Chapter 1 - An Introduction to Sociology

Question 1

WHAT IS SOCIOLOGY?

Answer 1

The systematic study of society and social interaction.
-The study of groups and group interactions, societies and social interactions, from small and personal groups to very large groups

Question 2

WHAT IS SOCIETY?

Answer 2

A group of people who live in a defined geographical area, who interact with one another, and who share a common culture.

Question 3

WHAT IS CULTURE?

Answer 3

A group’s shared practices, values and beliefs.

Question 4

WHAT IS SOCIOLOGICAL IMAGINATION?

Answer 4

The ability to understand how your own past relates to that of other people, as well as to history in general and societal structures in particular.

Question 5

WHAT IS REIFICATION?

Answer 5

An error of treating an abstract concept as though it has a real, material existence
EXAMPLE: culture is a product of the people in a society, not in its own right.

Question 6

WHAT ARE SOCIAL FACTS?

Answer 6

Laws, morals, values, religious beliefs, customs, fashions, rituals, and all of the cultural rules that govern social life, that may contribute to these changes in the family.

Question 7

WHAT IS FIGURATION?

Answer 7

The process of simultaneously analyzing the behavior of individuals and the society that shapes that behavior.
-Society and the individual are inseparable. People may have individual experiences, but they are often influenced in little ways by wider society (government, social bonds).

Question 8

Who created the framework of sociology?

Answer 8

Auguste Comte (1838)

Question 9

WHAT IS POSITIVISM?

Answer 9

The scientific study of social patterns.

Question 10

What was Karl Marx known for?

Answer 10

He was a major influence over the Conflict Perspective

Question 11

What was Emile Durkheim for?

Answer 11

He was a major influence over the Structural Functionalist Perspective.

Question 12

What was Max Weber known for?

Answer 12

He was a major influence over the Symbolic Interactionist Perspective.

Question 13

WHAT IS SOCIAL SOLIDARITY?

Answer 13

Social ties within a group.

Question 14

WHAT IS A THEORY?

Answer 14

A way to explain different aspects of social interactions and to create a testable proposition called a hypothesis.

Question 15

WHAT ARE GRAND THEORIES?

Answer 15

Attempts to explain large-scale relationships and answer fundamental questions such as why societies form and why they change.

Question 16

WHAT ARE PARADIGMS?

Answer 16

They are philosophical and theoretical frameworks used to within a discipline to formulate theories, generalizations and the experiments performed in support of them.