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.

Sociology and the Social Sciences

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What Is Sociology? (cont’d.)

• Sociology—Scientific study of society and human social behavior

• The study of people “doing things together” (Howard Becker)

• Individual & society are interdependent

What Is Sociology? (cont’d.)

• Social Structure: Organized and Enduring patterns of social interaction

Social Institutions

• Social Structures provide basic social needs

• Examples:

• Education• Economics• Politics• Family

What basic social needs do these meet?

The Everyday Actor

• Has practical knowledge needed to get through daily life

• May not have scientific or technical knowledge of how things work

Skills of an Everyday Actor

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYmrg3owTRE&feature=related

• Language• Hugh Laurie and Ellen

• Your “practical knowledge”?

The Social Analyst

• Seeks knowledge that is

• systematic,

• comprehensive,

• coherent,

• clear, and

• consistent.

• Questions most everything the “Everyday Actor” assumes is true or real.

Sociological Imagination

• C. Wright Mills.

• “To understand social life, we must understand the intersection between biography and history.”

Sociological Imagination

Sociological Imagination

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Culture Shock

Happens when you:

• Experience disorientation

• Upon entering new environment

Culture Shock

Culture Shock—Food

Culture Shock

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBND33BNfZw

The Beginner’s Mind

• To explore the social world,

• Clear our minds of:

• Stereotypes,

• Expectations, and

• Opinions

• Be receptive to our experiences.• (Bernard McGrane)

Levels of Analysis

• Microsociology: Focus -> Social interactions • Friendship groups, work groups, peers

• Macrosociology: Focus -> Large scale social structures• Family, Economy, Education, Healthcare

Microsociology

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Macrosociology

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

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.

8/28 Auguste Comte

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Sociology’s Roots

• Auguste Comte:• Sociology to be like other scientific

disciplines

• Coined the term “sociology”

• Helped build the discipline• Social stability

• Social change

Harriet Martineau

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• Harriet Martineau:• Social activist

• Traveled the United States

• Wrote about social changes

• Martineau translated Comte’s work into English

Sociology’s Roots (cont’d.)

Herbert Spencer

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• 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

Sociology’s Roots (cont’d.)

Émile Durkheim

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• Émile Durkheim• Social factors that hold people together

• Mechanical solidary• Organic solidarity

• Study of suicide• anomic

• Sociology as academic discipline

Sociology’s Roots (cont’d.)

Karl Marx

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• Karl Marx

• German philosopher

• Political activist

• Contributed significantly to sociology’s conflict theory

Sociology’s Roots (cont’d.)

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• Capitalism

• Created social inequality

• Bourgeoisie: owned “means of production”• Money, factories, natural resources,

and land

• Proletariat: The workers• Inequality leads to class conflict

Sociology’s Roots (cont’d.)

9/2 Max Weber

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• Rationalization:

• Economic logic to human activity

• Disenchantment:• Dehumanizing features of modern

societies

• Bureaucracy

Sociology’s Roots (cont’d.)

George Herbert Mead

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• George Herbert Mead

• Connection between individual & society

• Meaning

• People interact

• Meanings come from these interactions

Sociology’s Roots (cont’d.)

Erving Goffman

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• Erving Goffman

• How “self” develops through interactions with others

• Dramaturgy

• “Presentation of Self”

Sociology’s Roots (cont’d.)

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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 (cont’d.)

• Queer theory: • Categories of sexual identity are

socially created

• No sexual category is fundamentally deviant or normal

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New Theoretical Approaches (cont’d.)

• Modernism:

• Universal human nature

• Postmodernist theory:

• No absolutes

• No claims to truth, reason, right, or stability

• Constantly changing

• Everything is relative