Auguste Comte
Coined the term "sociology" (the founder of sociology) and developed positivism as a theory
Study of sociology must be scientific
Divided study of society into SOCIAL STATICS and SOCIAL DYNAMICS
Herbert Spencer
Coined the term "survival of the fittest" and his philosophy is often referred to as "social darwinism
Harriet Martineau
Showed how the basic moral values of the young American nation shaped its key institutional arrangements; a methodologist
One of the first to do systematic, scientifically based social research.
Studied slavery and position of women in Western world... pa
Structural functionalism
society is an orderly and unified system
Conflict theory
Society exists with patterns of inequality and dominance
Symbolic interactionism
Meanings are created and interpreted through interaction
Postmodernism
Social reality is diverse and best explored via mini-narratives
Which is the strongest type of conformity?
A. identification
B. peer pressure
C. Conpliance
D. internalization
D. internalization
A group that provides standards by which we evaluate our own personal attributes is known as a/an
A. in-group
B. out-group
C. loyal group
D. secondary group
E. reference group
E. reference group
Define sociology
The scientific study of social interaction and social organization
A collection of people who share a physical location but do not have lasting social relations is called a/an
A. social network
B. category
C. social group
D. aggregate
D. aggregate
Your parents would probz be considered a part of your
A. primary group
B. secondary group
A. primary group
A bunch of people standing at a terminal in an airport is a/an
A. group
B. aggregate
C. social network
D. club
B. aggregate
Will on vaca to Germ., sees older children having glass wine with parents @ dinner. Will, from US, believes this is wrong. What is this an example of?
Ethnocentrism
What is ethnocentrism?
the tendency to judge the behavior of other groups by the standards of one's own culture.
Amish people that live harmoniously with non-Amish neighbors. They are set apart because of the clothes they wear and use horses and buggies instead of cars. What are the Amish an example of?
Subculture. Why?
Define subculture
A group whose members participate in the main culture of a society while simultaneously sharing a number of unique values, norms, traditions, and lifestyles
Psychological reasoning vs. Sociological reasoning
Psychologists might focus on lack of self control (ex. peter and quagmire) and sociologists might focus on impact of cult. norms that promote a lifestyle beyond most people's means or economic changes that require more Americans to rely on credit cards be
Elliot Liebow
Studied low-income urban black nen on street corner near the White House, "Tally's Corner"
18 month participant observation
Assumed assumption of white man in pick-up truck when the corner men declined offer for a day's work was that black men were lazy a
Liebow found:
Most men already had jobs and if they didn't had a reason (ex. disability)
jobs offered were HARD labor, low paying, and offered no chance for advancement
an ongoing lack of success in labor market lowers self-confidence and frequently leads to temp., or
The sociological imagination
ability to see our private experiences, personal difficulties, and achievements as a reflection of the structural arrangements of society and the times in which we live
Name the Theoretical Perspectives
Functionalism, Conflict Theory, and Interactionism
Important People for Structural Functionalism
August Comte, Herbert Spencer, Rober Merton, Emile Durkheim
Emile Durkheim
2 major studies: "Suicide" and "The Elementary Forms of Religious Life"
----Showed that suicides were related to social factors (marital status, religious affiliation (or lack thereof), and employment)
----Religion... Suggested it was powerful source of s
Main Principles of Structural Functionalism
Society conceived as stable and ordered, made up of interrelated parts, or STRUCTURES
--Ex. Fam, edu system, positics, econ, and religion
Structures meet society's needs by performing diff functions, and ever FUNCTION is necessary to maintain social order
Manifest Functions
consequences that are intended and recognized by participants in a system... intended functions (the obvious)
Latent functions
consequences that are neither intended nor recognized by the participants in a system... unintended functions
Karl Marx
Believed that most of society's probz were result of capitalism
Class conflict
Ideas have become more well known to the world as the basis for communism
Main Principles of Conflict Perspective
Conflict between social groups is central to the workings of society and serves as the engine of social change.
Gains for one group=losses for another
Focuses on processes of dominance, competition, upheaval and social change.
