Friday, March 29, 2024
06:31 AM (GMT +5)

Go Back   CSS Forums > CSS Optional subjects > Group VII > Sociology

Sociology Notes and Topics on Sociology

Reply Share Thread: Submit Thread to Facebook Facebook     Submit Thread to Twitter Twitter     Submit Thread to Google+ Google+    
 
LinkBack Thread Tools Search this Thread
  #1  
Old Wednesday, July 15, 2020
The dream of rain's Avatar
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2018
Posts: 225
Thanks: 3
Thanked 50 Times in 43 Posts
The dream of rain is on a distinguished road
Default Sociology practice: CE2021

This thread is solely created for the purpose of keeping all serious aspirants on one page.
You can:
  • Share views, review others' works
  • post topics for discussion
  • discuss over questions & answers
  • post queries
  • ask anything related to the subject.

You can't:
  • post copy-paste material for no specific reason
Reply With Quote
  #2  
Old Wednesday, July 15, 2020
The dream of rain's Avatar
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2018
Posts: 225
Thanks: 3
Thanked 50 Times in 43 Posts
The dream of rain is on a distinguished road
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by The dream of rain View Post
This thread is solely created for the purpose of keeping all serious aspirants on one page.
You can:
  • Share views, review others' works
  • post topics for discussion
  • discuss over questions & answers
  • post queries
  • ask anything related to the subject.

You can't:
  • post copy-paste material for no specific reason

Q: How can moral degeneration be scientifically studied? Delineate the entire research process for studying this phenomenon.

Lets exchange ideas over this!
Reply With Quote
  #3  
Old Wednesday, July 15, 2020
Muhammadwd's Avatar
Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2017
Posts: 64
Thanks: 11
Thanked 26 Times in 22 Posts
Muhammadwd will become famous soon enough
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by The dream of rain View Post
Q: How can moral degeneration be scientifically studied? Delineate the entire research process for studying this phenomenon.

Lets exchange ideas over this!
Looking at it from a purely research based perspective, it is not possible to study the whole concept of moral degeneration via the scientific method. You can select a certain aspect of moral degeneration such as, the reasons for the decline of social mores while interacting with women in an office setting in Pakistan. I was baffled by the very nature of this question when I saw it in the exam. When you set out to scientifically study a topic, you make sure that you pick an aspect that is narrow and focused, not broad and general. Even if you look at it purely as a CSS exam question, it is not feasible to attempt it because there is no way you can satisfactorily cover all aspects of moral degeneration. If sociological commentary on this topic was required, without research centrism, it would have been much more prudent to spend time on this question. The reason is that you can apply sociological theory to answer the different aspects of moral degeneration which not only covers multiple aspects but also provides a theoretical base to discuss those aspects. The scientific research method can only focus on one aspect at a time. For example, if I were to prove scientifically that one reason for moral degeneration is the decline of religion, I would go about choosing a population and a subsequent sample and control group for observation and interviews. However, the decline of religion requires a separate sample, as do other aspects of moral degeneration. Theoretically, however, I would be much better served by Marx's theory of religion, or Weber's and Durkheim's subscriptions of religion to answer the reason of this decline. Moreover, the Theory of Anomie and other relevant theories can also help me explain other aspects of moral degeneration in the time required for me to answer one question in the exam. Therefore, this question is, in my opinion, is put there to lull the student into a false sense of security. Its statement is overly simplistic, and it is a deceptively long question to answer in just 35 minutes.

