Chapter 2- Textbook

Question 1

What is a theory?

Answer 1

A statement that tries to explain how certain facts or variables are related in order to predict future events

Question 2

Who are the classical sociological theorists?

Answer 2

Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Charles De Montesquieu, Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Question 3

What was Thomas Hobbes contribution to classical sociological theory?

Answer 3

That individuals are the building blocks of society, the appropriate role of government is to preserve individuals self-interest while protecting everyone from each other’s natural self-serving inclinations.

Question 4

What did Hobbes suggest about people?

Answer 4

That people are responsible for creating the social world around them and that society could be changed through conscious reflection.

Question 5

Who was one of the first theorists to view people as responsible and accountable for the society they created?

Answer 5

Thomas Hobbes

Question 6

What is Hobbes’ natural state?

Answer 6

His conception of the human condition before the emergence of formal social structures.
-Believed that people are motivated by self-interest and the pursuit of power.

Question 7

What would have life in the natural state have been like according to Hobbes?

Answer 7

Brutal (humans as animals). Constant state of fear.

Question 8

What did Hobbes argue in Leviathan?

Answer 8

People are naturally rational and to get peace and protection they would enter collective agreements and give up some of their autonomy to authority. He believed that the collective has the responsibility to overthrow a corrupt gov’t.

Question 9

What did John Locke argue?

Answer 9

That God was responsible for the emergence of society and gov’t. People are born a “blank slate”

Question 10

In what ways did Locke disagree with Hobbes?

Answer 10

Disagreed with Hobbes assertion that people in a natural state were so fearful that the need gov’t to protect them. Viewed emergence of state as more about preserving an individuals right to maintain property.
Disagreed with Hobbes’ belief that society was the result of human agency, believing that God was responsible.

Question 11

In what ways did Locke agree with Hobbes?

Answer 11

Agreed about state being overthrown if they failed.

Question 12

What was Locke’s contribution to classical sociological theory?

Answer 12

advocacy of individual freedom

Question 13

What did Charles De Montesquieu suggest?

Answer 13

that people never existed without society and that people were defined and created by society.

Question 14

In De Montesquieu’s Persian Letters, what was it the first clear example of?

Answer 14

the sociological perspective

Question 15

What was the Spirit of the Laws by De Montesquieu about (what did he state)? What are the idea types? What are the 3 types of governments he categorized?

Answer 15

-That laws define the spirit of the people.
Ideal types: classic or pure forms of a social phenomenon
1) the Republic (democracy and aristocracy)
2) the Monarchy
3) Depotism

Question 16

What was the spirit behind each of the 3 types of government?

Answer 16

Republic- virtue
Monarch- honour
Depotism- fear

Question 17

De Montesquieu believed the true nature of society was not___but what it wants___

Answer 17

• what it is

- to become

Question 18

What was De Montesquieu’s contribution to classical sociological theory?

Answer 18

his appreciation for cultural diversity and his comparative methodology which allowed social scientists to analyze various social phenomena cross-naturally.

Question 19

What did Rousseau believe that natural state was?

Answer 19

was a primitive state before laws or morality–did not believe it was an awful existence, but one where people existed in symbiotic and idyllic relationship based on equality.

Question 20

What did Rousseau believe a perfect society would mirror?

Answer 20

our natural state so when social arrangements were inconsistent with this we suffered social problems.

Question 21

What did Rousseau believe was the inspiration for moving past the natural state and into social arrangements?

Answer 21

population pressure–we had to work together to meet our material needs.

Question 22

What did Rousseau believe about people who were gifted? What did this lead to?

Answer 22

People who were gifted prospered –> inequality –> need for gov’t –> people needed to be protected from each other (like Hobbes saw).

Question 23

True or false: people enter into Rousseau’s social contract as free and equal individuals?

Answer 23

true

Question 24

Society must keep government___or they will undermine individual autonomy (acc. Rousseau).

Answer 24

-accountable

Question 25

What was Rousseau’s contribution to classical sociological theory?

Answer 25

His analysis of the social contract and his belief in the autonomy of the individual.