Attempts to expose inner wor
Symbolic Interactionism
Focuses on the micro, small-scale structures of society
Associated to symbolic interactionism
Charles Horton Cooley, George Herbert Mead, Manford Kuhn, Herbert Blumer
Main Principles of Symbolic Interactionism
Social beings who live in group existence
Posses few, if any, innate behaviors for relating to one another., Development of social skills requires exposure to others to fully dev.
Humans are active agents who fashion their behavior
3 Core Assumptions of Symbolic Interactionism
1. We act toward things on the basis of their meanings
2. Meanings are not inherent in things, but emerge from social interaction
3. Because we are continually interacting, shared cultural meanings are always emerging and changing
Culture
refers to the social heritage of a people - those learned patterns for thinking, feeling, and acting that are transmitted from one generation to the next, including the embodiment of these patterns in material items
-forms our basic beliefs and assumption
Language
The chief vehicle by which people commun. ideas, info, attitudes, and emotions to one another
Symbols
Acts or objects that have come to be socially accepted as standing for something else
Norms
Social rules that specify appropriate and inappropriate behavior within a specific culture and time
Formal: laws
Informal: folkways, mores, taboo
Sanctions
The means of enforcing norms... Include rewards for conformity and punishments for violations
Values
Broad ideas regarding what is desirable, correct, and good that most members of a society share
ethnocentrism
Using our own culture as a kind of measuring stick with which to judge other indiv. or societies... Anyone outside our group seems abnormal
Culture shock
A sense of disorientation that occurs when you enter a radically new social or cultural environment
Cultural relativism
Understanding other cultures on their terms, rather than judging or evaluating according to one's own culture.... Doesn't ask whether moral or immoral, but what part it plays in life of people
dominant culture
cultural hegemony-the ideas of the dominant social group are accepted by all
subculture
a culture within a culture
--very different, but living in HARMONY w/ dominant culture
counterculture
a subculture in opposition
--norms and vals are incompatible w/ dominant culture
society
consists of the actual web of relationship that people enter into as they go about their daily activities
status
a position in a social hierarchy that comes with a set of expectations
Examples of status
Ascribed-born w/ it
Embodied-located in physical self (beauty)
Achieved-earned through efforts
Master-carries primary weight in interactions/relationships (gender, race, athlete)
role
set of behaviors expected of someone because of status
role set
mult. roles associated with single status
duties
actions others can legitimately insist we perform
rights
actions that we can legitimately insist that others perform
role performance
the actual behavior of the person who occupies a status
role strain
the sit. in which individuals find the expectations of a single role
role exit
occurs when ppl stop playing roles that have been central to their social identities
group
two or more people who share a feeling of unity and are bound together in relatively stable patterns of social interaction
aggregate
collection of anonymous indiv. who are in one place at the same time
category
collection of ppl who share a characteristic that is deemed to be of social significance
institutions
principal instruments whereby the essential tasks of living are organized, directed, and executed
societies
group of ppl who live within the same territory and share a common culture
Theories of Socialization
Functionalist, Conflict, Social Learning, Cognitive Developmental, Symbolic Interactionsit
Functionalist Perspective vs. Conflict Perspective
Depict society in static terms/Depict society in dynamic terms
Stress order and stability/Stressed disorder and instability
Focus on common interests/Focus on interests that divide
View consensus as the basis of social unity/Insist that social unity is an
Social Learning Theory:
CONDITIONING is a form of learning in which consequences of behavior determine the probability of its future occurence
--reinforcements:consequences of behavior that INcrease the chance that a behavior will occur
--punishments:consequences that reduce the
Socialization
process of social interaction by which people acquire the knowledge, attitudes, values, and behaviors ESSENTIAL for effective participation in society
Cognitive developmental theory
Jean Piaget... 4 stages of cognitive development
Sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, formal operations
sensorimotor
0-18 to 24 months... learn through senses and movements...gradually realize they exist independently of people and things around them
preoperational
18/24 months-6/7 years old... accomplish REPRESENTATIONAL THOUGHT made possibly by learning symbols and language...Egocentricity...Lots of questions "how" and "why
concrete operational
6/7-11/12... think more abstractly and can do simple arithmetic in heads, be able to see things the way others do... thinking focused on concrete tangible objects
formal operations
11/12 to adulthood... develop abstract arguments and conceive of variety of ways of looking at a prob... identity and moreal sensibility become deeper and more complex... influenced by ability to internalize and critically evaluate points of view of other
Symbolic Interactionist Theory
Actions through which people observe, interpret, evalueate, communicate with, and attempt to control themselves (reflexive behaviors) are imp. to socialization
reflexive behavior
critical in dev. of self b/c it is though it that people learn who they are... monitoring own behavior, others' responses, making interpretations, trying new ways of behaving, coming to new understandings about themselves
self
personal identity, separate and different from all other people... believed to be created and modified through interaction in our lives
Charles Cooley
LOOKING-GLASS SELF refers to notion that self develop through our perception of others evals and apprasals of us
believed we act like mirrors to each other... imagin how we look to others, imagine other peoples judgement of us, experience some kind of fee
George Herbert Mead
expanded Cooley's idas... also believed self was created through social interaction and started process inchildhood
self develops through stages: preparatory, play, taking role of sig. other, and game
generalized other
the perspectives and expectations of a network of others that a child learns and then takes into account when shaping his/her own behavior
Erving Goffman
believed meaning constructed through interaction
DRAMATURGY-compares social interaction to the theaer, where individuals take on roles and act them out for an audience...
