Introduction to Sociology Ch.2

Law of Human Progress

Comte’s notion that society has gone through three stages; the theological, the metaphysical and the scientific

Social Statics

Comte’s term for the stable structure of society

Social Dynamics

Comte’s term for social processes of change

Collective Conscience

Results from blending of many individuals mentalities but exists above anyone individual

Proletariat

Group in a capitalist society that does not own means of production (only labor to sell)

Emile Durkheim

• Considered 1st French academic sociologist

• Did work called “Suicide” = demonstrated that human behavior can be understood by investigating social context in which behavior take places

Class Consciousness

Awareness among members of a society, society is stratified and share same plight

Bourgeoise

Class of people who own mean of production

Economic Determinism

Economic factors are responsible for most social change and for the nature of social conditions, activities and institutions

Karl Marx

Concluded that political revolution was a vital necessity in evolutionary process of society and that only means by which improvement of social conditions could be achieved

Social Conflict

The type of class struggle due to economic inequality at the core of society is a key source of social change

Herbert Spencer

• Major concerns with evolutionary nature of changes in social structure/social institutions

• Coined “survival of fittest”

• Believed human societies pass through evolutionary process

Structural Functionalism

Any stable system consists of a number on interrelated parts that work together for benefit of the whole

Social Facts

Reliable and valid pieces of info about society

Collective Conscience

A collective psyche that results from blending of many individual mentalities but exists above any one individual

Egoistic Suicide

Suicide that results from lack of social integration into meaningful groups leaving the individual with sense of being isolated

Altruistic Suicide

Suicide that results from being overly integrated into groups and the group meaning taking on more importance than the individual

Anomic Suicide

Suicide that results from sudden changes in society or in ones life, leading to a disruption in the patterns that guides one’s life

Fatalistic Suicide

Suicide that results from oppressive social conditions that lead one to a fatal sense of hopelessness

Max Weber

Concerned with value-free society

Verstehen

Understanding human action by examining the subjective meaning that people attach to their own bejavior and the behaviors of other

Harriet Martineau

Significant contribute to early development of sociology

Chicago School

An approach developed by Cooley, Mead, Thomas and others in 1920s that emphasized importance of social interactions in the development of human thought and action

Middle-Range Theory

A set of propositions designed to link abstract theory with empirical testing

Social System

A set of interrelated social structures and the expectations that accompany them

Mainfest Functions

Intended and recognized consequences of social system

Latent Functions

Unintended and unrecognized consequences of a social system

Dysfucntions

In structural functionalism, factors that lead to disruption or breakdown of the social system

Functional Alternatives

New ways of achieving the intended goal of the system

Conflict Theory

A social theory that views conflict as inevitable, natural and as a significant cause of social change

Symbolic Interactionism

Social theory that stresses interactions btwn people and social processes that occur within individual that are made possible by language and internalized meaning

Exchange theory

Theory of interaction that attempts to explain social behavior in terms of reciprocity of costs and rewards

Evolutionary Theory

Theory of social development that suggests that societies, like biological organisms, progress through stages of increasing complexity