Khan social structures

Question 1

macrosociology

Answer 1

large scale perspective, looking at phenomenon that affect a whole civilization or society, looking at patterns of groups of individuals; includes functionalism and conflict theory

Question 2

microsociology

Answer 2

look at individuals and small scale interactions, everyday interactions; look at a sample of a society; includes symbolic interactionalism

Question 3

social institutions

Answer 3

impose structure on how individuals behave; the rules of institutions guide what we do

Question 4

conservative view of institutions

Answer 4

sees institutions as the natural, positive biproducts of human nature

Question 5

progressive view of institutions

Answer 5

artificial creations that need to be redesigned if they are to be helpful to society

Question 6

rational choice thoery

Answer 6

everything we do is shaped by what is rational, weigh costs and benefits of actions; people are driven by personal goals and choose outcomes with optimal benefit; assumes you can rank the outcomes of multiple options

Question 7

exchange theory

Answer 7

application of rational choice theory to social interactions; interactions between individuals are determined by weighing the rewards and punishments of that interaction; if met with social approval, more likely to be repeated; we form relationships in order to benefit ourselves

Question 8

social constructionism

Answer 8

knowledge and aspects of the world only exist because we give them reality through social agreements; money is just paper that we give value; doesn’t consider the effect of natural phenomenon on society

Question 9

symbolic interactionism- Meade, Blumer

Answer 9

focuses on interactions between individuals; people assign meaning to things in order to decide how to act; action depends on meaning; we given meaning to things based on our social interactions; meanings can change after future interactions