Saw social life as game... controlling the impressions others have of us-IMPRESSION
Erik Erikson
Stages of Psychosocial Development
Development Stages
1. Infancy
2. Early childhood
3. Fourth to fifth year
4. Sixth year to onset of puberty
5. Adolescence
6. Young adulthood
7. Adulthood
8. Old age
crowd
a temporty gathering of people in a public place, whose members may interact but do not identify with each other and will not remain in contact
primary groups
2 or more ppl... direct, intimate, cohesive relationship with one another
Secondary groups
involved in an impersonal relationshjip and have come together for a specific, practical purpose
in-group
a group that a person identifies with and feels loyalty toward
out-group
person feels opposition, rivalry, or hostility toward
reference group
social unit we use for appraising and shaping our attitudes, feelings, and actions
anomie
somebody/group loses norms they're accustomed to... exp. depression, lose sight of purpose/hope
group dynamics
patterns of interaction between groups and individuals
dyad
smallest social group-unstable b/c of small size
triad
more stable, opens door for many issues, conflicts between 2 can be mediated by 3rd
group cohesion
sense of solidarity or loyalty that individuals feel toward a group to which they belong
groupthink
decision-making process found in highly cohesive groups... members become so preoccupied w/ maintaining group consesnsus that their critical faculties are impaired
conformity
tendency to follow unspoken rules/behaviors of the social group to which you belong
types of conformity
compliance, indentification, internalization
compliance
mildest form of conformity, actions to gain reward or avoid punishment
identification
conformity to establish/maintain a relationship w/ a person or group
internalization
strongest type of conformity, an indiv. adopts the beliefs or actions of a group and makes them his or her own
The Asch Experiment
(with the lines) nearly 75% went along w/ rest of group
Milgram Experiment
(the electric shock one)
Stanford Prison Experiment
compared with Abu Ghraib... Once a prison has a veil of secrecy around it, it's just open for corruption
Power
ability to control the actions of others
coercive power
backed by the threat of force
influential power
supported by persuasion
Max Weber
3 types of authority found in social organizations
traditional authority-based in custom, birthright, or divine right
legal-rational authority - authority based in laws, rules and procedures
Charismatic authority - based in perception of remarkable person
instrumental leadership
task or goal oriented... less concerned with feelings than getting job done
expressive leader
concerned w/ maintaining emotional and relational harmony within group b/c it will elad to a positive work env. and improved productivity
bureaucracy
type of secondary group designed to perform tasks efficiently
George Ritzer
McDonaldization" to describe spread of bureaucratic rationalization and the resulting increase in both efficiency and dehumanization... Most institutions opperate like fast food restaurant
relative deprivations
tend to be discontented when we experience a gap between what we have and what we believe we should have
factors affecting likelihood that groups will arise
size, face to face contact, development of group bonds
instrumental ties
social links formed when a group of people gathers to construct a house (ex.)
primary groups do?
provide setting in which we meet most of our personal needs
in-groups and out-groups provide us with
social identity
triads are likely to find
intruders" "outsiders" "mediators
6 concepts that have an impact on Group Dynamics
group size, groupthink, leadership, social loafing, social dilemmas, conformity