SOC 302 Chapter Notes - Chapter 2: Public Sociology
Document Summary
Inaccurate conclusions are caused by basing decisions solely on a belief in authority, common sense, tradition, personal experience, or observations that are selective. Sociology involves basic research, applied research, and public sociology. Basic research is aimed at a scholarly audience. Applied research is directed to some problem or need. Public sociology is communicating the findings from both basic research and applied research to a general non-academic audience. Through the collection of empirical evidence, patterns in social life can be recognized. (social science research) Empirical evidence is information acquired by observation or experimentation. The reason it is challenging to study social science is because the subjects of research are people. People are subject to change their behavior if they are conscious of the fact that they are being studied. People perceive, interpret, and react to situations differently. It is difficult to control social life for experimentation or make predictions with certainty.
