23 thoughts on “Online Response #1”

1. Hello! Post your online responses here!

2. I choose conflict theory as my perspective, the research method. I believe survey would be best for answering my questions that conflict theorists because education would be open to discussions and many debates from individual opinions.

   Micro: Individuals work and support through the challenges that come their way whether it’s paying for college or ending up in debt.

   Macro: Individual lives look at earning a degree from education will determine how their life will become a success or fail.

3. Symbolic interactionism has to do more the relationship that people have with each other and how their interactions differ in different situations. When trying to do research, the best method to study symbolic interactionism is by doing field research, which focuses on gathering primary data. The type of field research sociologist should do is the participant observation one, since words and interactions often change as the times change, they should observe within the given context of social life that they are studying. As stated by the text, 2.2 Research Methods, this is a way in which the researchers can personal experience those social aspects that happen to the people in that given context. An example given by the text, is of a man named Rodney Rothman who wanted an insight on the white-collared work and decided on pretending to work at an office in New York. He became a part of that social group, experiencing what an everyday worker would experience. Showing that this type of research method is great for socialist who want to study symbolic interactionism.

4. I choose conflict theory as my perspective, the research method I believe would be best for answering questions that conflict theorists would be the survey. In my opinion I believe it can open up a brief discussions on economics (social classes) from our society, since it was mention in my notes under the conflict theory continued. Finding a better job that can help civilian to pay their needs, going to school to get a degree, that can related on the micro level theory. The other aspect is to make sure to receive the degree so that the individual can find a job to pursue a better life by get a great paying job that can be on the macro level.
   Social class can determine in different views it comes from upper, upper-middle, middle, working and lower. I remember the first day of class how Prof. Brian had us describing the chart and one of the classmate mentioned about the same exact thing I just wrote. So I think it can be a good debate among the individuals.

5. I chose Symbolic Interactionist Theory as my perspective and field research as my research method. I chose Symbolic Interactionist Theory because it focuses on the way individuals interact with each other within a society on a micro level of analysis. The method I chose would help answer these types of questions because field research consists of mainly observation. “The researcher interacts with or observes a person or people and gathers data along the way (cnx.org).” This is perfect, in my opinion, when dealing with symbolic interactionist theory because researchers are looking for one to one interactions between people and what better way to study that than observe them / their relationships with other. “To conduct field research, the sociologist must be willing to step into new environments and observe, participate, or experience those worlds (cnx.org).” Specifically participant observation is great for this because “This method lets researchers experience a specific aspect of social life” (cnx.org). This helps with studying a society on a micro level.

6. I choose a Conflict Theory which is a theory that looks at society as a competition for limited resources.The conflict theory has been used to explain a large range of social phenomena, including wars and revolutions, wealth and poverty, discrimination and domestic violence. This perspective is a macro-level approach most identified with the writings of German philosopher and sociologist Karl Marx . I would say that the best research method for conflict theory would be field research . As an example of conflict theory we can take a revolution .To be more specific we can take a revolution in Ukraine in 2004. To understand what was really happening and what was the reason for the revolution to happen sociologist would have to be there and observe . Why people behave that way is there really was a big class difference ? And this is another conflict theory question.Much of the information gathered in field research are based not on cause and effect but on correlation. If we stick to my example ,the correlation is exactly what would help us to see how wealthiness on one class can influence the rest part of society.

7. I chose symbolic interactionism as my perspective and secondary data analysis as my research method. I chose symbolic interactionism because it focuses on the interactions and relationships between individuals in a society. I chose secondary data analysis as my research method because symbolic interactionism focuses on the interactions and relationships between individuals in society and secondary data analysis will help us see more in a micro perspective of change. This type of method will help answer questions about how societal change affects feminism. For example in the reading “Theorizing Lived Experience” , it’s said ” Feminist theorist and activist argue for theorizing beginning from the experiences of the marginalized because people with power and resources often experience the effects of oppressive social system in ways that members of dominant groups do not.” The method I chose will help answer these types of questions because looking at it from a micro perspective will help gather why change in todays society effects the change in feminism today.

8. I chose conflict theory as my perspective and my research method would be a survey. I pick conflict theory because it deals with society characterized by pervasive inequality based on social class, gender, and other factors. The method to find the answers is a survey because since conflict theory is on a macro analysis level a survey would help find the number of the inequality in the system. Since society is built up on individuals in groups the survey would find out out which groups has been neglected and the reason behind it.

