Another example is how household labor is divided between genders with more women entering the workforce and the impact on the economy. A sociologist conducting macro-level analysis might research how gendered language such as “Miss”, “Mrs.”, and “Mx.” has changed over time through the use of social media. In other words, levels of analysis in social sciences refer to the size or scale of the target research population. Macro-level analysis emphasizes the influence of structures, institutions, and systems. Sociologists who use macro-level analysis look at trends among and between institutions and societies. On a systemic level, sociologists might look at how the public education system interacts with the criminal justice system by having resource officers as school employees. On an individual level, sociologists might look at how difficult it is to restore your right to vote after completing a felony conviction. An example would be the criminal justice system. Macrosociology studies the interaction of systems with either individuals or with another system. Jennifer Puentes and Michaela Willi Hooper, Open Oregon Educational Resources. L evels of Analysis in Sociology: The Micro-Macro Continuum. Figure 5.2 provides an overview of the levels of analysis in sociology.įigure 5.2. They use micro-level analysis (microsociology) to study small groups and individual interactions. Sociologists use macro-level analysis (macrosociology) to look at trends among and between large groups, institutions, and societies. There are many different theories in sociology, with their own way of looking at how humans think and behave. The sociological imagination allows us to ask questions about how societies work and about the kinds of processes that drive social change. Similar to how scientific theories explain the world, sociological theories provide us with a way to explain the social world around us. Wright Mills coined the term in his 1959 book The Sociological Imagination to explain how a scholar of society should research and consider behavior (Mills, 1959). The theory of plate tectonics in geology explains how the Earth formed and why there are volcanoes, based on decades of experiments and data analysis from earthquakes, underwater geysers, and even moon rocks.Īs you should recall from Chapter 1, the sociological imagination helps us better understand personal problems, like gender dysphoria, by placing them within the context of larger social systems, like hetero-patriarchy. For example, the theory of evolution helps biologists explain the enormous variety of evidence about the living world, from the fossil record to questions about DNA. 5.2 Macrosociological and Microsociological TheoriesĪ theory is a model of how something works, based on years of research and data.
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