2SocResearch 5: Lifeboat Data and Macro and Micro Soc

HW: Read Joel Charon's Should We Generalize?

Here are the results of 20 years of doing this activity:

Out of 71 times, here are the totals:

1.Able-Bodied Sailor Jones:                                    22

2.Ship’s Officer O’Maley:  Mr./Ms. O’Malley:         2

3.Quarter Master MacDonald:                                 56

4.Self-Made Millionaire Douglas:                           54

5.College Student Mr/Ms Parsons:                          60

6.Nobel Prize Winner in Literature, Dr. Lightfoot   35

7.Nobel Prize Winner in Physics, Dr. Singleton        0

8.Football Player Mr. Small:                                    15

9.Cheerleader Mrs. Small:                                         6

10.Army Captain Thomas:                                       15

11.Draft Evader Samuels:                                        59

12.Peace Corps Volunteer Mr./Ms. Davidson:          5

13.Med Student Mr./Ms. Ryan:                                 0

14.Elderly man Mr. Eldridge:                                  65

15.Elderly woman Mrs. Eldridge:                            62

16.Travelling Poet Mr/Ms Carpenter:                      41

Sociological Literacy:  macrosociology and microsociology.

The activity helps to understand the different levels of study that sociologists examine:  macrosociology and microsociology.

Macrosociological perspective

On the macro level, sociologists look for the influences of large-scale forces on groups or individuals.   So, for the simulation, let's examine the similarities for who your class kicked off the boat compared to the other classes that I have taught.  

Our class is made up of different people than my other classes.  In fact, so different that students are from a different generation!  For example, I have been doing this activity long enough that two of my students married!  They met in my class as the football player and cheerleader, and then after continuing to date during college, they asked me to marry them!  Even though they are old enough to be a different generation than my current class, patterns still emerge.



Class Discussion:  Despite the differences, what does our class share in common with all of the other classes that I have done this with?




Students in our class are Americans, teenagers, high-schoolers, from an upper-middle class suburb. All of these groups have an effect on an individual so that even when an individual makes choices alone, he/she is still being influenced by these groups. 

Students consistently save the characters who they believe are useful, especially the medical student and the Nobel prize winner in Physics.  And, students consistently reject the elderly and the sick (quartermaster, college student) and the draft evader.  There are macro-sociological forces that shape these decisions. All of those participating in this simulation are Americans and teens.  I believe they are shaped by cultural values.   Other cultures might save the elderly or save the more educated or save the sick and the weak, etc...

From a structural-functional paradigm, this macro analysis might focus on the ways that our families, schools, economy and peers all promote the values that the macro data reveal.

From a conflict paradigm, this macro analysis might focus on who consistently is treated differently by the macro data and the ways that those people are affected by that treatment.

Microsociology
On the microsociological level, sociologists study how groups interact in face-to-face conversation. That is, who makes eye contact, how loud people speak, where they sit, who is the leader, etc... So, the microdata from each time that the activity is done, might be different based on the interaction.  This includes the words students use.  This can be an example of the symbolic interaction paradigm.  Because there is shared meaning in some of these words, that shapes how people react.  For example, if the poet focuses on being a poet, people might see that as undesirable and kick him off.  But if the poet reinforces that he is useful because of his sailing skills, that might save him because usefulness is a shared value in our culture. 

This activity is a metaphor for any group that you are a part of; all of the groups that shape you are governed by both macro-sociological forces and micro-sociological forces.  For example, apply this to high school.  If we examined these two levels in high school, there are certain macro-sociological values that one would expect to find no matter where the school is located: grades, expectations of learning, homework, rules etc... So as you move from one class to the next, you will see these macro-sociological values present. On the other hand, every class is different because of the micro-sociological dynamics present in that class: some teachers are more casual, some teachers use rows vs. a horseshoe shape, some classes have a few loud boisterous individuals and other classes might be mostly girls or mostly guys etc...


These questions are continued from the Google Form from the previous lesson:

Sociological Literacy:  Macro and Micro Sociology and Statuses
4.  What does macro-sociology focus on?


Small Group Discussion (don't write this down, yet)
5. How would a sociologist examine this activity using macro-sociology? 


6.  What does micro-sociology focus on?


7. How would a sociologist examine this activity using micro-sociology?

Individually Applying Sociology:

8.  Apply this to the primary research article that you found.  Is the research that you found,  macro or micro? Why?

Can you see these two levels at play in your own life? Perhaps in your family, your classes or with a group of friends, or at your job? Think about that lifeboat activity and how it is a metaphor for any of the groups that you are a part of. There are macro forces like culture and social class that affect your group but there are also micro forces at play too such as the dynamic of how the group interacts.

