It means striving to overcome personal biases, particularly subconscious biases, when analyzing data
One way to accomplish this is to have multiple data analyzers on the research team. This will help reduce subconscious biases, especially if each analyzer holds different opinions on the subject matter.
must not accept funding from any organization that might cause a conflict of interest or seek to influence the research results for its own purposes.
This makes sense because I have seen commercials that say things like "4 out of 5 dentists recommend this toothpaste" and only 4 dentists are hired to state their opinion on the matter. Also, when looking at multiple variables and collecting data on each of them, as well as extra data that isn't really needed or used for the experiment-- especially when utilizing surveys-- erroneous conclusions can be drawn. An example being: if the researcher is looking for what increases depression in individuals and they collect data on hair length and coffee drinking, they might link the two in a statement like= "People with longer hair are less likely to drink coffee."
Researchers must make results available to other sociologists
Isn't this dangerous for the sociologist posting their findings? If a scientist with a "bigger name" comes along and claims to have found different results based on the data that the first one collected, it could ruin the first ones reputation even if they are correct in their findings.
During a study, sociologists must ensure the safety of participants and immediately stop work if a subject becomes potentially endangered on any level.
This reminds me of the Stanford Prison Experiment that was discontinued after the researcher let the participants come to harm. All the participants were informed of the potential risks in the experiment and they were split into two groups: inmates and guards.
consisting of principles and ethical standards to be used in the discipline. It also describes procedures for filing, investigating, and resolving complaints of unethical conduct.
What are the consequences for going outside the code of conduct when performing a sociological study?
But the separate figures don’t necessarily reveal how long it took each professor to reach the salary range, what their educational backgrounds are, or how long they’ve been teaching.
Isn't this when the researcher uses the survey method of data collection?
the Black Panthers were a revolutionary group actively fighting racism. Heussenstamm asked the students to follow their normal driving patterns. She wanted to see whether seeming support of the Black Panthers would change how these good drivers were treated by the police patrolling the highways. The dependent variable would be the number of traffic stops/citations.
While it sounds like the Panther group was well known by those in the police force, the study would not have yielded perfect results because all officers may not have know the group to target them.
Ethnographies involve objective observation of an entire community
How can one observe a group objectively?
Mihelich and Papineau gathered much of their information online.
How is this field work if they found their data online?
Those types of questions require short essay responses, and participants willing to take the time to write those answers will convey personal information about religious beliefs, political views, and morals
These responses seem very hard to categorize into easily manageable data. Is there a certain process of categorization that I am not thinking of to achieve this?
Researchers can’t just stroll into prisons, kindergarten classrooms, or Klan meetings and unobtrusively observe behaviors
We need undercover sociologists.
Subjects must be aware that they are being observed, and a certain amount of artificiality may result
This is very much like performing onstage in front of an audience in a show without messing up, and then being told there is a camera filming you when you perform that night and messing up because of it.
He saw healthy societies as stable, while pathological societies experienced a breakdown in social norms between individuals and society.
If these societies are not "healthy," does that mean they are unhealthy? Is America an unhealthy society because places like China Town exist where different social norms apply?
This approach led to some research methods whose aim was not to generalize or predict (traditional in science), but to systematically gain an in-depth understanding of social worlds.
Did they assume that society was so complex as to exist outside of patterns and generalization? Did they not think it possible to predict norms in others societies based on the similarities they found in one?
Marx predicted that inequalities of capitalism would become so extreme that workers would eventually revolt
This reads like Marx is looking on from the sidelines or as a bystander... What class did he fall into in order to make these seemingly predictive statements?
faults with the free enterprise system in which workers were exploited and impoverished while business owners became wealthy. She further noted that the belief in all being created equal was inconsistent with the lack of women’s rights.
Sounds like the bourgeoisie with all the capital and power vs. the proletariat. It sounds also like she includes herself in the proletariat or some other lower-than-bourgeoisie class.
levels of attachment between group members, among other things
Can a group be created spontaneously or without its members knowing they're in it? Like when a natural disaster strikes a few different places, or a terrorist attack unites different ethnic backgrounds and nationalities.
Groups vary in their sizes and formalities
How large can a group be? Is there a max. size?
Within a large group, smaller groups may exist, and each group may behave differently.
Besides for the rock concert analogy, do different sects in a religion work as well?
The alliance has worked successfully to educate their community about same-sex couples. It also worked to raise awareness about the kinds of discrimination that Ashley and her partner experienced in the town and how those could be eliminated. The alliance has become a strong advocacy group, and it is working to attain equal rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender, or LBGT individuals.
This couple created a smaller group within the group of the community that changed the dynamic of the community to fit their needs. So, they made the group fit them instead of fitting the group.
individual and society are inseparable
I guess you could make comparisons between the individual's behavior and the "norms" of society, but couldn't you separate the individual through robotic(or other) care and study the behavior of that individual without the effects of society?
an awareness of the relationship between a person’s behavior and experience and the wider culture that shaped the person’s choices and perceptions.
This might be why parents are often embarrassed by their children or older siblings are embarrassed by younger ones.
A group of people who live in a defined geographic area, who interact with one another, and who share a common culture is what sociologists call asociety.
Does this still apply to the world today? I mean to say that with cultures and backgrounds being bounced around and found in every country as well as customs and holidays that our calendar skirts around, wouldn't a group, at this point, just be each country?