The Nature Of Sociology

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The Nature Of Sociology

• Sociology Scientific study of human social
  behavior and human interaction.
• Also the study of human social structure.
• It focuses on groups rather than individuals.
• Looks for patterns in social relationships.
• It has its own perspective.

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Why Study Sociology?

• Provides tools to help us do the following.
• 1. Understand our social structures.
• 2. How these social structures affect us.
• 3. How individuals relate to each other.
• 4. Allow us to develop the sociological
  imagination, which
• 5. Enables us to see the relationship between
  events in our personal life and events in our
  society.
• 6. Allows us to debunk preconceived ideas or
  misconceptions.

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How is Sociology Different?

• You will find that, as opposed to other
  disciplines, like psychology, sociology looks at
  groups rather than individuals.
• Although, it has its own distinct perspective,
  sociology embraces elements of other social
  sciences such as
• Anthropology, Psychology, Economics, Political
  Science, Economics, and History.
• You will also find that, you begin looking at
  your life and your interactions with other people
  and social institutions differently.

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Study /Skills To Be Learned.

• To get the most out of any course, you must be
  active in learning the material.
• You learn the terminology or vocabulary.
• Understand the central concepts, do not confound
  them with everyday usage.
• To understand the central concepts
• Identify the terms and its sociological meaning
• Be sure to understand the used term to define a
  sociological meaning.
• Put the definition in your own words.
• Understand the context in which the term was
  used.
• Practice using the terms with scientific meaning.

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Practicing The Skill.

• Read this paragraph and answer the questions at
  the end.
• Prejudice is a widely held preconception of a
  group. These are often based on strong emotions
  and unchallenged ideas. They are also difficult
  to change, even in the face of overwhelming
  evidence to the contrary. Prejudice involves an
  either/or type of logic. A group is either good
  or bad, and is assumed that each of the members
  of that group are good or bad. Prejudice, then
  involves overgeneralization based on biased or
  insufficient information. While prejudice refers
  to an attitude, discrimination describes unequal
  treatment of others. Prejudice does not always
  result in discrimination, but it often does.

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Practice Questions

• 1. Define prejudice in its sociological meaning.
  Do the same for discrimination.
• 2. Based on their sociological meanings, are
  prejudice and discrimination always negative?
• 3. Based on their sociological meaning, can
  discrimination occur without prejudice?

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• Prejudice- widely held negative attitudes toward
  a group (minority or majority) and its individual
  members.
• Discrimination- treating people differently based
  on ethnicity, race, religion, age, gender, or
  culture.

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Applying The Study Skills

• 1. Look up the sociological definitions of
  culture and society. How are these meanings
  different from everyday usage?
• 2. How are these terms similar to each other?
• 3. How are they different?

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• Culture-knowledge, values, customs, and physical
  objects that are shared by members of a society
• Society- a specific territory inhabited by people
  who share a common culture

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Importance of Patterns

• Allows us to see our social structure.
• Understand why people conform.
• Conformity occurs within a group because members
  are taught to value groups norms.
• Understand why members of a group give in to
  social pressures.
• Develop a sociological perspective and acquire a
  sociological imagination.

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Sociological Perspective

• What is a perspective? A particular point of view
  or a way of looking at things.
• Sociological perspective always remains at the
  social or group level.
• Main focus is the patterns of behavior shared by
  members of a group.
• Explains events removed of personal factors, e.g.
  Young men join gangs because they have been
  taught to be masculine (macho).

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Sociological Perspectives

• Other Examples
• More women divorce because of the social trend
  toward equality.
• Teens commit suicide because of peer expectations
  of performance, material possessions, and
  physical appearance.
• Sociologists do not speak of a young man, a
  married woman, or a teenager. They concentrate on
  categories of people young men, married women,
  and teenagers.

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Theoretical Perspectives.

• What is a theoretical perspective?
• Set of assumptions about an area of study, for
  sociology, the workings of society.
• Conflicting/Competing theories in the natural
  sciences, so is in the area sociology.
• Sociology has three overarching theoretical
  perspectives.
• Each provides different explanation or slant on
  human social behavior.
• No one perspective is better, the use of all
  three allows us to see most of the important
  dimensions of human social behavior.

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Functionalist Perspective

• Functionalism emphasizes the contributions
  (functions) of each part of society. This belief
  is based on the assumptions that
• A society is a relatively integrated whole.
• A society tends to seek relative stability.
• Most aspects of a society contributes to the
  societys well being and survival
• Manifest Function
• Latent Function
• Dysfunction
• A society rests on the consensus of its members.

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The Conflict Perspective.

• Conflict theorists emphasizes conflict,
  competition, change, and constraint within
  society.
• Theory is based on the following set of
  assumptions called the 4 Cs
• A society experiences inconsistency and conflict
  everywhere.
• A society is continually subjected to change
• A society involves the constraint and coercion of
  some members by the dominant members or group.

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Symbolic Interactionism

• Emphasizes interaction among people based on
  mutually understood symbols.
• Theory is based on these assumptions.
• Peoples interpretations of symbols are based on
  the meanings they learn from others.
• People base their interaction on their
  interpretations of symbols.
• Symbols permit people to have internal
  conversations. This allows them to gear their
  interaction to the behavior that they think
  others expect of them and behavior they expect
  from others.
• Dramaturgy Erving Goffman Depicts human
  interaction as theatrical performance.

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Acquiring Sociological Imagination

• Sociological Imagination Ability to see the
  link between society and self C. Wright Mills
• Understand the effects of events in our daily
  lives.
• Permits us to have social awareness
• Questions and debunks common interpretations.
• Knowing how social forces affect our lives can
  prevent us from being prisoners of those forces.

