Sociology 1020 | Chapter 1

Midterm study prep

Sociology is the ______

Systematic study of human behaviour in a social context

Sociology allows us to ______

Grasp the interplay between people and society

The idea of sociology was created by ______

C. Wright Mills

What is the sociological imagination?

To have the ability to see the connection between personal troubles and social structures

Sociologists are trained to ___________

Not just see what “is”, but also what is possible, and sometimes what “ought to be”

The birth of the scientific method

Using evidence to test theory

During the pre-scientific era, _________ was the dominant belief system

Paganism

The Enlightenment

A period in which the rise of science and religion clashed, sometimes violently

The scientific revolution suggested _______

It was possible to have a science of society

The Enlightenment (The democratic revolution) suggested _________

People have the power to improve/change society (rather than God)

The industrial revolution brought _________

Social problems for social thinkers to chew on

The father of Sociology

Auguste Comte

Who is the originator of Positivism?

Auguste Comte

What is Positivism?

The approach to the study of society that relies specifically on empirical scientific evidence, such as controlled experiments and statistics

Who is the second father of Sociology?

Herbert Spencer

Who was Herbert Spencer influenced by?

Charles Darwin (theory of evolution)

Who developed Social Darwinism?

Herbert Spencer

What is Social Darwinism?

The premise that “survival of the fittest” applied to people and that societies evolved from “uncivilized” to “civilized”

Theories

Explanations of some aspect of social life that states how and why certain facts are related

Research

The process of systematically observing reality to access the validity of a theory

Values

Ideas about what is good and bad, right and wrong

Micro social structures

The patterns of close social relations formed during face to face interaction

Macro social structures

The overarching patterns of social relations that lie outside and above a person’s intimates and acquaintances

Global social structures

Patterns of social relations that lie outside of and above the national level

Emile Durkheim focus?

Macro social structures

“The original social science”

Functionalism

What do Functionalists believe?

That human behaviour is governed by the relatively stable patterns of social structures that we all live in

Social structures are based mainly on _________

Shared values, and that social problems can be re-establishing equilibrium

Talcot Parsons’ focus?

Functionalism

What did Talcot Parsons claim?

Social institutions must work hard to ensure the smooth operation of society as a whole

What did Robert Merton propose?

Social structures might have different consequences for different groups of people, and some of these consequences are “dysfunctional” and create social instability

Society’s structures have both _____ and _____ functions

Manifest ,, Latent

Manifest functions

The clear, intended effects of social structures

Latent functions

The unintended effects of social structures

Who created the “Theory of Suicide”?

Emile Durkheim

Theory of Suicide

Represents Functionalist principles and assumptions in that it looks to social forces, rather than personal psychological disorder for it’s explanations

Max Weber’s focus?

Macro social structures

Symbolic Interactionism

Focuses on “micro social structures” and emphasizes that explanation of social behaviour requires understanding of the subjective meanings people attach to their social circumstances

Verstehen

The importance of empathetically understanding people’s motives on the meanings they attach to things in order to gain a clear sense of the significance of their actions and behaviours

George Herbert Mead focus?

Symbolic Interactionism

Reflexivity

We learn who we are by taking the role of others as we interact with them, and by seeing ourself as they see us

Erving Goffman focus?

Symbolic Interactionism

Who developed the Dramaturgial Model

Erving Goffman

The Dramaturgial Model

Where all the concepts were adopted from theatre

Subjective interpretation

Gathering the facts to try and figure out what happened

Offshoots of symbolic interactionism

Social Constructionism ,, Queer Theory

Social Constructionism argues?

That apparently natural or innate features of life are often sustained by social processes that vary historically and culturally

Queer theory goes even further than Social Constructionism by?

Denying the very existence of stable identities

Karl Marx focus?

Macro/global social structures

Conflict theory

Generally focuses on macro and global level structures and how major patterns of inequality in society produce social stability in some circumstances and social change in others

At the centre of conflict theory

Class conflict

The protestant ethic

The belief that religious doubts can be reduced, and a state of grace ensured, if people work diligently and live simply

Max Weber believed that the protestant work ethic influenced _________

Capitalism

Modern conflict theory

Society is shaped by conflict between groups competing for power and resources, especially a ruling "power elite” that controls society’s institutions to maintain its dominance over the masses

The power elite consists of?

Leaders of the military, government and cooporations

Cultural Hegemony

The control of a culture (and its people) by the dominant group through the use of ideas and values (rather than violence and force) that become universally accepted as common knowledge and common sense

What did Michel Foucault focus on?

How culture is the site of ongoing conflict between dominant and subordinate groups

Who was involved in Poststructuralism?

Michel Focault

Feminist theory focus?

Patriarchy (micro and macro social structures)

Who is the mother of Sociology?

Harriet Martineau

Feminist theory

A political movement of people and ideas that raised issues that had never before been considered in the male dominated field of Sociology

Globalization

The process by which formally separate economies, states, and cultures become tied together, and people become increasingly aware of their growing interdependence

Post-industrial revolution

The technology driven shipped from manufacturing the service industries, and the consequences of that shift for virtually all human activities

Social constructionism

The theory that focuses on interaction in microlevel social settings and emphasizes that and adequate explanation of social behaviour requires understanding of the subjective meanings people attached to their social circumstances

Class conflict

The struggle between classes to resist and overcome the opposition of other classes

Dysfunctional consequences

The effects of social structures that create social instability

Patriarchy

The traditional system of economic and political inequality between men and women that exists in most societies

The social compass : north

Equality of opportunity

The social compass : South

Inequality of opportunity

The social compass : East

Freedom

The social compass : West

Constraint