9. conflict theory: hierarchy
   This theory is believed that one person has more power than another for just having more money or good position than another. I chose theory because I want to focus on how people believe or can establish a theory that can be valid or that may not be and how they use certain evidence and dialogues to be able to preserve their position in a debate with this theory

   Micro: lower class with middle class it is believed that the middle class has more power and more opportunities than the lower class, or it can also be said that it has more rights.
   Macro: There is hierarchy in the companies since others are larger and more recognized than others, it is believed that it has more production and with the theory that it is better quality and that they have more power, only because the others are not so recognized. They think that they do not have the same opportunity to grow their company as the others that fail are believed.

   I think this information I give can help answer certain questions like why is the hierarchy believed to exist? Where does the hierarchy concept come from? Why is there a lot of difference between people, power and growth when it is comfortable as a hierarchy?

10. Response to
    1.3 Theoretical Perspectives
    Derived from Theoretical Perspectives by OpenStax
    I chose symbolic interactionist Theory as my perspective and Participant Observation as my reserach method because. I chose Symbolic interactionist Theory because it is a micro level theroy that foucses on relationships and connections among people within a society. I would chose Participant Observation as my research method because this theory is all about humans and how they interact with things based on certain meaning credidted to those things, This research method would allow me to gain an in depth understand regarding individuals connections to certian objects or things. Being abke to participate and observe would allow me to see the significants behind these symbols and objects that hold meaning which could be a simple as a drivers license.

11. I chose structural functionalism as my perspective and experiment as my research method.
    Micro: On a micro level, we can look at how a child’s school may affect them as a person. Do kids that live in lower income neighborhoods have as good as an education of those that live in higher income communities? Do the resources they have equal to the same amount of resources upperclassmen have?
    Macro: On a larger scale, you can look at it on how food deserts affect certain living classes. It is proven that in more lower class communities, it is easier to come across a fast food restaurant than it is to come across a supermarket that sells fresh produce. this affects living in conditions as it basically paves the way for lower income communities to live an unhealthy eating lifestyle. this eating lifestyle would unfortunately continue for generations to come. on the other hand, upperclassmen have accessibility to more healthy, fresh produce which can pave the way for a healthy lifestyle as opposed to the lower class-men.
    Experiments are the best way to help answer these types of questions because structural functionalism is described as parts working as a whole. Through the micro and macro approaches, we can observe how the “parts” (schools and stores) affect the “whole” (people).

12. I chose symbolic interactionism as my perspective and field research as my research method. I chose symbolic interactionism because symbolic interactionism is a micro-level theory focusing on the patterns of interaction between individuals. The method I chose, field research, would help answer these types of questions because field research involves observing people while gathering data. Field research can be broken down into participant observation, ethnography, and case studies. All types of field research involves the observation and studying of patterns or behavior which would be beneficial for sociologist studying symbolic interactionism because it focuses on patterns between individuals.

13. I chose exchange theory as my perspective and symbolic interactionism as my research method. I chose exchange theory because it focuses on how an individual may act a specific way to maximize their advantages in a situation and push for that route. While if the disadvantages happen to out weigh the advantages this individual will decline any further interaction; they rely heavily on symbols such as words and gestures. Symbolic interactionism and exchange theory both fall under micro theory; this simply means that sociologist would examine small groups and individual interactions. The method I chose, symbolic interactionism, would help answer these types of questions because symbolic interactionism they rely heavily on language and symbols. An individual will examine their one on one interactions with others and determine certain characteristics about them. Sociologist will look for patterns of interactions between people. For example, here in the US shaking someones hand is seen as respectful and polite, it is a greeting gesture showing the other person you’re open to new interactions. If they do not shake your hand your automatic view of them is having no manners. Elsewhere in the world, extending your right hand as a greeting could be seen as threatening and disrespectful. Yet, if we extend a hand to greet someone and see that their right hand is wrapped up in a cast we carry on without any suspicion.

14. Conflict Theory
    Research Method: Survey
    I believe that the use of surveys would be the best way to answer questions that conflict theorists might have. This is because of the broad, varying opinions that can be discussed further through the use of surveys. An example of Conflict Theory being used is in the field of economic class. There are some upper class, some middle class, and lower class populations who can have varying opinions on their economic status. On the micro level, people can earn more money through many different ways, such as earning a higher degree, multiple jobs, etc. On a macro level one can analyze whether there are more or less people in any economic status due to race, gender, education, location etc.

15. I choose conflict theory as my perspective and experiment as my research method. I choose conflict theory mainly because it includes the different experiences of people belonging to marginalized groups who are set up to argue about the less power people have , as well being shaped by by difference systems, that would Be political or economic. I choose experiment as my research method because with the saying of others it may prove the expanding conflict of the social classes.

