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)
What is rationality?
human action in which goals are set and achieved in the most efficient manner
Who was Georg Simmel?
founder of micro sociology: sociological research that -focuses on individuals, thoughts, actions, and individual behaviors
- ->emphasizing in symbolic interactions and “small groups”
- Interactionist
Who was W.E.B. Dubois?
- tried to put “science into sociology”
- believed racial division could be over come and that African Americans weren’t inferior, but the target of white prejudice/discrimination
What is the Structural Functional Theory?
social structures constrain/enable individual behavior
–> ex. suicide
What are social facts?
regular patterns of behavior, exist independently of individuals/constrain individual behavior
Herbert Spencer
-developed Social Darwinism: social structures are interdependent and contribute to survival of society
What is a function?
the positive consequence of an action
What are manifest functions?
the obvious and usually intended consequences of an action
What are latent functions?
the less obvious and often unintended consequences of an action
What is a dysfunction?
the negative consequence of an action
Who is Robert Merton?
extended functional theory–> different consequences for different individuals in a society
- manifest/latent
- function/dysfunction
What is false consciousness?
a way of thinking that prevents a person from perceiving the true nature of their social or economic situation
What is a macro-level study?
focuses on social structures that influence individuals
ex. groups, organizations
What is a micro-level study?
focuses on individuals, thoughts, and individual behavior
ex. relationships among people
What is a meso-level study?
focuses on intermediate level structures such as the family or small organizations
-may also try and bridge the gap between micro and macro level study to show how one influences the other
What is verstehen?
empathic understanding of human behavior, in context of shared cultural ideals
What is symbolic interactionism?
the view of social behavior that emphasizes linguistic or gestural communication and its subjective understanding
“definition of a situation”
suggests meaning to your actions
“negotiated order”
shared meaning of situation agreed upon by all participants
What is the dramaturgical perspective?
viewing people as playing different roles in life
What is front-stage?
trying to create a favorable impression of themselves
What is back-stage?
being less concerned with creating favorable impressions
Who was Erving Goffman?
came up with impression management: the ways in which individuals try to deliberately manage the impressions that other people have of them
–> theater metaphor
emergent properties
doing something with group that you wouldn’t do alone
What is collective consciousness?
the shared norms, values, and beliefs of a society
What was the Protestant work ethic?
a disciplined work ethic, rational approach to life, and an emphasis on this world
What is a theory?
an organized set of concepts and relationships among those concepts offered as an explanation/account of some phenomenon
Sociologists associated with Structural Functional Theory
- Emile Durkheim
- Herbert Spencer
- Robert Merton
Sociologists associated with Conflict Theory
- Karl Marx
2. W.E.B. DuBois
Sociologists associated with Interactionist Theory
- Max Weber
- Georg Simmel
- George Herbert Mead
- Erving Goffman
