Information on how to Conduct a Sociology Experiment

Steps and Info on Sociology Experiments

In sociology there are many different things a sociologist needs to know in order to do experiments and collect data. Some of the things that sociologist learn help them with creating an acceptable experiment. Other things that sociologist learn help them determine if an experiment is alright to do or if it is unacceptable based on certain parameters.

There are three types of variables the independent variable, dependent variable, and control variable. The independent variable is the variable that is manipulated to see what will happen in an experiment. The dependent variable is the variable is the variable that is related to the independent variable. The control variable is the variable that is kept the same so the independent variable cam be tested accurately. There are also steps you need to take in order to do research.

There are six steps to go through when doing social research. The first step is to pick a topic that you want to do research on. The second thing is to do a literature review, which is to look at relevant academic articles and information. The third thing is to develop a hypothesis on how the variables will relate to each other. The forth thing is to collect data to support or refute your hypothesis. The fifth step is to analyze the data you collected to see if it supports your hypothesis. The sixth step involves publishing your results so everyone can see what you discovered. A good sociologist will know the correlation in his data.

What is cause and correlation? Cause is when you do something and there is certainty that something else will happen. A good example would be if you drop a pencil then you know that it will fall to the ground because the law of gravity. Correlation does not have the same certainty that cause does and a factor may or may not have been the cause for another factor. Consider a correlation to be like trying to figure out if playing a musical instrument will help you have a higher GPA than people who do not play a musical instrument. In that example there is no certainty that you will have a higher GPA just because you play a musical instrument. So the relationship between cause and correlation is that if there is a correlation then there might be a factor that cause another factor. To get the information on GPA you could conduct a survey.

To conduct a survey you have to get a group of people that you want to question and ask them questions that will get you the information that you need. There are seven steps you can take to conduct a survey properly. The first step is to clarify your purpose for the survey. Once you have done that then the second thing to do is define the population that you will be surveying. The third thing is to get a sample that will represent that population that you are trying to survey. Once all of that is done then the forth step is to prepare questions that you will ask the sample. The fifth step is to figure out how you are going to collect the data. The sixth step is to collect the data from the survey. The seventh and final step is to record, analyze, and interpret the data that you have collected from the survey. A sociologist also collects information by doing field research.

There are four different kinds of field research and they are participant observation, case studies, ethnography, and secondary data analysis. In the field research of participant observation the sociologist posses as person who should be in the environment and they observe what is going on around them based upon what they are researching. In case studies a sociologist will observe and study only one person or event. In ethnography field research the sociologist tries to get the social perspective and cultural values of a certain group. The sociologist accomplishes this by participating with or getting to know the group being researched in detail. The last field research method is the secondary data analysis method. In this method a sociologist will take data and observations other sociologists have collected and analyze it to find out new things. When a sociologist does field research then that sociologist has to use certain guidelines.

There are five general principles for ethics in sociology and they are professional competence, integrity, professional and scientific responsibility, respect for people’s rights, dignity, and diversity, and social responsibility. Professional competence is when a sociologists keep on training and ask others who have greater expertise for help when needed. Integrity is when a sociologist are honest and fair with everyone. A sociologist has a professional and scientific responsibility to treat other with respect and not act hostile when issues arise. A sociologist must not have discrimination against different people and respect people’s rights, dignity, and diversity. A sociologist also has a social responsibility to apply what they know and help everyone.

Sociology has lots of rules and guidelines for sociologist to follow when creating experiments. Those rules and guidelines make it so sociologist can collect data properly and do it without hurting anybody while doing the experiment. These basic rules and guidelines are crucial for a sociologist to know and follow.

Sociology and the study of culture

Sociology - The Study of Culture

Sociology deals with society and every society has its own culture. Sociologists have collected information on different cultures like the culture we have in the United States. So what is culture and why do we have it?

Culture is the things that are passed on to the future generations of society like material objects, behaviors, beliefs, language, values, and norms. The material components of culture are objects or items that can be touched, felt, and tasted. The nonmaterial components of culture are behaviors, beliefs, language, values, and norms and these components are the nonphysical products of society. Every culture has many different values even in the United States.

Robin Williams says there are fifteen core values in the United States. The first one is achievement and success. The people in the United States value winners over the losers. People tend to remember the people like Michael Phelps, who won the 2008 olympics, and forget the people who were his competition. The second value is activity and work and one of the reasons is because in the United States a common belief is that if you do enough hard work then you can achieve success. This is also evident through the fact that people in the United States spend more time on the job than most people in the industrialized world. The third value is moral orientation or the ethical judgements regarding what is good, bad, right, or wrong. The people of the United States have toward absolute ethical judgments. The forth value is humanitarianism meaning many people are generous, value philanthropy, and help when there is a crisis. The fifth value is efficiency and practicality which makes people in the United States seek out the most benefit for the least amount of effort. Efficiency and practicality are a value because it helps achieve goals quickly and easily. The sixth value is progress and is the belief that making changes and proposing ideas will improve society. The seventh value is material comfort and is why many people in the United States want more things even if they already have lots of material stuff. The eighth value is equality or the notion that all people, regardless of skin color, gender, social class, and religious background, should be treated equally. The ninth value is freedom or the ability to do what you want, as long as you do not hurt other people.The tenth value is external conformity or the want to fit in with people. The eleventh value is science and secular rationality. This means that the use of the scientific method, which uses logic, order, and rational thought, is what people believe in to attain knowledge. The twelfth value is nationalism and patriotism or civil religion when it takes on an almost religious context. The thirteenth value is democracy or the ability to vote for the people who will represent you. The fourteenth value is individual personality or looking at the world as an individual instead of a group. The fifteenth value is racism and related group superiority and although it is not a good value it is an issue in the United States. Even though the United States has its own unique values it still has different cultures within its society.

