Notes to Introduction to Sociology
I. PUTTING SOCIAL LIFE INTO PERSPECTIVE
A. Sociology is the systematic study of human society and social interaction.
B. Why study sociology?
1. Sociology helps us see the dynamic connections between our own lives and the larger, recurring patterns of the society and world in which we live.
a. a society is a large social grouping that shares the same geographical territory and is subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations.
b. Sociological research often reveals the limitations of myths
associated with commonsense knowledge that guides ordinary conduct in everyday life.
C. The Sociological Imagination
1. C. Wright Mills (1916-1962) American professor of sociology, looked at prejudice and social inequality.
a. The Sociological Imagination
1. The ability to see the relationship between individual experiences and the larger society. This is key, in sociology -- it IS sociology.
2. The Sociological Imagination enables us to distinguish between personal troubles and public issues. Personal troubles are private problems of individuals and the networks of people with whom they associate regularly. EX: Being unemployed. Public Issues are matters beyond an individuals own control that are caused by problems at a social level. EX: Widespread unemployment. Book uses Suicide as example, Durkheim’s lack of cohesiveness.
2. Developing a "personal" sociological imagination requires that we take
into account perspectives of people from diverse backgrounds…
D. The Importance of a Global Sociological Imagination
1. The world's developed nations have highly industrialized, technologically advanced economies and relatively high levels of income. EX: United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Western Europe countries. Developing nations are those that are undergoing transformation from agrarian to industrial economies, with moderate levels of national and personal income. EX: nations of Eastern Europe, and many Latin American countries (Brazil, Mexico.)
2. We must take into account life in other countries, as well as in the United States, because the future of this country is intertwined with that of the world's other nations.
II. THE DEVELOPMENT OF SOCIOLOGICAL THINKING
A. Industrialization-the process by which societies are transformed from dependance on agriculture and handmade products to an emphasis on manufacturing and related industries-and urbanization-the process by which an increasing proportion of a population lives in cities rather than rural areas-contributed to the development of sociological thinking.
1. Industrialization first occurred in Britain between 1760 and 1850, soon repeated throughout Western Europe.
2. By the mid-nineteenth century, it was well under way in the US.
a. Urbanization: the process by which an increasing proportion of
a population lives in cities rather than in rural areas—the development of the factory system led to a rapid increase in both the number of cities and the size of their populations.
3. These living and working conditions led to the development of new social problems: inadequate housing, crowding, unsanitary conditions, poverty, pollutions, and crime. Wages were low, etc.
B. Some early social thinkers were concerned with social order and stability,
trying to understand why and how society was changing.
1. Auguste Comte (1798-1857) French Philosopher. Founder of sociology, coined the term sociology and stressed the importance of positivism-a belief that the world can best be understood through scientific inquiry.
a. Thought society contained:
1. Social Statics: forces for social order and stability
2. Social Dynamics: forces for conflict and change
b. Positivism: a belief that the world can best be understood through scientific inquiry.
2. Harriet Martineau (1802-1876) British Soc. Studied the social customs of Britain and the US and analyzed the consequences of industrialization and capitalism. Her most influential work was Society in America in which she paid special attention to U.S. diversity based on race, class, and gender. Translated Comte’s work.
3. Herbert Spencer (1820-1903) Brit. Soc. Theorist ,used an evolutionary perspective to explain stability and change in societies. Likened society to a biological organism, with various interdependent parts (family, economic system, government) that work to ensure the stability and survival of the entire society. He coined the term "survival of the fittest."
a. Natural Selection: only the “fittest” members of society would succeed. This notion has been used to justify class, racial-ethnic, and gender inequalities and to rationalize the lack of action to eliminate harmful practices that contribute to such inequalities.
