WJEC Eduqas GCSE Sociology sample

9 What is sociology? Theory One group of sociologists, known as feminists , share the view that society is not fair or equal but is run by men for the benefit of men and to the detriment of women. Feminists would study your classroom and ask whether boys and girls are treated differently, whether one sex tends to dominate, whether men or women hold the important positions in the school, and so on. There are other groups of sociologists who will disagree with feminists and have their own theories about society, and you will learn about them throughout the book. Knowledge Studying sociology should encourage you to ask questions about what is actually going on in society and teach you to consider and examine what sociologists have to say. Sociologists do not just give their own opinions. They try to base them on evidence . Ideally, you too will form your own opinions about society based on the evidence. Sociological research methods Knowledge Sociologists collect evidence so that their theories are trustworthy. They conduct research and ask questions about what is going on. The research may take the form of:  asking questions face-to-face with people, as an interview  putting questions on paper and sending/giving them to people, in a questionnaire  watching what is going on, in observation  looking at material that has been compiled by other people, such as statistics, newspaper reports, other media articles and people’s diaries. If sociologists were studying your classroom, they might sit at the back and observe, or interview you, or give you a questionnaire to fill in to find out what is going on, or they might use a combination of methods. SUMMARY Sociology is about understanding and explaining what is going on in society and between people. Sociologists try to support their ideas with evidence. Sociologists interview people and ask questions to get their evidence. Sociologists would be interested in what is going on in this classroom in addition to the teaching.