Question 26

What did the Enlightenment represent? When was it?

Answer 26

1650-the French Revolution (1989-1799).

-Challenged religious thinking and represents the intellectual movement

Question 27

Who were the Philosophes?

Answer 27

French philosophers (main group of enlightenment thinkers) who advocated critical thinking and practical knowledge. They build on the natural sciences and brought any attempt to limit free thinking and expression.

Question 28

What did the Philosophes and Enlightenment promote?

Answer 28

human agency

Question 29

What did the Enlightenment lead to? Why was this significant to sociology?

Answer 29

Led to the American and French Revolutions. Significance to sociology –> less to do with fostered personal freedoms and quality –> more to do with ensuring the social turmoil would never ensue again.

Question 30

Who challenged Enlightenment thinking? What did they believe?

Answer 30

• Conservatives

- Believed society is not the product of individuals, but an entity in itself.

Question 31

What are the ten propositions of Conservative Reaction Thinking?

Answer 31

1. Society exists on its own with its own laws and is independent of individuals.
2. Society, not individuals, are the most important unit of social analysis, it produces the individual, not the other way around.
3. Individuals are not the basic unit of social interest; society consists of components such as roles, relationships, structures, and institutions, and individuals only fill those positions.
4. Smallest unit of social analysis is the family.
5. The parts of society are interrelated and independent.
6. Change is a threat to individual and society.
7. Social institutions are beneficial to individuals and society.
8. Modern social changes are disorganizing elements that create fear and anxiety and need to be diminished.
9. Traditional elements of social life are important to society and offer stabilizing influence.
10. Return to social hierarchies are good for individual and collective because they promote system of status and reward which reinforces principles the healthy competition is a good thing.

Question 32

What two theories is sociological theory separated into?

Answer 32

Macro –> conservative, sees behaviour as predictable (European Classical Theory)
Micro –> individual, Enlightenment, sees behaviour as creative (North America)

Question 33

What is functionalism?

Answer 33

• Structures and their associated function
• View the world as a system of interrelated and interdependent parts. Social structures exists to help people fulfill their wants and desires.

Question 34

What is an example of functionalism?

Answer 34

A good education will make it easier to get a well paying job (expression of our value system –> wealth). Therefore, post-secondary is a function in that is makes this possible, and universities are structural (buildings, employees, policies, etc.).

Question 35

How do functionalists view human society? What is this perspective referred to as?

Answer 35

As being similar to an organism–perspective referred to as the organic analogy: the belief that society is like an organism with interdependent and interrelated parts. Society, like an organism, wants to maintain homeostasis.

Question 36

According to functionalists, what happens when society does not meet the needs of the majority?

Answer 36

It is sick and must make adjustments to return to a state of equilibrium.

Question 37

Arguably, functionalism can be linked to the work of ____(social forces, facts, laws), and___(that hard science should be applied to the social world), and to the _____movement, as well as ____ (describe fully how social systems were achieved from interruptions; functionalist insights similar to Comte, but also that people were integrated because of common interest).

Answer 37

• Ibn Khaldum
• Auguste Comte
• Conservative Reaction
• Vilfredo Pareto

Question 38

Who were he leading functionalist theorists?

Answer 38

• Herbert Spencer
• Emile Durkheim
• Talcott Parsons
• Robert K. Merton

Question 39

Who coined the term survival of the fittest? What does it mean?

Answer 39

Spencer

Interpretation of biological principles to justify why only the strong should survive

Question 40

What was the application of the principles of biological evolution to human societies referred to as?

Answer 40

Social Darwinism

Question 41

What did Spencer believe would become a problem?

Answer 41

overpopulation–competition over resources–why he coined the term ‘survival of the fittest’

Question 42

What is Darwin’s term natural selection?

Answer 42

the biologically based principle that environmental pressures allow certain beneficial traits to be passed onto future generations.

Question 43

What is Darwin’s concept of evolution?

Answer 43

the biological process by which genetic mutations are selected for and against through environmental pressures. Spencer says that societies can be selected for as well.

