... southern states of America often approved of the conversion of slaves to Christianity, believing it to be a controlling and gentling influence. In this way, religion is a distortion of reality which provides many of the deceptions that form the basis of ruling-class ideology and false class consciousness. To sum up, it is evident that the ideological commitments of particular researchers have influenced their definition of religion and their view of its role in society. (216 words) 2. Deviant behaviour may be studied using a variety of sociological methods. Examine some of the problems of using observational methods to study deviance. (12 marks) All sociological research involves observation of some sort, especially when studying deviance. However, problems often occurred. To begin with, observation is often very time-consuming. Cicourel (1976) spent four years studying juvenile justice in California. The researcher can usually only study a very small group of people and ...

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