Sociological Literacy Review:

Social Construction of Reality

How can you examine this activity using the idea of social construction of reality? 

Sociological Imagination

How can you examine this activity using a sociological imagination?

Groups, Statuses, Roles: Lesson 6 Soc Research

HW: Read Joel Charon's Should We Generalize?

Sociological Literacy: Groups and Social Structure

Groups
Yesterday's simulation can also be an example of groups.  The group was the people on the boat.  That group was an aggregate, which is just a random group of people like a crowd or people waiting in line at a store.  Here a is graphic organizer for this lesson.

A group can be as few as two or as many as millions of people.  

As long as those people can identify with each other in some way, they can be considered a group.  On your notes page titled "Social Network", put yourself in the center and then around the outside,  list the most important groups that you are a part of.  What are the groups that influence you?  Remember that groups can be as small as two or as large as millions.  Some groups interact with you and others simply shape your perception of who you are.  One way to think about this is who do you spend your days with?  You are not alone.  Think about who you are with in the morning, daytime, afternoon,  and evening.  And then who are you with during the week, on weekends, and in different seasons?

Status

Status is our position within each group.  

For example, in the boat simulation, the descriptions of each person was made up of statuses: father, captain, student, elderly, etc... Next to each group list your status within it.  Note that in some groups, like family, you might have multiple statuses such as son, brother, uncle.

Master Status
After you list all of your statuses, choose your master status.  

A master status is an individual's most important, most defining status.

  

It is a status that he/she takes with them everywhere they go.  It might be a status that is always present in his/her mind, or it might be a status that everyone else sees her/him with.   

I am always interested by all of the groups that students are influenced by and especially the unexpected groups that surprise me along the way. Sometimes it is someone who I never thought to be religious and they list a religion or sometimes it is someone who I never realized was black who lists her race as an important influence on her. All of these groups we belong to are the complex way we as individuals are made up and that is the way sociologists understand individuals; through their groups.  For example, I am part of a family, a school, a group of friends and a neighborhood. In each of these groups I have a status (dad, teacher, friend) and each of these statuses comes with a role that is expected of me (make dinner, show up prepared for class, return a phone call, etc...). 

These groups shape my life. Each group creates expectations for your actions.  These expectations are called roles.  For example after becoming a dad I will never be the same. I can't help looking at kids through the eyes of a parent; I think about music lyrics differently; I am overly critical and cognizant of my own behavior and manners etc... These groups can also come into conflict in an individual's daily life.  For example, if I have to go home and cook dinner and my daughter demands attention, it is very difficult to get grading and lessons prepared for the next day, and if a friend calls to socialize or to get together, that becomes a third conflict.  My roles as a parent, teacher and friend are all conflicting. This is called role conflict.  There are also times when I experience what sociologists call role strain.  That is when I am having difficulty meeting the expectations of one role.  An example of this might be parenting. I have never been a parent before and so when my daughter is challenging me, I am not always certain how to react; do I give in, ignore or punish her?  Some statuses we choose (achieved statuses) like those I already mentioned, but sometimes we are not given a choice (ascribed statuses) like that of being bald, or white, or a son.


I hope this exercise helps students see that our class might seem homogeneous but really it is quite diverse. The unique diversity comes from each person's membership in different groups. I hope this is another way we can become sociologically mindful of each other in the class; that is, we can appreciate each person's unique membership in different groups.  This way we can be more understanding of each other and more compassionate for each other. 

Here is the Google Form for this lesson.

Content Analysis

 Here is an example of content analysis about climate change from the ASA :

Nicole Gonzalez Van Cleve's Crook County - Example of ethnography

From the ASA an explanation about her ethnography on Youtube:

From Stanford University Press, Nicole Gonzalez Van Cleve published a scathing account of Racism in Chicago's Cook County Courthouse.  Van Cleve, who is from Chicagoland originally,  spent ten years while at tending Northwestern U.  researching the Cook County Courthouse, the largest courthouse in the United States.  She is currently a sociology professor at Brown University.

