A caste system is one in which social standing is based on ascribed status or birth. Class systems are open, with achievement playing a role in social position. People fall into classes based on factors like wealth, income, education, and occupation. The difference between caste and class is that caste is closed, while class is open. Caste is closed because it based on religion like the caste system in India where power is only obtain based on the caste the people were part of.

Laws may be formal and written exercised by institutions e.g.; Parliament, police.
Laws are explicit-very clear on paper and are the same for everybody in that society. They also provide severe, specific, unchangeable punishment. Rewards in forms of citations, medal, honor, cash prize, Bharat Ratna. Formal laws are the same everywhere and depend upon societal requirement.
Norms: Norms are informal and unwritten. They are exercised by the primary group which includes family and friends.
Laws are:

• Implicit: Ambiguity can be there, depends upon the people and situations.
• Punishment given in indifferent contexts.
• Informal reward like pat on back etc. hug etc.
• Differs from person to person, place to place, based on values/cultures of society.

Doing Sociology: Research Methods class 11 Notes Sociology

• Sociological research can provide explanations for issues that affect us both as individuals and as members of larger groups.
• It can help us to make the links between personal troubles and public issues, understanding, for example, how your social background can affect your educational attainment and why people in some countries die from diseases that have long since been eradicated in other parts of the world, etc.
• People hold a vast range of views on social issues, such as why certain people become criminals, why women are massively underrepresented in positions of power in the political and business world, and why fewer people attend religious services now than in the past.
• The findings of sociological research should help lessen the misconceptions and prejudices that often form the basis of commonsense views on many important social issues.
• Sociological research produces facts, knowledge, ideas, etc. Each of these has a particular meaning but can be seen as dimensions of a larger concept that is ‘evidence’. Evidence can be referred to as information that supports a statement. It can also be seen as a form of knowledge derived from various sources. Thus, sociological knowledge is derived from research.

Steps in Research Process

1. Selecting a topic and defining a problem: It relates to what a sociologist wants to know about. The selection may depend on the sociologist’s personal interest, relevance and even availability of funds.
   The selected topic is defined in the form of a problem/a puzzle/question. This puzzle represents a gap in knowledge or understanding. For example, within the topic a lot of research questions can be framed, how far does the economic position of women lag behind that of men or does education lead to better *** ratio etc.
2. Review of secondary literature: Here the sociologist familiarises himself/herself with existing literature on that topic. This literature could be in the form of books, journals, studies, newspaper articles etc. It helps the researcher sharpen his own research questions and also helps in making his own research questionnaire as well as the interview questions.
3. Formulating the hypothesis: Hypothesis is an educated guess about what is going on. The hypothesis tries to answer the research questions before the data collection on the basis of the secondary review of literature. The factual material gathered will provide evidence either supporting or disapproving the hypothesis.
4. Choosing the research method: Any one or a combination of one or more research methods can be used. There are a number of research methods and techniques of data collection such as surveys, observation, case study and interview. The choice of research method or technique depends on a number of factors:
   (a) The nature of research question being asked.
   (b) The time and resources available to researcher.
   (c) Size of community that needs to be studied.
   (d) Preferences of the researcher while some researchers are more comfortable with statistical method and others are more comfortable with anthropological method.
5. Collecting the data and recording the information: The data that is collected needs to be both valid and reliable. It should be valid to the problem that the researcher seeks to find answer for.
6. Analysing the result: It is at this step that the hypothesis is tested. Analysis of the result requires specific technique ranging from statistical analysis to content analysis.
7. Sharing the result: The final report is written or published and shared with other social scientists. This stimulates ideas for further research.

Methodological issues in social research

Objectivity

• It is difficult to be objective because human world cannot be studied in isolation. Human beings may develop bias views and influence the thinking about the group as being a part of it.
• The researcher who carries the research will also have his/her own values and prejudices about the social context they are studying and this may present as difficulty while gathering objective information.
• Since the problem of objectivity cannot be eliminated, a social researcher should try and reduce the problem of objectivity in the following ways:

1. By rigorously and continuously examining one’s own idea and feelings about the subject of research.
2. Through reflexivity: By taking an outsider’s perspective on the work and looking at the research through the eyes of others.
3. By consciously adopting the views of those who are the subjects of research.
4. Making a careful documentation of what one is doing, all procedures undertaken and formal citing of all sources of evidence
5. Objectivityshouldbeapproachedasthegoalofacontinuousongoingprocessandnotasan already achieved end result.

Authority : is defined by Max Weber as legitimate power - that is, power considered to be justified or proper, e.g. authority of a teacher, a police officer, etc.

