SOC 1100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Critical Theory, Spurious Relationship, Participant Observation

• School: University of Guelph
• Department: Sociology
• Course: SOC 1100
• Professor: Deanna Behnke- Cook

Document Summary

Basics of sociological investigation: apply the sociological perspective, be curious and ask questions. In order to answer our questions, there are many forms of truth : belief or faith, expert testimony, simple agreement, science. We take everything our teachers/professors/superiors tell us as truth/fact without really investigating if it is: if someone says you"re stupid, worthless, insignificant repeatedly you will start to believe it. Logical system that bases knowledge on direct systematic observation: stands apart from faith, belief, or conventional wisdom. Rests on empirical evidence: information we can verify without senses. Defining concepts, operationalizing a variable: specifying what one intends to measure in assigning a value to a variable. Validity: actually measuring exactly what one intends to measure: interpretive sociology, critical sociology. Cause and effect: a relationship in which change in one variable causes change in another. Types of variables: independent: the variable that causes the change.