounting in the U.S. Census Discussion of the need the adjust survey questions in response to changes in society Coverage of ethnography as a major research design. Coverage of content analysis of gender stereotyping in children’s coloring books and of television coverage of men’s versus women’s sports Discussion of epidemiologists’ use of Google topic searches in tracking spread of H1N1 virus Revised figures showing median age of first sex Revised figure, “People Who Favor Legalization of Marijuana by Gender and Age, 2010” Discussion of vastly increased amount of data now available to sociologists CHAPTER SUMMARY Sociologists are committed to the use of the scientific method in their research. The basic steps in the scientific method are defining the problem, reviewing the literature, formulating the hypothesis, selecting the research design, and collecting and analyzing the data. Finally, the researcher develops a conclusion based on the findings of the research. An operational definition is an explanation of an abstract concept that allows a researcher to assess or measure the concept. A review of the relevant literature helps to refine the problem and reduce avoidable mistakes. A hypothesis is a speculative statement about the relationship between two or more variables. Variables are measurable traits or characteristics that are subject to change under certain conditions. The variable hypothesized to cause or influence another variable is called the independent variable. The variable that is changed or dependent on the independent variable is called the dependent variable. A correlation exists when a change in one variable coincides with a change in the other. Correlation should not be confused with causation. Causal logic involves the relationship between a condition or variable and a consequence, with one event leading to the other. Causation cannot be determined simply from correlation alone. In most studies, social scientists carefully select a sample. A sample is a selection from a larger population that is statistically representative of the population. In a random sample, every member of the population being studied has the same chance of being selected for the study. The scientific method requires both validity and reliability. Validity refers to the degree to which a measure or scale truly reflects the phenomenon under study. Reliability refers to the extent to which a measure produces consistent results. Sociological studies sometime fail to support the original hypothesis and researchers must reformulate their conclusions. Control variables are those factors that are held constant to test the strength of a relationship between the independent and dependent variables. A research design is a detailed plan or method for obtaining or collecting data. Surveys are a common method of quantitative research used by researchers to collect data. Surveys may consist of oral interviews or written questionnaires. Ethnography is the study of an entire social setting and way of life through extended systematic observation. Observation is the basic technique of ethnography although the ethnographic approach is often combined with other methods such as interview. Observation is a qualitative research method, which allows researchers to collect data through everyday interaction with a group or community under study. Experiments are artificially created situations in which researchers can manipulate variables. Typically, an experimental group is exposed to the independent variable and the control group is not. Analyzing existing data that has been previously collected is called secondary analysis. Content analysis involves the systematic coding and objective recording of data, such as using newspapers, periodicals, and other common documents or venues to interpret and test the significance of data. All researchers must abide by a code of ethics to ensure that researchers are not causing harm or violating a person’s privacy. Most research seeks to remain value neutral in its judgments when interpreting research results. However, some have suggested neutrality may be impossible to attain. As the feminist perspective gains influence among sociological researchers, feminist methodology is changing both how issues are defined and how data is collected. Computers and the Internet are exciting technologies that are having an impact on research. RESOURCE INTEGRATOR Focus Questions Resources What is the scientific method? IN THE TEXT Key Terms: scientific method, operational definition, hypothesis, variable, independent variable, dependent variable, causal logic, correlation, sample, random sample, validity, reliability, control variable Boxes: Research In Action, “Adolescent Sexual Networks”; Taking Sociology to Work, “Dave Eberbach, Research Coordinator, United Way of Central Iowa” Visual Support: Figure 2-1 The Scientific Method; Photo of college graduates; Figure 2-2 Educational and Household Income in the US; Figure 2-3 Causal Logic; Figure 2-4 Impact of College Education on Income; Trend Spotting: Overcounting and Undercounting in the U.S. Census IN THE INSTRUCTOR’S MANUAL