4. Emile Durkheim (1858-1917), Believed the limits of human potential are based socially, not biologically. Stressed that people are a product of their social environment.
a. social facts: patterned ways of acting, thinking, and feeling that exist outside any one individual and exert social control over each person.
b. Durkheim observed that rapid social change and a more specialized division of labor produce strains in society. These strains lead to a breakdown in traditional organization, values, and authority and to a dramatic increase in anomie.
c. Anomie is a condition in which social control becomes ineffective as a result of the loss of shared values and of a sense of purpose in society. In his book Suicide, Durkheim concluded that anomic suicide is most likely to occur during a period of rapid social change, wheras fatalistic suicide is more prevalent when people see little hope of social change. Person either feels connected (fatalistic) or not (anomic)
*Suicide: see few opportunities, cultural assumptions about women and their roles, Inuit culture in Alaska, Canada, Greenland conflict with dominant culture and Inuit culture
C. Other early theorists had differing views on the status quo and stability vs.
change:
1. Karl Marx (1818-1883) German philosopher, social critique, believed that:
a. the mode of production, or economic base of a society, is made up of productive forces and the social relations of production: made up of labor power, and the means of production, and the raw materials of production. The social relations of production are the relations among individuals with respect to the ownership of productive forces. Thus, relations of production are property relations.
b. conflict-especially class conflict-is inevitable, and necessary in order to produce social change and a better society. Most important changes were economic.
c. Class conflict is the struggle between members of the capitalist class, or bourgeoisie (people who own and control the means of production) and the working class, or proletariat (the people who must sell their labor because they have no other means to earn a livelihood).
d. Exploitation of workers by capitalists results in workers' alienation-a feeling of powerlessness and estrangement from other people and from oneself.
e. Marx concluded that the capitalist economic system was responsible for most social problems, including the overwhelming poverty that he observed in London at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. Marx predicted that the working class would become aware of its exploitation, overthrow the capitalists, and establish a free and classless society.
2. Max Weber (1864-1920) Also looked at the changes brought on by the Industrial Revolution.
a. Looked at sociological question of how power operates in social life.
1. Weber acknowledged that economic interests are
important in shaping human action but suggested that other factors also influence society. Thought that economic systems are heavily influenced by other factors in a society.
2. Weber was concerned that large-scale organizations (bureaucracies) were becoming increasingly oriented toward routine administration and a specialized division of labor, which he saw to be destructive to human vitality and freedom. (More in Chapter 5).
3. comparative and historical study of religious orientations.
a. Argued that religion had been and continued to
be a vitally important component of social action.
1 Interested in how institutionalized religious belief affected the political and economic life of a society.
a. Concluded that religious belief can underlie traditional action. Religion creates a cultural order that affects whole aspects of social life.
3. Georg Simmel (1858-1918) German philosopher. Also analyzed the impact of industrialization and urbanization on people’s lives. However, rather than analyzing society as a whole, Simmel emphasized that society is best seen as a web of patterned interactions among people that make up the "geometry of social life."
a. Simmel analyzed how social interactions vary depending on the size of the social group.
b. Simmel’s concern was to protect the autonomy of the individual in society.
D. Sociology thrived in the United States as a result of the intellectual climate and the rapid rate of social change.
1. The first U.S. department of sociology was at the University of Chicago.
a. Robert Park (1864-1944) early member of the faculty, asserted that urbanization had a disintegrating influence on social life by producing an increase in the crime rate and in racial and class antagonisms that contributed to the segregation and isolation of neighborhoods.
b. George Herbert Mead (1863-1931) another influential early faculty member of the University of Chicago. Mead founded the symbolic interaction perspective.
2. Jane Addams (1860-1935) one of the best-known early women social thinkers and reformers in the US, founded Hull House, one of the most famous settlement houses, in an impoverished area of Chicago. She lectured at various colleges, charter member of ASS, published a lot, wrote HullHouse Maps and Papers , which was used by other Chicago sociologists for the next forty years.
3. W.E.B. Du Bois 1868-1963) founded the second U.S. department of sociology at Atlanta University. His classic work The Philadelphia Negro: A Social Study, was based on his research into Philadelphia's African American community and stressed the strengths and weaknesses of a community wrestling with overwhelming social problems.
a. Double-consciousness: Stressed that dual heritage creates conflict for people of color. Identity conflict of being both a black and an American.
b. Saw conflicting values in society: Although people value democracy, freedom, and equality, they also accept racism and group discrimination.
c. Said African Americans are the victims of these conflicting values and the actions that result from them.
