Early Sociologists & The 3 Perspectives

Vocabulary flashcards covering the major early sociologists and the three major sociological perspectives, with concise definitions.

Auguste Comte

Father of sociology; proposed positivism; argued sociology should be studied like natural sciences with knowledge based on observable facts.

Positivism

Philosophical stance that knowledge should be based on observable, empirical facts.

Harriet Martineau

First female sociologist; translated Comte into English; promoted social reform addressing gender, race, and class inequalities.

Social Darwinism

Idea that societies evolve through 'survival of the fittest,' promoting the notion of natural social selection.

Herbert Spencer

Compared society to a living organism; advocate of Social Darwinism.

Karl Marx

Believed society is shaped by class conflict; economics underpins social life; called for revolution to achieve equality.

Émile Durkheim

Studied social order and stability; showed social forces influence behavior (e.g., suicide); emphasized social integration and institutional functions.

Suicide (Durkheim)

Durkheim’s study illustrating how social factors influence individual actions and suicide rates.

Max Weber

Focused on individual meaning and understanding (Verstehen); studied bureaucracy, rationalization, and religion; beliefs and ideas shape society.

Verstehen

German for interpretive understanding of social action; grasping actors’ meanings.

Bureaucracy

Organizational model characterized by a clear hierarchy, formal rules, and impersonal relationships; linked to rationalization.

Rationalization

Process where modern society organizes life around efficiency, calculability, and formal rules.

Jane Addams

Social reformer; co-founded Hull House in Chicago; aided immigrants and the poor; first American woman Nobel Peace Prize laureate.

Hull House

Settlement house in Chicago founded by Addams that provided services to immigrants and the poor.

W. E. B. Du Bois

First African American with a Ph.D. from Harvard; studied race relations; urged civil rights and higher education; introduced double consciousness.

Double consciousness

Du Bois’ concept of an internal conflict experienced by subordinated groups in a prejudiced society.

Functionalist Perspective

Society is a system of interdependent parts; each part has a function that contributes to stability; emphasizes consensus and cooperation.

Conflict Perspective

Society as a competition for scarce resources; emphasizes inequality and social change; focuses on power struggles.

Symbolic Interactionist Perspective

Focus on micro-level interactions; people act based on shared symbols and meanings (language, gestures, labels).

George Herbert Mead

Key figure in Symbolic Interactionism; studied how social interaction shapes the development of the self.