Sociology Reflection #2

Camden Schumann
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This week I am taking a dive into sociological research and how to properly conduct
research for sociology as a science. One of the biggest things to take into account is the
scientific method. I think that this topic is fairly well known from the consistent research
and teaching done throughout the years of schooling. It is by far one of the most repeated
topics because of its importance when studying sciences. Being able to utilize and identify
the scientific method is so extremely important in any scientific study because it ensures
that the information we are researching is accurate and credible. In the process of using
the scientific method it is important to avoid biases but often observations are subjected to
this. “To avoid subjectivity, sociologists conduct experiments or studies that gather and
analyze empirical evidence from direct experience. Peers review the conclusions from this
research and often repeat the experiments or studies or apply them to other contexts in
order to validate these conclusions. Examples of peer-reviewed research are found in
scholarly journals.” (Conerly et al. 47) Considering this it is very important how a
sociologist collects and gathers data. When studying social science it is important to gather
as much empirical evidence as possible. I believe that this is crucial to the integrity of how
people conduct research. The scientific method is described as such; ask a question,
research existing sources, formulate a hypothesis, design and conduct a study, draw
conclusions, report results. “Sociological research does not reduce knowledge to right or
wrong facts. Results of studies tend to provide people with insights they did not have
before—explanations of human behaviors and social practices and access to knowledge of
other cultures, rituals and beliefs, or trends and attitudes.“ (Conerly et al 49) This is
particularly interesting to me because of how the idea of gathering information is
important regardless if it is deemed correct or not. But rather focuses on the clarity
received on human behavior, practices, cultures, ideals, beliefs, institutions, family
dynamics, etc.

Following up on the idea of obtaining information to study humans through sociology,

reading the excerpt on Émile Durkheim was fairly interesting through his method of
conducting research. I find it fascinating that Durkheim studied so many different tribes in
Australia, New Guinea and the Eskimos without actually traveling or being in their
environment. Durkheim used information gathered by other anthropologists, travelers, or
missionaries to conduct his research. “For him, facts had no intellectual meaning unless
they were grouped into types and laws. He claimed repeatedly that it is from a construction
erected on the inner nature of the real that knowledge of concrete reality is obtained, a
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knowledge not perceived by observation of the facts from the outside.” (“Emile Durkheim
| Biography, Theory, Anomie, and Facts”) I enjoy this idea because of how Durkheim
chooses to look at the inner world of reality to obtain real knowledge. Although one could
argue objective truth can come from both internal and external sources, I believe
Durkheim’s method of looking at the inner nature is very important to understand certain
social aspects of groups and individuals.

I then went into the idea of the three “Big Theories” discussed in the course work.
Functional Theory and Structural-Functionalists described as holding value on different
types of people for their talents or natural abilities. As a society in America we hold
different professions to have higher value like Engineers vs. Waiter’s or Waitresses. Conflict
Theory labeled Marxists or Conflict Theorists looks at the confinement of what government
institutions hold for social groups and how social classes are maintained. These ideas are
held that wealthy people will use only resources they have access to to maintain their
wealth while poor groups won’t have access to these same resources. In another instance
how certain unhealthy lifestyles are accessed easier to poor groups like convenience of fast
food but healthy foods and education on nutrition are harder to access. Lastly, the
Interaction Theory is the idea that as a society or individual we define our own class
through our personal beliefs. This includes the position an individual is in, how they view
that place and what society does to influence it, as well as their thoughts and ability to
make a difference for their own social class. I find these theories interesting because I have
had my own thoughts pertaining to each of them and how I am affected by social classes
before I even researched them. My own personal interaction with society has led me to
think about these ideas naturally which could be very different from any other person. I
feel like knowing what these theories are now concretely will greatly increase my ability to
talk about these ideas to people.

Going back into research and using the scientific method for this, I really enjoyed the
breakdown of the YouTube Sociology Live video on the Scientific Method. Through this
video and the chapter in the book I have a much more detailed understanding of how the
scientific method is utilized. Breaking the method into six different steps will help
understand the entire process thoroughly. First is to ask a question, with this question it is
very important to be as detailed as possible. When asking a vague question it will be hard
to gather clear and accurate results when experimenting and researching. Second is to
research available existing sources or otherwise known as a literature review. Researching
any available sources helps a researcher understand the topic better and also helps
prevent plagiarism from being able to study material that is already published. Third step is
to build a hypothesis which is an interconnection between two different variables in the
study. Typically one variable will foresee how another variable will change otherwise known
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as the Independent Variable and Dependent Variable. Fourth will be to design and conduct
a study, this is fairly important because this is how I would be gathering information and
evidence to help assist my research. All the data that comes from this will be beneficial to
making my decision when formulating the conclusion to my study. This can include surveys,
field research, participant observation, ethnography, case study, experiments and as
discussed before reviewing existing research. Fifth this step I would need to draw
conclusions from the studies and research conducted. The most important thing to
remember when doing this is to remain objective and let the research speak for itself.
Cherry-picking or manipulating data is not conducive to providing a well made study. It’s
important to keep biases outside of this realm because in science it is important to provide
information with clear and honest intention regardless if it goes against what an individual
wants. Sixth and last is to report results on the research and studies done, this will happen
in different settings from conferences and academic journals. During this process the
research is subjected to the investigation of other sociologists. It’s important that when
publishing work that it is reviewed by peers to ensure there is accuracy amongst findings
and also to prevent plagiarized work from being stolen. ([Sociology Live!], “Scientific
Method”) (Conerly et al. 49-52)