III. THREE MAJOR CONTEMPORARY THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES
in US Sociology
A. A theory is a set of logically interrelated statements that attempts to describe, explain, and (occasionally) predict social events. Theories provide a framework or perspective -an overall approach or viewpoint toward some subject- for examining various aspects of social life.
B. Functionalist perspectives are based on the assumption that society is a
stable, orderly system characterized by societal consensus.
1. Societies develop social structures, or institutions, that persist because they play a part in helping society survive. These institutions include: the family, education, government, religion, and economy.
a. The social world was viewed in systemic terms. Such systems were considered to have needs and requisites that had to be met to assure survival.
b. Despite their concern with evolution, thinkers tended to view systems with needs and requisites as having normal and pathological states—thus connoting system equilibrium and homeostasis.
c. When viewed as a system, the social world was seen as composed of mutually interrelated parts; the analysis of these interrelated parts focused on how they fulfilled requisites of systemic wholes and, hence, maintained system normality or equilibrium.
2. Talcott Parsons (1902-1979) stressed that all societies must make provisions for meeting social needs in order to survive. For example, a division of labor (distinct, specialized functions) between husband and wife is essential for family stability and social order.
3. Robert K. Merton (b. 1910) distinguished between intended and unintended functions of social institutions.
a. Manifest functions are intended and/or overtly recognized by the participants in a social unit. (ex. education)
b. Latent functions are unintended functions that are hidden and remain unacknowledged by participants.
c. Dysfunctions are the undesirable consequences of any element of society. (ex. ed->perpetuation of inequalities)
C. According to conflict perspectives, groups in society are engaged in a continuous power struggle for control of scarce resources.
1. Along with Karl Marx, Max Weber believed that economic conditions were important in producing inequality and conflict in society; however, Weber also suggested that power and prestige are other sources of inequality.
2. Ralf Dahrendorf (b. 1929) observed that conflict is inherent in all authority relationships (203).
3. C. Wright Mills (1916-1962) believed that the most important decisions in the United States are made largely behind the scenes by the power elite, a small clique composed of the top corporate, political, and military officials.
4. Feminist perspectives focus on patriarchy-a system in which men dominate women,
and that which is considered masculine is more highly valued than that which is considered feminine.
D. Functionalist and conflict perspectives focus primarily on macrolevel
analysis-an examination of whole societies, largescale social structures, and social systems. By contrast, interactionist approaches are based on a microlevel analysis -an examination of everyday interactions in small groups rather than largescale social structures.
E. Interactionist perspectives are based on the assumption that society is the
sum of the interactions of individuals and groups.
1. George Herbert Mead (1863-1931)
a. emphasized that a key feature distinguishing humans from other animals is the ability to communicate in symbols-anything that meaningfully represents something else.
b. self emerges through the process of social interaction with others
1. gestures
2. Some interactionists focus on people's behavior while others focus on each person's interpretation or definition of a given situation.
Suicide: Micro-level analysis of face-to face- interactions, roles, suicide may be a way of moving towards people, a cry for help, because other forms of communication have failed.
F. Postmodernism (Postindustrial) (emerged late 1940’s)
1. Believe that boundaries should not be placed on academic disciplines—such as philosophy, literature, art, and the social sciences—where much could be learned by sharing ideas.
a. societies characterized by information explosion
b. large numbers of service jobs (fast-food, health care)
c. rise of a consumer society
d. emergence of a global village (communicating by electronic technologies.
Suicide: Do information technologies such as computers and the Internet bind people together, or do they create a world where people feel only tenuously involved in the collective life and interpersonal relations?
IV. SOCIOLOGICAL RESEARCH METHODS
A. Sociologists obtain their knowledge of human behavior through research,
which results in a body of information that helps us move beyond guesswork and common sense in understanding society.
B. The Sociological Research Process
1. Research may be either quantitative or qualitative.
a. Quantitative research is based on the goal of scientific objectivity and focuses on data that can be measured in numbers.
b. Qualitative research uses interpretive description (words) rather than statistics (numbers) to analyze underlying meanings and patterns of social relationships.