Question 44

What is social darwinism?

Answer 44

spencer’s assertion that societies evolve according to the same biological principles as do biological organisms.

Question 45

How did Spencer employ a functionalist approach?

Answer 45

by suggesting that societies evolve because there is a reason for the changes (ex. survival)

Question 46

What is laissez-faire?

Answer 46

a point of view that opposes regulation of or interferences with natural processes–why many believed that no interference should take place to correct the fact that some were better off than others.

Question 47

Why are sociologists critical of Spencer’s approach?

Answer 47

• justification for colonial expansion by rich and powerful
• how would he explain the fact that some rich children maintain their advantage with none of their parent’s attributes
• equates evolution with processes and over time society will improve, but are we really improving (ex. climate change)?

Question 48

What did Durkheim believe that individual behaviours are inspired by?

Answer 48

collective social forces

Question 49

Durkheim believed: culture and society exist___of the individual, are___of the individual, and___the individual (external forces).

Answer 49

• outside
• independent
• outlive

Question 50

What is collective conscience?

Answer 50

Durkheim’s concept highlighting the totality of beliefs and sentiments that are common to the average person in society.
ex. language predates all of us, influences our world perception, and will outlive all of us.

Question 51

Durkheim appreciated that studying the ___ ___directly was impossible because shared experience is not a thing, but he believed that you could study what he called ___ ___.

Answer 51

• collective
• conscience
• social
• facts

Question 52

What are social facts?

Answer 52

general features that exist on their own and are independent of individual manifestations. ex. laws, beliefs, morals.
-creation of human action but not the intended consequence of them

Question 53

What is the significance of social facts/

Answer 53

that they are evidence of the collective conscience: since we cannot see it, we study reflections of it –> the social facts.

Question 54

What was an example of Durkheim’s positivist methodology and belief that individuals are influenced by the collective?

Answer 54

his analysis of suicide rates.

Question 55

What is altruistic suicide?

Answer 55

too much integration

Question 56

What is anomic suicide?

Answer 56

not enough regulation

Question 57

What is egoistic suicide?

Answer 57

not enough integration

Question 58

What is fatalistic suicide?

Answer 58

too much regulation

Question 59

What is anomie?

Answer 59

a state of formlessness that results from a lack of clear goals and may result in higher suicide rates.
-doing everything right with no rewards

Question 60

Besides suicide, what else is Durkheim known for?

Answer 60

his analysis of how societies grow and change over time. The idea that the collective conscience increases over time and that early society was more individually oriented; harsh and strict.

Question 61

What is mechanical solidarity?

Answer 61

describes early societies based on similarities and independence (independence of each other because largely self-sufficient).

Question 62

What is organic solidarity?

Answer 62

describes later societies organized around interdependence and the increasing division of labour (depend on the collective to meet needs) —> more likely to suffer from anomie even though we are freer.
-no longer the choice to coexist, we need each other to survive

Question 63

Who coined the terms mechanical and organic solidarity?

Answer 63

Durkheim

Question 64

What is social action theory?

Answer 64

Parson’s framework attempting to separate behaviours from actions to explain why people do what they do.

Question 65

For Parson, what are behaviours?

Answer 65

the results of an active and inventive process.

-saw people as actors that played the role of individual or collective.

Question 66

What is Parson’s four step process to explain people’s motivation and goals?

Answer 66

1) actors are motivated to achieve a goal as defined by the cultural system in which they live.
2) actors must find the means to achieve their goals
3) actors need to face the challenging conditions that stand in the way of achieving their goals
4) actors must work within the social system to achieve their goals

Question 67

What are the four function imperatives (AGIL) that are required for a social system to maintain homeostasis acc to Parson’s?

