Approaches in Sociology

Chapter 1
Introduction

SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE // Lectures by Sean Ang

 Learning Outcomes

Theory
• Students will be able to understand the 3 phases of
sociology
• Students will be able to understand the 3 approaches
to study the society
• Students will be able to understand the 3 research
orientations

Application
Students will be able apply theoretical approach in
doing social research; or use it as guideline to be a
good writer

SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE // Lectures by Sean Ang

 Learning Outcomes

The Shaman The Monk The Scientist

SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE // Lectures by Sean Ang

 3 Phases in Sociology

The Theological Stage: People believe that all the phenomena of

nature are the creation of the divine or supernatural. Comte broke this
stage into 3 sub-stages:

Fetishism: Primitive people believe that inanimate objects have living

spirit in them such as trees and magic stones
Polytheism: Primitive people believe that different Gods control
differents events such God of water or God of Fire
Monotheism: Monotheism means believing in one God or God in one;
attributing all to a single, supreme deity.

The Metaphysical Stage: An abstract power determines events in the

world. Metaphysical thinking discards belief in a concrete God. For
example: In Classical Hindu Indian society the principle of the
transmigration of the soul, the conception of rebirth, notions of pursuant
were largely governed by metaphysical reasoning.

SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE // Lectures by Sean Ang

 3 Phases in Sociology

The Scientific Stage: Began with the work of early scientists such
Copernicus (1473–1543), Galileo (1564–1642) and Isaac Newton (1642–
1727).
 
•Comte’s contribution came in applying the scientific to the study of
society. Comte’s approach is called positivism, a way of understanding
based on science. As a positivist, Comte believed that society operates
according to its own laws like other laws of nature.
 
•20th century: Sociology had spread to the United States and showed the
influence of Comte’s ideas.

•Today: Human behavior is far more complex than the actions of other
living things. Human behavior can never be fully explained by rigid “laws
of society.” Karl Marx (1818–1883) were troubled by the striking
inequalities of industrial society. Sociology would not just help us
understand society but change it for better social justice.

SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE // Lectures by Sean Ang

 3 Phases in Sociology

The Scientific Stage

…and what is Science?
SPOT THE SCIENTIFIC STATEMENT

OR

There is an elephant waiting for me I ate Maggie Mee 3 years Ago at

at INTI Lobby right now! INTI College Canteen
Karl Popper - Falsification
SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE // Lectures by Sean Ang
3 Approaches in Sociology

The Social Scientist

SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE // Lectures by Sean Ang

 3 Approaches in Sociology

A theory is a statement of how and why specific facts are

related. The job of sociological theory is to explain social
behaviour in the real world.
In building theory, sociologists face two basic questions:
What issues should we study? And how should we connect
the facts?
Sociologists make use of 3 major theoretical approaches:
•The structural-functional approach
•The social-conflict approach
•The symbolic-interaction approach.

SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE // Lectures by Sean Ang

 Structural-Functional Approach

The structural-functional approach is a framework for building

theory that sees society as a complex system whose parts work
together to promote solidarity and stability.

We look for structure’s social functions, the consequences of

any social pattern for the operation of society as a whole.
Example from handshake to complex religious rituals.
Example of Sociologist using Structural-Functionalist approach:
•Auguste Comte: The need to keep society unified at a time
when many traditions were breaking down.
•Emile Durkheim: Who helped establish the study of sociology
in French universities.
•Herbert Spencer: Compared society to the human body that
works together to ensure it functions

SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE // Lectures by Sean Ang

 Structural-Functional Approach

Society is like a human organ, whereby it has its

own parts and systems maintaining the body

SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE // Lectures by Sean Ang

 Structural-Functional Approach

Robert K.Merton (1910–2003) pointed that social structure

has many functions:
• The manifest functions, the recognized and intended
consequences of any social pattern
• The latent functions, the unrecognized and unintended
consequences of any social pattern.
• Example: The Higher Education System
A social dysfunction is any social pattern that may disrupt
the operation of society.
• Example: Globalization good for companies but not good
for local workers

SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE // Lectures by Sean Ang

 Social Conflict Approach

The social-conflict approach is a framework for building theory that sees

society as an arena of inequality that generates conflict and change.

Sociologists investigate how factors such as social class, race, ethnicity,

gender, sexual orientation, and age are linked to a society’s unequal
distribution of money, power, education, and social prestige.

A conflict analysis rejects the idea that social structure promotes the
operation of society as a whole, focusing instead on how social patterns
benefit some people while hurting others.

