Sociology - KEY SOCIOLOGISTS

Key Sociologists and their theories for IGCSE Sociology

Talcott Parsons

Structural functionalist;

Nuclear family as crucial for primary socialisation to teach kids norms and values, and stabilise kids’ adult personalities;

Men and women have different roles in society and nuclear families are necessary to enforce this;

‘Warm Bath Theory’

Education as a bridge between family and wider society - prepares kids for meritocratic society by rewarding achievements and hard work

Karl Marx

Marxist (no shit);

‘Conflict Theory’ - society as a class conflict between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie;

Every societal institution enforces bourgeois control over the lower class;

Socialisation teaches working class to accept their place;

Working class family socialises working class children in working class environments';

Religion as the ‘opium of the masses’ - distracts workers from the true goal of class consciousness;

Family ensures wealth is inherited and classes are kept separate;

Crime stems from inequality and laws are made to protect the bourgeois;

Ann Oakley

Feminist;

Society as a struggle between genders - advocates for equality and abolition of the patriarchy;

Family reinforces harmful gendered norms by canalisation (buying children gendered toys and clothing), manipulation (pushing children towards different fields or activities based on gender), and verbal appellation (eg.: calling girls ‘beautiful’ and boys ‘strong’);

‘Double Shift’ Theory - women still do the majority of household work even if they have a job, so they work a sort of double shift;

Gendered socialisation leads to gendered subject choices and attitudes towards school

Emile Durkheim

Functionalist;

‘Collective Consciousness’ - the shared set of beliefs, values, and norms held by individuals in a society. The more homogenous a society, the more powerful its collective consciousness;

‘Social Facts’ - phenomena that influence individuals’ behaviour because of collective consciousness;

• Social Integration - individuals’ connection to society

• Moral Regulation - extent of societal control and prevalence of social facts

Religion as fostering societal cohesion;

Culture as creating social solidarity through shared norms and values;

Mechanical vs Organic Cohesion;

Education provides the knowledge and skills for individuals to survive in meritocratic society';

SUICIDE STUDY

• Suicide as a societal fact - four types of suicide

  • Egoistic: results from insufficient social integration (eg.: loneliness)

  • Altruistic: results from excessive integration (eg.: Kamikaze pilots)

  • Anomic: results from insufficient regulation, especially during crises

  • Fatalistic: results from excessive regulation, when people feel oppressed.

Howard Becker

Interactionist;

Individuals’ success and actions is determined by societal interaction and expectations rather than individual actions;

‘Labelling Theory’ - deviance is created by social attitudes, not individual actions;

‘Self-fulfilling Prophecy’ - individuals commit deviant acts if they are labelled when deviant.

Teachers label pupils by the ‘ideal student’ stereotypes - middle-class students are more likely to succeed;

Robert Merton

Functionalist;

‘Strain Theory’ - society sets expectations that individuals aspire to, called ‘Culture Goals’, and socially accepted ways to achieve them, called ‘Institutionalised Means’. (eg.: a new car through getting a well-paying job). When individuals cannot achieve these cultural goals, this creates ‘Strain’:

• People respond to Strain in 5 structuralised ways:

  • Conformity: individuals continue to pursue success through institutional means (eg.: optimistic workers seeking promotion)

  • Innovation: individuals continue to pursue success but abandon institutional means - this can result in crime (eg.: a drug dealer seeking wealth and status through illegal means)

  • Ritualism: abandon culture goals but retain institutional means - they stick to routines and accept their place in society as unalterable (eg.: a low-level office worker who has given up on promotion)

  • Retreatism: abandon both social goals and institutional means, retreating from society (eg.: a drug addict no longer caring about success or societally expected methods)

  • Rebellion: individuals who aim to change social goals or institutionalised means (eg.: anti-capitalist activists looking to alter the economic system)

Albert Cohen

Functionalist

‘Status Frustration’ - builds on Merton’s Strain Theory and argues that young working class boys join subcultures due to resentment over their place in society.

They commit nonutilitarian crimes because they gain respect from peers that replaces monetary success with social success. (eg.: graffiti vandalism)

Stanley Cohen

‘Moral Panic’ - describes society’s exaggerated reaction to perceived threats, often sensationalised by media and authorities.

