Q1 - 26 For Midterm #1 Flashcards
What are the differences between anthropology, psychology, and sociology?
Anthropology - study of human beings and their ancestors through time and space in relation to environmental, physical character, and social relation, and culture
Psychology - Study of human mind and the areas that affect certain behaviors
Sociology - The systematic study of social life, change, causes, and consequences of human behavior
What are the 3 core foci of sociology? Explain each with examples from the class.
- The study of social inequality - looking at the gap between the advantaged and disadvantaged. These gaps tend to exist due to rights, opportunities, rewards, privilege
ex/ Difference in income earnings between visible minorities and non-visible minorities (white ppl) - POCs tend to generally make less than white ppl - Role of social institutions in society - (5 in Canadian society: family, education, religion, economy, and gov’t) Because social institutions are the norms, values, and rules that structure human interaction, sociologists look at it to see how societal patterns form
Ex/ Education is an institution because it’s part of one the fundamental things that teaches ppl how to behave in society by teaching students to sit down quietly, raise hand when asking a question, listen attentively, think critically, etc. - Study of social change - looking at the changes that society goes through overtime
ex/ Sociologists like looking at secularization, which is the process of religion losing its power of individuals and social life in general overtime
What is the sociological imagination?
An idea coined by C. Wright Mills to help ppl see a connection between their lives and the large scope of society; the concept is to distinguish between a person’s troubles and public issues
Explain a personal trouble. Provide an example
An issue a single individual is facing in their personal life due to their personal circumstances.
ex/ Someone losing a job because they were bad at it, didn’t have right credentials, committed an illegal offense against the company, etc.
Explain what a public issue is. Provide an example
A public issue is an issue that is affecting a widespread large group of people because of the societal structures in place
ex/ large group of ppl all facing unemployment because of an economic recession (like the stock market crash)
What did Peter Berger meanwhile talk about ‘finding the general in particular’ and ‘strange in the familiar’? Be able to provide examples.
-‘Finding the general in the particular’ means finding overarching patterns of behavior from little and specific things individuals do
ex/ if a sociologist wanted to look at the global patterns of religion, they would notice that the choices religious ppl make are heavily influenced by the culture in which they live
- ‘Finding the strange in the familiar’ means looking at familiar, usual things from a new perspective in order to understand the underlying meanings and implications of why those things occur
ex/ Why is breakfast such a big thing? How does it differ across cultures and how is it shaped by social and historical factors?
Who are the founding figures of early sociology and what were their contributions?
- Auguste Comte - coined the term ‘sociology’; known for his early work in social theory and positivism
- Emile Durkheim - developed the concept on social facts; that sociology was unique because it focused on social facts or external social norms, values, structure that shape individual’s actions
- Also did work on suicide; recognized that the rates differed by country, gender, religion, which meant it must also be caused be external social norms outside of ppl’s control
Karl Marx - His theories on class conflict and struggle, focusing on economic struggles of society
Max Weber - he emphasized the importance of understanding individual’s motivations for social action, which contributed to concepts like the bureaucracy
What are the four sociological approaches/paradigms discussed in the course so far?
Structural functionalism - (formed from Durkheim’s work) identifies the various structures of society and functions they perform in order to maintain social order and cohesion
Conflict theory - (from Karl Marx’s work) Focuses on “power”; how the conflict between the ones in positions of power vs. ones working for them could start a revolution of resistance from the working class, resulting in a classless society (egalitarian)
Symbolic Interactionalism - (from George H. Mead, & Herbert Blumer’s work) focused on individuals and small group interactions w/ each other rather than large societal groups
Feminist theory - (from conflict theory) Focuses on subordination of women and patriarchy to understand the importance of gender in defining social order and the resulting biases
What is a breaching experiment? Provide an example.
A study that involves intentionally breaking social norms to see how ppl will react
ex/ Standing really close to a stranger, shopping from other ppl’s carts at the grocery stores
What are manifest and latent functions? What are latent dysfunctions?
Manifest functions - function is intended and readily recognized
Latent functions - function is unintended and can have a big impact (mostly positive)
Latent dysfunction - Function is unintended and causes socially negative consequences
What are the factors that influenced the development of the study of sociology?
The scientific revolution - Period in which inspired thinkers were becoming more accepted despite the church’s resistance
(Ppl went from looking at things through religious perspectives only (theological stage), to looking at things through their own insight and reflection (metaphysical stage), to looking at things through the scientific lens with logic and reasoning (positive stage))
Political revolution - society started really separating from the church and endorsing democratic ideals
Industrial revolution - period in which many technological advancements occurred, but also a lot of social change in society, going from a rural to capitalist economy where ruling and working classes started to form
Why did Durkheim examine suicide in nineteenth-century France? What is sociological about his study?
Because he wanted to to demonstrate the social fact concept and the way the sociological method could work, by looking at the rates of suicide across diff areas and noticing that they differed, which made him come to the conclusion that suicide may also be due society’s structure
What is macrosociology? What is microsociology?
Macrosociology - studies large-scale social processes
Microsociology - studies small-scale interactions between individuals groups
Briefly explain institutional ethnography as Dorothy Smith developed it. How does it differ from mainstream sociology?
Dorothy Smith created Institutional ethnography because she argued that mainstream sociology treats the participants as data points and objectifies them for the sake of research. But w/ institutional ethnography, it looks at ppl’s lived experiences and traces how their daily activities are brought together by institutional processes and discourse
It differs from mainstream sociology by:
-using ethnographic (or qualitative) methods like interviews and participant observation to collect data about ppl’s everyday lives
- looking at how institutions function in practice from the perspective of those who are actually affected rather than abstract theories
What is positivism? Why did the positivist mode of thinking fall out of favor with
sociologists?
The approach that the world could be interpreted through the lens of science.
It fell out of favor because:
- positivism claims that true objectivity can be achieved, which a lot sociologists disagree w/ because researchers tend to bring their own biases and values into their work
-It focuses too much on rigid laws of science, but sociology deals w/ human beings that attach and assign meanings to their actions, so those laws don’t really apply the best in this field of study
- It also struggles to account for historical and structural change in society
What are the major differences between qualitative and quantitative research?
Quantitative - focuses on things that can be counted; numerical data focused. Uses things like surveys and experiments
Qualitative - focuses on social processes and individual’s subjective data; non-numerical. Uses things like interviews, audio recordings, and participant observation
What is ethnography? What are some of the research methods used in this approach?
It’s a type of qualitative research that involves the researcher immersing themselves and actively engaging with the group of individual they’re studying, so they can gain a better understanding of the lives and experiences
Research method used:
Content analysis - used to study docs like newspapers, historical letters, etc.
Focus group - almost like interviews but w/ larger group of ppl
