13 | Youth: Part 2
The notion of “youth” as a fairly recent (i.e. modernist) phenomenon leads to the question of exactly why this type of life-stage geminates in the transition from pre-modernity to modernity and comes into full-flower in late-modern / postmodern societies? In other words, what Is the role played by youth culture / subcultures in society? The […]
Conducting Psychological Research
This is a free chapter, from an unpublished textbook by Shelia Kennison of Oklahoma State University, that you can either read online or download as a pdf document. The chapter covers a range of ideas and issues focused on the research process: • different research methodologies • causality • experimentation • representative sampling • reliability and […]
12 | Youth: Part 1
It’s probably fair to say the topic of Youth is one of the roads less travelled when it comes to a-level sociology, but I always found it an interesting area to teach / study, particularly because it also links neatly with a couple of the more popular a-level Units in education and deviance. This initial […]
11 | The Research Process: Part 4
The final part of the Research Methods chapter covers the use of mixed methods in the context of sociological research and is split into three theoretically-discrete, but related, areas: 1. Methodological pluralism involves the idea of combining methodologies, methods and data types to arrive at a more-rounded, reliable and valid insight into social behaviour. 2. […]
10 | The Research Process: Part 3
In Part 2 of this chapter we looked at quantitative research – in terms of both primary and secondary data and methods – and Part 3 does something similar for qualitative data and research. It’s also structured in the same way as the previous chapter which, if nothing else, at least shows I thought a […]
Culture and Identity: Caught Between Two Worlds?
Richard Driscoll teaches A-level Sociology at the Shenzhen College of International Education in China and you may recall an interesting piece of research – The Last Queendom of Women? – carried-out by one of his students, Hecate Li, that provided a contemporary example of an alternative to the “conventional nuclear family”. In this latest piece […]
9 | The Research Process: Part 2
The focus here is quantitative data and research, with the free chapter split into three discrete, but necessarily related, parts. The first part outlines a selection of primary quantitative research methods (questionnaires, structured interviews and content analysis) and evaluates their strengths and weaknesses. The second part does something similar for secondary quantitative methods (official and […]
Structuring Actions: Classroom Discussion Strategies
One of the first things we usually teach students in Introductory Sociology classes is the idea that our actions are structured (the basic “roles, norms, values” etc. stuff) and classroom discussions can be an integral part of this teaching and learning process – encouraging students to think about what they’re learning and developing their knowledge […]
8 | The Research Process: Part 1
While Research Methods at a-level aren’t everyone’s cup of tea they can be interesting if students are given the time and space to bring together the theory with the practice. Unfortunately I can’t help you here with the practice (although I can give you a few pointers about how to carry-out a range of cheap […]
Rethinking Obesity: Nature via Nurture?
This new film, featuring contributions from Dr Giles Yeo and Dr Clare Llewellyn, examines the evidence for and against the influence of environment and genetics in explaining obesity. The 16 minute film is split into three sections: The first focuses on “Nurture” – the influence of environmental factors, from advertising to food processing, as an […]