Additional Lecture Ideas: 2-6 Classroom Discussion Topics: 2-1; 2-2 Topics and Sources for Student Research and Assignments: Social Theory Video Resources: Doing Sociological Research; Scientific Method and Values; Sociological Thinking and Research REEL SOCIETY CD Topic Index: Scientific Method What are the major research designs in sociological research? IN THE TEXT Key Terms: research design, survey, interview, questionnaire, quantitative research, qualitative research, ethnography, observation, experiment, experimental group, control group, Hawthorne effect, secondary analysis, content analysis Boxes: Research Today, “Surveying Cell Phone Users”; Research Today, “What’s in a Name?”; Taking Sociology to Work: Dave Eberbach, Research Coordinator Visual Support: Doonesbury cartoon on polling; Photo of survey instrument; Photo of army social scientist in Afghanistan; Photo of Beyonce Knowles; Table 2-1 Reasons for Sex; Table 2-2 Existing Sources Used in Sociological Research; Table 2-3 Major Research Designs IN THE INSTRUCTOR’S MANUAL Additional Lecture Ideas: 2-1; 2-2; 2-3; 2-4; 2-5; 2-6 Classroom Discussion Topics: 2-3; 2-4; 2-6; 2-7; 2-8; 2-9; 2-10 Topics and Sources for Student Research: Content Analysis—Comic Superheroes; Content Analysis—Newspapers; Feminist Methodology Video Resources: Sociological Inquiry; Research Methods for the Social Sciences; Sociological Thinking and Research; Statistics; Statistics: For All Practical Purposes Internet Connection: Oral History Society; Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration Social Policy: How Americans Feel—An Introduction to Survey Research What are the key ethical issues in sociological research? IN THE TEXT Key Terms: code of ethics, value neutrality Boxes: Taking Sociology to Work: Dave Eberbach Visual Support: Photograph of Exxon Valdez tanker IN THE INSTRUCTOR’S MANUAL Additional Lecture Ideas: 2-4 Classroom Discussion Topics: 2-7 Video Resources: 1. What are the key issues in feminist methodology? IN THE TEXT Visual Support: Photograph of foreign sex workers IN THE INSTRUCTOR’S MANUAL Classroom Discussion Topics: 2-8 2. How has technology affected sociological research? IN THE TEXT Visual Support: Photograph of Carnegie Mellon University data truck 3. What are the main controversies in sociological research on human sexuality? IN THE TEXT Visual Support: Figure 2-5 Percentage of television shows that contain sexual content; Figure 2-6 Median age of first sex Video Resources: Portraits in Human Sexuality: The Business of Sex LECTURE OUTLINE I. What Is the Scientific Method? • A systematic, organized series of steps that ensures maximum objectivity and consistency in researching a problem. • Requires precise preparation in developing useful research; otherwise, the research data collected may not prove accurate. A. Defining the Problem • An operational definition is required to assess the concept. Example: using membership in exclusive social clubs as an operational definition of status. B. Reviewing the Literature • Refines the problem under study, clarifies data collection techniques, and eliminates or reduces avoidable mistakes. C. Formulating the Hypothesis • Hypothesis: A speculative statement about the relationship between two or more variables (a measurable trait or characteristic). • Independent variables cause or influence change in dependent variables. • Dependent variables are changed by the independent variables or are dependent of them. • Causal logic refers to the relationship between a condition or variable and a particular consequence, with one event leading to the other. Example: Time spent studying may result in a higher grade on an exam. • Correlation is an indication that causality may be present. D. Collecting and Analyzing Data • Research designs guide researchers in collecting data. 1. Selecting the Sample • Sample: a statistically representative selection from a larger population. • A random sample occurs when every member of an entire population has the same chance of being selected for the study. 2. Ensuring Validity and Reliability • Validity refers to the degree to which a measure or scale accurately reflects the phenomenon under study. • Reliability refers to the extent to which a measure produces consistent results. E. Developing the Conclusion • Conclusion represents both an end and a beginning in research. 1. Supporting Hypothesis • Some studies refute a hypothesis, which leads to reformulations about a conclusion and adjustments in research designs. 