SOC 100 - Exam 1

Systematic Study

Sociology uses theoretical explanations and the scientific approach (data collection, analysis, empirical evidence) to understand society.

Focus on Groups, not Individuals

Unlike psychology (individual behavior, mental processes), sociology examines larger social groups and patterns of social behavior.

Anthropology

Traditionally non-Western societies

Political Science

Focus on leadership

Economics

Focus on material survival/economic activity

Social Work

Delivering services to those in need

Journalism

Explaining events without theoretical/scientific constraints vs. sociological rigor.

Objectivity

Goal is to explain processes and behavior without promoting special interests.

Rejection of Common Sense

Sociologists require empirical evidence for claims.

Developer: C. Wright Mills.

The Sociological Imagination

The ability to link micro (individual experiences, situations) and macro (larger social forces, such as culture, family dynamics, economy) elements.

The Sociological Imagination

Understanding how personal circumstances, values, beliefs, and behaviors are shaped by broader societal factors.

The Sociological Imagination

Examples: Differences in life paths between generations (e.g., grandmother's and lecturer's experiences), variations in suicide rates by gender, age, and region (social patterns influencing a deeply individual act).

The Sociological Imagination

Origin: Europe, 18th and 19th centuries

Development of Sociology as an Academic Discipline

Industrial Revolution

Development of Sociology as an Academic Discipline

Shift from agriculture to manufacturing

Industrial Revolution

urbanization

Industrial Revolution

changes in family structure

Industrial Revolution

rise of individualism

Industrial Revolution

changes in mate selection

Industrial Revolution

formal education

Industrial Revolution

secularization

Industrial Revolution

promoting democratic ideals and equal political rights

American (1776) and French (1789) Revolutions

Exposure to diverse cultures, fostering interest in societal workings

Colonization

Shift from superstition to reason and observation

Enlightenment

Class conflict as the engine of social change

 Karl Marx

The way societies provide for material needs (economic system) shapes all other social relations, institutions, and ideas. Human labor is foundational.

Historical Materialism

Historical Materialism

 Karl Marx

Class owning means of production, exploiting the proletariat

Bourgeoisie

Mass of workers

Proletariat

Observed poor treatment, impoverishment, child labor, injuries, and deaths of early industrial workers

Critique of Capitalism

Influence: Neo-Marxists and conflict theorists; figures like Martin Luther King Jr. (denouncing income gap, advocating for economic rights and socialist democracy).

Karl Marx

Focus: Impact of industrialization, bureaucracy, and rationalization on human institutions

Max Weber

Value-Free Sociology (Verstehen): Sociologists should remove personal values to truly understand how a group of people views the world and how this worldview shapes their behavior (e.g., different cultural beliefs about illness causes and help-seeking).

Max Weber

Social Facts: Patterned ways of acting, thinking, feeling that exist outside individuals but exert social control (e.g., culture, values, rules, economic/government systems). Society exists before and after individuals.

Émile Durkheim

Focus: Social order, cohesion, and how society maintains itself. Individuals are products of their social environment.

Émile Durkheim

Suicide Study

 Émile Durkheim

Demonstrated that suicide, an intensely individual act, is influenced by social forces

Suicide Study

Low social solidarity/bonds (e.g., Protestants vs. Catholics, single vs. married people)

Egoistic Suicide

Very high social solidarity/connection (e.g., Jonestown, Heaven's Gate mass suicides)

Altruistic Suicide

Disconnected from society's values

Anomic Suicide

Repressive social conditions, feeling no escape

Fatalistic Suicide

Established sociology as a university discipline in France.

Émile Durkheim

Founders: Émile Durkheim (classical), Auguste Comte, Herbert Spencer (classical), Talcott Parsons, Robert Merton (contemporary).

Structural Functionalism (Functionalism)

Level of Analysis: Macro-level (large-scale, long-term social processes).

Structural Functionalism (Functionalism)

Core Assumption: Society is a stable, orderly system where stability is desirable. Rapid change and conflict are dysfunctional.

Structural Functionalism (Functionalism)

Analogy: Society as a living organism, with complex subsystems (institutions) working together for function and survival.

Structural Functionalism (Functionalism)

Function: To produce social stability and cohesion.

Structural Functionalism (Functionalism)

Manifest and Latent Functions

Types of Functions (Merton)

Recognized, intended, and positive effects of a social behavior/institution (e.g., going to church to pray, school to learn skills).

Manifest Functions

Unintended, unrecognized, but still positive effects (e.g., church fostering community, school teaching socialization/rule-following).

Latent Functions

Founders/Key Figures: Karl Marx, Max Weber (classical), C. Wright Mills, Ralf Dahrendorf, Lewis Coser (contemporary).

Conflict Perspective

Level of Analysis: Macro-level (large-scale, long-term social processes).

Conflict Perspective

Core Assumption: Society is in constant turmoil, with groups struggling for control over scarce resources and power.

Conflict Perspective

View of Change: Conflict and rapid change are normal and can be beneficial for ushering in a more just and equitable society (e.g., Civil War, Civil Rights Movement, women's rights).

