Introduction to Sociology/Sociological Methods

1)Summary

This chapter introduces the way of studying social life used by sociologists.
In ancient philosophy, there were no differences between fields of study. They basically
used same methods to make a study, so many ancient scholars crossed the fields.
(such as Aristotle)
Since Thomas Hobbes and Isaac Newton, expressing philosophical ideals and studying human behavior by mathematical methods became a law. This is the orgin of what is being called 'social science'. To sum up, the point of this chapter is that sociologists use scientific methods.

To talk about sociological methods in more detail, first, research of sociologists is started with characterization. In this step, sociologists identify concepts which are what sociologists wants to study. Characterization should be clear and specific. Then, they make hypothesis and prediction. In the hypothesis, there are dependent variable and independent variable, which have clear relationship. Next, they construct experiments to test the hypothesis whether it is true of not, and conduct the experiment. After that, they evaluate their research, and if the result of the experiment is confirm, they state new theory, but whenever they find errors they go back to former process and do it again and again.

The third part of this chapter talks about attitudes of researchers which are sociologists must have. And it also distinguishes confusing concepts such as correlation vs causation and objective vs critical.

2) My opinion

When I was in high school, I attended the class called 'social and culture'. So I studied such things like quantitative and qualitative methods, process of scientific methods etc..
But in university, to study about those things deeper is much more difficult but also very interesting.


3) Questions

What are other attitudes that sociologists must have to study social life?
And what do you think the most important attitude that sociologists never forget in any circumstances?