Types of Authority

Rational Legal:

Also known as bureaucratic authority, is when power is legitimized by legally enacted rules and regulations such as governments. Eg. Government officials wield this type of authority in most countries of the world. Bureaucracies are the result of this type of authority.

Charismatic:

Power legitimized by extraordinary personal abilities that inspire devotion and obedience. Examples in this regard can be NT Rama Rao, a matinee idol, who went on to become one of the most powerful Chief Ministers of Andhra Pradesh.

Material culture refers to the physical objects, resources, and spaces that people use to define their culture. These include homes, neighborhoods, cities, schools, churches, synagogues, temples, mosques, offices, factories and plants, tools, means of production, goods and products, stores, and so forth. All of these physical aspects of a culture help to define its members' behaviors and perceptions. For example, technology is a vital aspect of material culture in today's United States. American students must learn to use computers to survive in college and business, in contrast to young adults in the Yanomamo society in the Amazon who must learn to build weapons and hunt.

Altruism: The principle of acting to benefit others without any selfishness or self-interest.

Sociologists understand altruism as a 'principle of unselfish regard for the needs and interests of others'. Durkheim studied some forms of suicide a category of altruistic sacrifice some individuals make for their societies in particular contexts, whether it be due to a strong sense of social cohesion or tradition.

Division of labour refers to the method of organising production where the work required to produce a product is divided into different specialized tasks with different workers specializing in each task.
The four ways in which division of labour will influence production in an economy are as follows:
i. Quality of production improves - Division of labour leads to an increase in the efficiency of labour which further leads not only to an increase in the quantity of output but also to an improvement in the quality of the produced goods and services.
ii. Large scale production - Division of labour makes large scale production possible. Indeed, scale production requires division of labour. If a car manufacturing company, for instance wishes to make 10000 cars in a year but does not introduce division of labour in its factory, it will have to employ so many workers that it will not be an economically viable company. It is by virtue of division of labour that the company can produce 10000 cars per year with a reasonable number of workers.
iii. Reduced average cost - Since division of labour increases total output, even with an unchanged number of labourers, the average cost of producing a commodity falls. This is a social advantage. Society can produce goods by incurring lower average cost of production.
iv. Lower prices of output - The reduced average cost of the products leads to reduced prices of the outputs in the market. As a result, consumers are benefitted.

Divisin of Labour :

1. It means labour will be distributed among the different individuals having different skills of specializations.

2. Division of labour became popular in modern and complex societies after the Industrial Revolution.

3. With the increase of division of labour in modern societies, individuals are more than ever functionally connected by their mutual needs.

4. Due to this process, every labour (usually) is specialised, individuals become more dependent on others to perform separate economic functions, which they are not able to carry out themselves

1. Face-to-face interaction: Primary groups are characterized by close intimate and face to face interaction.
2. Intimacy: Here everyone knows everyone else and there is strong intimacy among the members. They are even known to nick names of their members.
3. Mutual Aid & Help: Mutual aid assistance among the members of the groups always found. They cooperate with each other at the time of help.
4. Consciousness of kind: Consciousness of kind exists. If means they recognize one another and express it whenever needed.
5. We – Feeling: we – feeling (sense of unity and commonality) is found among the members of the group. It means they live together as one body.
6. Small in Size: Primary groups are smaller in size. Large number decreases intimacy and loose the bond of the group.
7. Physical proximity or nearness: face-to-face relation can be found only when members live in a particular area more or less on permanent basis.
8. Frequent Interaction: Interaction among members of the group is frequent and it can be many times in a day.
9. Personal relation: In this, interest of each is centered in others as persons. They interact with each other on the basis of personal relation.
10. Similarity of background: Members must have more or less similar background.

• A society is a group of people who share a common culture, occupy a territorial area and are bound to each other by a common history.
• Societies may be simple, may be complex. It is natural to human beings. We all are social beings. We cannot survive without society. We human beings cannot attain our goals alone, we want society. The society provides us security, relationship, identity and sense of belonging ness.
• Society is mandatory not only for mere survival but also for a good life.
• Society is a continuous process. It is not imposed upon people. It goes on as a natural process. Social relations are the base of social structure. Society can be understood in its abstract as well as concrete form.

• Macro Sociology: The study of large social groups, organisation and social systems.

Industrial capitalism came to villages and cities of modern world so many workers started to work and stay.

Many number of shops also came as a result. In fact, it also increased problem of bad sanitation and overpopulation.

Industrial Revolution have gained wealth across all nature of capitalism aspects across the smaller in scale.