Sociology Midterm

individuals, groups, institutions, experiences that facilitate socialization process

-opens a window onto unfamiliar worlds and offers a fresh look at familiar worlds

-it enables one to gain a new vision of oscia life

-it examines how group membership influences behavior

asking important questions before accepting propositions asserted... what data do you base your statements on? what do you mean by...? etc etc

looking behind what is typically seen and accepted in everyday life

systematic methods used to study the social and natural worlds

the scientific study of society and human behavior

the intellectual and academic disciplines designed to comprehend, explain, and predict the events in our natural environment.

examine human relationships in an attempt to objectively understand the social world

-Grew out of industrial revolution
-came into being as an attempt to understand macro and micro changes that have occurred in human societies over the past centuries
-sociology is a very new discipline
-american and french revolutions encouraged new thought
-scientists began appling the scientific method to real world problems

19th century French sociologist
-regarded as the "father of sociology"
-coined the term "sociology"
-Positivism - coined the term for the scientific study of social patterns
- rational claims were considered scientifically and systematically verifiable
- aim was to uncover fundamental laws and reform society

-some believed their role was to analyze society and publish results
-others believed they had an obligation to make society a better place
somewhere between we have applied sociology:
-the use of sociology to solve problems

-Theory is a theoretical tool for understanding people's lives and how society works
- attempts to explain a particular aspect of the social structure between individuals
- theoretical perspectives- groups of theories that share certain common ways of seeing how society works and stem from major theories established by sociological forefathers, such as karl Marx, Emile Durkheim, or Max Weber
-main theoretical perspectives in sociology- structural functionalism, conflict theory, symbolic interaction

-explain social rather than individual outcomes
-focus on explaining the behavior of social systems rather than of individuals
what theory is best?
collecting empirical evidence - hypotheses

- theories of society (macro theories) (functionalists and conflict theorists)
- social psychological theories (micro theories) (symbolic interactionists)

Modern society is understood as independent parts working together for the good of the whole society
- focus on social institutions
- Emile Durkheim

moral order of society in which individuals work for the larger society`s interests rather than their own.

Emile Durkheim`s term for the social cohesion of preindustrial societies, in which there is a minimal division of labor (most worked the land) and people feel united by shared values and similar beliefs.

Emile Durkheim`s term for the social cohesion of industrial (and postindustrial) societies, in which people perform very specialized tasks and feel united by their mutual dependence

-sociological approach that view groups in society as engaged in continuous power struggles for control of scarce resources
- rooted in work of Karl Marx and his theory called economic determinism
-the social rewards of society are not equally shared
-Marx believed in ten stages of societal development (capitalism 8 followed by socialism and the final 10th stage communism)

rich owners of the means of production

the poor workers

Proletariat workers live and fail to understand how they are being mistreated and misled by the owner of the means of production. the goal of these workers should be to wake up to true consciousness.

a theoretical concept coined by Marx which describes human isolation, dehumanizing, and disenchanting effects of working within a capitalist system of production. Proletariat lives in the state of alienation in which workers are forced to give up on creativity and ability to imagine and then create.

-Social scientists who apply symbolic-interactionist thinking look for patterns of interaction between individuals and their studies often involve observation of one-on-one interactions
-forefathers- George herbert mead, herbert Blumer, Charles Horton Cooly. Also important- Erving Goffman

is an important work on the concept of the “self” and the stages of child development as a sequence of role-playing capacities. 

Goffman`s term for the study of social interaction that compares everyday life to a theatrical presentation.

Goffman`s term for people`s efforts to present themselves to others in ways that are most favorable to their own interests or image.

-C. Wright Mills
-Troubles(personal challenges) vs Issues (larger social challenges)
-The Sociological Imagination (1959): the ability to situate personal troubles and life trajectories within an informed framework of larger social processes.

Mills encouraged individuals to distinguish between personal troubles (individual challenges) and public issues (societal problems). Understanding the connection between the two is central to sociological thinking.

the intersection of personal biography (individual life experiences) and historical context. Sociological imagination involves recognizing how personal experiences are shaped by historical and social factors.

the sociological imagination encourages individuals to critically reflect on the social structures, institutions, and historical events that influence their lives. It challenges people to go beyond personal experiences and consider broader social forces.

-Translated August Comte’s work into English
-Concerned with social change and the plight of women and children in English -factories during the early phases of industrialization
-First acknowledged female sociologist
-Early in life earned her own income as the first woman journalist in Britain to write
under her own name
-Examined emerging American society (c. 1834)

-Founded sociology as an academic discipline
-Famous for his study on suicides (1897)
-Use of statistics in sociology
-Key concepts: social facts, social structure, social solidarity, collective conscience, -mechanical and organic solidarity, anomie
-Structural/functionalist theorist

-Founder of political/economic theory of socialism (communism)
-Considered the founder of the conflict perspective
-Understood sociology as historical materialism (the “materialist conception of history”). The historical materialist approach can be called dialectical. Dialectics in sociology proposes that social contradiction, opposition, and struggle in society drive processes of social change and transformation.
-Wrote the Communist Manifesto (in 1848) and co-wrote Das Kapital (with Friedrich Engels)
-Key concepts: proletariat, bourgeoisie, capitalists, social class, alienation, division of labor

-Believed that sociologist could never capture the reality of society but should focus on ideal types that best capture the essential features of aspects of social reality.
-Introduced the concept of Verstehen, a German word that means to understand from a subject’s point of view. In seeking Verstehen, outside observers of a social world — an entire culture or a small setting — attempt to understand it empathetically from an insider’s point of view.
-Social action: actions to which individuals attach subjective meanings
-Saw religion as central force to social change (book: The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism – published in 1905)
-Key concepts: bureaucracy, verstehen, rationalization of the modern world, people are becoming prisoners of new technology, loss of individuality, social action

-Structural/Functionalist
-Coined the term “survival of the fittest” in reference to human social arrangements -(Social Darwinism)
- Advocated against social reform efforts to poor people because it disrupts the natural selection process of evolution
-Discredited today

-The first president of the First Czechoslovak Republic who was a sociologist and a philosopher.
-In 1879, he defended his habilitation thesis Suicide as a Social Mass Phenomenon of Modern Civilization.
-In 1921, Masaryk established the first in the country sociology department at the Charles University.
-Wrote several books, including The Czech Question (1895), The Problems of Small Nations in the European Crisis (1915), The New Europe (1917).