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SOC 200: Introduction to Sociology > Introduction To Sociology > Flashcards

Introduction To Sociology Flashcards

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Sociology 101 flashcards
1
Q

What is sociology?

A

The scientific study of social behavior, human groups, and behavioral patterns. Places emphasis on the influence of society on people. Probabilities are also considered.

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2
Q

What is studied in sociology?

A
  1. Social relationships.
  2. Societies.
  3. Behavior and attitudes.
  4. Human groups.
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3
Q

Is human behavior predictable?

A

No, but it is patterned, and specific actions commonly occur together.

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4
Q

What are the two main themes of sociology?

A
  1. Scientific (probability, terminology, methods of systemic observation).
  2. Study of social behavior.
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5
Q

What are the social and behavioral sciences?

A
  1. History.
  2. Economics.
  3. Anthropology.
  4. Psychology.
  5. Sociology
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6
Q

What is the Thomas Theorem?

A

If someone thinks something is real, it is to them. Interpretation of a situation results in action.

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7
Q

What are three key things in sociology?

A
  1. We are always participating in something larger than ourselves.
  2. Individuals are not systems, and systems are not individuals. Independence and interconnectedness coexist.
  3. To understand social life, we must understand what we are participating in and how we are participating in it.
    ex: We participate in stereotyping (what) by writing insensitive jokes about other cultures (how).
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8
Q

What is idiographic?

A

Explaining events using unique and/or specific cases. Focuses on who is represented, who is not represented, and how we are connected to the past.
This is the approach historians take.

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9
Q

What is nomothetic?

A

Look at non-specific examples, commonalities, and many slightly variable patterns. Finding patterns and tying them to a hypothesis.
This is the approach sociologists take.

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10
Q

What four fields is anthropology split into?

A
  1. Cultural (this one is the closest to sociology)
  2. Linguistic.
  3. Archaeology.
  4. Physical.
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11
Q

How do sociology and anthropology differ?

A
  1. Sociologists have a more inclusive focus on aspects of human society.
  2. Sociologists use a broad range of research methods.
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12
Q

What two disciplines do sociologists most commonly go into?

A
  1. Applied Sociology.
  2. Clinical Sociology.
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13
Q

What do research policy centers do?

A

Perform research used to explicitly inform policy makers on how to craft a policy.

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14
Q

What is applied/public sociology?

A

The evaluation of social arrangements and issues using sociological theories, skills, and methods, along with data collection and analysis, to resolve the issue being faced by the client(s).

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15
Q

What is clinical sociology?

A

The field of sociology is dedicated to restructuring social institutions and/or altering social relationships.

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16
Q

Who coined the term sociology and when?

A

Augustus Comte, 1848.
Was a French philosopher-type

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17
Q

Why did the field that would become sociology rise to prominence?

A

The European elites were concerned with the lingering social turmoil and unrest throughout the European lower and middle class and wanted groups of people who could analyze these classes and help correct the problem(s).

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18
Q

Why did Comte feel it was urgent to systematically study the problems of society?

A

The Industrial Revolution led to the creation of industrial centers (with increased disease and urban unrest), people being unsatisfied with their position in life, values and expectations were changing, and science was beginning to take prominence over religion (and divine placement).
TLDR: Society and the patterns of people were rapidly changing, those in power wanted to stay on top of this change.

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19
Q

Who was Emile Durkheim and what were some of his accomplishments?

A
  1. The first sociologist to work in an academic setting in France.
  2. Argued that sociology was crucial in understanding behavior because it allowed us to view things from a larger context.
  3. Spoke about “sociological perspective”.
  4. Studied suicide rates and found that Protestants, the unmarried, and those in a rural setting had higher rates of suicide.
  5. Discovered social facts, which arise from the associations of people.
  6. Witnessed major political changes in his formative years.
  7. Founder of functionalism.
  8. Viewed society as a totality (sui generis) above all individuals.
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20
Q

What are social facts?

A

Manners of acting, thinking, and feeling external to the individuals.
ex: Economy, social class, marital status.

21
Q

What is sociological imagination?

A

A term coined by C. Wright Mills that is defined as the ability to see the real and consistent connection between the individual and society.
Seeing the connection between micro-level individuals and macro-level public issues.

22
Q

What are personal issues?

A

Things that are a source of worry to the individual that are primarily due to their own action or inaction.

23
Q

What are social issues?

A

Problems or situations that are experienced as personal but have roots that are found in things extending beyond the individual.

24
Q

What are the two core commitments of sociology?

A
  1. To apply the “sociological eye” to understanding society (detect patterns and areas of influence that cross the boundaries of social life).
  2. To engage in social activism.
25
Q

What are paradigms in sociology?

A

Guiding orientations that often lend themselves to different research methods.
Point you in a direction.

26
Q

Does a system exist w/o participants?

A

Not really.

27
Q

What are the rules of a game equivalent to?

A

The norms of society.

28
Q

What is structure?

A

The set of rules that you are expected to follow in society.

29
Q

What are the major sociological paradigms?

A
  1. Symbolic interactionalism.
  2. Structural functionalism.
  3. Interactionist.
  4. Conflict.
  5. Critical race.
  6. Feminist.
30
Q

What are the characteristics of the functionalist paradigm?

A
  1. Promoted by Comte, Merton, and Durkheim.
  2. One of the earliest paradigms.
  3. Focused on social order and moral consensus as normal in society.
  4. The belief that anything that does not benefit society and its order will or has been eliminated.
  5. Thinks of society like a body, many different specialized parts. Must look at the whole to figure out why something is beneficial.
31
Q

What are manifest functions?

