Lecture 5 Flashcards
Who studied STRUCTURAL
FUNCTIONAL THEORY? (Plus main idea)
Durkheim’s theory of functionalism
- Equilibrium (everything thing is society has a function)
What are the functions of the nuclear family (social institution) ?
Education, economic, reproductive, and sexual
What is a change in the family (in modern times)
Smaller families today
What is the warm bath theory?
Men like to come home from work and take relaxing warm bath (pro traditional norms)
What is the social function of crime? (and critique)
Functionalist:
Functionalist: Unit society against common foe, defines morals
Critique: Not good at explaining social change
Who invented conflict theory?
Marx
Explain a strand of conflict theory (C. Wright Mills)?
Society is in a constant state of change
Changes in class conflict through Unions, court etc
Authority and power at the centre of
class conflict
What is DEPENDENCY THEORY (Conflict theory strand)?
Competition over resources
on global level
Resources flow from
“peripheral” poor states to a
“core”, wealthy state
Wealthy nations perpetuate
this relationship of
dependency by various
means
How would a conflict theorist explain crime?
- Competition over resources
- Government creates “legal” vs “illegal”
Explain: Symbolic Interaction (Micro theory)
Goffman!
- “How does the self develop through social relationships
- Symbols - People act towards symbols (words, gestures, artifacts ) based
on ideas they attach to these symbols - People become human through social interaction
What is Dramaturgical Analysis (Goffman)? (Note: Drama)
Analyzing daily interactions in terms of a theatre show
What is Impression Management? (Goffman)
our efforts to present ourselves in favorable ways
* Clothes (costumes)
* Accessories (theatrical accessories)
* Gestures, postures and expressions (“act”)
* Words (script)
* Settings (background decorations)
What is front and back stage for Erving Goffman?
- Front stage – actions that are visible to the
audience and are part of the performance - Back stage – Our behaviors when no audience is present
Explain: Phenomenology (Micro theory)
Meaning of the world:
The categories we create and share with others in order to interact
Explain: Rational Choice (Micro theory)
How do individuals make their choices
Who started Symbolic Interactionism?
George Herbert Mead
“a framework for building theory that sees society as the product of everyday interactions of individuals”
We look more at Goffman tho
Explain stages of Society by August Compt?
Theological stage - Religious
Metaphysical Stage- “why are we here”
Positivist stage - Science
What is a theoretical sample?
Theoretical Sample - not only directors of NGOs but also politicians they
interact with (So extending to hit all involved parties)
Three basic steps in research?
Determine variables
Assess measurements
Explore relationships
Most sociological research fits into three categories:
- Talking to people (Survey, interview, focus group)
- Observation (ethnography - observing social life, experiment)
- Examining available data (Ananlysis etc)
Each has strengths and weaknesses
What is the social nature of sociological research?
Studying society means social relationships influence research
We bring our bias to our research
Explain the scale of research:
Microsociology
Macrosociology
Institutional perspectives
Microsociology: Everyday interpersonal
and small group interactions (Do women smile more then men?)
Macrosociology: Explores how large-scale historical trends and structural patterns
influence social life (Womens rights movements)
Institutional perspectives: Didn’t say in slide
- But probs talking about how institutions act in society, and what they influence (ex. does institution of family impact womens rights?)