2. Controlling for Other Factors • A control variable is a factor held constant to test the relative impact of the independent variable. Example: surveying attitudes of smokers and nonsmokers. F. In Summary: The Scientific Method • The data support the hypothesis that education level influences income. II. Major Research Designs • A detailed plan or method for obtaining data scientifically. A. Surveys • Generally in the form of an interview or questionnaire, providing researchers with information about how people think or act. Example: Gallup poll. • The survey is an example of quantitative research, which collects and reports data primarily in numerical form. • Skillful interviewers can go beyond written questions and probe a subject’s underlying feelings; questionnaires have the advantage of being cheaper to administer. B. Observation • Qualitative research offers more depth and detail than quantitative analysis. This type of research relies on what is seen in field and naturalistic settings, and often focuses on small groups and communities. Observation is the most common form. Example: studying gangs, or service organizations. • William F. Whyte’s work is a classic example of participant observation research, when he moved into a low-income Italian neighborhood in Boston (1930s). • Ethnography: The study of an entire social setting through extended systematic observation. The Adlers’ study of self-injury, described in the chapter opening, was an ethnographic study. C. Experiments • Artificially created situation. Typically involves the use of an experimental group exposed to an independent variable, and a control group, which is not exposed to the independent variable. • Sociologists do not rely on classic forms of experiment/control groups, due to the danger they might cause to humans. • Hawthorne effect refers to subjects of research who deviate from typical behavior because they are under observation. D. Use of Existing Sources • Secondary analysis refers to making use of previously collected or publicly accessible information and data. Example: Census data. • Existing data is nonreactive, since it does not influence people’s behavior; thus, researchers can avoid the Hawthorne effect by using secondary analysis. Example: Durkheim’s research on suicide. • Content analysis is the systematic coding and objective recording of data. Example: Analyzing the content of films to determine if there has been an increase in the depiction of smoking in movies. III. Ethics of Research • Code of Ethics, ASA first published in 1971. • Objectivity, integrity, privacy, protection from harm, confidentiality, informed consent, acknowledge collaboration and assistance, and disclose sources of financial support. A. Confidentiality • Rik Scarce jailed for refusing to divulge what he knew about a 1991 raid on a university lab by animal rights activists. • The Supreme Court has failed to clarify the rights of scholars preserving the confidentiality of research subjects. B. Research Funding • When accepting funding for their research, sociologists must be careful that the funding source does not taint the objectivity of the research. Example: Exxon funded research on jury deliberations after the Valdez disaster. C. Value Neutrality • Weber and value neutrality in research. Neutrality may be impossible. IV. Feminist Methodology • Impact of feminist perspective on current researchers. Example: Research now being conducted on integration of work and family, rather than viewing the two topics as unrelated. • Historically, sociologists researched men’s work, associations, communities, and generalized this research to all people, resulting in a biased picture of social life. • Frequently employs a multidisciplinary approach to the research itself and its application. V. Technology and Sociological Research • Impact of computers and Internet on research. Example: Software programs. • Web-based surveys are promising, but may not be random samples. VI. Social Policy and Sociological Research: Studying Human Sexuality A. The Issue • Human sexuality is a difficult topic to research, yet a scientific understanding of human sexuality is important, especially in an age of devastating sexually transmitted diseases. B. The Setting • There have been few reliable studies of patterns of sexual behavior in the U.S. The sensitive nature of the subject makes it difficult to obtain accurate information, and until the AIDs crisis, there was little scientific demand for data on sexual behavior. • Government funding for studies of sexual behavior is controversial. C. Sociological Insights • Sociologists may fear studying and objectively reporting findings for fear of losing government funds, in the event the research criticizes government policies. D. Policy Initiatives • In 1987, the federal government’s National Institute of Child Health and Human Development sought research proposals for a national survey of sexual behavior. • In 1991, the U.S. Senate voted to forbid funding any survey on adult sexual practices. • Researchers secured private funding for the research to go forth: National Health and Social Life Survey (NHSLS). Careful procedures helped establish validity of the NHSLS findings. • Authors of the study contend their data will allow sociologists and policymakers to better address such issues such as AIDS, sexual harassment, welfare reform, sex discrimination, abortion, teenage pregnancy, and family planning. • The research findings countered notions about abortion and birth control. Example: They found that women do not regularly use abortion for birth control and that affluent women are more likely to have abortions than poor teens. KEY TERMS Causal logic The relationship between a condition or variable and a particular