Powerpoint #1 - Sociology in Perspective Flashcards
What is sociology?
scientific study of social life, relationships between individuals and social structures, micro-level/macro-level analyses
Who was August Comte?
- coined the term “sociology”
- proposed implying scientific methods in natural sciences to social sciences (a.k.a. “positivism”)
- interested in how societies achieved social order and what causes a society to change
Who was C. Wright Mills?
- came up with the sociological imagination: capacity for individuals to understand the relationship between their individual lives and broad social forces (impact)
- -> ex. private troubles v. public issues
What is social control?
balancing order and freedom
(internal social control: what we believe is the right thing to do)
*Emile Durkheim
*posture photos
What is the Interactionist Theory?
- though constrained by social structures we can still make our own decisions and take actions that will affect us ant those around us
- ->emergent properties: doing something with group that you wouldn’t do alone
- George Herbert Mead
What is the Social Construction of Reality?
reality is not directly experienced by individuals so much as it is socially constructed
-“definition of a situation” and “negotiated order”
Who was George Herbert Mead?
- developed Symbolic Interactionist Perspective: believed people can interact by taking the role of another to attempt to understand that viewpoint
- emphasized importance of symbols/meanings for human interaction
- self has no meaning apart from society
What is Social Structure?
- relatively stable patterns of social behavior
- ->ex. expectations attached to positions, distribution of social rewards
Who was Emile Durkheim?
- interested in the impact of social structures on individual behaviors
- believed in social facts: regular patterns of behavior, exist independently of individuals/constrain individual behavior
- -> ex. suicide because of social integration
- developed Structural Functional Theory (society–> structure–> social consequences)
What is social inequality?
great inequality in/between societies
*Karl Marx
Who was Karl Marx?
- largely influenced by Industrial Revolution and inequality he saw because of it
- believed human history = class conflict
- father of “conflict perspective”
- wrote for radical newspapers
What is the Conflict Theory?
social life is predicated upon conflict
- society= groups competing for scarce resources
- cooperation may = power struggle, social structures exist to benefit those with wealth/power
What are the recurrent themes of sociology?
- Social Control
- The Social Construction of Reality
- Inequality
- Social Structure
- Knowledge
- Social Change
What is Social Change?
pervasive aspect of social life
*Max Weber
Who was Max Weber?
emphasized the need to understand social life from the perspective of those being studied
- argued that modern life has increased rationality (less tradition), rational behavior because of own subjective understanding
- said Protestant work ethic –> increased capitalism
- social life is based on rational action guided by subjective understanding
What is positivism?
an approach to sociology that assumes the methods of the natural sciences such as physics can be applied successfully to the study of social life and the scientific principles learned can be applied to solving social problems
bourgeoisie
capitalists who owned the means of production
proletariat
workers who sold their labor in return for subsistence
dialectic
process of change over time based on the clash of historical forces characterized by a thesis, a conflicting anti-thesis, and finally their resolution in a new synthesis
mechanical solidarity vs. organic solidarity
mechanical: everyone doing same work = same values
organic: different people performing different roles (a.k.a. division of labor)
