SOCI 201 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Fokker E.Ii, Scientific Method, Research

• School: University of Calgary
• Department: Sociology
• Course: SOCI 201
• Professor: Valerie Ann Haines

Document Summary

Sociologists use a scientific approach to understand the social world. Authority: accepting something as true because someone in a position of authority says it(cid:859)s t(cid:396)ue o(cid:396) it(cid:859)s see(cid:374) i(cid:374) a pu(cid:271)lished autho(cid:396)itati(cid:448)e (cid:449)o(cid:396)k (cid:894)e(cid:454)pe(cid:396)ts(cid:895). Tradition: a special case of authority, the authority of the past. Accepting something on the g(cid:396)ou(cid:374)ds that(cid:859)s always been done. Common sense: relying on what everybody knows (relying on agreement among ordinary people). Personal experience: relying on our own experience to know something to be true. Question: what sets sociological research apart from these ways of knowing: the fact that sociological research uses a scientific method, li(cid:374)k to te(cid:454)t(cid:271)ook: (cid:858)s(cid:272)ie(cid:374)tifi(cid:272) so(cid:272)iolog(cid:455)(cid:859) State our research questions as precisely as possible. Drawing conclusions on the basis of assessments of empirical evidence/data: empirical: rely on observations that people experience through senses (observable evidence, quantitative data: expressed as numbers, qualitative data: expressed as words, pictures, or objects.