Last but not least, I would like to give examples and give my point of view on the word sociology, such as what does it mean to me! First, I would like to define and explain what sociology means to me! Sociology explores people and society. It examines our social institutions; our families, the state and social relationships like gender and ethnicity, to help make sense of how we both see and interpret our rapidly changing world. Sociology examines how our behavior individually and in groups is influenced by social processes and what that means.
The population also has specific characteristics that are taken into consideration though out the study, and might include age, gender, employment statues, or education and are known as variables; variable meaning that the specific characteristics within the population may vary from unit to unit. Two different types of variables include dependent and independent variables. Dependent variables represent the output or effect that the population within the experimental unit undergoes. In contrast, independent variables represent the inputs or the cause of observed from the population. In research both types of variables not only are used but they have to be used.
In the study of sociology, there are three sociological assumptions: argument, evidence, unit of analysis. These arguments differ greatly, but share common ground: assuming exactly what they need to be explaining. When writing a sociological argument, it is important to
What kind of research method you will use depends on what kind of report you are writing, if you will dig deep into the research or if you will do more of a basic research. Qualitative research is a method that is focuses on the “why” and “how” of the report, while the quantitative method focuses more on the numerical part of things and answers questions such as “How much?”, “ How many?” and How often?”. The main differences are qualitative research were created in the human and psychological sciences and has a lot to do with theories based on hermeneutics, phenomenology, and sociology. It focuses more on words and how people feel about certain situations. These have to do with human interpretation and personal experience you can collect this information through interviews.
He also believed that different interviews are used for different purposes. Research through interview attains information and understanding of issues which are relevant to specific questions of a research project. Arkskey 1999 et al.... believed that one of the great strengths of using interviews for research is that it takes many different approaches. Structured interviews are when a researcher asks questions which are set in advance. A disadvantage to this will be that the researchers may be biased as they will already have a set of questions therefore likely to gain expected answers.
Explain concepts of Interpretivist and Positivism This essay will broadly define the concepts of interpretive and positivist paradigms in social theory. These two differing perspectives often use different approaches to the study of social life, which broadly defined, can be explained as quantitative and qualitative, looking at contrasts, comparatives and criticisms. Positivists believe that it is possible to create a science of society, based upon the same principals and procedures as the natural sciences, such as biology. Further, using methods adopted by the natural sciences would prove that behaviour was governed by principals of cause and effect. Social facts, positivists argue, can be observed, measured, and quantified, (hence why positivism is also known as Quantitative) producing data/statistics which, when analysed can reveal correlations, patterns of behaviour, causes (cause and effect), and ultimately, laws of human behaviour.
Qualitative research uses the information found in order to provide an understanding to the human experience and behavior ("Encyclopedia.com", 2013). Quantitative and qualitative research differs from one another in terms of what data or information that they yield and display, as well as how that information is interpreted. For example quantitative research will portrait the percentage or statistics of a matter and qualitative research will look into and portrait the life pattern or the behavior of individuals to get them into those statistics. Both can relate to the human service field as well as the scientific method, which does get used within the human service profession. Both quantitative and qualitative can be incorporated into the scientific method.
Soc 206 Question two There are many different ways to research about society. The two main research methods are Quantitative and qualitative. Sociologist’s goals are to make society see their findings and give the research validity. Quantitative and qualitative are ways for sociologist to reach their goals. Qualitative research is when their information is based on interviews and observations of society.
2. Identify professional disciplines that influence human services. Professional disciplines that influence Human Services are sociology, psychology, and anthropology (Woodside & McClam, 2012, p. 11). Sociology is the assessment of an individual and the broader culture and tries to account for while understanding the differences within human culture. It also helps the professionals understand what affects the living, such as family structure and roles.
Instead of looking at social systems at a larger-scale, such as the entire population of a country or third world countries, interactionism focuses on smaller-scale social interactions, such as the interactions between individuals or small social groups (Interactionism in Sociology: Definition, Examples & Quiz). Interactionism focuses on the way that we act, or make conscious choices regarding our behaviour that proceed from how we interpret situations (Germov, 2009). In other words, it is how people gives meaning, interpret and construct behaviours through interactions with others and how these interactions affect the same people in the society. “Functionalism is one of the major theoretical perspectives in sociology. It interprets each part of society in terms of how it contributes to the stability of the whole society” (Crossman, A, 2011).