Theory and Methods

Marx believed that the social institutions fool the working calss into thinking that they are getting a fair deal and that their status position is natural and therefore unchnageable.

False class consciousness - the ruling class are seen to be acting for the benefit of society and the working class accept and share this view.

Althusser - argues that society is based on 3 interlocking systems that drive capitalism forward (structural view); the economic system, produces all material goods, political system, organises soicety passes lawa and provides leadership and ideological system, provides all the ideas and belief systems that are followed by the population.

Gramsci - Humanist Marxist, belived the proletariat can influence social chnage through developing their own hegemony rather than waiting for economic chnages. 

Liberal Feminsts - believe that there are 2 barriers to gender to equality, they don't blame men for inequality however they do believe that gender inequality still exist.

1. Gender role socialisation -

• process in which we learn the core elements of our gender,
• occurs in the family where we are taught to be either male or female due to the way in which our parents raise us,
• gender stereotypes are maintained and reproduced through generations which lead boys to believe that they are dominant over women.

1. Social policy -

• they suggest that although some progress has been made through legislation, there are still some laws that discriminate against women such as being expeced to take maternity leave as this can have an impact on their career prospects 

Marxist Feminism are inspired by the work of traditional Marxists however they would criticise Marx for overlooking the exploitation of women in capitalism.

Exploitation - they focus on the way in which women ae exploited within this family unit and therefore benefit capitalism.

Status -

• they believe that due to the nature of capitalism, the only way in which status can be gained is to genertae wealth through paid employment
• the problem for many women is that much of their days are dominated by unpaid domestic labour that provides them with no status

Radical feminists - believe that men are the main enemy of all women and patriarchy is the main form of social inequality. key focus is on patriarchy which means rule by fathers but has become the term commonly used to describe a male dominated society

Female oppression - 

• they believe that all societies are patriarchal and therefore all men oppress women throuugh sexual politics
• men are the main enemy of all women and therefore patriarchy is the main form of social inequality according to radical feminists

Sexuality - 

• along with these beliefs, radical feminists discuss the nature of sexuality which is a central theme of their theory 
• Rich argues that men push women into compulsory heterosexuality which she believes is narrow and unsatisfying to women but beneficial to men as it fulfils only theri desires

Action Theory 

Max Weber classified human actions into 4 ideal categories, he argued that in order to gain a full undersatnding of human behaviour, sociologists shoudl analyse the meanings behind the actions taken by the individual 

1. Instrumentally rational action

• how many actors attempt to achieve a goal in the most effective manner
• each individual aims to achieve success in different ways even if they have they same goal 
• e.g studying for a degree o secure a good job

2. Value-rational action

• how actors pursue a goal based on its desirability rather than its logical benefits
• because their desires are more important then the method of achieving the goal, the individual often does not mind how efficient the means are
• e.g going to university because your family want you to

3. Traditional action

• actions that occur through custom or routin that happens because it alwys has done and therefore isn't challenged
• e.g eating Sunday Lunch with family, or celebrating religious holidays

4. Affective action

• actions based on feelings and emotions that have no rational reasoning 
• this is the most irrational social action
• e.g crying at a funeral, cheering a success, or going to university because you love to learn

Symbolic Interactionism - individuals shape their identities based on the labels that other people attach to them

Geroge Mead believed that each individual interacts with others through the use of symbols, e.g, words, facial expressions, hand gestures etc.

Symbolic meanings - the issue that each symbol can have a variety of different meanings depending of who the individual is interacting with. Mead argues that humans do not act based on instincts like animals; instead, they have to assess the social situation by placing themselves in the place of the other person

I and me - Mead argued that social actors experience an 'I and me' moment, whereby they present their me to the outside world rthaer than their true selves. the me is an altered version of yourself to fit your social surroundings

Goffman put forward the idea of the dramaturgical model. the theory that suggests that our lives are like a theatrical performance, which we are the social actors who are constantly changing characters by moving back and forth between being upstage and backstage

Symbolic Interactionism 

The dramturgical model 

• our social self is an act, and therefore is a false representation of ourselves that is designed to appeal to that particular social audience
• Goffman refers to this as impression management
• he argues that each individual has a public persona, a version of themselves that they want the world to see

The looking-glass self

• Charles Cooley's study of the looking-glass self believes that this is how individuals form their own view of themselves; essentially internalising the labels that their social audience places upon them
• he calls this the self-concept
• by doing this, the individual stars to view themselves in a different way and therefore becomes the label that they have had imposed upon them

social research can be conducted for a number of purposes and these reasons influence the choice of methods used. Some methods require the use of experiments to test a hypothesis (quantitative data) while those used to develop new theories inovlve researchers observing social life (qualitative data). Primary and secondary data is also used.

Methodology - refers to the methods researchers use to collect data, as well as the philosphy underlying the production of sociological data

Quantitative data - consists of data in numerical form e.g. the number of females and males passing an exam 

Qualitative data - any data that is non numerical e.g written description, diary entries, photographs, recorded music or radio programmes

Primary resources - sources that are produced directly by a sociologist conducting research e.g results of experiments or answers from interviews and questionnaires

Secondary sources - data produced by someone else e.g government statistics, or the results of an experimet conducted by another researcher 

Positivism -

• the belief that there are social facts that can be studied objectively using methods that are similar to the natural sciences e.g physics chemistry and biology
• produce quatitative data on social patterns and trends which can be used to explain society
• research methos include: laboratory experiments, the comparative method, social surveys, structured questionnaires, official statistics

Interpretivism - 

• implies that people are conscious of their personal beliefs, meanings, values, and interpretations, and tha these influence the way they act
• from their view, the researcher attempts to gain an in-depth understanding of how people see and understand the world around them by putting themselves in the position of those being study; use qualitative methods such as uncontrolled field experiments, unstructured interviews, documents