Culture is the things that are important enough to pass down to the next generation. Subcultures are subsets of cultures that have there own specific beliefs, norms, and values. Countercultures are groups that go against the dominant cultures values. This means that even though there is a culture that everyone sort of follows, there are subcultures within that take a slightly different approach.Then there are countercultures that go against what the culture of the area dictates. Although they are all forms of culture. There are several terms that go along with what culture is about.

These are six terms that will help explain what culture is in some since. The first term is values which are the standards that a culture uses to determine what is good, bad, right, or wrong. The second term is norms which are conditional and they are rules that tell you the appropriate behavior to use depending on the cultures values. The third term is sanctions which are the punishment or reward you receive based on if you go with or against the norm. The forth term is folkways which are informal and less series than norms. The fifth and sixth terms are closely related but opposites of each other and they are mores and taboos. Mores are the most important norms and taboos are acts that are socially unacceptable.

These are some of the things that sociologists know about culture and why we have it. There are many different kinds of cultures in the world. All of the cultures are different in some way but they all have the same basic concepts like behavior, language, and values.

Sociology and the Justice System

The justice system is a crucial part of society. This means that sociologists will study this part of society so they can try and understand society as a whole. The sociologists look into things like why did a person commit a crime and how does the justice system handle these offenses.

There are four characteristics that sociologists use to define deviance. The first characteristic is that deviance is linked to time. This means that what is deviant today may not be deviant tomorrow. The second characteristic of deviance is the it is linked to cultural values. This means that in different cultures some things may not be deviant but in other cultures they are considered deviant. The third characteristic is that deviance is universal. This means wherever you go in the world you will see deviance. The forth characteristic is that deviance is a social construct. This means if the society accepts something then it is not deviant. There are also some different approaches to deviance.

The positivist school and classical school approaches to deviance and crime have some similarities and some differences. The similarities are that each one look at crime. The difference is that they look at crime in a different way. The positivists think that crime is not natural for people to commit so they say there is a biological, psychological, or social factor involved. The classical school thinks that people are free to choose what they do and make these rational choices based on the pleasure/pain calculations. There are also some theories on criminal and deviant behavior.

The two theories are the differential association theory and the social control theory. The deference between differential association theory and social control theory is that in the association theory the criminal and deviant behaviors are learned and in the social control theory suggests that people have internal factors that influence their desire to commit crime. No matter what is the motivation behind people doing crime the courts will prosecute the crimes.

The courts in the criminal justice system are composed of judges and district attorneys. The district attorneys are the ones who decide to prosecute a criminal and determine what type of charges the case will go to court under. The judges are the ones that charge the criminal with punishment or sentences, which is how long they will be in jail or even if they go to jail. One thing that some judges can do and is controversial is give someone a death sentence.

I support the death penalty for the people who have been proven without a doubt to be guilty of killing people and are also likely to kill again. The death penalty should be used rarely and be carefully considered before given. You could say that the death penalty should be a last resort for punishment and the more likely procedure should be to try and correct the offenders behavior.

The justice system is a system created by humans and is used to place humans who commit crime out of publics way. Although it is an important system for our society the real issue that needs addressing is why people commit the crimes. This will allow people to understand what is going on with criminal and try to help them and others not to be criminals.

Sociology: Marriage and Family

Sociology Article: Family and Marriage

Society has many things that make it up. The one thing that is important to society is family and marriage, especially in the United States. Even though it is important does not mean that it stays the same throughout time. There are even different forms of marriage and family but they are all important to society.
The different forms of marriage and family are the nuclear family, extended family, monogamy, polygamy, and blended families. The nuclear family is composed of a husband, wife, and child. The extended family is when a grandparent or other relative is added into the group. Blended families are composed of children and a combination of biological parents. Monogamy is when you are married to one person at a time. Polygamy is when you have more than one spouse at time. Even though there is lots of different types of families everyone strives to be the ideal family.
The "ideal" family was formed from a stay-at-home mom and a working dad that were middle-class. The image of a perfect family is when a couple has a brief courtship and then gets married. They would then have sex and start a family. Once this was done they would purchase a house with the father being the breadwinner and the wife would stay at home as a homemaker. Although there are many factors in relationships and this can be seen in the social exchange theory.
The social exchange theory says that there are three stages in which we pick our friends and close partners. Each of the stages is used to weed out the people who do not fit. The first stage is the stimulus stage and in this stage two people are attracted to each other because of superficial characteristics. The second stage is the value stage and this is when people see how much they have in common on beliefs and values like politics and religion. The third stage is the role stage which is comprised of dating and sexual behavior. The exchange theory also states that people are seeking to maximize rewards in a relationship and minimize the cost. Even with many people in relationships the traditional family is not doing so well.
Popenoe’s erosion of the family theory says that the traditional nuclear family has been declining. Families have strengths that have weakened over the years. The strengths of family are cohesion, performance of family functions, and the power family has over other social institutions. These have been weakened because individuals have become more autonomous. This makes families have less cohesion and that also leads to the families functions being compromised.
Family and marriage may be changing but they will still be a part of society for some time to come. They may not be the conventional families and marriages that people are use to seeing. Although no matter what happens sociologists will be there to study and learn from what happens next.