CHAPTER 1 LEARNING OBJECTIVES

As you read Chapter 1, use these learning objectives to organize your notes. After completing your reading,you should be able to answer each of the objectives.

1. Understand what is meant by the broader social contexts that underlie human behavior and how and why sociologists study these broader social contexts. (2)

2. Know what is meant by social location and how it helps people to define themselves and others to define them. (2)

3. Explain the sociological perspective: what it is, what it offers, and why C.Wright Mills referred to it as “the intersection of biography (the individual) and history (the social factors that influence the individual).” (2)

4. Identify, understand, and make distinctions between tradition and science. (2–3)

5. Discuss the social changes—and the changing social conditions—that fostered the development of sociology as a distinct academic discipline in the middle of the nineteenth century. (3)

6. Identify and critique the sociological contributions of the following mid-to-late nineteenth and early twentieth century European sociologists: Auguste Comte, Herbert Spencer, Karl Marx, Emile Durkheim, Max Weber, and Harriet Martineau. (3–6)

7. Understand how and why levels of social integration may affect rates of suicide and how Emile Durkheim’s nineteenth-century study of suicide helped to demonstrate how social forces affect people’s behaviors. (5)

8. Discuss why there were so few women sociologists in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and how the contributions of women sociologists during this period were received and evaluated by their male counterparts. (6–7)

9. Trace the history of sociology in North America from the late 1800s to the present time, identifying the specific sociological contributions of the following American sociologists: Jane Addams, W. E. B. Du Bois, Talcott Parsons, and C. Wright Mills. (7–8)

10. Understand the historical tensions and ongoing debates in North American sociology between social reform and social analysis and how the sociological contributions of Jane Addams, W. E. B. Du Bois, Talcott Parsons, and C. Wright Mills fit into the tensions and debates. (7–8)

11. Discuss the current state of American sociology as it relates to the debate between social reform and social analysis and what role applied sociology plays in this debate. (9–11)

12. Define what is meant by theory and explain why it is an important part of sociology. (11)

13. Identify the three major theoretical perspectives in sociology—symbolic interactionism, functional analysis, and conflict theory—and describe the particular level of analysis, characteristics, viewpoints, and concerns that are associated within each of these. (11–16)

14. Understand how to apply each level of analysis to various sociological topics, including divorce. (11–16)

15. Explain what areas of human behavior and aspects of social life are valid topics for sociological research. (17)

16. Explain why there is a need for sociological research. (17)

17. List and describe the eight basic steps for conducting scientific research. (17–21)

18. Define, describe, and discuss the significance of the following terms associated with the research process: hypothesis, variable, independent variable, dependent variable, operational definitions, validity, and reliability. (18–19)

19. Know and discuss the six research methods that sociologists use, the tools that they employ, and the strengths and limitations of each. (21–25)

20. Define, describe, and discuss the significance of the following terms associated with the six research methods: survey, population, sample, random sample, stratified random sample, closed-ended questions, open-ended questions, rapport, participant observation, secondary analysis, documents, experiment, experimental group, control group, independent variable, dependent variable, and unobtrusive measures. (21–25)

21. Know the ethical guidelines that sociologists are expected to follow and talk about the ethical issues raised in Mario Brajuha’s and Laud Humphrey’s research. (25–27)

22. Discuss Max Weber’s perspective on values in research. (27)

23. Discuss the tension that remains between “pure” sociology and social reform. (27)