Introduction to Sociology

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Introduction to Sociology

• The Real World Chapter 1

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What Is Sociology?

• Sociology A social science
• One of disciplines that examines the social world.

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Sociology and the Social Sciences
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What Is Sociology? (contd.)

• SociologyScientific study of society and human
  social behavior
• The study of people doing things together
  (Howard Becker)
• Individual society are interdependent

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What Is Sociology? (contd.)

• Social Structure Organized and Enduring patterns
  of social interaction

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Social Structure
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Social Structure
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Social Institutions

• Social Structures provide basic social needs
• Examples
• Education
• Economics
• Politics
• Family
• What basic social needs do these meet?

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The Everyday Actor

• Has practical knowledge needed to get through
  daily life
• May not have scientific or technical knowledge of
  how things work

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Skills of an Everyday Actor

• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vwYmrg3owTREfeature
  related
• Language
• Hugh Laurie and Ellen
• Your practical knowledge?

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The Social Analyst

• Seeks knowledge that is
• systematic,
• comprehensive,
• coherent,
• clear, and
• consistent.
• Questions most everything the Everyday Actor
  assumes is true or real.

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Sociological Imagination

• C. Wright Mills.
• To understand social life, we must understand
  the intersection between biography and history.

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Sociological Imagination
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Sociological Imagination
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Culture Shock

• Happens when you
• Experience disorientation
• Upon entering new environment

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Culture Shock
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Culture ShockFood
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Culture Shock

• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vqBND33BNfZw

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The Beginners Mind

• To explore the social world,
• Clear our minds of
• Stereotypes,
• Expectations, and
• Opinions
• Be receptive to our experiences.
• (Bernard McGrane)

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Levels of Analysis

• Microsociology Focus -gt Social interactions
• Friendship groups, work groups, peers
• Macrosociology Focus -gt Large scale social
  structures
• Family, Economy, Education, Healthcare

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Microsociology
Macrosociology
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The Micro-Macro Continuum
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Research Methods Quantitative Qualitative

• Quantitative Research
• Collects numerical data
• Does statistical analysis
• Examples
• U.S. Census
• Uniform Crime Report

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Quantitative Research
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Qualitative Research

• Uses non-numerical data
• Texts
• Interviews
• Photos
• Recordings
• Observation

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Napoleon Chagnon

• American anthropologist and professor at the
  University of Missouri in Columbia
• Long-term ethnographic field work among the
  Yanomamo
• A society of indigenous people in Amazon region
  of Venezuela.

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Quantitative Qualitative
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Sociological Theories

• Theories in sociology are propositions that
  explain the social world and help to make
  predictions about future events.
• Theories are also sometimes referred to as
  approaches, schools of thought, paradigms, or
  perspectives.

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8/28 Auguste Comte
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Sociologys Roots

• Auguste Comte
• Sociology to be like other scientific disciplines
• Coined the term sociology
• Helped build the discipline
• Social stability
• Social change

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Harriet Martineau
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Sociologys Roots (contd.)

• Harriet Martineau
• Social activist
• Traveled the United States
• Wrote about social changes
• Martineau translated Comtes work into English

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Herbert Spencer
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Sociologys Roots (contd.)

• Herbert Spencer was the first great
  English-speaking sociologist
• Spencer believed in evolution and coined the
  phrase survival of the fittest.
• Believed societies evolve through time by
  adapting to their changing environment

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Émile Durkheim
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Sociologys Roots (contd.)

• Émile Durkheim
• Social factors that hold people together
• Mechanical solidary
• Organic solidarity
• Study of suicide
• anomic
• Sociology as academic discipline

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Karl Marx
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Sociologys Roots (contd.)

• Karl Marx
• German philosopher
• Political activist
• Contributed significantly to sociologys conflict
  theory

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Sociologys Roots (contd.)

• Capitalism
• Created social inequality
• Bourgeoisie owned means of production
• Money, factories, natural resources, and land
• Proletariat The workers
• Inequality leads to class conflict

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9/2 Max Weber
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Sociologys Roots (contd.)

• Rationalization
• Economic logic to human activity
• Disenchantment
• Dehumanizing features of modern societies
• Bureaucracy

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George Herbert Mead
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Sociologys Roots (contd.)

• George Herbert Mead
• Connection between individual society
• Meaning
• People interact
• Meanings come from these interactions

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Erving Goffman
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Sociologys Roots (contd.)

• Erving Goffman
• How self develops through interactions with
  others
• Dramaturgy
• Presentation of Self

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New Theoretical Approaches

• Feminist theory
• Gender inequalities in society
• How gender structures social world
• Link to Conflict Theory
• Both focus on inequalities
• Both seek change

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New Theoretical Approaches (contd.)

• Queer theory
• Categories of sexual identity are socially
  created
• No sexual category is fundamentally deviant or
  normal

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New Theoretical Approaches (contd.)

• Modernism
• Universal human nature
• Postmodernist theory
• No absolutes
• No claims to truth, reason, right, or stability
• Constantly changing
• Everything is relative