Sociology and the Real World CH 1-4

What is Sociology?

Sociology is one of the social sciences�disciplines that examine the human or social world.

Sociology

the study of society

What does Sociology do?

looks at a broad range of institutions (structures in our society, like education, economics, politics) to better understand social relationships.

Sociologists can use different levels of analysis to explore social relationships

Microsociology
Macrosociology

Microsociology

sociological investigation that stresses the study of small groups, often through experimental means

Macrosociology

Sociological investigation that concentrates on large-scale phenomena or entire civilizations.

Methodological Approaches

gathering and analyzing data in order to establish certain facts (quantitative & qualitative)

Quantitative Research

translates the social world into numbers which can be studied mathematically

Qualitative Research

Uses non-numerical data like texts, interviews, photos, and recordings to help understand social life

Sociological Imagination

ability to see the connection between the larger world and our personal lives

Who coined the term "Sociological Imagination"?

C. Wright Mills

C. Wright Mills

Class conflict, came up with "social imagination.

Seeing the Strange in the Familiar

what you take for granted and how its familiar to you but realize how strange it is to others

Sociological Perspective

understanding human behavior by placing it within its broader social context

Looking at life sociologically requires giving up

the familiar in favor of the strange

Culture Shock

a condition of disorientation affecting someone who is suddenly exposed to an unfamiliar culture or way of life or set of attitudes

The Beginner's Mind

is the opposite of an expert's mind. Bernard McGrane says that to explore the social world, it is important that we clear our minds of stereotypes, expectations, and opinions so that we are more receptive to our experiences.

The Beginner's Mind in action

Step back from familiar routines,
Look at your lives with new curiosity

Global Perspective

The study of the larger world and our society's place in it

Global Village

Marshall McLuhan's term about radio and television were creating new kinds of social bonds, bringing people together as if they all belonged to the same small tribe.

Macro Perspective

assumes that society's larger structures shape individuals' interactions.

Micro Perspective

focuses on an individual meanings and interactions that individuals create

Howard Becker's definition of sociology?

Our sense of self derives in part from our membership in society.

The glass escalator effect refers to the

rapid rate of upward mobility for men in female-dominated workplaces.

What factor primarily differentiates the everyday actor from the social analyst?

The social analyst would investigate everyday assumptions to gain a more complete understanding of them.

Why did Alexis de Tocqueville and Gustave de Beaumont travel to the United States in 1831?

They wanted to learn about democracy in the United States so that French citizens could learn from America's strengths and weaknesses.

The central feature of postmodern society may be

mass media and popular culture

What are Sociological Theories?

Theories in sociology are propositions that explain the social world and help to make predictions about future events.

Founders of Sociology

August Comte, Herbert Spencer, Karl Marx, Emmile Durkheim, and Max Weber

Auguste Comte
1798-1857

French philosopher remembered as the founder of positivism. Saw human history as 3 stages: theological, metaphysical and scientific. Founded "sociology.

Harriet Martineau
1802-1876

A social activist who traveled the United States and wrote about social changes.
Translated Comte's work into English.
Largely discounted because she was a woman.

Herbert Spencer
1820-1903

major contribution to sociology was an evolutionary perspective on social order and social change.
Social Darwinism - the belief that those human beings, best adapted to their environment survive and prosper, whereas those poorly adapted die out.

Emile Durkheim
1858-1917

french sociologist that contributed many important concepts to sociology. his comparison of the suicuide rates of several countries revealed an underlying social factor: people are more likely to commit suicide if their ties to others in their communities

Karl Marx
1818-1883

Wrote The Communist Manifesto (1848) in conjunction with Friedrich Engels -Society split between the bourgeoisie (middle class) and the proletariat (modern working class) -The proletariat would conquer to bourgeoisie in a violent revolution -The proletari

W.E.B. Du Bois
1868-1963

DuBois argued strenuously with Booker T. Washington regarding the best way for African-Americans to progress. Du Bois urged blacks to fight segregation and win political rights, not accept defeat and concentrate on economic improvement, as Washington advo

Jane Addams
1869-1935

...

