SOC221H5 Chapter Notes - Chapter 2: Qualitative Research, Social Theory, Abstraction
Document Summary
Social theories explain recurring patterns, not unique or one-time events. Social theories are explanations for aggregates, not particular individuals: aggregate: collection of many individuals, cases, or other units. Social theories state a probability, chance, or tendency for events to occur, rather than stating that one event must necessarily follow another. Social theory: system of interconnected abstractions or ideas that condenses and organizes knowledge about the social world; compact way to think of social world. Classical social theorists (marx, weber and durkheim) played important role in generating innovative ideas about workings of social life; developed original theories of how society was organized that laid the foundation for subsequent generations of social thinkers. Concepts are the building blocks of theory. Defn: an idea expressed as a symbol or in words. Two parts of concepts: symbol (word or term) and definition. People learn concepts in everyday language (i. e. height) and share them.
