Sociology

"This best-selling textbook returns for an eighth edition with material on the most fundamental issues in sociology today. The authors continue their tradition of focusing on the big picture, with an emphasis on race, class, and gender in every chapter building on the seventh edition's discussion of reproductive justice after the revocation of Roe v. Wade, social movements such as Black Lives Matter and MeToo, a discussion of the Covid-19 pandemic and Donald Trump and Joe Biden. The text frames sociological debates around the major theoretical perspectives of sociology and focus on capturing students' imaginations with cutting-edge research and real-world events. The hallmark of the book continues to be clear writing that helps students understand the intricacies of the discipline like no other textbook on the market"--

"Cover" -- "Title" -- "Copyright" -- "Dedication" -- "Brief Contents" -- "Contents" -- "List of Figures" -- "List of Photographs" -- "List of Tables" -- "List of Boxes" -- "Preface" -- "Acknowledgments" -- "About the Authors" -- "Part I Introduction" -- "Chapter 1 Sociology: The Discipline" -- "What Is Sociology?" -- "Characteristics of Sociology" -- "Sociology and Common Sense" -- "Sociology as a Science" -- "Science as a Way of Thinking" -- "The Norms of Science" -- "Sociology as a Social Science" -- "Can Human Behavior Be Studied Scientifically?" -- "An Analogy: Meteorology" -- "Complications in the Study of Human Behavior" -- "The Sociological Imagination" -- "Sociology and the Other Social Sciences" -- "Sociology" -- "The Other Social Sciences" -- "The Emergence and Development of Sociology" -- "The Nineteenth Century" -- "Early Sociologists" -- "The Development of Sociology in the United States" -- "The Chicago School" -- "Symbolic-Interactionism" -- "1940–1960: A Turn from Activism" -- "The 1960s: Return to Activism" -- "The 1970s into the New Millennium: Diversity in Sociological Perspectives" -- "PUTTING SOCIOLOGY TO WORK" -- "How Sociology Can Be Used to Solve Real-Life Problems" -- "Summary" -- "Key Terms" -- "Exercises" -- "Chapter 2 How Sociology Is Done" -- "Social Theory and Research" -- "Cause and Effect" -- "Theory and Values" -- "Theories Versus Values: Why Does It Matter?" -- "The Relationship Between Theory and Research" -- "Using and Measuring Variables" -- "Independent Variables" -- "Dependent Variables" -- "Operational Definitions" -- "Validity and Reliability" -- "Correlation" -- "Control Variables" -- "Key Research Methods in Sociology" -- "Quantitative and Qualitative Methods" -- "Experiments" -- "Experimental and Control Groups" -- "Field Experiments" -- "Survey Research" -- "Questionnaires" -- "Telephone Interviews