I would love your views on whether there is a simplified approach to answering this question.
Reply With Quote
The Following User Says Thank You to Muhammadwd For This Useful Post:
salmanmufc (Wednesday, December 16, 2020)
  #4  
Old Wednesday, July 15, 2020
aishalam's Avatar
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2017
Posts: 160
Thanks: 7
Thanked 94 Times in 69 Posts
aishalam is on a distinguished road
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Muhammadwd View Post
Looking at it from a purely research based perspective, it is not possible to study the whole concept of moral degeneration via the scientific method. You can select a certain aspect of moral degeneration such as, the reasons for the decline of social mores while interacting with women in an office setting in Pakistan. I was baffled by the very nature of this question when I saw it in the exam. When you set out to scientifically study a topic, you make sure that you pick an aspect that is narrow and focused, not broad and general. Even if you look at it purely as a CSS exam question, it is not feasible to attempt it because there is no way you can satisfactorily cover all aspects of moral degeneration. If sociological commentary on this topic was required, without research centrism, it would have been much more prudent to spend time on this question. The reason is that you can apply sociological theory to answer the different aspects of moral degeneration which not only covers multiple aspects but also provides a theoretical base to discuss those aspects. The scientific research method can only focus on one aspect at a time. For example, if I were to prove scientifically that one reason for moral degeneration is the decline of religion, I would go about choosing a population and a subsequent sample and control group for observation and interviews. However, the decline of religion requires a separate sample, as do other aspects of moral degeneration. Theoretically, however, I would be much better served by Marx's theory of religion, or Weber's and Durkheim's subscriptions of religion to answer the reason of this decline. Moreover, the Theory of Anomie and other relevant theories can also help me explain other aspects of moral degeneration in the time required for me to answer one question in the exam. Therefore, this question is, in my opinion, is put there to lull the student into a false sense of security. Its statement is overly simplistic, and it is a deceptively long question to answer in just 35 minutes.

I would love your views on whether there is a simplified approach to answering this question.
Fully agree with your point of view. The term "Moral Degeneration" is far too broad and with far too many factors involved for a single comprehensive study to be created that can ever even hope to study all of it. And then on top of all that "morality" is necessarily subjective and hence any study revolving it can neither be conclusive nor universally accepted. I found this really interesting article which though I can't read as its a paid journal it still raises very valid questions regarding the sociology of morality and ethic theories. ( https://link.springer.com/article/10...186-007-9044-y ) It also seeks to contrast Weber and Durkheim's approaches to Morality which is an interesting contrast in itself.

Personally if I was pressed to attempt this question and couldn't see any other option I'd focus on the first half more. "How can moral degeneration be scientifically studied?" This question most definitely is doable and you can add in approaches of previous sociologists to illustrate how it has been studied scientifically. I'd also add a portion while attempting which focuses on the WHY is it so difficult as a sociological concept; mainly rooted in how any attempt at studying moral degeneration is based on a baseline concept of "morality" itself which not only changes across time but is not the same even among people living in the same locality. Religion influences it but so do things like economic and social class. This adds layers of complexity to this topic which need to be handled carefully by any researcher.

Also the wording of the second half is really interesting to me; "Delineate the entire research process for studying this phenomenon." I could interpret this as being an extension of what I discussed above and instead of creating a specific research design as an example would simply work out the steps theoretically. So for example step one would be doing some preliminary digging into what has been done before and what theories people have based their researches on. Step two would be maybe to get a basic survey into how people living in the locality/social/economic/professional etc class (aka the people who we are interested in) define morality to begin with so that we have a baseline to go on in order to study the phenomenon of moral degeneration and so on and so forth the steps would continue being more general rather than written around a specific hypothesis.

This approach might make the question appear a tad bit haphazard but I'd avoid committing to a single end all sort of study/research.
Reply With Quote
The Following User Says Thank You to aishalam For This Useful Post:
salmanmufc (Wednesday, December 16, 2020)
  #5  
Old Wednesday, July 15, 2020
aishalam's Avatar
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2017
Posts: 160
Thanks: 7
Thanked 94 Times in 69 Posts
aishalam is on a distinguished road
Default

