SOC 1101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Twinkie Defense, Twinkie, Junk Food
16 May 2018
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Thursday, May 3rd, 2018
Explaining Sociological Questions
Theory and our Everyday Life
• What is it?
o A theory is a set of interrelated propositions, constructed and fitting together
logically, which claims to explain one or more aspects o the world around us.
• Why is it important?
o Explanations can be described as the stories we tell each other in attempts to
produce some order in our lives;
• For example: why did someone break up with so and so?
o Theories outline paths that lead to particular outcomes. They allow us to feel
that we know why something happened, and whether or not under what
conditions, its likely to occur again.
Aspects of a Good theory? (think of it like your manicure kit)
• Logically sound - most important thing - A must lead to B to lead to C
• Conflicting positions - can it make sense of conflicting positions?
o Think of it like you have two friends who are in conflict with each other and
you're trying to make sense of it.
• Sensitizing ability
o What has been ignored
o A lot of the theories that are shown are about old white guys.
• Popularity
o Popularity does not mean validity
The Twinkie defense
• In 1970s, Harvey Milk was assassinated because he had too many Twinkies and the idea
was that junk food made you commit crimes. There was a lot of research based on junk
food and what caused it.
How do we Evaluate a Theory?
• Scope
o The range of phenomena that a theory can explain
o More grandeur generalizations with the theory is the better one (a theory that is
able to encapsulate a lot more is better than a grandeur scope).
• Accuracy
o Does the theory match empirical reality
o For example: "strange things happen during a full moon" - deviance would only
happen during that time period and not the other 28 days = also known as
superstition
• Parsimony
o The simplest explanation is the correct explanation.
o The simplest explanation with the fewest leaps of logic.
• Can the theory be falsified?
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Thursday, May 3rd, 2018
o This is where we connect theory with methodology
o Couple of reasons we falsify things:
• Avoid tautologies
• No hypothesis - it's the negative what you're trying to prove/ it strengths
your argument
The Birth of Sociology
• The term sociology was coined by August Comte (1798-1857) in 1838.
• Conservatives challenged the enlightenment, believing that society is not the product of
individuals, rather an entity in itself.
1. Society exists on its own
2. Society produces the individual
3. Individuals simply fill positions
4. Smallest unit of social analysis is the family
5. Parts of society are interrelated and interdependent
6. Change is a threat, we like things to be static
7. Social institutions are beneficial: governments, schools, religious institutions
8. Modern social changes create fear and anxiety
• For example: terrorism, dropping cellphones, social media, etc.
9. Emphasis on seemingly irrational factors
10. Return to social hierarchies and healthy competition.
Functionalism (what's the function of society?)
• Social world is a dynamic system of interrelated and interdependent parts.
o For example: courtship behaviour leads to marriage leads to kids = cycle of life
• Social structures exist to help people fulfill their wants and desires
• Human society is similar to an organism, when it fails to work together the "system" will
fail.
o Sociologists try to compare sociology to the hard sciences.
• Society must meet the needs of the majority.
o A criticism: it doesn't look at the minority of society
• Was the dominant theoretical paradigm between the late 1920s and the early 1960s.
o It made a bit of a comeback but in a different way: what's the function of the
lower class? [they're the working class and they're normally people who clean up
after you].
Functionalist Theorists
• Herbert Spencer
o Survival of the fittest justifies why only the strong should survive (Charles Darwin
influenced this);
o Societies evolve because they need to change in order to survive;
• Technological development and changes = change and progress within
society.
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
They allow us to feel that we know why something happened, and whether or not under what conditions, its likely to occur again. Aspects of a good theory? (think of it like your manicure kit) In 1970s, harvey milk was assassinated because he had too many twinkies and the idea was that junk food made you commit crimes. There was a lot of research based on junk food and what caused it. Thursday, may 3rd, 2018: this is where we connect theory with methodology, couple of reasons we falsify things, avoid tautologies, no hypothesis - it"s the negative what you"re trying to prove/ it strengths your argument. [they"re the working class and they"re normally people who clean up after you]. Thursday, may 3rd, 2018: environmental pressures allows beneficial traits to be passed on to future generations, social darwinism draws upon darwin"s idea of idea selection, laissez-faire approach (opposes regulation of or interference with natural processes).