Conflict Perspective

Central Question: Who benefits from existing social arrangements (stability)? (e.g., caste system, slavery). Power is at its core.

Conflict Perspective

Founders/Key Figures: Max Weber (classical), George Herbert Mead, Herbert Blumer (contemporary - American influence).

Symbolic Interactionism (Interactionism)

Level of Analysis: Micro-level (interpersonal interactions in small groups, e.g., family, workplaces).

Symbolic Interactionism (Interactionism)

Core Assumption: Society is the sum of individual and group interactions. Rules of behavior are socially generated and change through shifts in small-scale behavior.

Symbolic Interactionism (Interactionism)

Sense of Self (Self-Concept): Developed through interaction with others.

Symbolic Interactionism (Interactionism)

Symbols: Anything representing something else; meaning is socially agreed upon and variable across cultures (e.g., stop signs, religious attire, gestures like "thumbs up").

Symbolic Interactionism (Interactionism)

Knowledge gained from systematic observation and evidence (empiricism)

Science

Knowledge based on observation and evidence, not just intuition or reasoning.

Empiricism

Systematically collecting information to test or generate theories.

Sociological Research

Human subjects are thinking, changing, and variable, making precise knowledge difficult compared to physical sciences.

Challenges in Social Sciences

Focuses on numerical data, counting, frequencies, rates, using statistical tools (e.g., surveys).

Quantitative Research

Focuses on observations, narratives, descriptions of qualities and characteristics (e.g., ethnographic studies, in-depth interviews).

Qualitative Research

 Data collected at one point in time; provides a snapshot.

Cross-Sectional Design

Data collected over an extended period, following the same group; provides insights into change over time (e.g., British study of 14 subjects over decades). More expensive and challenging.

Longitudinal Design

Well-established explanation based on repeated observation and testing.

Theory

Educated guess, specific and testable prediction about expected outcomes, often concerning variable relationships.

Hypothesis

Hypotheses must involve measurable variables (e.g., suicide rates, ethnic identity).

Measurability

Something that can have more than one value or score.

Variable

The variable that influences or causes changes.

Independent Variable (IV)

The variable that is influenced or changed. (e.g., social media use (IV) -> depression (DV)).

Dependent Variable (DV)

Variables are related (positive: both go up/down; negative: one goes up, other down).

Correlation

IV causes changes in DV. Requires correlation, IV preceding DV, and no extraneous (third) variable causing the observed change. (e.g., ice cream sales and shark attacks - correlated, but not causal; summer is the extraneous variable).

Causation

Are you measuring what you intend to measure? (e.g., measuring prejudice vs. fear of repercussions).

Validity

Can the study be repeated to get the same results? Harder to achieve in social sciences due to human variability.

Reliability

Human behavior is often influenced by multiple independent variables interacting (e.g., suicide rates influenced by social integration, depression, social change, poverty, religiosity).

Multi-variate Analysis

Primarily quantitative data

Experiments

Controlled environment, experimental group (exposed to IV) and control group (not exposed to IV), random assignment. Measures cause and effect.

Controlled (Lab) Experiment

Advantages: Control over IV, easy to replicate.

Controlled (Lab) Experiment

Disadvantages: Artificial environment, subjects may not act naturally, results may not be generalizable beyond specific subjects (often college students).

Controlled (Lab) Experiment

Conducted in a natural setting, less control (e.g., Jane Elliott's blue-eyed/brown-eyed experiment, Minneapolis domestic violence study).

Field Experiment

Primarily quantitative data

Surveys

Use of questionnaires (closed-ended, scales, sometimes short answers) to gather standardized information from large numbers of subjects.

Surveys

Types: Face-to-face, telephone, mailed, online.

Surveys

Advantages: Collects data from many people, relatively quick and inexpensive.

Surveys

Disadvantages: Information can be superficial, false information/lying, improper question formulation, low response rates, generalization issues

Surveys

Selecting a representative subgroup (sample) from a larger population to generalize results. Random sampling is ideal but difficult.

Sampling

Primarily qualitative data

Observation (Field Research/Ethnography)

Definition: Study of social life in natural settings, firsthand observation, interviewing.

Observation (Field Research/Ethnography)

Researcher participates in the lives of subjects, who may not know they are being studied (ethical concerns).

Participant Observation

 Researcher observes but does not interact; role is clear.

Non-Participant Observation

Advantages: In-depth understanding, natural environment, allows for hypothesis development/adaptation.

Observation (Field Research/Ethnography)

Participant or Non-Participant Observation

Observation (Field Research/Ethnography)

Disadvantages: Researcher bias (emotional involvement), limited generalizability (small groups), expensive, time-consuming.

Observation (Field Research/Ethnography)

Definition: Analyzing data already gathered by others (e.g., government statistics, previous research).

Existing Data (Secondary Data Analysis)

Advantages: Readily available, inexpensive, unobtrusive (no privacy invasion), potential for long-term data analysis.

Existing Data (Secondary Data Analysis)