Some more interesting questions from CSS past papers;
  1. Discuss the status of elderly people in Pakistani society.
  2. Is Max Weber more relevant than Durkheim in today's globalising world? Discuss with reference to their theoretical contributions.
  3. Define the term "Social Problem" and discuss Crime (In one year "Smuggling" came instead) as a Social Problem?
  4. How evolutionary theories of sociology provide a stimulating gesture to transform societies? Compare and contrast the classical and neo-classical school of thoughts for understanding phenomenon of social change.
  5. Terrorism has become a real and potential threat to the global peace and stability. What role social scientists can play to combat their problem?
Reply With Quote
  #6  
Old Wednesday, July 15, 2020
Muhammadwd's Avatar
Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2017
Posts: 64
Thanks: 11
Thanked 26 Times in 22 Posts
Muhammadwd will become famous soon enough
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by aishalam View Post
Fully agree with your point of view. The term "Moral Degeneration" is far too broad and with far too many factors involved for a single comprehensive study to be created that can ever even hope to study all of it. And then on top of all that "morality" is necessarily subjective and hence any study revolving it can neither be conclusive nor universally accepted. I found this really interesting article which though I can't read as its a paid journal it still raises very valid questions regarding the sociology of morality and ethic theories. ( https://link.springer.com/article/10...186-007-9044-y ) It also seeks to contrast Weber and Durkheim's approaches to Morality which is an interesting contrast in itself.

Personally if I was pressed to attempt this question and couldn't see any other option I'd focus on the first half more. "How can moral degeneration be scientifically studied?" This question most definitely is doable and you can add in approaches of previous sociologists to illustrate how it has been studied scientifically. I'd also add a portion while attempting which focuses on the WHY is it so difficult as a sociological concept; mainly rooted in how any attempt at studying moral degeneration is based on a baseline concept of "morality" itself which not only changes across time but is not the same even among people living in the same locality. Religion influences it but so do things like economic and social class. This adds layers of complexity to this topic which need to be handled carefully by any researcher.

Also the wording of the second half is really interesting to me; "Delineate the entire research process for studying this phenomenon." I could interpret this as being an extension of what I discussed above and instead of creating a specific research design as an example would simply work out the steps theoretically. So for example step one would be doing some preliminary digging into what has been done before and what theories people have based their researches on. Step two would be maybe to get a basic survey into how people living in the locality/social/economic/professional etc class (aka the people who we are interested in) define morality to begin with so that we have a baseline to go on in order to study the phenomenon of moral degeneration and so on and so forth the steps would continue being more general rather than written around a specific hypothesis.

This approach might make the question appear a tad bit haphazard but I'd avoid committing to a single end all sort of study/research.
Absolutely right. To your point on the second half of this question, it is really intriguing isn't it? You are right that the delineation of the entire process requires specificity which is not offered by the examiner. The best possible way is to, as you said, be general at the expense of the structure of the answer.
Reply With Quote
  #7  
Old Wednesday, July 15, 2020
Muhammadwd's Avatar
Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2017
Posts: 64
Thanks: 11
Thanked 26 Times in 22 Posts
Muhammadwd will become famous soon enough
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by aishalam View Post
Some more interesting questions from CSS past papers;
  1. Discuss the status of elderly people in Pakistani society.
  2. Is Max Weber more relevant than Durkheim in today's globalising world? Discuss with reference to their theoretical contributions.
  3. Define the term "Social Problem" and discuss Crime (In one year "Smuggling" came instead) as a Social Problem?
  4. How evolutionary theories of sociology provide a stimulating gesture to transform societies? Compare and contrast the classical and neo-classical school of thoughts for understanding phenomenon of social change.
  5. Terrorism has become a real and potential threat to the global peace and stability. What role social scientists can play to combat their problem?
1. How can one go about explaining the status of elderly people in Pakistan? The options in my mind are:
a. to approach the issue from the perspective of Family as a social institution and how it helps support the elderly. Case in point, Pakistan's family system
b. The concept of Religion as a social institution that provides rights to the elderly. Present a reference from Islamic sources of knowledge.
c. A contrasting view with modernity and western influence having an effect on younger generation to pursue materialistic interests at the expense of spending time with their aging parents. This can lead and to some extent has led to a rising trend of more senior centers and adult care centers.
d. Needless to say that some statistical references will be needed to back these arguments.
Reply With Quote
  #8  
Old Wednesday, July 15, 2020
The dream of rain's Avatar
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2018
Posts: 225
Thanks: 3
Thanked 50 Times in 43 Posts
The dream of rain is on a distinguished road
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Muhammadwd View Post
Looking at it from a purely research based perspective, it is not possible to study the whole concept of moral degeneration via the scientific method. You can select a certain aspect of moral degeneration such as, the reasons for the decline of social mores while interacting with women in an office setting in Pakistan. I was baffled by the very nature of this question when I saw it in the exam. When you set out to scientifically study a topic, you make sure that you pick an aspect that is narrow and focused, not broad and general. Even if you look at it purely as a CSS exam question, it is not feasible to attempt it because there is no way you can satisfactorily cover all aspects of moral degeneration. If sociological commentary on this topic was required, without research centrism, it would have been much more prudent to spend time on this question. The reason is that you can apply sociological theory to answer the different aspects of moral degeneration which not only covers multiple aspects but also provides a theoretical base to discuss those aspects. The scientific research method can only focus on one aspect at a time. For example, if I were to prove scientifically that one reason for moral degeneration is the decline of religion, I would go about choosing a population and a subsequent sample and control group for observation and interviews. However, the decline of religion requires a separate sample, as do other aspects of moral degeneration. Theoretically, however, I would be much better served by Marx's theory of religion, or Weber's and Durkheim's subscriptions of religion to answer the reason of this decline. Moreover, the Theory of Anomie and other relevant theories can also help me explain other aspects of moral degeneration in the time required for me to answer one question in the exam. Therefore, this question is, in my opinion, is put there to lull the student into a false sense of security. Its statement is overly simplistic, and it is a deceptively long question to answer in just 35 minutes.