2. Steps in the research process include: SCIENTIFIC METHOD
a. Selecting and defining the research problem;
b. Reviewing previous research;
c. Formulating the hypothesis (if applicable);
d. Developing the research design;
e. Collecting and analyzing the data; and
f. Drawing conclusions and reporting the findings.
3. Validity-the extent to which a study or research instrument accurately
measures what it is supposed to measure-and reliability-the extent to which a study or research instrument yields consistent results-may be problems in research.
C. Qualitative research differs from quantitative research in several ways:
1. Researchers do not always do an extensive literature search before beginning their investigation.
2. They may engage in problem formulation instead of creating a hypothesis.
3. This type of research often is built on a collaborative approach in which the "subjects" are active participants in the design process, not just passive objects to be studied.
4. Researchers tend to gather data in natural settings, such as where the person lives or works, rather than in a laboratory or other research setting.
D. Research Methods for Collecting Data
1. Research methods are strategies or techniques for systematically conducting research.
2. Experiments-carefully designed situations in which the researcher studies the impact of certain variables on subjects' attitudes or behavior-typically require that subjects be divided into two groups:
a. The experimental group contains the subjects who are exposed to an independent variable (the experimental condition) to study its effect on them.
b. The control group contains the subjects who are not exposed to the independent variable.
c. The experimental and control groups then are compared to see if they differ in relation to the dependent variable, and the hypothesis about the relationship of the two variables is confirmed or rejected. Correlation exists when two variables are associated more frequently than could be expected by chance.
3. Surveys are polls in which researchers gather facts or attempt to determine the relationship between facts.
a. A questionnaire is a printed research instrument containing a series of items for the subjects' response.
b. An interview is a datacollection encounter in which an interviewer asks the respondent questions and records the answers.
4. In secondary analysis of data, researchers use existing material and analyze data originally collected by others. Existing data sources
include public records, official reports of organizations or government agencies, surveys taken by other researchers, books, magazines, newspapers, radio, television, and personal documents.
5. Field research is the study of social life in its natural setting: observing and interviewing people where they live, work, and play.
a. In complete observation researchers observe a social process but do not become part of it.
b. In participant observation, researchers collect systematic observations while being part of the activities of the groups they are studying.
c. Ethnography is a detailed study of the life and activities of a group of people by researchers who may live with that group over a period of years.
F. Ethical Issues in Sociological Research
1. The study of people ("human subjects") raises vital questions about ethical concerns in sociological research.
2. The American Sociological Association (ASA) has a Code of Ethics that sets forth certain basic standards sociologists must follow in conducting research.
3. Sociologists are committed to adhering to this code and to protecting research participants; however, many ethical issues arise that cannot be resolved easily.
So, in sum, how to define sociology?
- The systematic study of human society and interaction
- Human behavior is explained by environmental influences, like culture and socialization, which vary according to geographic region, historical time period, race/ethnicity, gender, social class—INDIVIDUAL EXPERIENCE
- Sociology at the macro level also highlights the functions of major social institutions like the family, marriage, education, and religion, noting the great influence on human behavior as well as the changes in these institutions through time.
- Other sociologists focus on agency (rather than structure) thus taking a micro-approach. Focus on actual interaction within the structure (formal or informal)--how people act towards one another and how they make sense of the world through shared meanings. Here, the size and type of group affect the interaction.
- Interpretations of social phenomenon depend on perspective.
- Each sociological perspective adds to our understanding of the social phenomenon:
- Functionalist agree that the structure may look unequal, but argue that everyone is playing their proper role for the maintenance of the whole.
- Conflict perspective says that the powerful ruling class justifies the structure through constructed ideologies that keep people thinking that it’s supposed to be this way. Conflict theory says conflict is a natural and inevitable part of social life. And it’s good ‘cause it can produce change.
Most importantly, however, is the link between the Macro and Micro levels
of analysis.
Look at the structure as well as the interaction within the structure.
Must do both when conducting social research for a more thorough
understanding of the social world.
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