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Applying Sociological Imagination

• How do social forces mold human behavior?
• Look at Societal Responsibilities v. Individual
  Responsibilities.
• Complete the following statements with whatever
  word comes to mind.
• Someone who cant find a job is ______
• Homelessness is the result of ________
• Immigrants come here because of _____

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Origins of Sociology

• European Origins Developed in Europe in the late
  18th century
• Factors Leading to Development
• Scientific Revolution
• Enlightenment Period
• Industrial Revolution
• Urbanization
• Auguste Comte 1798 1857 Considered the father
  of Sociology. Why?
• Positivism use of scientific observation in the
  study of social behavior
• Social Statics study of social stability
• Social Dynamics study of social change
• Published his book,, titled, Positive
  Philosophy.

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Origins of Sociology

• Harriett Martineau
• English woman lived from 1802 1876.
• Translated Comtes work
• Made contributions in areas of political,
  economics, research methods, and feminism.
• In Society in America she saw a link between
  slavery and the oppression of women.
• Believed womens lack of economic power helped
  keep them dependent and subjugated to men.
• Supported emancipation of both slaves and women.
• Inspired future feminist theorists.

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Origins of Sociology

• Herbert Spencer 1820 1903
• Born to an English schoolteacher.
• Attempted to explain social stability by relating
  it to the human body.
• Adapted Charles Darwins theory of evolution to
  social change.
• Introduced the theory of social change called
  Social Darwinism.
• Believed evolutionary social change led to
  progress provided people did not interfere.
• Opposed social reform because it interferes with
  the natural selection process.
• Based on this, he theorized that the poor deserve
  to be poor and the rich deserve to be rich
  because society profits when individuals are
  allowed to find their own social class level.

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Origins of Sociology

• Karl Marx 1818 1883
• German scholar
• Identified several social classes in the 19th
  century industrial societies.
• Predicted that industrial societies will end up
  with two social classes.
• Bourgeoisie The capitalists
• Proletariat The Working Class / Poor.
• The history of human society will then only be
  explained by the class conflict between these two
  classes.
• Planned revolution could speed up the social
  change from capitalism to communism.
• Believed Capitalism will eventually self
  destruct.

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Origins of Sociology

• Emile Durkheim 1858 1917
• Son of a French Rabbi
• Believed that societies exists because of broad
  consensus or agreement.
• In pre-industrial times, societies were based on
  Mechanical Solidarity characterized by
• widespread consensus in values and beliefs.
• strong conformity.
• dependence on tradition and family.
• By contrast, industrial societies are based on
  Organic Solidarity characterized by
• Social interdependence based on,
• Web of highly specialized roles, which
• Makes members of a society dependent on one
  another for goods and services.
• Introduced the use of statistical research

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Origins of Sociology

• Max Weber 1864 1920
• German
• Wrote on a wide variety of topics
• The nature of Power
• The religions of the world
• Nature of Social Classes
• Nature of Social Organizations/ Bureaucracies.
• Wrote, The Protestant Ethics The Spirit of
  Capitalism
• Believed in Verstehen or the theory of
  understanding.
• Proposed the concept of Rationalization as a
  key to the change from pre-industrial to
  industrial society
• Rationalization mindset that emphasizes the use
  of knowledge, reason, and planning.

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Origins of Sociology

• Jane Addams 1860 1935
• Best known early women social reformers in the
  U.S.
• Believed sociology must be used for the greater
  good.
• Co founded Hull House in Chicago.
• Focused on problems caused by imbalance of power
  among social classes.
• Not considered a sociologist in her lifetime, but
  a social worker.
• Won the Nobel Peace Prize as result of her
  tireless work with the poor in 1931.
• Active in the women suffrage and peace movements.

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Origins of Sociology

• W.E.B. DuBois 1868 1963
• African American educator and social activist.
• Based on experience, decided to attack the Negro
  Problem prevailing assumption that blacks were
  an inferior race.
• Analyzed the sophisticated social structure of
  black communities in Philadelphia and other
  places.
• Co founded the NAACP
• Active in Pan African Movements
• Self - Exiled himself to African country of Ghana
  where he died in 1963.

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Social Research Methods

• Auguste Comte
• Positivism
• Two Types of Social Research
• Quantitative Research uses numerical data
• Qualitative Research uses narrative and
  descriptive data.
• Types of Research Methods
• Surveys about 90 of research published in
  major sociological journals.
• People answer series of questions.
• Good for studying large numbers of people.
• People surveyed are called populations.

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Steps to Effective Surveys

• Survey Population all the people with the
  characteristics a researcher wants to study.
• Representative Sample Limited number of cases
  drawn from the population.
• Questionnaire A written set of questions taken
  by survey participants themselves.
• Interview A trained interviewer asks a series of
  questions / record the answers.
• Open Ended Questions answer in own words.
• Closed Ended Questions answer Yes / No or
  Multiple Choice responses.
• Secondary or Content Analysis Using pre
  collected data.
• Government Reports
• Company Records
• Voting Lists
• Prison Records
• U.S. Census Bureau

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Other Research Methods

• Field Research Looks at aspects of social life
  that cannot be measured numerically.
• Case Studies thorough investigation of a group,
  incident, or community.
• Participant Observation
• Experiments Research done in laboratory settings
  with a minimum of influences.

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The Writing Process

• Researching and writing allows you to organize
  your ideas in a logical manner.
• Writing involves using other skills such as
  identifying central issues, distinguishing fact
  from opinion, and making generalizations.
• Learning The Skills Guidelines
• Select an interesting topic. Identify possible
  topics of focus and resources available, do
  prelim. research to determine your interest.
• Write a Thesis Statement define subject to be
  proven, discovered, or illustrate.
• Research your topic formulate a list of central
  questions, prepare notes to answer each question,
  list information sources.
• Organize information Build an outline, follow
  outline to write a rough draft.