I would love your views on whether there is a simplified approach to answering this question.

Agreed to an extent! Though the question is vague to be specific and to focus on the way to study the subject is really wide. Right! much of your thoughts are centered around theoretical take on the topic. But, if im pushed to write on it i will try to narrow down the concept of "moral degeneration" by certain Hypothesis and then delineating the research process as it exist: defining the topic, hypothesis, selecting research method and etc... Because, sticking to theoretical viewpoint as pointed would be risky in exam and im feel one should play safe.

And for the first part of question,"How can moral degeneration be scientifically studied?",which is equally important. I would focus on how other scientists have studied it. Besides, giving it theoretical touch and then centering on qualitative/quantitative ways to study it.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Aishalam View Post
Fully agree with your point of view. The term "Moral Degeneration" is far too broad and with far too many factors involved for a single comprehensive study to be created that can ever even hope to study all of it. And then on top of all that "morality" is necessarily subjective and hence any study revolving it can neither be conclusive nor universally accepted. I found this really interesting article which though I can't read as its a paid journal it still raises very valid questions regarding the sociology of morality and ethic theories. ( https://link.springer.com/article/10...186-007-9044-y ) It also seeks to contrast Weber and Durkheim's approaches to Morality which is an interesting contrast in itself.

Personally if I was pressed to attempt this question and couldn't see any other option I'd focus on the first half more. "How can moral degeneration be scientifically studied?" This question most definitely is doable and you can add in approaches of previous sociologists to illustrate how it has been studied scientifically. I'd also add a portion while attempting which focuses on the WHY is it so difficult as a sociological concept; mainly rooted in how any attempt at studying moral degeneration is based on a baseline concept of "morality" itself which not only changes across time but is not the same even among people living in the same locality. Religion influences it but so do things like economic and social class. This adds layers of complexity to this topic which need to be handled carefully by any researcher.

Also the wording of the second half is really interesting to me; "Delineate the entire research process for studying this phenomenon." I could interpret this as being an extension of what I discussed above and instead of creating a specific research design as an example would simply work out the steps theoretically. So for example step one would be doing some preliminary digging into what has been done before and what theories people have based their researches on. Step two would be maybe to get a basic survey into how people living in the locality/social/economic/professional etc class (aka the people who we are interested in) define morality to begin with so that we have a baseline to go on in order to study the phenomenon of moral degeneration and so on and so forth the steps would continue being more general rather than written around a specific hypothesis.