3 major theoretical paradigms

-Structural Functionalism
-Social Conflict
-Symbolic Interactionism

Structural Functionalism

sees society as structure made out of pieces that function for the good of society

Social Conflict

the struggle between segments of society over valued resources

Symbolic Interactionism

approach that focuses on the interactions among people based on mutually understood symbols

Robert K. Merton
1910-2003

Pointed out that any social structure probably has many functions
-Manifest Functions
-Latent Functions
-Social Dysfunction

Manifest Functions

the intended beneficial consequences of people's actions

Latent Functions

the unintended beneficial consequences of people's actions

Social Dysfunction

any social pattern that may disrupt operation of society

Feminist Theory

Looks at gender inequalities in society and the way that gender structures the social world, and considers remedies to these inequalities.

Queer Theory

-Proposes that categories of sexual identity are social constructs
-Seeks to illuminate heterosexist bias in society

Postmodernist Theory

-Suggests that social reality is diverse, pluralistic, and constantly changing.
-Critical of "grand narratives

An abstract proposition that both explains the social world and makes predictions about future events

theory

Who first applied a theory of evolution and "survival of the fittest" to societies?

Herbert Spencer

According to Durkheim, people in a modern car factory, where each worker is responsible for building a different part of the car, would experience:

organic solidarity

Is a paradigm that emphasizes a materialist view of society, a critical view of the status quo, and a dynamic model of historical change?

Conflict Theory

Is a paradigm that sees meaning as central to society and assumes that meanings are not inherent but are created?

Symbolic Interactionism

What theory proposes that categories of sexual identity are social constructs and that no sexual category is fundamentally either deviant or normal?

Queer Theory

A symbolic interactionist analysis of education might focus on

he meanings that a teacher attaches to the various behaviors of students

Max Weber's most overriding concern was with the process of

rationalization

Anything that can be used to create more wealth, such as money and property, is referred to as

the means of production

Is true about the work of Emile Durkheim?

He suggested that mechanical solidarity created the social bonds that held agrarian societies together.

Symbolic Interactionism is derived from the teachings of

George Herbert Meade

The theoretical offshoot of Symbolic Interactionism that uses the metaphor of the theater to understand how individuals present themselves to others is called

dramaturgy

Who first attempted to apply the scientific method to the study of society?

Auguste Comte

According to Postmodern Theory, society is:

diverse, pluralistic, and constantly in flux

Teaching students to read and write would be an example of a __________ function of education.

manifest

According to Karl Marx, _______ is the source of all social change.

conflict

One of his greatest contributions to understanding human behavior was connecting the unconscious mind (psychology) to social behaviors.

Sigmund Freud

Keeping children busy for 8 hours a day and out of trouble would be an example of a __________ function of education.

latent

Class Consciousness

Karl Marx's term that refers to the recognition by people in a similar economic situation of a common interest.

the maintenance of cultural patterns

is a social structures might fulfill according to Talcott Parsons

The ideal of objectivity

An unattainable but theoretically conceivable condition of unbias

Max Weber coined the phrase

value-free sociology

The Scientific Method

a process used by scientist to investigate questions. It is a series of steps that allow scientist to meaningful experiments in an organized way.

Correlations

reliable associations between two or more events.

Causations

a relationship where one variable causes another variable to change

Spurious Correlations

a relationship that seems to appear between two variables, but is actually caused by something that external, or intervening variable.

