Chapter 1 An Invitation to Sociology

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Chapter 1 An Invitation to Sociology

• Section 1 The Sociological Perspective

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The Nature of Sociology

• A perspective is a point of view
• Sociology is the study of social structure
• Studies actions at the social, or group level
• Looks at social rather than personal explanations
  for things

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The Nature of Sociology

• Psychologists Explanation
• Young man joins a gang to prove his toughness
• Woman divorces her husband to develop her
  potential
• Teen commits suicide to escape depression

• Sociologists Explanation
• Young men join gangs because they have been
  taught by their society to be masculine
• More women divorce because of the social trend
  toward sexual equality
• Teens commit suicide because of peer group
  expectations of performance, material
  possessions, and physical appearance

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The Importance of Patterns

• Students in classrooms behave differently but
  there are patterns of behavior that are the same
  everywhere
• Personal characteristics are different but the
  way students and teachers interact is very
  similar
• The patterned interaction of people in social
  relationships is called social structure and
  this is what sociologists pay attention to

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The Importance of Patterns

• A persons behavior within a group can not be
  predicted from their personal characteristics
• All groups encourage conformity
• Members of a group think, feel, and behave in
  similar ways
• Conformity within a group occurs, in part,
  because members have been taught to value the
  groups ways

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The Sociological Imagination

• Knowing how social forces affect our lives can
  prevent us from being prisoners of those forces
• This personal use of sociology is called the
  sociological imagination the ability of
  individuals to see the relationship between
  events in their personal lives and events in
  their society

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The Sociological Imagination

• Sociological imagination helps us understand the
  effects of events on our daily lives
• We are in a better position to make our own
  decisions rather than merely conform
• Sociological imagination questions common
  interpretations of human social behavior

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Assignment

• Section 1 Assessment p. 13 (1 4)
• Chapter 1 Key Terms (handout)
• Read Chapter 1, Section 2 (pp. 14 22)