Answer 67

1. Adaption: the social system must be able to gather and distribute sufficient resources and adjust to changes in its environment. Social institutions responsible for responding to adaption problems are economic, political, legal, religious, education, and family.
2. Goal Attainment: the system needs to establish clear goals and priorities. The central question goal attainment must answer for the social system is how to use legitimate power to implement social decisions . The agency responsible for this is the political system.
3. Integration: the system needs to maintain solidarity while allowing the aspirations of subgroups. Rules must be applied equally. Promoting social control begins within get family, but extends to schools, mass media, church organizations, and the legal system.
4. Latency: the system needs to motivate individuals to release their frustrations in socially appropriate ways; and to the imperatives of tension maintenance and pattern maintenance.To achieve equilibrium, the social system must find ways to motivate individual actors and provide them with opportunities to release their frustrations in socially sanctioned ways. Regulating actors tensions is often managed by family, religion, education, and sports.

Question 68

What is tension maintenance?

Answer 68

recognizes the international tensions and strains that influence all actors

Question 69

What is pattern maintenance?

Answer 69

involves socially appropriate ways to display tensions an strains

Question 70

Who coined the term manifest and latent function?

Answer 70

Robert Merton

Question 71

What are manifest functions?

Answer 71

the intended consequences of an action or social pattern

Question 72

What are latent functions?

Answer 72

the unintended consequences of an action or social pattern

Question 73

What is Merton’s contribution to sociological theory?

Answer 73

further our understanding of the functionalist theory by stressing that social structures have many functions
-his analysis of manifest and latent functions and his caution that functionalist theorists need to recognize that “functional” varies from person to person

Question 74

In what ways can we critique functionalism?

Answer 74

• correctly assumes the changes in one area of society may lead to changes in another, how can functionalism account for social changes when the organisms natural state is homeostasis?
• overemphasizes the extent to which harmony and stability actually exists in society
• say the status quo is desirable yet we all know that change is badly needed at times.

Question 75

What is conflict theory based on?

Answer 75

the assumption that society is grounded on inequality and competition for resources

Question 76

What are the two basic principles that all conflict theories share?

Answer 76

1) power is the core of all social relationships and is scarce and unequally divided among society members
2) social values and the dominant ideology are vehicles by which the powerful promote their own interests at the expense of the weak

Question 77

Why two types of inequality did Rousseau argue there are?

Answer 77

1) natural or physical inequality- based physical differences established by nature (ex. strength)
2) moral or political inequality- inequality based human classification of valuable things (ex. money, social status).

Question 78

For conflict theories, society is no a___system operating for the benefit of the whole (as it is for functionalists) but rather a system based on ___and___.

Answer 78

• homeostatic
• tension
• struggle

Question 79

Who ar etc leading conflict theory theorists?

Answer 79

marx and engels

Question 80

Who was Marx’s view on society defined by?

Answer 80

philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

Question 81

What are dialectics?

Answer 81

Hegel’s view of society as the result of oppositions, contradictions, and tensions from which new ideas and social change can emerge.
-believed conflict theory was positive, in short

Question 82

What is idealism?

Answer 82

Hegel’s belief that the human mind and consciousness are more important in understanding the human condition than is the material world.
-what people think about rather than what they build

Question 83

Why did Marx reject Hegel’s idealistic philosophy?

Answer 83

as dismissive of interaction between material and social worlds

Question 84

What was Engels interested in?

Answer 84

the plight of the working class

Question 85

What did Engels publish?

Answer 85

Condition of the Working Class in England (1845). Had idea that poor would rise up against he rich.

Question 86

What is Marx’s Base/Superstructure Model?

Answer 86

To see how Marx saw relationship between material and social elements of society.

Question 87

What is Marx’s Base?

Answer 87

the material and economic foundation for society, made up of the forces of production and the relations of production.

Question 88

What are the forces of production?

Answer 88

the physical and intellectual resources a society has with which to make a living (tools, machines). Influences type of society and lives of individuals.

Question 89

What are the relations of production?

Answer 89

The relationship between workers and owners needed to exploit the forces of production. Relationship based on power the defines society’s use of assists and social relations between classes.

Question 90

What was Marx’s definition of a social class?

Answer 90

a group who share similar relationship to labour and who are aware of their conflict with other classes.

Question 91

What was Marx’s definition of a class conflict?