Methods

the specific ways that scholars collect and analyze data which they then use to prove or disprove their theories

Quantitative Research

research that collects and reports data primarily in numerical form

Qualitative Research

research that relies on what is seen in field or naturalistic settings more than on statistical data

ethnography

a detailed description of a particular culture primarily based on fieldwork

Field Notes

Notes that describe what has been observed, heard, or otherwise experienced in a participant observation study. These notes usually are written after the observational session

participant observation

a research method in which investigators systematically observe people while joining them in their routine activities

Interviews

Face-to-face or telephone conversations between an interviewer and a respondent in which the interviewer asks questions and records the respondent's answers.

Surveys

Questionnaires and interviews that ask people directly about their experiences, attitudes, or opinions.

Examines large-scale social patterns and employs statistics and other mathematical means of analysis.

Survey

Experiments

the use of control and experimental groups and dependent and independent variables to test causation

experimental group

the group that receives the treatment

control group

the group that does not receive the experimental treatment.

Existing Sources

Any data that have already been collected and are available for future research.

Objectivity

treating facts without influence from personal feelings or prejudices

Reactivity

responsive to stimulation

The Hawthorne Effect

a phenomenon whereby research subjects alter their behavior when they learn they are being observed

code of ethics

the standards of acceptable behavior developed by and for members of a profession

A sample taken so that the findings can be generalized to the whole population is called a

representative sample

Ethnographies make it difficult to study groups that are often overlooked by other methods.

...

Likert scale

scale that uses numbers (5 strongly agree, 4 agree...)

Survey research is

one of the best methods for gathering a vast amount of original data on a large population.

one of the basic goals for sociologists conducting an experiment?

attempt to control for all possible variables except the one under investigation.

The entire group about which a researcher would like to be able to generalize is a

target population

open-ended question

a question that does not require a specific response and allows the individual to elaborate freely on a subject

close-ended question

a question designed to elicit a small range of specific answers supplied by the interviewer- "yes" or "no

Culture

the way of life of a group of people

Culture Guides

What is acceptable behavior for people in a specific group.

Culture is learned.

For something to be considered cultural, it must be learned as well as shared. We acquire most of our information through spoken language.

Culture ensures

our survival as a species

Material Culture

the concrete, tangible objects of a culture

Symbolic Culture

word, gesture, music, language

Can language shape not only our communication but our perceptions of how we see things as well?

...

Sapir-Whorf hypothesis

a theory claiming that language influences perception

Values

the beliefs and principles that guide the way a person lives

Norms

rules defining appropriate and inappropriate behavior

Folkways

norms that are not strictly enforced

Mores

accepted standards and customs of a social group

Taboos

Culturally forbidden behaviors

Sanctions

rewards or punishments used to enforce conformity to norms

Ethnocentrism

belief in the superiority of one's own ethnic group

Cultural Relativism

the practice of judging a culture by its own standards

Culture Shock

personal disorientation when experiencing an unfamiliar way of life

Multiculturalism

view of cultural diversity as valuable and worth maintaining

dominant culture

The attitudes, values, beliefs and customs that the majority of people in a society hold in common

subculture

cultural patterns that set apart some segment of a society's population

counterculture

cultural patterns that strongly oppose those widely accepted within a society

Popular Culture

culture traits that are well known and widely accepted

High Culture

cultural patterns that distinguish a society's elite

Cultural Change

a major shift in the norms, values, attitudes, and mindset of the entire organization.

Cultural Diffusion

the spread of cultural elements from one society to another

Cultural Leveling

the process by which cultures become similar to one another

Cultural Imperialism

the dominance of one culture over another

Global Culture

A culture in which people around the world are united through their common devotion to brand name consumer goods, movie stars, celebrities, and leisure activities.

polysemy

Having many possible meanings or interpretations.

The spread of McDonald's restaurants throughout Asia is an example of

cultural diffusion.

When Marshall McLuhan asserted that "the medium is the message," he was arguing that:

the changing forms of media dispersion (e.g., TV, radio, the Internet) are as important for cultural change as the content of the media.

social control

attempts by society to regulate people's thoughts and behavior

The idea that language structures thought, and that ways of looking at the world are embedded in language is called

the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis