SOC 1100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Participant Observation, Critical Theory, Symbolic Interactionism

• School: University of Guelph
• Department: Sociology
• Course: SOC 1100
• Professor: Deanna Behnke- Cook

Document Summary

Science: is a logical system that bases knowledge on direct, systematic observation. Empirical evidence: is any information that one can verify with their senses. Scientific sociology: is the study of society based on systematic observation of social behaviour. The scientific orientation known as positivism, assumes that an objective really exists out there. Concept: a mental construct that represents some part of the world in simplified form. Concepts such as family, economy, gender and ethnicity are used. Variable: a concept whose value changes from case to case. The use of the variable depends on measurement, a procedure for determining the value of a variable in a specific case. Sociologists often combine three measurements: income, education, and occupation. Good research requires operationalize a variable which means specifying exactly what is to be measured before assigning a value to a variable. For a measurement to be useful, it must be reliable and valid.