Sociologists look at ongoing conflict between dominant and disadvantaged

categories of people:
• The Rich in relation to the Poor
• White people in relation to other ethnicities
• Men in relation to women.
SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE // Lectures by Sean Ang
 Social Conflict Approach

Example: Smart student goes to university. Is this logical?

Conflict Analysis : Tracking has to do with social background. Well to-

do students are placed in higher tracks compared with poorer students

Rich get the best schooling, which leads to high-income careers.

Children of poor families have no opportunity and get stuck in low-
paying jobs. The social standing of one generation is passed on to the
next generation.

Social-conflict approach not just to understand society but also to bring

about societal change that would reduce inequality. Karl Marx
championed the cause of the workers in what he saw as their battle
against factory owners.

“The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various

ways; the point, however, is to change it.”

SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE // Lectures by Sean Ang

 Social Conflict Approach

The Gender-Conflict Approach is making us aware of the importance

of women to the development of sociology. Feminism: Support of
social equality for women and men.

Harriet Martineau concerned about the position of women in society

and fought for changes in education policy so that women could have
more options in life than marriage and raising children.

The Race-Conflict Approach focuses on inequality and conflict

between people of different racial and ethnic categories.

Ida Wells campaigned racial equality and to put an end to the lynching
of black people.

William Du Bois studied the problems faced by black communities in

US and inequality in political system

SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE // Lectures by Sean Ang

 Social Conflict Approach

How do we create a fair society?

SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE // Lectures by Sean Ang

 Symbolic-Interaction Approach

The symbolic-interaction approach is a framework for building

theory that sees society as the product of the everyday interactions of
individuals.
How does “society” result from the ongoing experiences of tens
of millions of people? Society is nothing more than the shared reality
that people construct for themselves as they interact
with one another.

Human beings live in a world of symbols, attaching meaning to virtually

everything, from the words on this page to the wink of an eye.

We create “reality,” therefore, as we define our surroundings,

decide what we think of others, and shape our own identities.

Max Weber (1864–1920), a German sociologist who emphasized

the need to understand a setting from the point of view of the people
in it.

SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE // Lectures by Sean Ang

Symbolic-Interaction Approach

Society is Full of Meanings

SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE // Lectures by Sean Ang

 Symbolic-Interaction Approach

Interactions Between Individuals Shape the Society

SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE // Lectures by Sean Ang
 Symbolic-Interaction Approach

Other examples of the application of symbolic-interaction

approach

•George Herbert Mead (1863–1931), who explored how our

personalities develop as a result of social experience.

•Erving Goffman (1922–1982), whose dramaturgical analysis

describes how we resemble actors on a stage as we play our various
roles.

•George Homans and Peter Blau, have developed social-exchange

analysis. Social interaction is guided by what each person stands to
gain or lose from the interaction. In the ritual of courtship people seek
mates who offer at least as much - in terms of physical attractiveness,
intelligence, and social background - as they offer in return.

SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE // Lectures by Sean Ang

3 Approaches in Sociology

SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE // Lectures by Sean Ang

 Applying the Theory

Based on the 3 Approaches, describe how you will

choose an approach to do your research

a.Analysis of Chinese Food - ?

b.LGBT in Malaysia - ?

c.Smart Phones - ?

SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE // Lectures by Sean Ang

 Applying the Theory

Selection of Approaches

Structural- Symbolic- Social

Functional Interaction Conflict

Analysis of Quite Suitable Most Suitable Not So Suitable

Chinese Food Yin Yang
Concept in
Chinese Food
LGBTs in Quite Suitable Quite Suitable Most Suitable
Malaysia The Oppression
of LGBTs in
Malaysian Higher
Education

Smart Phone Most: Suitable Quite Suitable Not So Suitable

The Function of
Smart Phones in
Education
SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE // Lectures by Sean Ang
 3 Research Orientation

The Scientist The Story Teller The Activist

Observe Eat the Food How to Cook

Someone A Better Food?
Cooking

SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE // Lectures by Sean Ang

 Positivist Sociology

Positivist sociology is the study of society based on systematic observation

of social behavior. Job of the scientist is to discover this reality by gathering
empirical evidence.

Concept is a mental construct that represents some part of the world in a

simplified form. Example : Social life = “the family” and “the economy,”
 
Variable is a concept whose value changes from case to case. Example “social
class” to describe people’s social standing as “upper class,” or “lower class.”
 
Measurement is a procedure for determining the value of a variable in a specific
case. Example: A person’s social class? Answer: Income and occupation
 
Objectivity, personal neutrality in conducting research. Max Weber: People
select topics that are value-relevant, Weber urged researchers to be value-free in
their investigations.
 
Replication, repetition of research by other investigators. If other researchers
repeat a study using the same procedures the results will be the same.

SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE // Lectures by Sean Ang

 Positivist Sociology

The scientific ideal is cause and effect, a relationship in which change in

one variable causes change in another. The variable that causes the change
is called the independent variable. The variable that changes (the exam
grade) is called the dependent variable.

If A, Under B Conditions, then C

If (Income Reduced), and (living condition got
worse) then (delinquency rate goes up)
The Deductive-Nomological Explanation
SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE // Lectures by Sean Ang
 Positivist Sociology

Limitations of Scientific Sociology

 
1. Human behavior is too complex to many any prediction Humans
minds of their own, so no two people react to any event in exactly the
same way.
 
2. The presence of a researcher may affect the behavior being
studied. The act of studying people can cause their
behavior to change.
 
3. What is true in one time or place may not hold true in another.
Laws of physics is applicable all the time but human behavior keeps on
changing

4. Sociologists are part of the social world. The can never be 100%
value-free. Chemists are rarely personally affected by what goes on in
their test tubes. Example: Analysis of religion will resulted in bias
 

SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE // Lectures by Sean Ang

 Interpretive Sociology

Interpretive sociology, the study of society that focuseson the

meanings people attach to their social world. Max Weber, argued
that the proper focus of sociology is interpretation, or
understanding the meaning that people create in their everyday
lives.
 
Weber’s Concept of Verstehen
Max Weber believed the key to interpretive sociology lay in
Verstehen (pronounced “fair-SHTAY-in”), the German word for
“understanding.”
 
The interpretive sociologist does not just observe what people do
but also tries to understand why they do it. The thoughts and
feelings of subjects, which scientists tend to dismiss because they
are difficult to measure, are the focus of the interpretive
sociologist’s attention.

SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE // Lectures by Sean Ang

 Interpretive Sociology

Hermeneutic Cycle
 
 
Interpretation 1 Interpretation 2

Interpretation 3 Interpretation 4

Final Truth

SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE // Lectures by Sean Ang

 Interpretive Sociology

The Importance of Meaning: How is it Different from Positivism?

Positivist Sociology
Focuses on actions—on what people do
—because that is what we can observe
directly.
Objective reality exists “out there,”
Favor quantitative data—numerical
measurements of people’s behavior
Best suited to research in a laboratory,
where investigators take careful
measurements.
Interpretive Sociology
Interpretive sociology, by contrast,
focuses on people’s understanding of
their actions and their surroundings.
Reality is subjective, constructed
by people in the course of their everyday
lives.
Favor qualitative data, or researchers’
perceptions of how people understand
their world.
Best by interacting with people, focusing
on subjective meaning, and learning
their everyday lives. 

SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE // Lectures by Sean Ang

 Critical Sociology

Critical sociology is the study of society that focuses on the need for
social change.

Rather than asking the scientific question “How does society work?”
critical sociologists ask moral questions, such as:
 
•“Should society exist in its present form?”
• “Why can’t our society have less inequality?”
 
Answer: Society should not remain as it is and that we should try to
make our world more socially equal.
 
Critical sociology does not reject science but the claim that researchers
should try to be “objective” and limit to study of status quo.
 
Researchers use their findings to provide a voice for less powerful
people and to advance the political goal of a more equal society

SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE // Lectures by Sean Ang

 Critical Sociology

Prescriptive Research

Gap Analysis

Basic
Research
Resolution

Action Action Research

Activism

SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE // Lectures by Sean Ang

 Applying the Theory

What type of research is this?

SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE // Lectures by Sean Ang

 Applying the Theory

Study of Divorce: Example of a Scientific Research

SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE // Lectures by Sean Ang

 Applying the Theory

Study of Divorce: Example of a Scientific Research

SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE // Lectures by Sean Ang

 Applying the Theory

What type of research is this?

SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE // Lectures by Sean Ang

 Applying the Theory

Study of Divorce: Example of Interpretive Approach

Seonhee Son discuss the meaning of phenomenons

SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE // Lectures by Sean Ang

 Applying the Theory

Study of Divorce: Example of Interpretive Approach

Seonhee Son collects stories from interviews

SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE // Lectures by Sean Ang

 Applying the Theory

What type of research is this?

SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE // Lectures by Sean Ang

 Applying the Theory

Study of Divorce: Example of Gender-Conflict Approach

SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE // Lectures by Sean Ang

 Applying the Theory

Study of Divorce: Example of Gender-Conflict Approach

Diane Newmann gave solution by re-examine Marital Role

SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE // Lectures by Sean Ang

Approaches in Sociology

THE END

SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE // Lectures by Sean Ang