I proceeded to investigate the ideas on “Qualitative” and “Quantitative” research. The first
thing that comes to mind when discussing this idea would be to think of quality vs. quantity
but I am well versed now on how that is incorrect. “Qualitative” is referring to responses or
information that are judged and measured by feel rather than mathematics. “Qualitative”
responses are typically open-ended questions which can be beneficial in certain situations
but also can cause confusion in the ambiguity of it being open-ended. Whenever you can
form a question to be closed-ended this is what generates a “Quantitative” response when
researching. A “Quantitative” response restricts the options for response and can be
converted to numbers to gather data on the subject. This is the main difference between
“Qualitative” and “Quantitative” and can vastly change how a researcher determines what
questions they use to gather data. It is important to take time to think about what kind of
information I’m trying to gather when doing research. With this it’s simple to explain why
“quality vs. quantity” doesn’t apply to social science. The reason being is that it doesn’t
matter about how many questions or surveys or how well they are built, it matters how
questions are asked and what their goal is when gathering data. Knowing this is important
when doing research on sociological problems in society so that we have good data to back
up research that is done. (“Qualitative Vs. Quantitative Questions”)

Going into the ethics of research, it is very important that studies are conducted with full
conscience to not harm people during human trials in any manner. With the ASA being
bound by the Code of Ethics it helps prevent unfavorable or downright evil situations from
happening in social experiments and research. An example of bad ethics used in research
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is the Tuskegee Syphilis study. I have heard of this study before researching for class and
now with my knowledge of sociology studying it means quite a bit more to me. I always
knew how wrong and evil the situation was but the implication this had on ensuring that
ethical practices were being conducted is substantial. This kind of scandal not only
destroyed families and hurt many people but also cost a lot of money with seemingly no
benefit to research. It’s amazing that an advisory panel could come together to determine
that this study was “ethically unjustified” to give compensation for the families affected by
this. This shows how important social sciences are in determining the ethics in human
trials, with the power of advisory and peer reviewed scientific processes sociologists can
ensure people are being treated properly in future studies. And with the Film “Miss Evers
Boy” following up on it through visual storytelling, it really impacts how someone could
think about how people were treated in this study. When told in this perspective one can
empathize with the unethical treatment of these men. Being told lies and given false hope
to be saved from a disease that was already curable. This situation is an incredible example
,albeit a terrible situation, on why ethics are so important. The community of science and
scholars are in agreement for preventing terrible unethical situations like this and shows
how compassion and ethics in human trials is one of the most important things with
researching social science. (“Ethics”) (Tuskegee Study - Timeline - CDC - NCHHSTP)
(“Miss Evers’ Boys (TV Movie 1997)”)

Going through all this information I feel extremely well informed on what is involved in
Sociology Research. There was a lot of information that I felt good about taking a different
approach with because I had heard about it in the past or experienced certain thoughts in
regards to it. I was able to take in all the research and utilize it in my reflection this week, I
would give myself a 5/5 for this week's reflection.
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Citations
Conerly, Tonja. Holmes, Kathleen. Tamang, Asha Lal. Introduction to

Sociology: 3e, Openstax, 2021.

“Emile Durkheim | Biography, Theory, Anomie, and Facts.” Encyclopedia

Britannica, 21 Sept. 2022, www.britannica.com/biography/Emile-Durkheim.

[Sociology Live!]. “Scientific Method.” YouTube, 24 Nov. 2015,

www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcnpuhrnE28.

“Qualitative Vs. Quantitative Questions.” SurveyMonkey,

www.surveymonkey.com/curiosity/qualitative-vs-quantitative.

“Ethics.” American Sociological Association, 28 Feb. 2022,

www.asanet.org/about/ethics#:%7E:text=ASA%20members%20are%20boun

d%20by,promoting%20ethical%20conduct%20by%20sociologists.

Tuskegee Study - Timeline - CDC - NCHHSTP.

www.cdc.gov/tuskegee/timeline.htm.

“Miss Evers’ Boys (TV Movie 1997).” IMDb, 22 Feb. 1997,

www.imdb.com/title/tt0119679.