consequence, with one event leading to the other. Code of ethics The standards of acceptable behavior developed by and for members of a profession. Content analysis The systematic coding and objective recording of data, guided by some rationale. Control group The subjects in an experiment who are not introduced to the independent variable by the researcher. Control variable A factor that is held constant to test the relative impact of an independent variable. Correlation A relationship between two variables in which a change in one coincides with a change in the other. Cross-tabulation A table that shows the relationship between two or more variables. Dependent variable The variable in a causal relationship that is subject to the influence of another variable. Ethnography The study of an entire social setting through extended systematic observation. Experiment An artificially created situation that allows a researcher to manipulate variables. Experimental group The subjects in an experiment who are exposed to an independent variable introduced by a researcher. Hawthorne effect The unintended influence that observers or experiments can have on their subjects. Hypothesis A speculative statement about the relationship between two or more variables. Independent variable The variable in a causal relationship that causes or influences a change in a second variable. Interview A face-to-face or telephone questioning of a respondent to obtain desired information. Mean A number calculated by adding a series of values and then dividing by the number of values. Median The midpoint or number that divides a series of values into two groups of equal numbers of values. Mode The single most common value in a series of scores. Observation A research technique in which an investigator collects information through direct participation and/or closely watching a group or community. Operational definition An explanation of an abstract concept that is specific enough to allow a researcher to measure the concept. Percentage A portion of 100. Qualitative research Research that relies on what is seen in field or naturalistic settings more than on statistical data. Quantitative research Research that collects and reports data primarily in numerical form. Questionnaire A printed or written form used to obtain information from a respondent. Random sample A sample for which every member of an entire population has the same chance of being selected. Reliability The extent to which a measure produces consistent results. Research design A detailed plan or method for obtaining data scientifically. Sample A selection from a larger population that is statistically representative of that population. Scientific method A systematic, organized series of steps that ensures maximum objectivity and consistency in researching a problem. Secondary analysis A variety of research techniques that make use of previously collected and publicly accessible information and data. Survey A study, generally in the form of an interview or questionnaire, that provides researchers with information about how people think and act. Validity The degree to which a measure or scale truly reflects the phenomenon under study. Value neutrality Max Weber’s term for objectivity of sociologists in the interpretation of data. Variable A measurable trait or characteristic that is subject to change under different conditions. ADDITIONAL LECTURE IDEAS 2-1: How Would You Obtain a Representative Sample? Students and their instructors have typically been saturated with telephone and shopping mall surveys. But do students know why they have been selected, and whether their selection is part of a representative sample? Suggest to the class that they have been given the responsibility of developing a representative sample in their school’s county that will be asking questions about a controversial subject (e.g., abortion rights, capital punishment, or gun control). How would they go about selecting a representative sample of county residents for this study? Student responses will tend to gravitate toward the following: shopping malls, telephone interviews, birth certificates, tax reports, grocery stores, bus depots, their college, and other suggestions that will not generate a representative sample. Each response should be met with an explanation of why the suggestion is not representative. Students will generally suggest that members of the sample population should be selected based on their characteristics, which is a good place to introduce a discussion of variables and quota samples and the weaknesses of this type of sample. Finally, the students should be asked, “If I were trying to select a random sample of this class, a sample in which every member of the class has the same chance of being selected, how could I do this?” Almost immediately, students will suggest placing names into a hat and pulling out one or more names at random. At that point, students can be led through a discussion of how the “hat selection” process can be used for a large population in order that everyone in the county has a chance to have their names “pulled out of a hat.” See Earl Babbie. The Practice of Social Research (10th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 2003. See also Peter Rossi et al. Handbook of Survey Research. New York: Basic Books, 1983; and Morton M. Hunt. Profiles of Social Research: The Scientific Study of Human Interactions. New York: Russell Sage, 1986. 