RI Examples of Social Sciences 2023

Examples of Social Sciences Match the following social science studies we’ve visited in class to the 3 approaches. Collective Trauma at Buffalo Creek (Kai Erikson, Sociology / Psychology) Obedience to Authority (Stanley Milgram, Psychology) Thesis: Once integrated into a network of communality, individuals can no longer relate to one another as separate entities; community takes over the individual permanently. Thus, while disasters generally cause trauma, when the individual loses his community to a collective disaster, the psychological/social damage involved is more severe and permanent. Evidence raised: - Different means of data collection used on different survivors, over different time-points. These included personal interviews, letters to attorneys, psychiatric evaluations and mail questionnaires. Sources analyzed to understand survivors’ pre- and post-disaster emotions, general attitudes towards life, fellow survivors and their community. - Accounts from similar time-points interpreted collectively, compared with accounts from other time- points. Thesis: “Ordinary people, without any particular hostility on their part, can become agents in a terrible destructive process. Moreover, even when the destructive effects of their work become patently clear, and they are asked to carry out actions incompatible with fundamental standards of morality, relatively few people have the resources needed to resist authority.” Evidence raised: In 1961, Milgram carried out this experiment and obtained the following result: - "Teachers" (people being studied) were given a list of word pairs which he was to teach the learner. If the “learner” (a paid actor) was not able to learn correctly, he would receive a shock administered by the “teacher”, with the voltage increasing with each wrong answer. The “teachers” were led to believe that for each wrong answer, the learner was receiving actual shocks. In reality, there were no shocks. - 65 percent (26 out of 40) of experimental participants administered the experiment's final 450-volt shock, though many were quite uncomfortable in doing so; everyone paused at some point and questioned the experiment, some even saying they would return the check for the money they were paid. No participant steadfastly refused to give further shocks before the 300-volt level. Conflict Theory in The Communist Manifesto (Karl Marx, Sociology) Social Epidemics / The Tipping Point (Malcolm Gladwell, Sociology / History) Thesis: Society functions so that each individual participant and its groups struggle to maximize their benefits, which inevitably contributes to social change such as changes in politics and revolutions. In Marx’s case, he used this theory to explain conflict between social classes, proletarian versus bourgeoisie, and to call for a revolution to overthrow the bourgeoisie. Evidence raised: Marx raised examples to support the foll