Unit 1 Introduction
The topic for the first week is "the sociological perspective," or what is sometimes referred to as the "sociological imagination." These terms refer to a particular way of viewing the world, one that begins with society as opposed to beginning with the individual. People typically see the world from the "inside out," that is, they are influenced by the people who they come into contact with on a daily basis, and they consider this influence and their own perspective on the world to be "normal." By extension, they assume that "society," the broader mass of people beyond their own small group, to be similar to themselves, and if they aren't, they consider them to be abnormal. Sociology demands that you view the world from the "outside in," that is, that you consider the reality posed by society, by the consciousness that people share and that allow them to interact meaningfully. To most people, this is counterintuitive; however, sociology provides you with the tools to think about how the social context influences individual behavior.
 Fig. 1-1: Spanish Market, Santa Fe, New Mexico |
To help you understand the sociological perspective, we will cover the general topic of research methods, or how sociologists know what they know about society. Professional sociologists engage in research that builds and tests theories about how society is organized and how society operates. The theories and studies reported in the course text are all based on sociological research. Chapter 1 in the book reviews some of the perspectives (scientific, interpretive, critical) and techniques (experiments, surveys, participant observation, existing sources) that sociologists use to explain social interaction and social structure.
(1) The Sociological Perspective
The first part of Unit 1 focuses on understanding the sociological perspective.
(2) Sociological Paradigms
The second part of Unit 1 introduces sociological paradigms. Sociologists use the term paradigm to refer to a way of framing a particular issue or topic. A paradigm is a perspective, approach or set of assumptions that underlie and provide a structure to how we think about things. We will strive to understand three theoretical paradigms (Macionis calls these theoretical approaches) this semester. The paradigms are described in Chapter 1, and then in several of the subsequent chapters, the topic will be described from each of these perspectives. The three theoretical approaches are Structural-Functional Approach, Social-Conflict Approach, and Symbolic-Interaction Approach.
The text also describes other approaches, such as the Feminist Approach and the Race-Conflict Approach, but concentrates on the three approaches listed above.
There are also methodological paradigms, which structure approaches to doing sociology and studying society. The Macionis text describes three methodolgical approaches, each of which incorporates a set of assumptions about the purpose of sociology, appropriate data collection techniques, and proper means of analyzing data. The methodological approaches are Scientific Sociology, Interpretive Sociology and Critical Sociology.
(3) Research: Doing Sociology
The third part of Unit 1 covers research methods, or ways in which sociologists go about the business of studying society. In this section, you will learn how sociologists know what they know about society. All of the information in the textbook comes from sociological research using the approaches described in this chapter.
Research methods begin with the methodological paradigms, and build on the framework that each provides. The choices a researcher makes about how to collect, analyze and interpret data depend on which approach she subscribes to. The chapter outlines a variety of ways of collecting data, but does not go into much detail on how to analyze data and interpret results, topics that are reserved for more advanced courses in sociological research methods. The data collection techniques described include experiments, surveys, participant observation, and using existing sources. Each technique has its advantages and disadvantages, and while individual sociologists tend to specialize in one technique, the discipline of sociology endorses all of these methods because we can gain a more complete picture of society if different sociologists use different means of gathering information about society.
The chapter also covers research ethics, an important aspect of research that ensures that sociologists do not harm their subjects or engage in research that is illegal or immoral. Sociology would not survive long as a discipline if its practitioners were conducting harmful research.
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