1. Certain groups are labelled as ‘folk devils’ and viewed as deviant and threatening to society (eg.: D&D Players)

2. Media Amplification: the media sensationalises and exaggerates events to transform complex realities into moral dramas (eg.: suicide attempt of James Egbert blamed on D&D)

3. Public Reaction: society responds with moral outrage disproportionate to the actual dangers

4. Police Response: they react to public reactions by cracking down on deviant groups with labelling and arrests

5. This may cause further deviance and more youth may join subcultures

Charles Murray

New Right;

‘Culture of Dependency’ - the welfare state has enabled people to remain in poverty as they no longer seek active work or progress (Merton - Ritualism) and rely on handouts to survive;

Lack of discipline and absent fathers cause crime;

Nuclear families with traditional gender roles are beneficial for society to function and for kids to be socialised appropriately;

Bowles & Gintis

Marxists;

‘Hidden Curriculum’ - unwritten norms, rules, and values taught in schools;

Argued that this hidden curriculum reinforces working class inequality by rewarding obedience and punctuality, to prepare working class children to obey their bourgeois employers and best serve them in the future.

Eli Zaretsky (the goat)

Marxist;

Family plays a key role in capitalism by acting as a unit of consumption by buying products like food, toys, a new car, a larger house, all of which support capitalism;

Capitalists create ‘false needs’ through marketing aimed especially at children to make parents spend more through ‘pester power’ - consumption keeps working class families trapped in their social class, so their children will remain working class in the future;

Family supports capitalism by producing the next generation of workers and instilling values such as respect for authority so they obey their bourgeois bosses in the future;

Women in particular provide unpaid domestic labour (childcare, housework, emotional support), ensuring workers are fed, rested, and ready for employment;

Through primary socialisation, working class children learn to accept class inequality as normal and thus do not achieve class consciousness;

Family as a ‘safety valve’ for workers, allowing exploited lower class men to vent frustrations and receive comfort, preventing them from rising up and threatening the capitalist system;

Claims that families provide the illusion of agency for workers, allowing them to make small decisions to feel in control at home, so as to not realise their exploitation and oppression in professional settings and can never achieve class consciousness.

Wilmott & Young

‘Symmetric Family’ - contradicts Ann Oakley’s perspective of the Double Shift, arguing that modern families are equal in responsibilities and men and women.

Case Study in East London - interviews and surveys analysing family roles in 1973.

George Herbert Mead

Symbolic Interactionist;

Identity is formed by interactions with others and the roles individuals take on in society.

He argued that, in order for words to mean something, they need to be understood both by the target and the speaker. Thus, when the speaker wishes to communicate something to someone, he must be able to predict how that someone will react. Similarly, when taking on a role (eg.: in a game of basketball, or doctor roleplay with friends), we predict the reactions of that role - over time, these can become internalised, as individuals ‘predict’ their own reactions to things said or done by others, giving rise to a ‘self’, or identity.

Stuart Hall

Marxist;

Sees culture as fluid and dynamic, dependent on political, social, and economic factors.

Identity is shaped by interpretations of media; a dominant culture (eg.: Western Culture) decides what is ‘normal’ and ‘acceptable’ in the media, which is eventually internalised to everyday cultural identity.

‘Media Theory’ - argued that media should represent diverse voices from multiple cultural groups to prevent assimilation and loss of culture

Angela McRobbie

Feminist;

‘Bedroom Culture’ - girls experience the formation of identity and experiment with subcultures from their ‘bedroom’, a private setting, unlike boys who do this in public spaces with peers;

This is done by girls consuming media, journaling, exploring fashion tastes, or other acts that they can do freely in private that otherwise go against societal expectations;

Traditional femininity is propagated by music, tv shows and book that girls consume in this ‘bedroom’, thus enforcing feminine gender norms onto girls.

Margaret Mead

Feminist;

Conducted a case study on three tribes from Papua New Guinea investigating the role of men and women;

Found gender norms to be cultural, not biological, as many Papuan tribes proved matriarchal, with men taking on expressive roles and women taking on instrumental ones, helping to disapprove gender essentialism.