16. I chose structural functionalism as my perspective and experiments as my research method. I chose structural functionalism because it focuses on why society functions the way it does. It is a macro level theory, and can be used by comparing and contrasting different groups of people. An experiment can be done to analyze a big group of people. By doing experiments with a vast majority of people you can figure out why society has differences, why people interact with each other in different ways, and why we have differences in the first place. With a larger sample group, an experiment has a better chance of getting a more accurate answer to whatever question you are trying to answer.

17. I chose conflict theory as my perspective and experiments as my research method. I chose conflict theory because this perspective focuses on the constant competition for limited resources within a society, and experiments are the level of analysis needed to break down the data behind the theory. The method I chose would help answer these types of questions because according to Theoretical Perspectives 1.3, “Social institutions like government, education, and religion reflect this competition in their inherent inequalities and help maintain the unequal social structure. Some individuals and organizations are able to obtain and keep more resources than others, and these “winners” use their power and influence to maintain social institutions.” Therefore in order to figure out how to solve the problem with maintaining resources and the competition for it, experiments need to be conducted.

18. I choose conflict theory as my perspective and the use of field research as my way of research. Conflict theory is known as society being composed of individuals group into different social dress classes with uneven resources who must compete for scarce resources. The level of analysis would be on a macro level because it focuses on the conflict between two primary classes. By doing field research I would be able to take a deeper dive into the understanding of the large discrepancy among the resources that are allotted to the more affluent and the lower class.

19. I chose conflict theory as my perspective.
    Micro perspective: part of this is, individuals would be able to depend on or manage them selves for progress in life.
    Macro part: This would be how society contribute to their success or failure in life.

20. I chose conflict theory as my perspective and experiment as my research method. I chose conflict theory because according to the readings conflict theory “looks at society as a competition for limited resources.” The method I chose, experiments, would help answer the type of questions conflict theorists have because they can then go to these different social classes and try to ‘mix them up’, have them mingle amongst each other and see what the outcome is. In one of the readings it talks about how in a capitalist society the separation of the two groups, the “bourgeoisie”, which they refer to as the “ruling class” and proletariat, which is referred to as the “working class” have automatic conflict because of their differences. Being that there’s competition going on (which conflict theorists look at) it of course is going to create automatic conflict between the two, as the bourgeoisie are trying to remain on top, and the proletariat are trying to work their way up. But with the help of experiments, theorists can test different ways out to help minimize this issue.

21. I chose the Symbolic Interactionist Theory as my perspective and Survey as my research method. I chose the Symbolic Interactionist Theory because it focuses on the connection surrounded by a person in a society, people base the relationship on shared meaning to language and symbols. Since Symbolic Interactionist Theory focuses on an individual it is seen as a micro-level theory. The method I chose: survey, would help answer these types of questions because it involves quantitive and qualitative data, meaning questionnaire can be used to determine the subjects natural thought of the situation or there can be a one to one interaction if conducting an interview to observe the stance, the subject takes on symbolic meaning in their everyday life.

22. The theory that I choose is the conflict theory. The best research method that I believe is best for answering question to this specific perspective is field research. The conflict theory main focus is on the way inequalities are affected in society. The most reasonable way to determine this perspective is field research because it would be easier to collect data of a certain conflict in its natural environment and be able to see the behavior without any other variables interrupting or changing the behavior that’s being looked for.
    Field research is a best mechanism for conflict theory because not only does it specifically shows the behavior of certain group, especially in withing a larger group but it shows that there is a certain correlation. For example, when it involves with race specifically within the black community in the eyes of the criminal justice system they are treated differently. They are treated a way that the white community wouldn’t be treated. Regardless of the crime that’s been done, officers assume the worst. Applying this mechanism to this example, you’ll be able to observe the officers behavior when it comes making an arrest to a black individual. Having a full observation when it comes to making an arrest within the two races, the officers would show the same behavior and have a similar pattern happening. It’s a pattern that keeps happening and its fresh data that can determine the specific relationship that’s being looked for.

23. I chose Structural functionalism as my perspective and ethnography as my research method. While I believe each theory is useful in its respective issues and level, I chose structural functionalism over the others as it covers a macro level. It allows sociologist to cover a large area and look at an overall view of society. It allows you to look at how each part functions in a certain area and see how they all affect the overall society or community in said area. It also allows sociologist to find problems in those areas which can then be observed by other sociologist using other methods. The only criticism that can be made in my opinion is the fact it can be too vague or not have a proper examination of everything in an area. However, I believe that this is still fine, as looking at the system as a whole allows to find how each system affects each other. It can pave the way for the other viewpoints to shine as well, for example symbolism internationalism which is on a much narrower micro level, with a focus on individuals rather than the whole society. This can allow for a more detailed exploration utilizing knowledge gained through the information gained by the ethnography, which can be used to reinforce or change conclusions gathered.

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