Embedded below is an interview with Dr. Van Cleve on PBS:

Here is a bookreview from the ASA:  

There are three central aspects to Gonzalez Van Cleve’s argument in Crook County: her focus on professionals, her detailing of racial abuses, and her critical analysis of racism and racial injustice as embedded within court culture. Perhaps the most essential is her inverted lens on the court professionals. Rather than focusing on the impacts of an unjust criminal system on the Black and Brown individuals who pass through it, Gonzalez Van Cleve instead highlights the ways these injustices are carried out by the very professionals tasked with upholding and administering fair and just due process. In turning the lens on criminal justice professionals, Gonzalez Van Cleve articulates how systemic racism is managed, perpetuated, practiced, and understood by those “doing” colorblind racism, particularly in how they carry out unchecked racialized court abuses.

From Amazon,

Nicole Gonzalez Van Cleve spent ten years working in and investigating the largest criminal courthouse in the country, Chicago–Cook County, and based on over 1,000 hours of observation, she takes readers inside our so-called halls of justice to witness the types of everyday racial abuses that fester within the courts, often in plain sight. We watch white courtroom professionals classify and deliberate on the fates of mostly black and Latino defendants while racial abuse and due process violations are encouraged and even seen as justified. Judges fall asleep on the bench. Prosecutors hang out like frat boys in the judges' chambers while the fates of defendants hang in the balance. Public defenders make choices about which defendants they will try to ""save"" and which they will sacrifice. Sheriff's officers cruelly mock and abuse defendants' family members. Crook County's powerful and at times devastating narratives reveal startling truths about a legal culture steeped in racial abuse. Defendants find themselves thrust into a pernicious legal world where courtroom actors live and breathe racism while simultaneously committing themselves to a colorblind ideal. Gonzalez Van Cleve urges all citizens to take a closer look at the way we do justice in America and to hold our arbiters of justice accountable to the highest standards of equality.

And here is an essay that Dr. VanCleve tweeted during the unprecedented pandemic of 2020-21:

https://contexts.org/blog/education-under-covid-19/ 

2 SocResearch BINGO! I found my research! Lesson 6

 RESEARCH BINGO!  

You can download this Bingo card by clicking here.

2 SocResearch Lesson 5cont'd

 

Reviewing the general types of research:

General Types of Sociological Research

• Longitudinal - a study that examines specific subjects over an extended period time.  For example, a researcher might interview kids at age 5, then at age 15 and then again at 25.  Some research is conducted over the course of decades by different researchers.
• Cross-sectional - a study that examines a group of people at a single point in time.  For example, like taking a section of cake that has different layers, a researcher might take a sample of people from a group like SHS.  The research might examine 10 students from each grade to get an understanding of the school as a whole. 
• Cross-cultural - a study that compares subjects from two or more cultures.
• Qualitative or Quantitative - qualitative is subjective and descriptive; it examines the qualities about a subject.  Quantitative is objective and involves examining numbers or statistics.
• Historical analysis - examing changes over time in comparison to present-day. 

1. What general type of research is your article?

Small group:  Explain what type of research your article is to your group.  Ask questions.  Help each other understand.

Now let's examine the specific ways that sociologists gather their research.  For more info,  Open Stax sociology textbook explains the methods in this chapter, see their graphic organizer below:

Methods of sociological research

These are some of the more common methods of research that you will come across in sociology:

Qualitative:

Survey - interviews that are open-ended 

Field work/ethnography - observing subjects by living with them, watching them and taking notes 

Content Analysis - examining the content of media or other cultural productions

 

Quantitative: 

Survey - questionnaires that are close-ended such as multiple choice or likert scale.

Experiment/Audit study - comparing the responses of two or more different reactions.

Statistical analysis - existing sources (data sets, such as GSS or Census data)

2.  Which of the methods above does Venkatesh use in the excerpt from Gang Leader? Explain when/how.  (Arguably he does 5 of them!)

3.  What methods are in your article?

Important considerations in research;  The importance of both ethics and peer-review in research:

Read this critique of Venkatesh's work and answer the question below.

4.  What are the criticisms of Venkatesh's Gang Leader research?

For more info on Venkatesh's work:

• Gang Leader for a Day on Amazon. 
• Read an excerpt from the book and download Venkatesh reading and talking about his book from NPR. 
• Venkatesh speaking on the Colbert Report and he explains that there are important ways of doing research correctly.
• Venkatesh speaking about his book and the research he did.  
• An interview at slate.com between Venkatesh and Alex Kotlowitz (There Are No Children Here).

           

Welcome Parents!

Sociology Honors with Salituro Zoom Link

https://zoom.us/j/2387098505
Meeting ID: 238 709 8505
(requires authentication using .d125 account)

Hello and welcome to sociology!