A

The known, expected, and open circumstances and consequences.
ex: D&D for fun.

32
Q

What are latent functions?

A

The unknown, unexpected, unintended, and hidden circumstances and consequences.
ex: D&D improving your mental math and probability skills.

33
Q

What are the characteristics of the conflict paradigm?

A
  1. Promoted by Marx and Du Bois.
  2. Believes that order in society exists only because of power structures and coercion by the power structures (gender, class, race), not agreements among individuals.
  3. Stability is abnormal in a society, there should always be change happening.
  4. Tension and struggle are rooted in power structures.
  5. Inequality stems from the luck of some and the misfortune of others.
34
Q

What are the characteristics of the interactionalist paradigm?

A
  1. Promoted by Goffman, Thomas, and Mead.
  2. The appearance of someone or something conveys messages. For example, if someone wears ripped jeans and ratty shirts, you would assume they are financially unstable.
  3. Core principle: We tend to react to our subjective interpretation of situations, not our objective interpretation.
  4. Language and symbols are very important.
35
Q

What are the characteristics of the feminist paradigm?

A
  1. All behaviors in social interactions and social organizations is tied to gender and sex.
  2. Women and men have different experiences in society.
  3. Boys and men are gatekeepers of gender and sex inequality.
  4. Not all gender analysts have the same perspective.
  5. Is a newer paradigm due to most early sociologists being male.
  6. Sex can be connected to other structures such as race.
36
Q

What three features make a paradigm or theory feminist?

A
  1. An assumption that gendered relationships are not fixed but are social constructs that can be changed over time.
  2. Focus on strains, inequalities, and contradictions inherent in gendered arrangements.
  3. A normative commitment that society should develop equitable gender understandings and arrangements.
37
Q

What are the characteristics of the critical race paradigm?

A
  1. Was created by Crenshaw, Bell, Freeman, and Delgado.
  2. Came out of a 1970’s legal movement.
  3. Built on radical feminism and critical legal studies.
38
Q

What four sources did the critical race paradigm borrow from?

A
  1. Critical legal studies: Legal indeterminacy or every legal case does not have one correct outcome.
  2. Feminism: Relationship between power and the formation of social roles. The invisible patterns and practices of the patriarchy.
  3. Conventional civil rights: A concern with redressing historical wrongs and that legal and social theory leads to practical consequences.
  4. Ethnic studies: Cultural nationalism, group cohesion, and the need to develop texts and ideas based on individual groups and their situations.
39
Q

What are the five premises the critical race paradigm is based around?

A
  1. Ordinances:
  2. Social construction thesis:
  3. Intersectionality:
  4. Voice of color thesis:
  5. Interest convergence:
40
Q

Who was Max Weber and what were some of his accomplishments?

A
  1. Was interested in social actions (how people interpret and react to others).
  2. Was interested in verstehen (the process of interpreting the “states of mind” of others in terms of their motives and intents).
  3. Believes in rational action (actions that people treat as a means to an end).
  4. Studied bureaucracies because they were considered to be the epitome of rationality and efficiency.
  5. Saw society as a stratification of classes based on power, prestige, and property.
41
Q

Who was Karl Marx and what were some of his accomplishments?

A
  1. Founder of the conflict perspective.
  2. Not a sociologist.
  3. Believed that where you live is based on where you are placed in the class system.
  4. Society is divided into the bourgeoisie (the owners) and the proletariat (the workers).
  5. The bourgeoisie owns the means of production, and all the workers can offer are skills.
  6. Believed that forces of production (technological abilities and social relationships) evolve around the creation of goods and services.
42
Q

Who was W.E.B. Du Bois and what were some of his accomplishments?

A
  1. Most significant sociologist.
  2. Founded American scientific sociology.
  3. Established a sociology department at Atlanta University (Not Chicago University).
  4. Thoughts ran parallel to that of Booker T. Washington.
  5. American sociology arose at a time of social, cultural, and historical change, where explaining racial issues and the waves of immigration was invited.
  6. Was the first to introduce quantitative methods to sociology.
  7. Studied in Germany and met Weber.
  8. Used his skills to improve the lives of Black people.
43
Q

Who was Jane Addams and what were some of her major accomplishments?

A
  1. Affiliated with the Chicago School of sociological scholars.
  2. Viewed theories and research as assets for affecting social change and easing social problems.
  3. Coined the term social ethics.
  4. Advocated for personal visits to the communities sociologists were trying to help.
  5. Helped create the Hull House.
44
Q

Who was Pierre Bourdieu and what were some of his major accomplishments?

A
  1. Coined the terms cultural capital, social capital, and habitus.
  2. Was interested in the many forms of capital and how capital sustains individuals and families across generations.
45
Q

What is cultural capital?

A

The non-economic goods reflected in knowledge of the language, arts, and culture.
ex: How you phrase things, keeping up with trends in your class, etc.

46
Q

What is social capital?

A

The collective benefits of social networks and direct relationships. In short, your connections.

47
Q

What is habitus?

A

The actions and presences in a persons life that they perceive as normal. Often are shared between people with similar upbringings.
ex: Dipping the soles of your shoes in water every morning.

48
Q

Who was Robert Merton and what were some of his accomplishments?

A
  1. Developed the theory of deviance (views forms of deviance and conformity as linked to society’s opportunity structure.
  2. Believed in manifest and latent functions.
  3. Looked at the connections between the micro and macro levels of social life.

SOC 200: Introduction to Sociology (8 decks)

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