2-2: Asking the Correct Questions Sociologists try to phrase questions carefully so that there will be no misunderstanding on the part of the respondents. If a question is improperly worded (or biased), the results are useless for the researchers. POOR QUESTION PROBLEM BETTER QUESTION Do you favor urban homesteading? People may not understand the question. Do you favor a government program that encourages families to improve inner city housing? Did your mother ever work? Misleading. Did your mother ever work for pay outside the home? Should it be possible for a woman to obtain a legal abortion? Too general. Should it be possible for a woman to obtain a legal abortion if there is a strong chance of serious defect in her baby? If she became pregnant as a result of rape? Do you favor making it legal for 18-year-olds to drink liquor and smoke marijuana? Double-barreled (two questions in one). Do you favor making it legal for 18-year-olds to drink liquor? Do you favor making it legal for 18-year-olds to smoke marijuana? Don’t you think that the press is slanted and that we should distrust whatever it says? Biased question; leads people toward a particular response. Would you say that you have a great deal of confidence, some, or very little confidence in the press? 2-3: Framing Survey Questions about Interracial Relationships Do White people really have close Black friends, and vice versa? Many surveys have attempted to gauge the amount of White–Black interaction. But unless the questions are phrased carefully, it is possible to overestimate just how much “racial togetherness” is taking place. Sociologist Tom Smith, who heads up the respected General Social Survey, noticed that a high proportion of Whites and African Americans indicate they have close friends of the other race. But is this, in fact, true? When Smith and his fellow researchers analyzed data from the 1998 General Social Survey they found that response rates varied according to how the question was phrased. For example, when asked whether any of their friends that they feel close to was Black, 42.1 percent of Whites said “yes.” Yet when asked to give the names of friends they feel close to, only 6 percent of Whites listed a close friend of a different race or ethnicity. 2-4: The Personal Implications of Ethnographic Research Ethnography is one of the most fascinating methods of data collection open to social scientists—so much so that it is worthy of sociological analysis itself. For one, ethnography requires an unusually long and intense period of observation, interviewing, and participation. It is also a method of study that involves an inherent dialogue between researcher and subject. In contrast to a survey or an experiment, those under observation in an ethnographic study can always “talk back” in ways that are unexpected for the researcher, thereby changing the scope and content of the research project as it moves along. For most practitioners, an ethnographic study also requires a long period in which the ethnographer is removed from familiar social settings, and is immersed in a very different culture or subculture. Often, one unintended consequence is that the ethnographer finds himself or herself personally changed by the research process. In contemporary ethnographies, it is now common for one or more chapters to reflect upon these personal implications of ethnographic work. Crafting Selves is Dorinne K. Kondo’s ethnography of a Tokyo confectionary. Kondo, a Japanese American with native fluency in Japanese, was often able to pass as Japanese. Because of her ethnicity and language abilities, she also found that her research subjects increasingly held her to the behavioral expectations of a young Japanese woman, rather than an American ethnographer. As a result, Kondo gradually found herself possessing two distinct “selves”: the “American self” and the “Japanese self,” with the Japanese self-becoming increasingly dominant. This process came to a head one day when Kondo unexpectedly saw her reflection in a mirrored surface, but failed for a moment to realize that she was seeing herself rather than an unknown Japanese woman. In this moment, Kondo felt that her American identity had collapsed completely, and that her Japanese identity had taken over in its absence. Shaken, she realized that it would be necessary in the coming months to extricate herself somewhat from the environment into which she had so fully immersed herself (Kondo 1990). In many cases, the ethnographer not only reports on the personal impact of ethnographic fieldwork, but also uses the experience to better analyze the social context under study. One of the most well-known examples is in the work of Renato Rosaldo. While Rosaldo and his wife were studying the Ilongot people of the Philippines, Rosaldo’s wife, Michelle