Chapter 2. Sociological theories
Why is something happening? How can we explain social phenomena? The answers to such theoretical questions are theories and this lecture is about what theories are, what makes a theory a useful one and what tools sociologists use to represent theories. The overarching aim is that you learn how you can translate the intuitions we all have about social phenomena into sociological theories. This means that we need to make our stories, which are often implicit and incoherent, both explicit and coherent, and analytically decompose its various elements. All this means that you start thinking like a sociologist about theories.
Videos
Content | Title | English | Dutch |
Ch. 2 | |||
Ch. 2.2 | What is a Sociological Theory? | ||
Ch. 2.3 | What are Useful Sociological Theories? | ||
Ch. 2.7 | Conceptual Models |
Power Point slides
- Chapter 2 lecture slides
Glossary
- Chapter 2 definitions of key concepts
Test your knowledge
- Chapter 2 Multiple Choice quiz.
- Chapter 2 Assignments (& Answers)
Further reading
- Chapter 2 suggestions for further reading.
Additional chapter resources
- Karl Popper, Science and Pseudoscience: Watch this video: A crash course.
- Emile Durkheim and his study of suicide: Watch and listen to Dr. Bart van Heerikhuizen.
- Conceptual models: This video explains the difference between mediating vs moderating variables.