Problem-Solving Techniques and Sociology

Yes, sociologists and sociolo9y students generally know how to "brainstorm" in a general, undisciplined way. But there are some specific techniques and applications that may be interesting to sociologists and other social scientists. This post offers some of my thoughts on that topic.

Survey research - Concept fans can be used to work from the general intent of a question to the specific word choices and "angles" that are possible. What do you really want to know and what particular wording will elicit this information? This is the sort of issue that concept fans can help you answer as a student, or as an expert working on a particularly challenging research subject.

Studying - Tony Buzan invented Mind Maps (r) as an alternative to note taking and outlining. The technique has obvious uses in studying social science textbooks and in literature reviews.

Theory building - Mind Maps (r) and concept fans can help you understand the mechanisms that are at work. They can also make it eaiser to think about the relationships between variables. In qualitative research this capability may be especially valuable since there is no formal way of summarizing the relationships between variables. (Yes, I know qualitative researchers usually don't talk about variables! Substitute factors, frames, or similar terms.)

Interested in a quick overview of problem-solving and creative-thinking? See Mindtools.com for an introduction to many of the techniques.