Zimbalist Rosaldo, accidentally fell from a cliff to her death. In his essay “Death and a Headhunter’s Grief,” Rosaldo describes how the immense grief he experienced gave him new insight into the emotional motivations for headhunting among the Ilongot (Rosaldo 1989). Such “vulnerable writing”—in which the ethnographer explicitly incorporates personal experiences into his or her work—can also lead to a new level of understanding for the reader of that ethnography, according to Ruth Behar (1996). When Behar wrote a book in which she compared the life of a Mexican peddler to her own experience in the academic tenure process, several readers wrote to tell her that they found the comparison to be a vital element of the book. It had allowed them to identify better with the peddler’s experiences. Not surprisingly, there is growing interest among ethnographers—especially anthropologists—in a type of ethnography called autoethnography. While this term has been defined in a number of different ways, autoethnography can refer to a type of ethnographic text in which the writer explicitly addresses his or her own personal identity and history, and how it is linked to his or her work as an ethnographer (Reed-Danahay 1997). Sources used for this essay and additional reading ideas include: Ruth Behar. The Vulnerable Observer. Boston: Beacon Press, 1996; Dorinne K. Kondo Crafting Selves: Power, Gender, and Discourses of Identity in a Japanese Workplace. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990; Annette Lareau and Jeffrey Schultz. Journeys through Ethnography. Boulder: Westview, 1996; Deborah E. Reed-Danahay (ed.). Auto/Ethnography: Rewriting the Self and the Social. New York: Berg, 1997; Renato Rosaldo. “Grief and a Headhunter’s Rage.” Pp. 1-21 in Culture and Truth: The Remaking of Social Analysis. Boston: Beacon Press, 1989. 2-5: Content Analysis of Coverage of the Rodney King Beating Sociologist Ronald N. Jacobs examined media coverage following the severe beating of an African-American motorist, Rodney King, by members of the California Highway Patrol and the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) on March 3, 1991. Unknown to the police officers, the event was videotaped by an amateur cameraman who subsequently sold the tape to a local television station. Interest in the incident diminished about a month after the release of the Christopher Commission report on July 9, 1991, but exploded again in April 1992 with the return of not-guilty verdicts for the four police officers who were indicted for the beating. By the end of the crisis, Police Chief Daryl Gates had resigned, Mayor Tom Bradley had decided not to run for reelection (for the first time in 23 years), and the city of Los Angeles had experienced the most costly civil disturbance, or riot, in the nation’s history. In order to analyze the discourse concerning the Rodney King case, Jacobs examined all articles appearing between March and September 1991 in the daily Los Angles Times (357 articles) and the weekly Los Angeles Sentinel (137 articles). The Sentinel is the largest African-American newspaper in terms of circulation in Los Angeles, while the Times has by far the largest circulation of any newspaper in the region. Both papers presented a similar narrative or construction of the events. They showed a “drama of redemption,” pitting the heroic acts of local government (the mayor and the city council) against the antiheroic ones (Gates and the LAPD). The Sentinel, however, typically posited members of the Black community as heroic actors, while championing democratic ideals. Employing a style common to the African-American press, the newspaper invoked the ideals of American society while criticizing that society as it actually exists. The Christopher Commission was very critical of the LAPD and particularly critical of Police Chief Gates. Both newspapers spoke in positive terms of the Commission’s work and its conclusions. The Los Angeles Times saw the commission as giving the community and various government units an opportunity to come together and learn from the tragic events. The Sentinel expressed similar sentiments, but did not construct its version as a bridge toward legitimization of local government leaders. The Sentinel saw the concerns over police brutality as a justification for the long-standing criticisms of law enforcement made by the African-American community. Émile Durkheim has spoken of the “collective conscious” of a society. However, analysis of the discourse concerning the 1991 King beating reveals that the incident was socially constructed as several different problems in several different public spheres. On the basis of content analysis of the Los Angeles Times coverage, the Times constructed the issue as a problem of police brutality, of factionalism, and of political divisiveness. In the Los Angeles Sentinel, the incident was constructed as a problem of police brutality, of insincerity on the part of Whites, and of the need for African-American empowerment. The Times saw the beating as the beginning of a crisis, while the Sentinel saw it as part of an ongoing narrative about civil rights and police brutality. This content analysis of the two newspapers’ perspectives appears to support Stephen Hilgartner and Charles Bosk’s “public arenas” model of social problems, which argues that problems can be viewed differently, and recognizes multiple public spheres for debating such issues. See Stephen Hilgartner and Charles Bosk, “The Rise and Fall of Social Problems: A Public Arenas Model,” American Journal of Sociology 94 (July 1988): 53–78; Ronald N. Jacobs, “Civil Society and Crisis: Culture, Discourse, and the Rodney King Beating,” American Journal of Sociology 101 (March 1996): 1238–1272. 