rethinking society: week 1/2

sociological imagination

the ability to connect one’s personal issues to larger social issues

individualistic explanations

the belief that behavior is a result of biological characteristics of people and groups

example: suicide is the act of an unstable person

naturalistic explanations

identity is innate and biologically determined

eg: men are more competitive

social constructionism

the belief that characteristics that are unchangeable are determined by cultural + historical contexts

cultural categories

concepts created and changed through history

they draw attention to the meaning we attach to social categories like race and gender

nature vs nurture

the argument of whether genetic predispositions (nature) or environmental factors (nurture) play a bigger role in developing human characteristics

responsible speech

¼ differences between sociological thinking and common sense

distinction between statements made w/ evidence and ones made w/ opinion

size of the field

2/4 differences between sociological thinking and common sense

a wider perspective that is often one sided (our own world)

making sense of human reality

¾ differences between sociological thinking and common sense

analyzing the web of human interdependency

disturbing the comfortable

4/4 differences between sociological thinking and common sense

disturbing the comfortable ways of life we take for granted, defamiliarize the familiar

Emile Durkheim

• famous sociologist

• 1858-1917

• established sociology as its own distinct discipline

• wrote “Suicide”, work still applied today

‘Suicide’

• written by Emile Durkheim

• uses quantitative sociological study

• says that suicide is unpredictable and a result of personal circumstances + social standing

• looked at death certificates and the victims circumstances + social background to gather his data

• while flawed, its core concept of sociological factors affect people in their cause of suicide is STILL TRUE!!!

regulation

the degree of external constraint such as societal norms

intergration

the degree to which collective beliefs are held

altruistic suicide

¼ types of suicide

too much integration: overwhelming social force

like a soldier throwing himself on a grenade

fatalistic suicide

2/4 types of suicide

too much regulation: oppressive conditions

like a prisoner in a max security prison

egoistic suicide

¾ types of suicide

not enough intergration: they feel detached from society

like someone who is single and jobless

anomic suicide

4/4 types of suicide

not enough regulation: they feel they do not belong

like an outcast, someone who doesn’t have a big support system