Thanks for being here. 
This is the blog we use for our class. 

Chris Salituro

Honors Sociology

csalituro@d125.org

www.sociologysal.blogspot.com

1. About Me.

        

Full Course Syllabus available here.

Important Items to note:

Dual Credit Class.

About dual credit

What is it?

Benefits 

Discounted college credit

College Application

College major/course prerequisite

 

Timeline  

Sep 1. Step 1: Applying for the dual credit program. (no committment)

Oct 1. Step 2: Register for class. (no committment)

Nov 1. Step 3: Pay tuition. (committed)

Post SHS. Step 4: Transferring credit to your college.

Cost $195

For more info - Loyola University Chicago dual credit site click here.

 

3. Sociology 

Recent Social Science emerged to study the extreme changes of the I.R.

Use of scientific method to gather data to understand how people are influenced by their societies especially in:

Structure and Institutions

Inequality: Social Class, Race, Gender

Meaning: Culture and Symbols

Not a debate class or rhetoric class

 

         Skills

Research and Data

Understanding People and Society

Mindfulness and Self-Awareness 

 

     

 Jobs

            Click here for a detailed study of what sociology majors do after college. 

         

2 Soc Research Lesson 1: The importance of Sociological Research

This is the beginning of our second unit of study, sociological research.  The last unit we examined how sociology began as a discipline and how sociologists view people and society.  This unit we will turn our focus to how sociologists actually do sociology.   The second page of the Framework for Understanding Sociology should be a useful organizer for notes in this unit and a quick reference for deciphering sociological research going forward.

Unit 2 Soc Research will examine what sociologists research and how they conduct their research.

HW:  Read Gang Leader for a Day Introduction by Sudhir Venkatesh (due by lesson 5)

For homework, read the excerpt in the link above.  This reading is the introduction of a widely popular book called Gang Leader For A Day by Sudhir Venkatesh.  Venkatesh grew up in California and attended undergrad there.  He then went to the University of Chicago for his PhD in sociology.  Venkatesh really wants to study race and poverty and he tries various types of research to learn about race and poverty's effects on Chicagoans.  

Prereading Strategy:  As you read, think about all the ways that he tries to learn about race and poverty.  Additionally, think about the benefits and challenges of each way.

Sociological Research

To start today's lesson, please open this Common Sense Quiz and answer True or False for questions 1-15.  Use your previous knowledge or simply use common sense to guess the answers for each question.  Do not spend much time on these questions.  If you don't know the answer, go with your intuition or common sense.

Open the Google Form for this lesson and answers the questions as you go along.

1.  How many answers from the quiz did you get correct?

2.  What is one of the answers that you were surprised about?

Why is research important?

Hopefully, that quiz shows that common sense and your own experiences are not always reliable in understanding society.  For deeper understanding about why our own knowledge/experiences are unreliable, see these psychological concepts:

· overgeneralization - basing all of your understanding on a limited experience.

· selective observation/confirmation bias - seeking out only evidence that supports your opinion.

· premature closure - deciding on a conclusion and then being unable to see evidence contrary to that conclusion.

· halo effect - having a positive view of one aspect of a person or idea and that affects your view of all other aspects associated with it.

· false consensus - the tendency to overestimate how much others agree with us.

Background - The Beginning of Sociology as a Science

Auguste Comte - started as positive philosophy (aka positivism) the early 1800s, then popularized the term "sociology" (1838), the empirical study of society using scientific methods and data.  Basically, Comte was saying what knowledge can we be positive about regarding society?  In other words, what can we test scientifically about society; thus, "sociology".  

3.  Do you understand why research and the scientific method is important to sociology?

Finding Good Sources of Research

Sociological research shows up in everyday life a lot more than you may notice.  The chart below details the many places that you can seek out information: television, radio, and print media like websites, journals, magazines and newspapers.  The X-axis shows the tendency of the sources below to have a partisan bias (liberal, centrist, conservative).  And the Y-axis shows the reliability of the reporting from most in-depth to sensationalized.

4.  Examine the chart.  What is the most in-depth and nonpartisan source?

For more information, our SHS ILC has a lesson on sources here.  Here are some main points:

• There is a difference between biased news and fake news.
• Don't be fooled by the appearance of the page: a professional-looking page, a .org extension, links all might confuse you to thinking the page is not what it is.
• Read laterally - go outside the page to learn about it. These sites are reliable for lateral checking: Snopes, Sourcewatch, Wikipedia, Allsides, Factcheck
• Find the source of the article, who published it?  Who funded it?
• More news on the internet is fake than real!

