Chapter 1 - What Is Sociology? Flashcards
Sociology
Studies human society and social behavior
-more complex and advanced societies
Social Sciences
Disciplines that study human social behavior or institutions and the functions of human society in a scientific manner
Social interaction
How people relate to one another and influence each other’s behavior
Social phenomena
Observable facts or events that involve human society
Anthropology
Comparative study of past and present cultures
- figure out culture based on artifacts
- simple, less advanced present cultures
Psychology
Study of behavior and mental processes
Social psychology
Study of how social environment affects an individual’s behavior and personality
Economics
Analyses the choices people make to satisfy their needs and wants
- effects of certain economic factors on groups of people
Political science
Examination of the principles, organization, and operation of government
History
Studies the people and events of the past
-used to explain current social behaviors
What was the impact of the Internet on sociology?
- created new form of isolation
- access to more information
What are parts of the sociological perspective?
- Look at life in scientific, systematic way - not what’s in media
- Look at hidden meanings behind actions
- Behavior is influenced by social factors - learned by others
- “Viewing the world from others’ eyes”
What is sociological imagination? Whose idea was this?
The ability to see the connection between the larger world and your personal life. - C. Wright Mills
What were social and political changes during the Industrial Revolution?
- Rural economy gave way to large scale production
- Factory replaced home
- Growth of cities
What factors lead to creation of sociology?
- ) Rapid social and political changes during industrial revolution
- ) Urban population growth
What did urban population growth cause?
- Higher number of unemployed
- Housing shortages
- Crime and pollution increased
- Impersonal nature of city living
Who was Auguste Comte?
Founder of sociology
- applied methods of physical science
- looked at cause and effect of French Revolution
What were Auguste Comte’s area of study?
Social order and social change
- Social statics
- Social dynamics
Social statics
Certain processes that hold society together
- family, government, economics, education
Social dynamics
Definite processes that cause societal change
-war, elections, shift in power, media, technology
Who was Harriet Martineau?
She published “Society in America”
- reported on marriage, family, race relations, education, and religion
- objectivity
- thought scholars should advocate change to solve the problems they studied
- women’s rights, religious tolerance, end of slavery
What did Herbert Spencer say?
Society is a set of interdependent parts that work together to maintain the system over time
- social change and unrest are natural occurrences in evolution toward perfection and stability
- best aspects of society survive
- social Darwinism
What is Social Darwinism?
Only the fittest societies survive
Who influenced Herbert Spencer?
Charles Darwin
What did Karl Marx believe?
Society is divided into two classes
- bourgeoisie
- proletariat
Bourgeoisie
Capitalists, own materials and methods of production
Proletariat
Workers, own labor
What would class conflict cause? Class conflict is the primary cause of social change.
Proletariat would overthrow power and a classless society would form
Who were the early European scholars?
Karl Marx, Herbert spencer, Harriet Martineau, Auguste Comte
What were Emily Durkheim’s beliefs?
Society is a set of interdependent parts with each having a specific functionality
- only study observable things
Function
Consequences that an element of society produced for the maintenance of its social system
What was Emile Durkheim’s focus?
Functions of religion in maintaining social order
-shared beliefs and values
What was the first sociological study on?
Suicide
What was Max Weber’s focus?
Separate groups within society
- effect of society on individuals
Verstehen
Attempt to understand the meanings individuals attach to their actions (in someone else’s shoes)
-Weber
Ideal type
General description of essential characteristics of a feature of society
- school, government body
- Weber
What was the Chicago School Sociologists focus?
Group interactions and impact of society in individual development
- lead to INTERACTIONIST PERSPECTIVE
- should include practical solutions to social problems
What did Jane Addams do?
Opened Hull House which offered welfare, educational, and recreational services for the poor
What did Addams write?
Hull House Maps and Papers
- wages, sweatshops, child labor, living conditions
- first serious discussion about industrialization and urbanization
Who was W.E.B. DuBois?
An African American sociologist that wrote The Philadelphia Negro.
- lived in black community
- first empirical community study
- race was an issue that needed to be addressed
Theory
Explanations of the relationships among particular phenomena
Theoretical perspective
Set of assumptions about the nature of things
Functionalist perspective
View society as a set of interrelated parts that work together to produce a stable social system
- held together through consensus
- functions of family, religion, education and economy
- positive consequences for society as a whole
- dysfunction, manifest function, latent function
Dysfunction
Negative consequence an element has for the stability of the social system
- creates social problems
- can lead to social change
Manifest function
Win tended and recognized consequence of some element of society
Latent function
Unintended and unrecognized consequence of an element of society
Conflict perspective
Focus on the focus in society that promote competition and change
- those that have power control who don’t
- interested in violent and nonviolent competition
- decision making in family, relationships in racial groups, workers
Feminist perspective
View society as a gender/sex system in which men dominate women
- things considered masculine are more highly valued
- reinforced by social institution of
Interactionist perspective
Focuses on how individuals interact with one another
- interested in meaning individuals attach to actions
- TOI- child development, relationship within small groups, mate selection
- symbols
Symbol
Anything that represents something else
-must be accepted
Symbolic interaction
How people use symbols when interacting
-meaning, language, thought
Macro sociology
Study of large scale systems or society as a whole
- functionalist
- conflict
Micro sociology
Looking at small group settings and the face to face interactions among group members
-INTERACTIONIST
Globalization
Development of economic, political, and social relationships that stretch worldwide
