SOSYOLOJİYE GİRİŞ

Unlike people depending on commonsense while talking, sociologists make effort to follow the rules of responsible speech.

At the meso level, which is known as mesosociology, sociologists study the experiences of groups and the interactions between groups.

Pastoral societies are the societies in which the gain of livelihood is based on domesticated livestock such as cattle or sheep.

Social structure is composed of these social actions of and the interactions among the members of the society. In other words, the social structure is the regular, permanent and stereotyped relations among the members of the society.

Self is the totality of the perceptions and thoughts related to our identity and our qualifications. In other words, self is a relatively stable set of perceptions and thoughts of who we are in relation to the others and ourselves.

As a separate social science discipline, sociology originated with Comte in the middle of 19th century. Auguste Comte, the founding father of sociology, developed the concept of positivism into sociology.

To clarify the difference in their perspectives, let us look what different social science disciplines would focus on when they study family. Psychologists may study how the personality develops in the family context. Anthropologists may study different family structures in different cultures. Political scientists may study how a particular political decision would influence the families. Economists may study the consumption patterns or unemployment levels of families. Sociologists may study how the families are shaped by the society they exist in or how the changes in the family structure influence the structure of the society.

Social scientists are members of the society they investigate, they may influence the people they investigate and may be influenced by them.

Data gathering techniques used in quantitative research design are structured (controlled) observation, structured (controlled) interview, questionnaire, experiment, quasi-experiment and survey.

The case study is the examination of a social fact in its own social context, through a variety of data gathering techniques.

Durkheim, in his seminal study entitled “Suicide” (1897) shows that suicide rates are higher in men than women, higher for singles than people in a relationship and higher among Protestants than Catholics. He also found that suicide rates are higher in times of peace than times of war; and higher in times of economic crisis than times of economic welfare. Depending on these similarities and differences, Durkheim developed a theory and explained suicide as a sociological phenomenon, as a social fact. The correct answer is Choice C.

Sociology has three levels of inquiry. At the macro level, sociology investigates the structure and change of the societies or social institutions. In other words, macrosociology studies the analysis of large-scale social organizations such as political or economic systems. At the meso level, which is known as mesosociology, sociologists study the experiences of groups and the interactions between groups. At the micro level, namely microsociology, sociologists investigate the smallest levels of interaction, such as the everyday behaviors in face-to-face interactions. Microsociology studies may include interactions between friends or couples, or only the perception of the self. The correct answer is Choice D.

In the most general
level, societies before the 18th century are called “traditional societies”. In the Western world, the majority of the traditional societies transformed through Enlightenment, Scientific and Political Revolutions and the Industrial Revolution, and a new society emerged. This new type of society is called “the industrial society” or “the modern society”.  In specific, the traditional societies are categories as hunting and gathering societies, pastoral societies, agrarian societies and traditional states. The earliest type of societies is hunting and gathering societies, which exist since 50,000 BC to present. However, today there are only a few hunting and gathering societies in the world. This type of society consists of small numbers of people, such as 30-40 people. People are nomad and gain their livelihood from hunting, fishing, and gathering edible plants. Pastoral societies are the societies in which the gain of livelihood is based on domesticated livestock such as cattle or sheep. These societies generally live in areas which are not suitable for agriculture. These societies consist of a larger population than hunting and gathering societies. Their population varies from a few hundred people to many thousand people. Agrarian societies are the societies of small rural communities which are engaged in agriculture. They often hunt animals and gather edible plants in addition to agricultural production. Their existence period is approximately same with pastoral societies. The societies known as traditional states or non-industrial civilizations existed between 6000 BC to 19th century. The correct answer is Choice A.

Social institution refers to arrangements involving large numbers of people whose behaviors are guided by norms and roles. A social institution is a socially organized social behavior pattern that reflects the established appearance of the society, which are continuously repeated, maintained and approved by the social norms. Neither the society nor the members of the society obtain themselves incidentally. Most of our activities are structured, regular, continuous and repetitive. Social structure is composed of these social actions of and the interactions among the members of the society. In social life, there are phenomena different than physical sciences examine. These phenomena are known as social facts or social reality. Social facts are created collectively by society. They are exterior, inevitable and limiting for the individuals. A status is the rank, the position that one holds in the society. Anybody may occupy the status of a son or a daughter, a husband or a wife, a teacher, or a mother. Statuses are divided into two basic types. These are ascribed and achieved status. Society expects specific behaviors from people who hold specific statuses and these expected behaviors are called “roles”. Roles are composed of the rights and assignments appropriate to the social status. The correct answer is Choice D.

As a separate social science discipline, sociology originated with Comte in the middle of 19th century. Auguste Comte, the founding father of sociology, developed the concept of positivism into sociology. Positivism is the philosophy of knowledge which asserts the social world can be understood, explained and estimated with scientific methods, mostly the methods of physical sciences. Positivist sociologists believed that as there are natural laws in the physical world, so there are universal and structural laws in social life and sociology should reveal these laws and regularities. The correct answer is Choice B.

The roots of the social sciences, which emerged in the 19th century, lie in the Enlightenment period. There are many disciplines of social sciences, such as economics, history, political science, anthropology, psychology, and these are all related to each other. All of these disciplines examine human behavior, they are all interested in the human- built social World. Philosophy and sociology have a close relation. The rise of sociology is mostly the result of a philosophical desire, the desire to give meaning to human history, to explain the social crisis in the 19th century and to create a social doctrine that will guide to social politics. The relation between philosophy and sociology has three main dimensions. First, sociology makes use of philosophy of science, as it is a science itself. Second, sociology is interested in values while studying social facts, so it has to know the debates of values in ethics and social philosophy. Third, sociology helps new philosophical questions to arise. The correct answer is Choice B.

