A. What is sociological imagination? In which way sociological imagination is different from common sense understanding? 4 Marks

A. What is sociological imagination? In which way sociological imagination is different from common sense understanding? 4 Marks

Students are supposed to explain in what way the sociological imagination is different from ‘common sense’ understanding. You may start with the idea that sociological imagination enables people to distinguish between personal troubles and public issues of social structure or between history and biography (C Wright Mills, (1959), The Sociological Imagination). But you are supposed to explain what it means.

It means that individual behaviour of people is linked to larger social context or structures. People do not usually define the troubles they endure in terms of historical change or structural constrains. The well-being they enjoy, they do not usually impute to the big ups and downs of the societies in which they live. They seldom aware of the intricate connection between the patterns of their own lives and the course of world history. They do not possess the quality of mind essential to grasp the interplay of individuals and society, of biography and history, of self and world.

For full marks it was better to give an example. For example, people in poverty might stop blaming themselves and start criticising the social forces that directed them into their present condition. The example of suicide (Durkheim) is also relevant here – what ordinary people consider to be private decision motivated by psychological reasons in sociological view has strong social grounding.

Or you may use the example from P. Berger - in Western countries, and especially in America, it is assumed that men and women marry because they are in love. As soon as one investigates, how­ever, which people actually marry each other, one finds that the lightning-shaft of Cupid seems to be guided rather strongly within very definite channels of class, income, education, racial and religious background. For sociologists, when certain conditions are met or have been constructed, one allows oneself 'to fall in love'.

Students may also write that the sociological imagination is different because sociology asks sociological questions, does research and apply theories. This is less relevant, as this is another question (how sociology as a science differs from common sense). For such an answer students will not be given full marks.

B. Compare and contrast structural functionalist and symbolic interactionist approaches to the relations of individuals and society. 6 Marks

It is possible to start with the idea that role-taking theory was developed mainly by writers associated with the structural-functionalist approach to sociology (Parsons), whereas role-making theory was developed by social and symbolic interactionism (Mead and Goffman).

Students are supposed to mention how these two different theories approach socialisation. But for full marks students are supposed to mention that in role-taking theory people are considered to have no autonomy, to be like puppets, whereas in role-making theory they are seen as being able to have relative autonomy. Students may emphasise the different ontological positions of role making (agency) and role taking (structure) theories. If students did not explain how these two theories differently contribute to understanding of the relations between individual and society they are given less marks.

You should explain the difference in their approaches to socialization. It is the process through which individuals learn how to perform social roles. In SF approach (role-taking theory) social roles are treated as social facts: they are seen as institutionalized social relationship s that are matters of constraint rather than of choice. People are not free to renegoti­ate what it is to be a doctor, a teacher, or a mother. They must largely accept the ways in which these have come to be defined within their culture. You may explain by using SF concepts like external and internal control, rewards and punishments, internalisation.

Mead held that sociological analysis must always start out from the meanings that objects have for individuals, these meanings are not 'given' in the nature of the objects themselves. So a meaning is a social construction. SI argues that individuals consciously monitoring their own actions in negotiation with others and with a choice to change their role or deviate from its script. A self is constructed through a process of socialization which children, and adults, must continually come to terms with the reactions of others to their ac­tions. You may use Mead’s concepts ‘ taking the role of the other’, I and Me, generalized other, significant others etc. You may use examples to illustrate your understanding like ‘play activities as the means through which young children initially develop into social beings. You may mention Goffman's argument, then, is that social inter­action is a process of self-presentation instead of or in addition to Mead’s ideas.

You also may refer to understanding of individuals in SF approach as passively taking roles and in SI - actively playing roles, but still both approaches emphasize the role of society for individuals.

Then you need to conclude that you reviewed the tow major theories of socialisa­tion and identity, summurising their main points and may argue that they must be seen as complementary rather than competing theories.

Mistake - to write that in SI individuals shapes society in a sense that they have full free will.

C. Explain and illustrate what sociologists mean by any ONE of the following 4 marks

· Labeling

Very few are able to answer this question. In weak answers students only mention that if one person is labelled by society to be a particular type of character s/he have to or will behave accordingly.

Good answers mentioned that labelling theory is associated with the name of H.Becker (social constructivist approach).In common sense deviance is often seen as the quality of some act or behaviour: criminals are seen as certain types of people or certain type of behaviour. Whereas social constructivist approach claims that deviance result not so much from what people do as from how others respond to those actions. When more and more people begin to think of some individuals as deviants, they respond to them as such; thus the deviant reacts to such a response by continuing to engage in the behaviour society now expects from them.

Your also can use the example of Rothental and Jacobson experiments in school focusing on the interaction process which happened between the teachers and the children.

Mistake – to say that labeling happens because someone starts to be deviant and others label him or her accordingly. That is not the case.

