Essentials of Sociology. George Ritzer

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СКАЧАТЬ Theory

      Like ethnomethodologists, exchange theorists are not concerned with what goes on in people’s minds and how that affects behavior. Instead, they are interested in the behavior itself and the rewards and costs associated with it (Molm, Whithama, and Melameda 2012). The key figure in exchange theory, George Homans (1910–1989), argued that instead of studying large-scale structures, sociologists should study the “elementary forms of social life” (Homans 1961, 13).

      Exchange theorists are particularly interested in social behavior that usually involves two or more people and a variety of tangible and intangible exchanges. For example, you can reward someone who does you a favor with a tangible gift or with more intangible words of praise. Those exchanges are not always rewarding; they also can be punitive. You could, for example, punish someone who wrongs you by slapping him or complaining about him to mutual acquaintances.

      While exchange theory retains an interest in the elementary forms of social behavior, over the years it has grown more concerned with how those forms lead to more complex social situations. That is, individual exchanges can become stable over time and develop into persistent exchange relationships. One particular type of exchange relationship is “hooking up,” or forming sexual relationships that are also sometimes called “friends with benefits.” For example, because you and another person find your initial sexual interactions rewarding, you may develop a pattern of repeat interactions (also known as “hookups” or “booty calls”). Exchange relationships, including hookups, rarely develop in isolation from other exchange relationships. Sociologists study how hooking up is not an isolated occurrence—it happens within the context of college campuses, for example, where it has been normalized (Kuperberg and Padgett 2015).

      Rational Choice Theory

      In rational choice theory people are regarded as rational, but the focus is not on exchange, rewards, and costs. Rather, the focus is on people who have goals and intend to do certain things. To achieve their goals, people have a variety of means available to them and choose among the available means on a rational basis. They choose the means that are likely to best satisfy their needs and wants; in other words, they choose on the basis of “utility” (Kroneberg and Kalter 2012). In the case of hookups, for example, we can easily imagine a series of potential purposes for hooking up, such as engaging in sexual exploration, having fun, and doing something sexual without the risk of getting deeply involved emotionally or getting hurt.

      Rational choice theorists understand that people do not always act rationally. They argue, however, that their predictions will generally hold despite these occasional deviations (Coleman 1990; Zafirovski 2013). The degree to which people act rationally is one of the many topics that can be, and has been, researched by sociologists. It is to the general topic of sociological research that we turn in the next section.

      Researching the Social World

      Sociology is a science of the social world, and research is absolutely central to such a science. All sociologists study others’ research, and most do research of their own. Sociologists may theorize, speculate, and even rely on their imaginations for answers to questions about society. However, they almost always do so on the basis of data or information derived from research. Put another way, sociologists practice empiricism, which means that they gather information and evidence using their senses, especially their eyes and ears. Because we all do that in order to experience the world, what makes sociology different? In addition to using their senses, sociologists adopt the scientific method, or a similarly systematic approach, in search of a thorough understanding of the social world. They have a variety of methods at their disposal in researching and analyzing society, but they also experience a few significant constraints on their ability to conduct such research.

      The Scientific Method

      The scientific method is a structured way of finding answers to questions about the world (Carey 2011). The scientific method employed by sociologists is much the same as that used in other sciences. Although in practice creative sociological research often does not slavishly adhere to the following steps, they constitute the basic scientific method:

      1 A sociologist uncovers questions in need of answers. These questions can be inspired by key issues in the larger society, personal experiences, or topics of concern specifically in sociology. The best and most durable research and findings often stem from issues that the researcher connects with personally. Karl Marx, for example, detested the exploitation of workers that characterized capitalism; Max Weber feared the depersonalizing impact of bureaucracies.

      2 Sociologists review the relevant literature on the questions of interest to them. This is because others have likely done similar or related research in the past. After more than a century of doing scientific research, sociologists have learned a great deal about many things. It would make no sense to start over from the beginning. For example, Ritzer’s (2019) work on McDonaldization is based on the study of the work on rationalization by Max Weber ([1921] 1968), his successors (such as Kalberg 1980), and more contemporary researchers. Other scholars have since reviewed his work and that of other scholars of McDonaldization (for a collection of this work, see Ritzer 2010c). They have amplified the concept and applied it to domains such as religion (Drane 2008), higher education (Hayes 2017; Hayes and Wynyard 2002), social work (Dustin 2007), psychotherapy (Goodman 2016), and Disney World (Bryman 2004; Huddleston, Garlen, and Sandlin 2016). The ideas associated with McDonaldization have also been used as a way of teaching Max Weber’s complex theories to undergraduates (Aldrich and Lippmann 2018).

      3 Researchers often develop hypotheses, or educated guesses, about how social phenomena can be expected to relate to one another. Uri Ram (2007) hypothesized that Israeli society would grow increasingly McDonaldized, and he found evidence to support that idea. Marx hypothesized that the conflict between capitalists and workers would ultimately lead to the collapse of capitalism. However, capitalism has not collapsed, although it came close in 1929 at the beginning of the Great Depression and maybe in 2008 at the onset of the Great Recession. This makes it clear that hypotheses may not be confirmed by research or borne out by social developments, but such speculation is important to the scientific method.

      4 Researchers must choose research methods that will help them answer their research questions. Sociology offers diverse methodological tools; some are better than others for answering certain kinds of questions. For example, some sociologists are interested in how a person’s social class shapes his or her opinions about social issues. Surveys and other quantitative tools may be best to evaluate the relationship between class and attitudes. Other sociologists want to know how people interpret and make sense of their social world, and how this meaning-making shapes social action. Qualitative methods, such as observations and interviews, may be helpful for studying these issues.

      5 Researchers use their chosen methods to collect data that can confirm—or fail to confirm—their hypotheses. Most contemporary sociologists venture into the field to collect original data through observations, interviews, questionnaires, and other means.

      6 Researchers analyze the data collected, assessing their meaning in light of the hypotheses that guided the research. For example, Émile Durkheim hypothesized that those who were involved with other people would be less likely to commit suicide than those who lived more isolated existences and were experiencing what he called anomie. Analyzing data from several nineteenth-century European countries, Durkheim ([1897] 1951) found that the suicide rates were, in fact, higher for widowed or divorced people than for those who were married and therefore presumably better integrated socially.

      Sociological Research

      Sociological СКАЧАТЬ