Sociology Lecture 1

Vocabulary flashcards covering microsociology, macrosociology, conflict theories, Marxian dialectic materialism, Weberian authority typologies, Durkheimian sociology, structural functionalism, and symbolic interactionism.

Microsociology

Detailed study of what people do and say, including individual attitudes and behaviors.

Macrosociology

Sociological perspective focusing upon large scale and long term social processes of organizations and institutions, including broad social patterns related to changes in the nation-state, social class, family structure, and the economy.

Power (in Conflict Theory)

The ability to control the behavior of others—even against their will.

Karl Marx

Originator of conflict approaches in sociology who used G.W. Hegel's dialectic determinism to create dialectic materialism, emphasized political economy and social class, and believed in utopian social activism.

Substructure and Superstructure

In Marxian political economy, the economic substructure (means, mode, and relations of production) limits and determines the superstructure (politics, state, religion, and philosophy).

Dialectic Process (G.W. Hegel)

A theoretical process in which a thesis (ideal) conflicts with an antithesis (competing ideal) to yield a synthesis (new ideal), continuously progressing through conflict toward perfection (God's Ideal).

Dialectic Materialism

Karl Marx's economic deterministic model of human history where competing economic systems undergo struggle, generating new economic systems until reaching Communism.

Bourgeois

The social class in conflict theory that owns the means of production.

Proletariat

The social class in conflict theory that sells their labor to the bourgeois.

Max Weber

A preeminent 20th-century social theorist who studied bureaucracy, rationalization, authority, religion, capitalism, politics, law, and social stratification, and developed the concept of an 'ideal type.'

Charismatic Authority

Authority granted because of the exceptional personal characteristics of an individual (e.g., religious prophets) who can 'make' new law.

Traditional Authority

Authority of an organization, person, or regime that is largely tied to tradition because it 'has always been that way' (e.g., patriarchy, feudalism, institutionalized religious authority).

Rational Legal Authority

Also known as bureaucratic authority, the social organization of executing and enforcing legal rules characterized by regularized procedure, formal division of responsibility, hierarchy, and impersonal relationships.

Emile Durkheim

Sociologist who studied social integration and social density (suicide study), advocated for social facts, and differentiated between mechanical and organic solidarity.

Structural Functionalism

A sociological perspective dominant in American sociology in the early 1950s and 1960s (associated with Talcott Parsons) that views society as a social system that functions, focusing on social institutions and equilibrium.

Dysfunctions

Negative consequences of group organization (e.g., racism and poverty) that functionalists note can also produce functional outcomes (e.g., poor people doing dirty and dangerous work).

Manifest Functions

Consequences of group organization or social patterns that are intended and recognized by participants.

Latent Functions

Consequences of group organization or social patterns that are less recognized and unintended.

Symbolic Interactionist

A sociological perspective holding that reality is constructed by individuals through interactions and symbol assignment, focusing on individuals and their identities rather than broad institutions.