2-6: Useful Statistics In their effort to understand social behavior better, sociologists rely heavily on numbers and statistics. How large is the typical household today compared with the typical household of 1970? If a community were to introduce drug education into its elementary schools, what would be the cost per pupil? What proportion of Baptists, compared to that of Roman Catholics, contributes to their local churches? Such questions, and many others, are most easily answered in numerical terms that summarize the actions or attitudes of many persons. The most common summary measures used by sociologists are percentages, means, modes, and medians. A percentage shows the portion of 100. Use of percentages allows us to compare groups of different sizes. For example, if we were comparing contributors to a town’s Baptist and Roman Catholic churches, the absolute numbers of contributors from each group could be misleading if there were many more Baptists than Catholics living in the town. However, percentages would give us a more meaningful comparison, showing the proportion of persons in each group who contribute to churches. The mean, or average, is a number calculated by adding a series of values and then dividing by the number of values. For example, to find the mean of the numbers 5, 19, and 27, we add them together for a total of 51. We then divide by the number of values (3), and discover that the mean is 17. The mode is the single most common value in a series of scores. Suppose we are looking at the following scores on a 10-point quiz: 10 10 9 9 8 8 7 7 7 6 6 The mode—the most frequent score on the quiz—is 7. While the mode is easier to identify than other summary measures, it tells sociologists little about all the other values. Therefore, we use it much less frequently in this book than we do the mean and median. The median is the midpoint or number that divides a series of values into two groups of equal numbers of values. For the quiz discussed above, the median, or central value, is 8. The mean would be 86 (the sum of all scores) divided by 11 (the total number of scores), or 7.8. According to the Census Bureau, the U.S. median family income for the year 2002 was $42,409; this indicates that half of all families had incomes above $42,409, while the other half had lower incomes. In many respects, the median is the most characteristic value. Although it may not reflect the full range of scores, it does approximate the value in a set of scores. Also, it is not affected by extreme scores. Some of these statistics may seem confusing at first. But think about how difficult it is to study an endless list of numbers in order to identify a pattern or central tendency. Percentages, means, modes, and medians are essential time savers in sociological research and analysis. CLASSROOM DISCUSSION TOPICS Stimulating Classroom Discussions about Demedicalization of Self Injury: Questions for stimulating a classroom discussion about Patricia A. Adler and Peter Adler’s study of the phenomenon of self-injury include: As a sociologist, why might you be interested in the age, social class, racial and ethnic statuses of these? What difficulties might the Adlers have encountered in trying to gain acceptance in friendship groups, both online and in person, while disclosing that they were researchers rather than fellow self-injurers? Would the desire for acceptance into the groups in order to gain more information for their research justify refraining from disclosing that they were researchers? What research methodologies did the Adlers use? How might the information they gain have been altered, with a different research methodology? How do the Adlers use the three main sociological perspectives in their study? Theory and Research: The important tie between theory and research is reinforced by this classroom exercise. See Technique No. 73 in Edward L. Kain and Robin Neas (eds.). Innovative Techniques for Teaching Sociological Concepts. Washington, DC: American Sociological Association, 1993. Defending Surveys: Surveys, despite often being criticized, are very useful to both the general public and policymakers. See Andrew Greeley, “In Defense of Surveys,” Society 33 (May/June 1996): 26–29. NORC and the Internet: Students can access the data from the General Social Survey, or GSS, which is an annual, omnibus personal interview survey of U.S. households conducted by the National Opinion Research Center (NORC). The first survey took place in 1972, and since then more