· Social construction of reality

To answer this question one needs to explain social constructivist approach of Berger and Luckman. In contrast to objectivists (like Durkhein, Marx) who viewed reality as an objective phenomenon, existing independently of social actors, B&L introduced the notion of social construction of reality that challenged the views that society and culture are pre-given and external to individuals but social phenomena are constantly being constructed by social actors.

Berger and Luckmann think that even though the social order have a character sui generic (Durkheim), it exists only as a human product, or, more precisely, an ongoing human production. Society is socially constructed. Everyday life presents itself as a reality interpreted by individuals and subjectively meaningful to them as a coherent world.

Sociologists use social construction of reality to refer to the process by which people assign meaning to the world.

Example - social construction of social statistics - it means that numbers do not exist independent of people; understanding numbers requires knowing who counted what, and why. This is what is meant by saying that statistics is socially constructed. All statistics, from the best to the worst, is socially constructed. It means that it reflects the conceptual categories and bureaucratic procedures through which they are collected. All statistics is products of choices and compromises that inevitably shape, limit, and may distort the outcome. Students should not exaggerate and say that because of social construction of statistics it is always biased. It is not that. Social construction of statistics means that you do not take it for granted as an official truth, you need to know how it was collected. Douglas and Atkinson’s example of social construction of suicide statistics (coroners have to decide whether to label it so).

· Thomas theorem

To answer this question one needs to explain social constructivist approach as well – starting with the main assumption that social reality is not independent from our interpretations of it.

In Thomas theorem it is not important to emphasize that whether or not the interpretation is correct if people define situations as real they are real in their consequences. The theorem could also be described as the self-fulfilling prophecy. Speculative bubbles, bank runs, and other kinds of self-reinforcing economic behavior -- feedback loops -- all can be seen as examples of perception creating its own reality. People will act on their understanding (misunderstanding) of the situation. So things that only exist in our minds have huge effects on us

· Subject/object dilemma

Are we the subject or the object of study? This question is about the concept of value freedom - for example, Durkheim argues that facts can and should be separated from values. This idea of the objectivity of sociological knowledge is particularly associated with positivism.

The question is whether or not it is possible for sociologists to study the social world in a way that does not allow the values held by the researcher to influence the outcome of their research, whether or not the sociologist can be personally objective about their research

· Construct and ecological validity are the same thing 2 Marks

False

Construct validity is used in quantitative research design and is concerned with whether the concepts were appropriately operationalised by indicators. For example, whether IQ is a good indicator of intelligence.

Whereas ecological validity (authenticity) is a term which was introduced within the framework of qualitative research design and is concerned with whether the results of research are actually applicable to the reality of people’s everyday lives, i.e. whether a researcher succeeded to understand things from the insider's point of view. For example, whether the data represents what people actually think and how they behave, contrast to socially accepted answers.

E. A.Chepurenko is interested to know which factors influence students' achievements in Humanities. Which research design and research method would you recommend to him? Explain why you have chosen them and which possible limitations related to your research you may face. 8 Marks

This is a question which asks you to apply what they have learnt to a practical example.

It is very important to remember that this question to measure the students ability to apply the knowledge they have when dealing with the specific research problem. That is why it is very important when answering the question always refer back to the task given in the question and discuss the research strategy which is specific to the given task rather than mention general advantages and limitations which the chosen has. Answers which do not address the given task directly are given very low marks.

Students were asked to advice on RD and RM. You may choose:

· Survey (RM -questionnaire or structured interview, official statistics – HSE students’ data)

· Experimental or evaluative RD (RM structured observations in field experiment, or before or after introduction of particular measure (factor)

· Ethnography (participant observation or unstructured interview)

The most appropriate choice is a field (quasi) experiment. Since the task is to reveal the factors (cause-and –effect relationship) - experiments have high internal validity.

Laboratory experiments – to split students randomly into experimental and control group and at the end of the first module to test students in which group are doing better in terms of the results of intermediary tests. Or to repeat Pygmalion in Class research. Problems – ethical considerations, limited number of factors which will be possible to test.

Field (quasi) experiment – to collect data about the factors expected through self-administrated questionnaire (anonymity + high response rate secured by the administration of HSE controlling the access to the information system) rather than structured interviews. Or use statistics on educational achievements collected by the dean’s office (whether Math or English in the previous year is positively correlated with marks in Sociology or other subject in Humanities). Factors are revealed using regression analysis. Problems – misspecification of the model (omitted variables) or socially accepted answers (due to the lack of confidence that questionnaires are anonymous).

Survey using questionnaires in which students are asked which factors they think are important or ethnographic research are less relevant. Students may not be aware of which objective factors influence the educational achievement in Humanities. Ethnographic research does not give us external validity.

Although students may choose any of mentioned RD, however their answer should be written in a very consistent way with explanation of their choice and stressing on advantages and limitations of chosen RM in case of particular research.

You also may mention triangulation that is applying two methods for the research.