The sciences, in the most general sense, are divided into two; the mathematic sciences and positive sciences. Mathematical sciences are divided into mathematic and logic. Positive sciences are divided into physical sciences and social sciences. Mathematic is an observable and objective science, because the starting point of mathematical concepts is observation, and the entities they symbolize are objective realities, even though they are abstract. The other branch of mathematic sciences is logic. Logic is a science that shows the conditions of validity and correctness of deductions, and like mathematics, logic is also tautological. Mathematics provides precision and logic provides consistency to our knowledge. Thus, mathematical sciences are tools that other sciences use for quantification, knowledge derivation and deducting. Positive sciences are innovative sciences, they have observable, empirical study subjects and make deductions on these subjects. Positive sciences split up to physical sciences and social sciences. Physical sciences are the sciences which study animated and unanimated substances and material facts. Some of the physical sciences are astronomy, physics, chemistry, biology and zoology. Social sciences are the sciences which study social world and the relations among people. Sociology, anthropology, psychology, economics and political science are some of the social sciences. The correct answer is Choice C.

There are some important differences between physical and social sciences: (1) Physical scientists may conduct experiments in order to test and prove hypotheses. In social sciences, the study subjects are human beings and they have the right not to join the test. In addition, creating an environment of a laboratory may hinder people from behaving naturally, thus may be an obstacle to reaching the actual facts. For this reason, social scientists prefer to investigate people in their natural environments rather than in a laboratory environment. (2) In physical sciences, providing that all conditions of the circumstance will be the same, experiments enable scientists to make explicit predictions. However, it is impossible to make predictions with this much certainty in social sciences. The interaction of individuals, groups and society are complex and people may change their minds with their own will, for this reason making estimations in social sciences is not this easy. People may react and behave differently in the same circumstances, they may interpret the same fact differently, or may change their minds. Consequently, the regularities or laws in the social world cannot be put forward with the same certainty degree as in physical sciences. (3) In physical sciences, scientists cannot influence the reaction of their subjects. However, social scientists are members of the society they investigate, they may influence the people they investigate and may be influenced by them. Thus, it is harder to be objective in social sciences than it is in physical sciences. In addition to this, unlike social sciences, physical scientists do not have to persuade the study subjects to cooperate in research. In social sciences, the subjects have free will, the scientists have to persuade the people they investigate to cooperate. People may prefer not to cooperate in research, refuse to answer the questions, or they may give incorrect or deficit information, or may lie intentionally. This kind of behavior would make a sociological research impossible, difficult or unreliable. (4) In physical sciences scientists may investigate facts singly and examine the causality relationship between them. On the contrary, because the structure of the society is complex and there are many factors influencing the causality relations, social scientists have to take the social world as a whole. (5) Measurement is much easier in physical sciences. The subjects of physical sciences are often in measurable conditions, they may be expressed by measures such as weight, length, density or volume. Because there are not standard measures for measuring behaviors, perceptions or attitudes of people, it is harder to make measurements in social sciences. The correct answer is Choice E.

The approach which depends on the thoughts of Wilhelm Dilthey and Max Weber is Interpretive Approach. Critical approach depends on the thoughts of Karl Marx and Sigmund Freud. When the structure of social reality is examined, it will be seen that Critical Approach supports the idea that social realities are the conflicts which are created by the underlying mechanisms of the surface. They cannot be seen at first glance by individuals. On the other hand, the approach which supports the idea that social realities are the regularities which exist independent of individual subjectivity and which wait to be discovered is the Positivist Approach. In Critical Approach, the aim of the social research is to criticize and transform social relations and to change the World not to understand and define social action and to put forward how people make sense of social facts in their natural environments. It is the aim of the social research in Interpretive Approach. In Critical Approach, a good finding displays the illusions and uncovers social realities. In terms of human nature, Critical Approach supports the idea that people are creative entities with potential, who are trapped by illusions and exploitation not the idea that people do not act with their own will, they act rationally and their behaviors are shaped by exterior forces. It is supported by the Positivist Approach. The correct answer is Choice C.

Unstructured (not controlled, in-depth) interview is an interview design in which the researcher interviews a few people but gathers very in-depth and detailed information. Interview forms are not used in unstructured interviews; the interviews are conducted in a conversation environment. In life story interview the researcher interviews people who reflect the research problem. The interview includes the entire life course in details. The researcher tries to understand the social fact s/he studies through the life experiences of the participants. Oral history is similar to the life story interview. However, in oral history, not the entire life is subject to the interview. The interview includes only a part, a historical period of the life of the participant. The case study is the examination of a social fact in its own social context, through a variety of data gathering techniques. In case study, only a single critical case is examined rather than a larger sample of the population, and the researcher focuses only on this case rather than more general indicators of the research problem. Thus, the researcher may make longer and more detailed observations. The “case” in the case study may be an event, an institution, a group or a person. For example, the case may be a specific hospital, a specific strike, or a person who had an occupational injury. The analysis of documents like books, newspapers, magazines, reports, records, correspondences, proceedings, diaries, memoirs or letters are called document analysis or documentary analysis. There are a number of analysis methods for analyzing documents, such as content analysis or critical discourse analysis. The correct answer is Choice D.