This approach might make the question appear a tad bit haphazard but I'd avoid committing to a single end all sort of study/research.
Agreed with your view. Limited theoretical aspect can be added and question can be handled as you mentioned. But, being exam specific, won't (your approach) centering attention to theoretical aspect rather than specific research sail the ship against the winds?

P.S. I didn't attempt the question there for it was broad.
Reply With Quote
  #9  
Old Wednesday, July 15, 2020
The dream of rain's Avatar
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2018
Posts: 225
Thanks: 3
Thanked 50 Times in 43 Posts
The dream of rain is on a distinguished road
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by aishalam View Post
Some more interesting questions from CSS past papers;
  1. Discuss the status of elderly people in Pakistani society.
  2. Is Max Weber more relevant than Durkheim in today's globalising world? Discuss with reference to their theoretical contributions.
  3. Define the term "Social Problem" and discuss Crime (In one year "Smuggling" came instead) as a Social Problem?
  4. How evolutionary theories of sociology provide a stimulating gesture to transform societies? Compare and contrast the classical and neo-classical school of thoughts for understanding phenomenon of social change.
  5. Terrorism has become a real and potential threat to the global peace and stability. What role social scientists can play to combat their problem?
I take up your questions and would express my thoughts subsequently.
Reply With Quote
  #10  
Old Thursday, July 16, 2020
The dream of rain's Avatar
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2018
Posts: 225
Thanks: 3
Thanked 50 Times in 43 Posts
The dream of rain is on a distinguished road
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by aishalam View Post
Some more interesting questions from CSS past papers;
  1. Discuss the status of elderly people in Pakistani society.
  2. Is Max Weber more relevant than Durkheim in today's globalising world? Discuss with reference to their theoretical contributions.
  3. Define the term "Social Problem" and discuss Crime (In one year "Smuggling" came instead) as a Social Problem?
  4. How evolutionary theories of sociology provide a stimulating gesture to transform societies? Compare and contrast the classical and neo-classical school of thoughts for understanding phenomenon of social change.
  5. Terrorism has become a real and potential threat to the global peace and stability. What role social scientists can play to combat their problem?
1. Discuss the status of elderly people in Pakistani society.

Looking at the question at first i drew some other picture but then i pondered over this thought.

Status of elderly people in Pakistani society portrays a bleak picture. As the society is deprived of providing social and economic program for them. Therefore, they lack health facilities, face chronic diseases and mental health issues like depression, loneliness, etc. Besides, they also confront lack of resources, for instance, loss of income for their personal sustenance, economic dependency, social problems like loss of social relations, alienation from family and scarcity of elderly care units. Such a poor status of elderly people in Pakistani society is evident from society's reluctance to celebrate International Day for Older People.

Whats your take? Awaiting for views.
Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are On
Pingbacks are On
Refbacks are On


Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
USA History practice: CE2021 The dream of rain History of USA 18 Saturday, December 05, 2020 01:11 PM
PMS 2016 Passed Candidates: Share yours interview experience here. Asif Khan Shinwari KPKPMS/PCS Syllabus 7 Thursday, December 28, 2017 09:16 AM
CCE 2013 Candidates List Needed (Karachi Region) Sana Siddiqi SPSC (CCE) 6 Sunday, October 29, 2017 02:33 PM
Early Muslim sociology GoodOmen Sociology 1 Monday, June 20, 2016 03:12 PM
sociology Notes!! samra kanwal Sociology 27 Thursday, February 21, 2013 12:44 AM


CSS Forum on Facebook Follow CSS Forum on Twitter

Disclaimer: All messages made available as part of this discussion group (including any bulletin boards and chat rooms) and any opinions, advice, statements or other information contained in any messages posted or transmitted by any third party are the responsibility of the author of that message and not of CSSForum.com.pk (unless CSSForum.com.pk is specifically identified as the author of the message). The fact that a particular message is posted on or transmitted using this web site does not mean that CSSForum has endorsed that message in any way or verified the accuracy, completeness or usefulness of any message. We encourage visitors to the forum to report any objectionable message in site feedback. This forum is not monitored 24/7.

Sponsors: ArgusVision   vBulletin, Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.