The point is that our understanding of society should be empirical, unbiased and research-based.  The most reliable news/research is from academic, peer-reviewed journals.  These are journals that publish articles that have been reviewed by experts in the subject of the article.  For example, if I wanted to publish an article about sociology, other successful sociologists would review my article before it gets published.  These articles are often original research or primary sources.  We will focus on primary sources in the rest of this unit.  Before that, let's examine other sources.


Examples of sociological research in secondary sources

Often, sociological research shows up in secondary sources.  These sources explain the findings of the research without detailing the research methods and background.  Most of the chart above (and most news) is from secondary sources.  These sources will summarize bits and pieces of research based on what the source deems significant.  Be sociologically mindful about where your information about society has come from up to and until now.  Here are some other charts of news and bias:

AdFontes regularly updates a chart of media bias on their website and has an interactive chart here.

AllSides provides left - center - right coverage of various issues as well as news bias rating.

5.  Take a moment to be mindful about your understanding of society.  Where does your knowledge of current events/news come from?  List the sources where you get your news.

6.  Now examine the two links above.  Where do your sources fall in terms of bias?  How do you think that affects how you view the world?

BEING MINDFUL ABOUT MEDIA

This research from PEW shows how Americans may view the news differently based on party affiliation.

Here are examples of secondary sources that have sociology in them:

• Textbooks; for our class; Real World Sociology by Ferris and Stein. The text might seem to just be musings/opinions about society but there are 30 pages of references at the end of the book.  Here is one page showing the references for the text.
• News articles;  One example is the article, The Myth of the Two-Parent Household, from Harvard professor Christina Cross in the NY Times (2019) also available here.   

7.  What research is this article based on?  You can do your own search in the NY Times for sociology by clicking here for a Google search of "sociology" in the NYT.  

• Contexts magazine; A publication by the American Sociological Association that explains the latest research in an accessible way for students and general public to understand.  Here is the Contexts website, especially in the In Brief section   You can access Contexts by issue through the ILC page using the search by title page here.

• The Society Pages:  Website of sociology resources, especially Discoveries page.

• Journal of Contemporary Sociology, a journal of reviews.  You can access Contemporary Sociology through the ILC page using the search by title page here.

Applying your secondary source understanding

Choose one of the secondary sources bulleted above (NY Times, Contexts, Society Pages, Journal of Contemporary Sociology).  Find an article about a topic you are interested in. Then explain what research the article was based on.  Feel free to try a few sources or articles before you decide to answer the questions below.

8.  What secondary source did you choose?

9.  What was the article you read?

10.  What research was the article about?

  

Volunteering OP: GLASA

GLASA is holding its Annual Twilight 5k Run/Walk/Roll on SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 11^th, and we would love your help!

 

Over 100 volunteers are needed (age 14 and up) to help with set-up, clean-up, food & drink service, course safety marshals (MOST IMPORTANT TO FILL), race registration, check-in, and race results.  No previous experience is needed – all training takes place on-site prior to volunteering.  Attached is the flyer with all the relevant information for the event including the volunteer positions available. I would appreciate your help in sharing this volunteer opportunity with your friends, family and coworkers to get all the slots filled.  Please don’t hesitate to call me if you have any questions.

 

Please visit https://www.signupgenius.com/go/9040a44aaa62bab9-20214 to sign up!

 

COVID-19 INFORMATION: GLASA is committed to protecting the health and safety of athletes, staff, volunteers and spectators. Information on the specific protocols and prevention measures that will be enforced to reduce the risk of acquiring COVID-19 will be available the week of the race. Some volunteer positions will be required to submit one of the following - proof of vaccination, prior COVID-19 infection, or negative PCR COVID-19 test within 72 hours of arrival. Anyone who cannot provide such documentation listed above will be required to take a guided self-administered COVID-19 rapid test on site when checking in to volunteer. These tests will be provided at no cost thanks to a generous donation from Abbott Laboratories. Specific information on which volunteer positions will have this required as well as the details of rapid testing will be sent out the week of the race. 

 

If you would like to participate in the Twilight 5k Run/Walk/Roll or the Children's Fun Run as a runner, please visit www.glasatwilight.org.

 

If you are interested in being a guide (running or biking), please contact Cindy Housner at chousner@glasa.org. Running guides will assist runners that are visually impaired and biking guides will assist racers in cycles, track chairs and other manual chairs.