Writing a Sociology Thesis: Tips from Adepts

Sociology thesis statements play an essential orienting role, since they contain, although probabilistic, but new knowledge, suggesting ways to resolve contradictions. Its methodological significance lies in the ability to select those facts that are necessary to solve the problem and to determine the key direction of the analysis of empirical facts.

Sociology Thesis Topics

The procedure for developing hypotheses begins with the formulation of particular cognitive tasks. They are recorded in the form of separate proposals, reflecting relationships between elements of a conceptual scheme. For instance, studying the topic about the criminal behavior of adolescents, you may ask the next questions:

Do the interpersonal ties of parents affect the unlawful behavior of the kids?

Is there a direct contact between the deviant parental pattern and their children?

Of course, this list could be continued to see the studied problem from all sides. In each individual case, a sociologist may be interested in a whole series of connections that sometimes go beyond the object of the declared analysis.

Having finished the described operation, it is necessary to proceed with the intentions themselves. They are defined as a scientific assumption about directly unobservable causes leading to certain phenomena.

Experts define the following requests to writing sociology thesis:

• Conformity with the original principles of a general sociological theory
• Consonance with the system of evidence of the explanation advanced
• The availability of verification during the study
• The absence of contradiction of known and verified facts

The sociological thesis should not contain concepts that do not have empirical indicators. It must be fundamentally verifiable with the existing level of theoretical knowledge and methodological possibilities. At the same time, the idea should be announced in a simple language, not containing conditions and reservations, obscuring its meaning.

The proposed hypothesis must be logically consistent with the issue. It must be articulated in terms were preliminarily specified in the research plan. In sociological context the following types are distinguished:

• descriptive
• structural
• functional
• explanatory
• projected

The hypothesis represents a transition from theory to subsequent empirical cognitive procedures aimed at enriching the base of concepts in a particular sphere of society's life activity. During the development of the thesis, the next phases can be distinguished:

Accumulation of data on the issue, including a literary review, statistical materials, reports, expert opinions, etc.

Formulation of sociology thesis. At this phase, a sociologist critically comprehends the information he/she has received and puts forward reasonable assumptions about properties, structure, and mechanism of the functioning.

Grouping of hypotheses and their classification into main and additional ones.

The verification of prognostic proposal occurs at later stages of the development. Therefore, in the conclusions of a specific investigation, a hypothesis is often underestimated by academics. In a number of cases, confirmation provides a description of what has long been known. If we strictly approach this point, then the scientific fixation of long-known truths makes sense, since the phenomena observed in life, but not scientifically conceivable for scientists, practically do not exist.

Thus, any phenomenon that has significance for a scholar is included in the chain of events occurring in the system, so it can manifest itself as a trend or regularity. So, the need to evaluate the explanatory and prognostic thesis reflects a higher level of knowledge. Such theories allow us to reflect numerous phenomena and reveal trends in the progress of micro- and macro systems. In this case, the findings are far beyond specific purposes, valuable for constructing statistical series that reflect social processes in a community.