Ch. 1: Introduction to Sociology

sociology

study of groups and group interactions, societies, and social interactions, from small and personal groups to very large groups

society

group of people who live in a defined geographic area, who interact with one another, and who share a common culture

micro-level study

study of small groups and individual interactions

macro-level study

looks at trends among and between large groups and societies

culture

group’s shared practices, values, and beliefs

sociological imagination

awareness of the relationship between a person’s behavior and experience and the wider culture that shaped the person’s choices and perceptions. Way of seeing our own and other people’s behavior in relationship to history and social structure.

reification

error of treating an abstract concept as though it has a real, material existence

social facts

laws, morals, values, religious beliefs, customs, fashions, rituals, and all of the cultural rules that govern social life, that may contribute to tehse changes in the family.

figuration

process of simultaneously analyzing the behavior of individuals and the society that shapes that behavior

positivism

scientific study of social patterns

significant others

specific individuals that impacted a person’s life

generalized others

organized and generalized attitude of a social group

verstehen

to understand in a deep way

antipositivism

philosophy where social researchers strive for subjectivity as they worked to represent social processes, cultural norms, and societal values

quantitative sociology

uses statistical methods such as surveys with large numbers of participants

qualitative sociology

seeks to understand human behavior by learning about it through in-depth interviews, focus groups, and analysis of content sources

theory

explains different aspects of social interactions

hypothesis

testable proposition

social solidarity

social ties within a group

grand theories

attempt to explain large-scale relationships and answer fundamental questions such as why societies form and why they change

paradigms

philosophical and theoretical frameworks used within a discipline to formulate theories, generalizations, and the experiments performed in support of them

structural functionalism

paradigm that allows sociologists to focus on the way each part of society functions together to contribute to the whole. Sees society as a structure with interrelated parts designed to meet the biological and social needs of individuals in that society

conflict theory

paradigm that focuses on the way inequalities contribute to social differences and perpetuate differences in power

symbolic interactionism

paradigm that focuses on one-to-one interactions and communications