Perspectives and Paradigms

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Perspectivesand Paradigms
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Perspectives Why?

• Why?
• Cant see everything at once
• Therefore, we focus and ignore
• For example, portraits
• Scientists cant observe everything at once
• DIGRESSION science is both noun and verb
• To non-scis, sci is body of knowledge
• To scientists, science is activity to change body
  of knowledge
• Doing science usually requires narrowing focus

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Perspectives in SiamA Fable

• Three Blind Men and an Elephant
• Whether or not youve heard this story before,
  you can be sure you will hear it in the future

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sevitcepsrePSo What?

• So what?
• What you see depends on
• Where you observe
• In front? In back?
• How you observe
• Telescope? Microscope?
• What you are looking for
• Depends on the color of your glasses
• Whats actually there
• Empirical!!!

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Sociological Perspectives Based on Size and Focal
Behavior

• We will examine sociological perspectives that
  differ in
• Levels of analysis
• Conceptions of what are the most important social
  phenomena

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Levels of Analysis

• Microsociology
• Mesosociology
• Macrosociology
• Often meso is considered a form of macro

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Three Different Ideas About Whats Most Important
I

• Creation and maintenance of social integration
• Functionalist perspective
• Structural functionalist
• Individuals and groups trying to maximize
  interests
• Conflict perspective

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Three Different Ideas About Whats Most Important
II

• Active individual trying to make sense of a
  situation and give it meaning
• Symbolic interactionism

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Whats Most Important?Functionalist Perspective

• Consensus or Functionalist
• Officially structural-functionalism
• I also call the consensus perspective
• The most important elements of social life are
  those that foster social integration
• Hobbesian problem of order
• How is society possible?
• Interested in how parts of society (structure)
  work together

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Whats Most Important?Conflict Perspective

• Conflict
• Social life is a constant battle between
  individuals or groups, each seeking to maximize
  their interests
• Interests outcomes that benefit the actor
• One form of conflict zero sum game

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Conflict PerspectiveZero Sum Game

• Zero sum game - situation in which total amount
  of some goody is fixed. Only way one actor can
  get more is for one or more others to get less

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Whats Most Important?Symbolic Interactionism

• Symbolic interactionism
• The most important aspect of social life is the
  active individual trying to make sense out of a
  situation and give it meaning
• Also called interactionism
• Seems to be the most difficult perspective for
  students to recognize

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Symbolic InteractionismInteraction and Symbols

• Symbolic interactionism because individual
  makes sense of situation largely through
  interactions with other people
• Interactions at the time and in the past
• Symbolic interactionism because interactions
  and meanings depend on symbols

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Symbolic InteractionismMicro and Macro

• Focus on interaction makes SI microsociological
• That many symbols are widely shared brings in
  macro
• Like social facts, symbols can be outside us

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Symbolic InteractionismThomas Theorem

• If men define situations as real, they are real
  in their consequences
• W.I. Thomas D.S. Thomas (1928)
• More narrowly,People decide what to do next on
  the basis of what they think is going on now
• This is the version I usually use on exams

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The Two Questions Constantly Facing Each Actor

• Whats going on?
• What do I do now?
• Answer to Whats going on? is the definition of
  the situation
• Example of subjective reality
• The answer to What do I do now? is actors
  actual behavior.
• Example of objective reality

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Two Questions II

• The Thomas Theorem states that answer to What do
  I do now? depends on answer to What is going
  on?"

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Verstehen and the Thomas Theorem

• Verstehen to understand situation from actors
  point of view
• Practical Uses of the Thomas Theorem to
  understand or predict behavior of others
• To use Thomas Theorem, need to know how actor
  sees situation. One way to find out is to use
  Verstehen.

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Verstehen Is Useful

• Verstehen probably most practically useful thing
  you will learn in this course

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Review

• Levels of analysis (micro, meso, macro)
• Three important perspectives based on what is
  considered most important
• Central issue of functionalism
• Hobbesian problem of order
• Central issue for conflict
• Zero-sum game

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More Review

• Central issue in symbolic interactionism
• Why interactionism?
• Why symbolic?
• Thomas theorem
• Verstehen

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Apply Perspectives to Football
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Perspectives and Giddens et al Essentials of
Sociology 3rd

• Our textbook identifies five perspectives instead
  of the three we covered
• Symbolic interactionism
• Same as in lecture
• Functionalism
• Same as in lecture
• Marxism and class conflict
• Considered part of the conflict perspective

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Perspectives and Giddens et al Essentials of
Sociology 3rd (2)

• Feminism and feminist theory
• Considered mostly part of the conflict approach
• 5. Postmodernism
• Hard to know where to put it. Somewhere between
  conflict and symbolic interactionism

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Perspectives and Paradigms

• Perspectives sometimes called paradigms
• Paradigms help working scientists
• Help specify what problems are important
• Help specify how to go about solving problems
• In ways convincing to other scientists