SOC 1011V Lecture 4: Lecture 4 Notes
Document Summary
Sociological research: how do we "know" something, authority, tradition, personal experience, common sense, media representations, myths & urban legends, everyday research, we are all doing sociological research every day, problems with "everyday knowledge" & "everyday research" Based on immediate surroundings: talking to people we know, drawing conclusions based on things around us. Not systematic: not coming up with a research design (questions, hypothesis, etc) Example: you make a generalization (professors listening to music loudly) and after that, you will tend to only notice professors listening to loud music. Inaccurate observation: we see something, but not as it is/for what it is. Example: you might see someone with a hat on fidgeting at a car door, and think that they are trying to break in, but they actually locked their keys in their car. Illogical reasoning: we often make illogical conclusions about causes and effects. Use systematic, careful and controlled data collection process.