F. All data is theory-dependent. Discuss. 6 Marks

There are debates in sociology whether theory and research are separate activities. This question is about the problem whether data can speak for themselves or not.

You may start from debate between positivists and realists. Positivists argue that theory and research can be separated; moreover, it is desirable to separate research from theory because if facts (data) speak for themselves it is a sign of objectivity of knowledge. Positivists see the social world as objective reality, which is independent of our ideas about it and would agree that the task of a sociologist is to reveal facts about the social world in a highly detached manner.

Realists argue that it is not possible to have research without theory. For them there are many doubts that naturalistic objectivity is possible (nevertheless highly desirable) in sociological research as well as doubts about pure empiricist approach. The answers we arrive at are often dependent on the questions that are asked. Moreover, the same piece of data can be open to different interpretations. That means that no data can speak for themselves and any research is theory based. Whereas positivists test theories against data, realists test theories against theories.

Realists think that if one can have a look at the process how the data are collected it becomes clear that research findings are dependent on some form of theory that determines the process of collecting data.

Or students may also start with the argument that theory is involved at every stage of research: the selection of research topic; the selection of the strategy and method; the interpretation of data and the creation of a ‘theory’ all involved theorising.

Choice of research topic is usually theoretical, for example Durkheim chose the topic of Suicide to demonstrate his ontological assumptions that the most individual of all acts was caused by or prevented by the level or integration of moral regulation in the society. Eileen Barker wanted to demonstrate whether individuals have some autonomy and therefore choose to become Moonies. She is distrustful of determinist theories.

The concepts used are ‘theoretical constructs’. What is included will reflect the sociologists theoretical position. For example the concept of class for Marx is ownership of production wealth whereas for Weber it was property and market position. Positivists believe that it is possible to operational concepts with the use of indicators, whereas the social constructivists believe that concepts are social constructions. It is appropriate for example to mention Durkheim’s Suicide and the criticism that Atkinson exposed on it.

The choice of method and interpretation of the data collected will reflect the epistemology of the researcher. For example, the aim of interpretivist approaches in sociology is to understand the subjective experiences of those being studied, how they think and feel and how they act in their natural contexts. The favoured research design is ethnography and the main methods are ones that help researchers understand social life from the point of view of those being studied, such as unstructured observation, unstructured interviews and personal documents.

Conclusion. Although positivists claim that the data collected is to prove theory and so can be independent from theory, there are other strong arguments. Data cannot be gathered without making assumptions about the nature of reality which is under investigation (ontological assumptions) and about the possibility to know something with certainty (epistemological assumptions). It is only through theories that sociologists can discover data and hope to make sense of it.

G. Identify two ways by which positivist sociologists can make their research more objective. Explain why these procedures can increase objectivity of research. 4Marks

Because positivists do not see any differences between natural and social worlds – both exist objectively, the same methods can be used to research both natural and social reality. They are:

Random selection into control and experimental groups – increases internal validity. Explain why.

Random sampling in surveys increases external validity.

For example, random sampling could help to produce more objective data on public opinion since the data will be representative for the surveyed population, and each respondent has an equal chance for being selected, this does not allow researcher interfere into selection process.

Operationalisation which make concepts match indicators – increases construct validity. Explain why.

Transparency – transparency means that a researcher has shown exactly how the research was done – which questions were asked, how they were asked (face-to-face, by phone or …), how many people were approached and how many replied and the like. Explaining research decisions and activities increases research transparency and gives possibility to assess validity of its findings (for example, when research is published) and reliability (if it is clear how research was done it is possible to repeat it and estimate its reliability).

Standartisation - If sociologists simply grab at evidence that supports their favorite point of view then their accounts of social life would be highly subjective. To avoid subjectivity sociologists standardise the collection and organisation of data by making research as systematic and consistent as possible. This means that rather than having their views consistently confirmed by the evidence, sociologists test their theories against all existing evidence and not simply taking data that suits their own point of view.

J. Identify two research methods that are more likely to be favoured by phenomenologists. Why? 4 Marks

Phenomenology at this stage is used as a synonym of interpretivism. In the following courses you will find out in which aspect they are different.

Students may mention any of these methods: participant observation, unstructured interviews, personal documents, diaries and the like.

Later, after you will study ethnomethodology in the 2d semester, you may also refer to ‘breaching experiments’ (Garfinkel). Students may also refer to Verstehen aaproach.

Phenomenological sociology is the study of social life and the process by which humans interpret, experience, and understand their individual and collective realities. The phenomenological sociology has been partially realized in two current sociological traditions: social constructionism and ethnomethodology (You will learn what ethnomethodology is about in the 2d semester. So it is not necessary to mention it now.). Both of them study the way by which individuals construct, negotiate, and agree upon reality.

Method which are favoured by these traditions include those which are used in qualitative research design which adopt an interpretive approach.

Students were supposed mention two of them and explain why they are used in QLT RD.

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