Answer 91

when the interests of one class are in opposition to another

Question 92

What are Marx’s definitions of the proletariat and the bourgeoisie?

Answer 92

p- workers

b- the owners of the means of production

Question 93

What is Marx’s definitions of alienation?

Answer 93

maoists concept to describe the process by which workers lack connection to what they produce and become separated from themselves and other workers.
-Ex. transition from self-sufficiency to having to work for someone else (Industrial revolution)

Question 94

What relationship was Marx focused on?

Answer 94

the relationship between workers and owners

Question 95

What is exploitation?

Answer 95

The difference between what workers are paid and the wealth they create for the owner.

Question 96

What is Marx’s Superstructure/

Answer 96

All of the things that society values and aspires to be once its needs are met (ex. religion, politics, law).
-In essence, it is what Durkheim called the collective conscience.

Question 97

What did Marx say collective manifestation spring from?

Answer 97

Our relationship with the physical world as experienced through the base of society.

Question 98

What did Marx investigate to understand how social values develop?

Answer 98

The role of ideology in society

Question 99

What is ideology?

Answer 99

A set of beliefs and values that justify and support the ruling class of a society.

Question 100

Dominant ideology of society is one that maintains what?

Answer 100

The ruling elite

Question 101

What is false consciousness?

Answer 101

Belief in and support for the system that oppresses you.

Question 102

What is class consciousness?

Answer 102

Recognition of domination and oppression and collective action to change it.

Question 103

What are the critiques of conflict theory?

Answer 103

• tends to diminish the areas of our lives were we experience an uncoerced consensus about things we feel are important
• Conflict theorists fail to acknowledge that must struggle today is not about personal desire for power, but is institutionalized (ex. political elections)
• criticized for its insistence on the primary and driving role of economics and material interpretations of social life –> forces of production and relation too narrow
• focuses too much on macro-level issues–doesn’t investigate individual

Question 104

Who named symbolic interactionism?

Answer 104

Blumer

Question 105

What do symbolic interactionists emphasize?

Answer 105

That society and all social structures are nothing more than the creations of interacting people and they can, then, be changed (Thomas Theorem).

Question 106

What is the Thomas Theorem?

Answer 106

Assertion that things people define as real are real in the consequences.

Question 107

What are the 7 fundamental principles of symbolic interactionism?

Answer 107

1. unlike other animals, human beings have the capacity for thought.
2. human thinking is shaped by social interaction.
3. in social settings, people learn meanings and symbols that allow them to exercise capacity for thought
4. meanings and symbols enable people to carry on human actions and interactions.
5. people are able to change meanings and symbols given their interpretation of social situations.
6. unique ability to interact with themselves. examine different course of action and select then with the most advantages and disadvantages.
7. patterns of action and interaction make up groups and societies.

Question 108

Why is symbolic interactionism distinct from other two theories?

Answer 108

microsociological orientation

Question 109

What does symbolic interactionism highlight?

Answer 109

the important ways in which meanings are created, constructed, mediated, and changed by members of a group or society. Our perceptions, values, and meanings are the result of mediated experiences with the people we meet each day.

Question 110

Who are the leading theorists in symbolic interactionism?

Answer 110

-Max Weber
-Georg Simmel
-George Hebert Mead
-Charles H Cooley
Erving Goffman

Question 111

What did Max Weber place an emphasis on?

Answer 111

Verstehen

Question 112

What is Verstehen?

Answer 112

Weber’s term for a deep understanding and interpretation of subjective social meanings.

• Understanding the meaning of an action from an actors point of view
• Actors engage with others to organize world and give meaning

Question 113

According to Simmel, what was society?

Answer 113

Society was not living thing nor an abstract creation of the intellect. Society was the summation of human experience and its patterned interactions.

Question 114

Who coined the term formal sociology?

Answer 114

Simmel

Question 115

What is formal sociology?

Answer 115

Simmel’s theory that argues that different interactions, once isolated from they content, can be similar in form.

Question 116

What did suggest about the “social organism”?

