Quiz Topics Flashcards
What are the Objects of Sociological Analysis?
- nature of social life (why do people act in orderly, routine, and generally predictable ways without thinking about it?)
- nature of social relations (social interactions like dominance, equality, inequality, etc)
- large sale social entities (eg: education, politics, the economy)
What are sociological snapshots?
- looking at the current state of society and its main components (looking at things as they are today)
eg: current divorce rate, number of people working 9-5
Society in Flux
- society has changed historically, so it can change again
- how we live is only one way of doing things, it is not an unchangeable fact of nature
- our experiences are socially constructed, so they can be deconstructed and reconstructed
What is the social construction of reality?
- reality around us is socially constructed, we don’t have an immediate relationship with the world around us
- the idea that everything we experience is through a socially constructed lense
What is first-order social construction?
- things that are created by humans through our social relations (does not exist naturally)
eg: money, the state, morality
What is second-order social construction?
- things in nature that we assign our own meaning to, they exist outside human social relations (our ideas about things developed through social interactions)
eg: race and ethnicity
What is the difference between the concept of “subjectivity” and a social construct
- subjective=individual state of mind
- socially constructed= ideas that many people in a society hold and that are created over time through social interactions
Explain the idea of the sociological imagination according to Mills
- the context was that in post-war Ameria, people felt stuck in their private spheres and did not have the tools to comprehend the bigger scenes (politics, global issues) therefore they remained spectators
- Mills proposed the sociological imagination as a tool used to comprehend the world around us
- enables us to understand our own biographies (what happens in our personal life) and their connections to wider society and history
Saint Simon’s contribution to sociology
-was August Comte’s teacher, claimed to have coined the term sociology
Auguste Comte Contributions to Sociology
- considered founder of sociology
- positivism (the idea that knowledge must be obtained objectively, claims must be verified somehow)
- society as an organism (a whole with parts) eg: society is composed of different institutions, people interacting, education, family culture (can study these parts individually)
Harriet Martineau’s Contribution to Sociology
- wrote the first book on sociological methodology (methods on how she studied American society, applied positive theories)
- wrote an analysis of American society (studied certain parts like race relations)
- condensed and translate Comte’s work into English (cours de philosophie positive)
Emile Durkheim’s Contribution to Sociology
- was a student of comte
- a supporter of positivism argued that sociology was the study of the science of institutions, where they came from, and their functions
- society is supra individual (has characteristics different from its parts
- society is external (has a reality of its own-not juts in our heads)
- society is suis generis (reality different from other realities-distinct from geological reality, psychological reality, etc)
What did Emile Durkheim say about the Sociological Method
- sociology should focus on discovering and interpreting what is external to the individual
- sociological method must be empirical (verifiable), represent positive science, and must be separate from philosophy
- sociological method must be objective (should not be influenced by own morals and values)
What are Social Facts?
- external things that exercise coercive power over an individual, resistant to their will (will affect you whether you are aware or not, you agree or disagree)
eg: women and men having different clothing standards ( can stray from this but there are social consequences) - are “supra individual” (above the individual, have a general social existence)
Social Currents
- a step below social facts
- becomes trendy for a brief period of time and then disappear eg: Me Too, wearing masks
How is the suicide rate a social fact?
- it is something that is external to any individual and is the product of the social structure of any given society
- know this because the suicide rate stays consistent every year
What makes social order possible? (Lowering of suicide rates)
- social solidarity
1. Integration (more similarities between members)
2. Regulation (when there are similar opinions and values among members and more opposition to broken rules- this creates a sense of order and attachment to the community-something to live for)
What are some specific social factors affecting suicide?
-suicide varies inversely with the degree of integration of religious society (Jews
How do suicide rates have a coercive power?
-suicide rates keep being reproduced every year because the forces that cause suicide will always be there
What were Max Weber’s main thoughts on sociology?
- interested in social action (interpreting meanings in social action)
- creating ideal types
What is an action (Webber)?
All human behavior that an individual attaches a subjective meaning to (there is a purpose behind the action)
What is a social action (Webber)?
- Takes into account the meanings others may draw from your actions eg: putting a hand up in class
- sociologists understand meanings behind peoples social actions
What are the ideal types of social action (Webber)?
- traditional (conforming to how things have always been done)
- affectual (motivated by affection for another person)
- value-rational (very well thought out before executed and is oriented towards a certain value)
- instrumentally rational (oriented towards the means of achieving a goal-may not be a value for you eg: driving
What were Webber’s ideas on rationalization?
- believed our current social world in modern societies is defined by the dominance of planning, technical procedure, and instrumentally rational action
- seen in many social spheres eg: education, interpersonal relations (crying out method)
What is the Idealist Theory of History?
-the idea that society changes because our ideas change (hunting/gathering to agriculture to having different religions)
What is the Materialist Theory of History?
-Engels argues that our ideas change because society changes, the change is based on the material conditions of our existance (hunting/gathering= more cooperation and everyone is equal, agriculture=saw origins of inequality and poverty because of introduction to private property, industrial=dodon’t own means of production so most sell labor
What were the main ideas behind the materialist conception of history?
- private property leads to class inequalities (characteristic of capitalism)
- history of human history is a history of class struggle (those who have vs don’t have)
Who were the Bourgeoisie?
-owners of the mean of production (factories, technologies)
Who were the Proletariat?
- workers or wage laborers
- don’t own means of production so would sell labour for wages
- the majority of people
Who were the petite bourgeoisie?
- small and independent owners eg: farmers, small business owners
- do not own the means of production
Use Value
-value is determined by its use and what you need eg: you know people need shows so you provide in exchange for another good that you need
Exchange Value
-disconnected from use, make commodities to make profits, not because people need them (connected with the capitalist mode of production, not present in feudalism or communism)
Wage Labour
-production of commodities necessitates a class of people who own nothing but mental and physical capacity that they sell for a wage
Alienation
- loss of control over the product or the process of making it during commodity production
- wage labourers have no control over what is produced, how it is produced, and how much it is sold for
Anomie
a condition of instability resulting from a breakdown of standards and values or from a lack of purpose or ideals. … Durkheim believed that one type of suicide (anomic) resulted from the breakdown of the social standards necessary for regulating behavior