than 35,000 respondents have answered over 2,500 different questions. Through the NORC website at www.norc.uchicago.edu, students can visit the GSS Data and Information Retrieval System, which allows access to the code book and the actual results of any variable from all the GSS surveys, including the most recent study. Coding: Have members of the class ask people on campus a question of contemporary interest, for example, “What do you like or dislike about the current president?” or “What causes crime?” Then have the students (individually or as a class) classify the responses and assign codes to them. The emphasis in this project is on data manipulation rather than on the accuracy of the sampling techniques. Ethnographies: The author explains the use of motion pictures as the basis for teaching ethnographic research methods. See Lauraine LeBlanc, “Observing Reel Life: Using Feature Films to Teach Ethnographic Methods,” Teaching Sociology 25 (January 1997): 62–68. Role Conflict and Observation Research: Two sociologists describe their dilemma of role definition: the pressure to go “native,” and the public pressure to take a stand while doing participant observation in the Unification Church. See Arson D. Shupe, Jr., and David G. Bromley, “Walking a Tightrope,” Qualitative Sociology 2 (1980). Content Analysis of Children’s Book—A Class Activity: Bring enough children’s books to class for each student (or for every two students if the class is large). Have the class set up a very simple code sheet and conduct a content analysis of the books. For example, they could simply count the number of time boys appear in the books as compared with the number of times girls appear in the book; they could look for presentation of traditional gender roles (e.g., girls playing with dolls, boys with trucks); or they could count the number of times children from various racial and ethnic groups appear in the book. This activity will be most effective if the books you bring were published over the last 20 years. Content Analysis and Magazines: See Techniques Nos. 4 and 5 in Edward L. Kain and Robin Neas (eds.). Innovative Techniques for Teaching Sociological Concepts. Washington, DC: American Sociological Association, 1993. Content Analysis and Personal Ads: This exercise guides students through a research project that teaches them about content analysis through the analysis of personal ads. Beth Rushing and Idee Winfield, “Learning about Sampling and Measurement by Doing Content Analysis of Personal Advertisements,” Teaching Sociology 27 (April 1999): 159-166. Teaching the Ethics of Sociological Research: This exercise, developed by Stephen Sweet, is an interesting way to draw students into a discussion of research ethics. See Stephen Sweet, “Using a Mock Institutional Review Board to Teach Ethics in Sociological Research,” Teaching Sociology 27 (January 1999): 55-59. Using Humor: Joseph E. Faulkner has produced a monograph that includes funny examples that could be incorporated into lectures associated with Chapter 2. See Chapter 1 of Faulkner, Sociology Through Humor. New York: West, 1987. This book is out of print, but used copies are readily available. TOPICS FOR STUDENT RESEARCH AND CLASSROOM DISCUSSION 1. Ask students to provide an operational definition of an abstract notion, such as the influence of poverty on crime. Students can also provide a hypothesis statement concerning the nature of any relationship. 2. Ask students to bring a mail-back survey (from a product recently purchased) into class, and have students discuss what the researchers may be trying to measure or ascertain from the survey. 3. Ask students to bring in an article addressing the results of a study of some social phenomenon or behavior. Stress that the article must be published by a reputable local or national newspaper or magazine, rather than from a sociological research publication. Examine the extent to which the information published allows the reader to assess reliability and validity. Attempt to identify method, variables, controls, limits to generalizability, and funding sources. Discuss misinformation, critical reading, and the importance of healthy skepticism. This activity can also be used when covering Chapter 7 (Mass Media). 4. Ask students to examine a mail-back survey form for any indications of misleading, double-barreled, or biased questions, and discuss how the questions could be revised to avoid these problems. 5. Ask students to replicate a small-scale study similar to that of Erving Goffman in which students explore newspapers and magazines for evidence of women being portrayed as subservient to men. Ask students to note the relative frequency of uses of members of various racial and ethnic groups and their apparent socioeconomic status as well as their apparent status as dominant or subservient. Discuss the impact of such research on social policy. 6. Ask students to discuss why policymakers and corporations may intentionally refute some research findings revealed by sociologists, or attempt to cover up research findings. Instructor Manual for Sociology Richard T. Schaefer 9780078026669