Sociology

Sociology and Anthropology Research Research has been done for many years and threw the years has become more extensive. Now their are many forms of research that one can do. In this paper I will look at how researchers’ use different methods to come to their conclusions. Sociology is the study of human social behavior. They seek to explain and predict knowledge about human social functions, social structure, and social actions. (Wikipedia, sociology, 2014) One everyday way for sociologist to research and collect data is called participant observation. Having 2 separate participants does this. One is a subjective participant and one is an objective observer. Sometimes these two people/ or groups of people know that they are being observed, and other times they don’t know. This form of observation is usually done over a long period of time. This can be months, years, or even over several generations. The objective of this is to gain a deep grasp on information with a certain group of individuals. This is usually done with a subculture group like a community group or religious group. Sometimes this can be hard to do in that you don’t want to add any feeling or emotions that might persuade the way you are observing things. (Crossman, 2014, participant observation)
Secondary analysis is a form of research that sociologists also use. It is the use of data that has been gathered by someone else for another research project or purpose. The researcher will look at the information from the previous study but will not be asking the same question. Since the sociologist using the information didn’t collect it, they need to first make themselves familiar with the data. Once they have done this, there are many advantages for them. This form of research is philosophical justified to be used for research because of many reasons. One of these is that someone else has already gathered the information so they don’t need to devote any additional money, energy, time or other resources to the research. Another justification could be that professionals with lots of experience did many of these experiments. Smaller researchers benefit from this because they don’t have the knowledge, staff, or money to conduct such large research. You will also find that in the original analysis that they use a lot of qualitive research that produced a wealth of data that does not ever get used. By using secondary analysis you are able to look further into the qualitive research that was done. (Crossman, 2014, Secondary analysis) Cultural anthropology is the study of culture. This study uses concepts, methods, and data from diverse peoples of the world. Ethnography is a research method used by anthropologist. They use it to study groups, communities, and organizations that are part of a bigger society like religious cults, urban gangs and ethnic neighborhoods. (Crossman, 2014, ethnography) The researchers toss themselves into the study by observing videos, interviews, photographs, and recordings of voices to allow them to learn more of that culture. The goal is to get data in a way that the researcher doesn’t cause any bias to one side or the other. This can be done in multiple ways like participant observation, interviews, field notes and surveys. Secondary research can also be used to provide understanding to the research. (Wikipedia, 2014, ethnography)
Another research form used by anthropologist is cross-cultural comparison. This looks at how cultural factors impact human actions. Culture can be referred to as many different clusters of people like attitudes, customs, values, and behaviors that get passed down generation to generation. The objective is to look at both unique behaviors and universal behaviors to identify the way that cultures can impact our lives, behaviors, social skills, and education. Field data takes information gathered from other scientists and compares cultural traits taken from the data and then compares it to other cultural traits from a variety of other cultures. This research involves the comparison of samples/cultures from different populations. This form of research method is used to distinguish a pattern and the differences associated with it. Anthologists are trying to move away from their own cultures and understand other cultures. (Crossman, 2014, cross-cultural comparison)
This form of research is philosophical justified because it is fixated on studying human behavior in a way that takes the results of the culture around us. The anthropologist is engaged in the culture for a long period of time, which then helps them gain a trust among the culture they are studying. This then allows the researcher to take the information that has been collected and turn it into accurate key justifications of cross-cultural. These studies are from all over the globe, from past and present. (Crossman, 2014, cross-cultural comparison) Sociological research and anthropological research do not seem to vary a lot in their forms of research to me. When comparing the two I found that ethnography used both the forms of secondary analysis and participant/observational studies to obtain information for research. It’s true that sociology is studying human behavior and anthropologist is studying cultures, which are two different things, but they both are similar in the way that they gather their research. They do this because in studying people and culture you still have to use observations, statistics, secondary analysis information, groups of people and cultures. They are using the same data, just researching different groups of people, or asking different questions to the same groups of people. They are all also similar in that they need to be careful about adding their own judgments/bias to the experiments. Cross-cultural, and participant observation, and ethnography research I found to be very similar in that they are all studying people. Whether it is a group of people like in a prison or a certain culture like Indians, they are studying groups of people and usually doing this for a long period of time. The one difference in these is that the person being studied may know or not know that they are being studied. I had a hard time finding comparisons in secondary analysis with the other three. This is the from of research that uses old research to find new research and my other forms of research are all using current research or throwing themselves into the research. They may when the research is done pull old knowledge to add to their current research, but I couldn’t find any explanation on this. Sociology and anthropology both have different names and definitions, but threw my research I have learned that their are many forms of research that they can use. I also learned that they study different groups of people, but tend to use the same forms of research to do this.
References
Wikipedia, Sociology, 2014, retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sociology

Crossman, Ashley, 2014, participant observation, About.com, retrieved from http://sociology.about.com/od/Research/a/Participant-Observation.htm

Crossman, Ashley, 2014, secondary analysis, About.com, retrieved from http://sociology.about.com/od/Research-Methods/a/Secondary-Data-Analysis.htm

Wikipedia, 2014, Ethnography, retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnography

Crossman, Ashley, 2014, Ethnography, About.com, retrieved form http://sociology.about.com/od/E_Index/g/Ethnography.htm

Crossman, Ashley, 2014, cross-cultural comparison, retrieved from http://psychology.about.com/od/branchesofpsycholog1/f/cross-cultural.htm

References: Wikipedia, Sociology, 2014, retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sociology Crossman, Ashley, 2014, participant observation, About.com, retrieved from http://sociology.about.com/od/Research/a/Participant-Observation.htm Crossman, Ashley, 2014, secondary analysis, About.com, retrieved from http://sociology.about.com/od/Research-Methods/a/Secondary-Data-Analysis.htm Wikipedia, 2014, Ethnography, retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnography Crossman, Ashley, 2014, Ethnography, About.com, retrieved form http://sociology.about.com/od/E_Index/g/Ethnography.htm Crossman, Ashley, 2014, cross-cultural comparison, retrieved from http://psychology.about.com/od/branchesofpsycholog1/f/cross-cultural.htm