Answer 116

That is is not an organic individual, but “a social group of individual organisms”.
-The individual exists as a member of a social organism and their actions can only be understood in the context of social actions that involve other individuals.

Question 117

What is society the result of?

Answer 117

individuals defining themselves through social acts

Question 118

When does Mead believe the concept of ‘self’ emerges?

Answer 118

once individual actors reflect on themselves as objects and their actions as a result of social processes.

Question 119

According to Mead, what is the difference between ‘Me’ and ‘I’?

Answer 119

I- the unsocial part of the self–spontaneous, impulsive.

Me- the socialized part of the self–monitors actions of ‘I’–judgemental–reflects the values and attitudes of society

Question 120

The __represents the response to the actions of other, and the__controls the response of the__.

Answer 120

• I
• Me
• I

Question 121

What did Cooley believe was the best way to examine the world?

Answer 121

sympathetic introspection

Question 122

What is sympathetic introspection?

Answer 122

Cooley’s concept of the value of putting yourself into another person’s shoes and seeing the world as he/she does.

Question 123

What is the looking-glass-self?

Answer 123

Cooley’s belief that we develop our self-image through the cues we receive from others.

Question 124

What are the three components to the looking-glass-self?

Answer 124

1. imagine how we appear to others.
2. imagine how others would judge that appearance.
3. reflect on that image and develop self-feeling

Question 125

What does Cooley believe the self-fulfilling prophecy is?

Answer 125

A prediction that, once made, causes the outcome to occur–we become the kind of person we believe others see us as.

Question 126

What did Goffman study?

Answer 126

Interactions between small groups.

Question 127

What is Goffman’s concept of dramaturgical analysis?

Answer 127

sees the ‘self’ as emerging from he performances we play and how the other actors relate to us.
in other words, the self does not exist, but is rather a function of the social interaction and how they interpret the signs and signals we convey.
both actors influenced by signals they are sending and receiving, both influenced by histories, experiences, and the role they are playing.

Question 128

What are the critiques of symbolic interactionism?

Answer 128

• fails to acknowledge how difficult it is to change long-established social arrangements.
• does not account for the importance of social structures and institutions in defining t world (class, education level, minority status, etc.).

Question 129

Who were the female sociologists that focused on social equality and activism?

Answer 129

• Mary Wollstonecraft (marriage was legal form of prostitution, educate boys and girls together to achieve equality).
• Harriet Martineau (translated Comte’s works into english, published Society in Americana and How to Observe Manners and Morals, one of the first books to explore sociological methodology)
• Annie Marion Maclean (first Canadian women to receive a PhD in sociology, role as women as age workings, understand the plight of the working class).

Question 130

Who were the contributors of visible minorities?

Answer 130

Anna Julie Cooper (focus on race, gender, education, etc., born a slave).
Ida Wells-Barnett (efforts to understand the experience black women because instrumental to the contemporary concept of intersexuality)
W.E.B DuBois (most influential black sociologist, double consciousness)

Question 131

What is DuBois concept of double consciousness?

Answer 131

The divided identity experienced by American blacks

Question 132

For DuBois, what did American racial inequality deflect attention away from and towards?

Answer 132

the critiques of white racial dominance and towards nonracial social concerns like class inequality, politics, and cultural nations.

Question 133

Who were the non-western scholars who contributed to sociology? Why did their work receive a limited profile in Canada?

Answer 133

Exploring colonial racism.
Frantz Fanon (racism generates harmful psychological constructs that blind the minority to the oppression and alienation; language-when traditional language is replace, the colonized begin to support the culture of the colonizers).
C.L.R Hames (Beyond a Boundary–reflection of his experience of cricket and its links with British imperialism in Trinidad; explored damage and suffering caused by slavery; The Black Jacobins book–revolutionary potential of masses).
George Padre (gave voice to exploited and oppressed working class with his works The Life and Struggles of Negro Toilers, and How Britain Rules Africa; radicalized Caribbean working class).
Because these writers work focused on the oppression resulting from colonialism, their work received limited profile in Canada and the U.S.